I left work a 3 pm on Friday and headed home to load up my kayaks and gear. With a stop for gas about halfway, and another stop for a pee break and a coffee to refill the bladder, I finally made it.
Friday evening was the usual sign in and mull around to socialize a bit. I had not had any supper and the sandwiches and cookies provided were greatly appreciated.
On Saturday I partook in the sea kayak paddle day..
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| Putting in at St. Chads |
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| Cathy doing the "Dance of Joy" |
By my count, thirty-three kayakers left the beach....
Most of the group went around the east side of Damnable Island, and the rest of us took the east side.
As we paddled out into Damnable Bay, there was a lovely little iceberg waiting for visitors. I had heard the PNL Board had put in a special order for an iceberg for this years retreat because our guest speaker, Santiago (hope I got that right) had never paddled near one before....
After mulling around the big ice-cube for a while, we split into two groups. Twenty-two paddlers opted for the shorter paddle and headed along the eastern shoreline, while eleven of us (myself included) opted for the longer paddle and continued along the western shoreline.
Our path took us over to Stock Cove Island, then Bakers Loaf Island, and then another crossing to Sailors Island, and then we found a lunch beach on Petty Island.
Shortly after we left our lunch beach we encountered a bery-bit and, due to it relative minuscule size, we deemed the risk was low and took turns paddling through the narrow channel...
We crossed Eastport Bay and had a look at another iceberg before carrying on along the shore.
At Tickle Bar Island half the group paddled around the island, but the rest of us took a chance that there just might be enough water to get through.. but we were wrong and had to to a little walking... no matter as it afforded a chance for a pee break for those that had to take one...
We paddle across Damnable Bay to the iceberg where Santiago got his drone out and took some video from above. He showed the video at the presentation on Sunday evening and it was quite spectacular to see the berg from a birds-eye view...
For the evening supper, the club provided salads and baked potato, and those who wanted to were able to barbecue their BYOM on the provided grills....
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Sunday morning Neville and I woke just before 6:30. The window was just above his bed and he looked out and said "I think that's snow!!" Sure enough, when I looked out it was indeed snowing. About an hour or so later the snow turned to rain.
Clyde got up not too long after we did, and we had a little discussion about what we would do that day, and eventually decided we would take our short boats back to St. Chad's to do some rock hopping, in hopes that with the northerly wind we would get some good waves.
We ambled about, eating breakfast and what-not. I made several trips in and out of doors and every time I came back into the warm cabin I was less enthusiastic about doing anything at all. I mentioned my waning enthusiasm to Clyde who said "well, let's just go for one hour and if it's miserable we'll just come on back..." Good plan, but I knew once we got going the miserableness of the chilly day would be forgotten.
Of we went to St. Chad's for the put-in.
Like we did the day before, we paddled out of the sheltered cove and into Damnable Bay, keeping to the west shore. The iceberg was still there but had moved a little further from shore and had rotated somewhat.
We played among the rocks when there was anywhere to have a little fun....
When we arrived at the headland we paddled a little way into Stock Cove and then decided to paddle over to, and around, Stock Cove Island where it looked like there might be better spots to play...
Sometimes there just isn't enough water in the ocean....
We eventually crossed back from the island and made our way along the shoreline, retracing our route earlier in the morning.
When we got closer to the iceberg we could see a