2013: Post 37 – Hot Paddlers

We made a plan to paddle out of Tors Cove today. At the put-in it was shaping up to be one of those hot, sunny, July days.  You know the ones...  it's really too hot for paddling but the desire to get in the kayak again is just to overpowering. 

Tony's blog entry tells the tale of the day so I'm just mostly gonna post some pics...

Put-in at Tors Cove

Gerard
(it was good to have G-man back on the water with us)

Derrick
(been a long time since Derrick paddled with us too)

Passage to Southern Cove

Almost through...

Tony coming through the smaller passage

Sean, G-man, and Gary

Tony coming into LaManche

Not a lot of water flowing from LaManche River

Take-out for lunch

Okay, funny story.  Sean made a bologna sandwich for his lunch but was in a bit of a hurry this morning.  When he bit into his sandwich he discovered he had forgotten to add the bologna!! 

Sean and his no-bologna sandwich

The guys having lunch

Tony chillin' after lunch

G-man finding a little action

Sean

If there's a cave along the way your
almost certain to find G-man in it

There's an eagle in this picture...

Brian

Gary

The guys

Today was the hottest day I've paddled yet this year.  The temperature peaked at about 30 C, but almost 40 C with the humidex factored in!! If we had any sense we would have just stayed home and drank cold beer... actually, if had better sense we would have brought cold beer with us...

2013: Post 36 – Unexpected fun at St.Philips

Sean e-mailed yesterday to see if I wanted to have a go in his double kayak (the Glacier) at the Thursday evening practice; there was a bit of wind on the go and he was hoping to give it a good try in some waves...

I still have the rack-less rental (see previous post) and cannot transport my kayak.  I had not been in a double kayak before and it sounded like an uninteresting venture but at least it was an opportunity to get to another Thursday practice for some water time.  Well, was I wrong.  I have to say it was far from an uninteresting venture!!  

We had a lot of fun and I think the other people there had a few laughs at us too.  We did self rescues and synchronized bracing, sculling, and rolls.  We paddled hard at times to see how fast we could get the thing moving and managed to bury the bow a few times on some bigger waves.   

When Sean did not paddle I could really feel the extra effort required to keep the kayak moving, and when we both paddled together in sync we could really move along. Sean meant to bring his GPS just to see what kind of speed we could get out of the Glacier but he forgot.  I do not know how hard the guys in the singles were paddling but we could pull away from them without too much trouble.  I figure you can cover a lot of distance in a day in one of these kayaks with a couple decent paddlers.

Anyway here are a few pics taken by Cheryl, Tony, and myself during the evening...

In the double as Eugene watches

Cheryl (Sean's better half)

Julie

Brian

Sean

Tony

Barb

Sean had jumped out so I had to see
if I could roll the double by myself

Sometimes I pretended to be Cheryl and would stop paddling!
(Sorry Cheryl, I couldn't resist).  But then sometimes Sean
would scold me by hitting me with his paddle.  He said
that's what he does with Cheryl... but I doubt it.

After fooling around in the cove for a while we decided to paddle towards Topsail Beach...

Julie and Barb

Derrick

Neville

The group

Check out Tony's entry from last night for a few more pics... 

... and Cheryl took a little video of one of the better synchronized rolls we managed in the double... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WDtqFzmbuDE&feature=youtu.be

Well, I do not think I would ever own a double kayak, or would want to paddle in one all the time, but it sure was a bit of fun to try it out last night...

2013: Post 35 – A damaged car, a GP started, and a Sunday paddle

I missed the Thursday get-together last week.  Someone ran into my car and rendered it undriveable on Tuesday!!!  It was towed away and is awaiting surgery and the rental I got does not have a roof rack!!!  The lady over the phone explained that "rentals do not have hitches or roof racks as the transport of things are not allowed..." Oy vey!!  North Cape Jenny is not a thing!!! Okay, she is really, but not to me.  I explained to the young lady that I was a kayakoholic but she had no sympathy for me...  Well, no matter.  I had a bit of a cold during the latter part of last week anyway, but probably would have still went on Thursday, irregardless - I know, that word has two negative parts 'ir-' and '-less'... but it's a funny word and I do like it.

So on Thursday evening I started gluing together strips of wood to make another Greenland paddle.  I have made solid SPF Greenland paddles, and laminated SPF/cedar combinations, but have not made any that were all cedar.  So this time I decided that I'll make one using all cedar wood.

I had picked up a piece of 2x6 x 10 ft long cedar earlier this spring and the darn thing warped a little on me while it was in the basement.  I prefer to do my laminated paddles by cutting full length pieces by the width of the loom and glue the pieces, and then glue on shorter pieces on the ends to make up the blades (if you go to this post you will see what I mean in the first picture...).  That way I can avoid having to cut out the loom. 

I ran the warped 2x6 through the table saw to get two pieces to make up the full length piece, reversed the pieces such that the curves would counteract one another, glued and clamped these pieces, and let it dry overnight.  It worked out pretty well, at least to my older (but not yet 'old') eye it looked fairly straight.  I glued the blade pieces on over the next couple days and took the last of the clamps off this morning before I went for a Sunday paddle....

Tony offered to come to town to pick me up but I am kind of on Gary's way and he was kind enough to pick me up this morning.  It is always appreciated when paddling buddies help me out when I do not have access to my car for transporting my kayak... 

There was supposed to be some wind today (SW 30 km, gusting to 48) but it never did materialize to the extent the forecast called for.   So Tony, Gary, Brian, and I had a nice little paddle from St. Philips to Topsail Beach.  But wouldn't you know it...  when I was putting on my gear at the put-in I realized my camera had been left at home!  Tony had brought his but it would not turn on, and then when it did it would not work right.  So between the two of us we had a picture-less paddle for the first time in a long while.

But fear not!  Here's a pic of each of the guys from previous paddles....

Brian

Gary

Tony

So, irregardless of my rack-less rental, I still managed to get in another little weekend paddle...

2013: Post 34 – Sunday paddle

Last night I looked at the weather forecast.... it was calling for west 10 km wind in  the morning.  I thought it would be a lovely morning to paddle out of St. Philips even though we had paddled on Saturday (see Post 33).  I contemplated e-mailing Tony to see if he might be interested, but as it was a little on the late side I figured he would not likely be checking his e-mails.  I decided I would wait until the morning to see if I felt like paddling and, if so, I could just give Tony a call to see if he was interested....

Then later I checked my e-mail before turning off my computer.  There was an e-mail from Tony wondering if I was interested in a short paddle out of St. Philips Sunday morning... You know what they say about great minds and fools...  Don't know about Tony but I cannot recall ever being accused of having a great mind...

So we met this morning before 9 am and took our time paddling to Topsail Beach.

It was a warm morning and Tony cooled off in the little river once we arrived at Topsail Beach.

It was just too warm to paddle hard so we took our time paddling back to St. Philips.  

Not too long after leaving Topsail Beach I looked outward and seen something floating, but couldn't decide what it was; I was thinking maybe a tree or log with a branch sticking out... I asked Tony if he had any idea what it was and he said he couldn't make it out either but thought it might be a buoy leaning to one side...  So we paddled out to it.  I guess Tony's eyes are better than mine, or perhaps it's time to change my glasses because long before we got close to it I could see Tony's guess was right on the money... 

... and then as usual we rinsed off the sea water in the river once we got back to St. Philips.

We encountered a couple of kayakers putting in at  St. Thomas Cove on the way up, and another kayaker putting in when we got back to St. Philips. Of course we put in a few words about the paddling club and the Thursday practices...  Maybe there will be a couple new club members and maybe we will see a couple more people take advantage of Thursday evenings... Maybe.

2013: Post 33 – Whales in Witless Bay

The word had been going around.  There were lots of whales in Witless Bay!  So a few of us went today to see if they would not mind if we paddled with them for a while... 

Tony and I decided to put in at the river in the bottom of Witless Bay and then paddled up the north side...

... to meet our fellow paddlers who put in a little further up the shore...

We did not have to paddle long before we were in the right spot for whales...  

Between watching the whales the puffins kept me occupied...

Despite being quite foggy and not being able to really see a lot, we decided to paddle on the outside (i.e. east side) of Gull Island...

There were plenty of birds around, some with their babies... 

The tour boats were out as well...

We paddled by compass through the fog from Gull Island to the south side of the bay (I believe it was Ragged beach we took out on for a stretch and a snack)...

Then we paddled up to Breaking Point and then crossed over to Green Island...

Where there were more birds to see...

Before we left Green Island for the return trip I shot this short video...

Well, what else can I say... fog, whales, birds, tour boats, and a few kayakers all came together for a splendid morning/afternoon paddle.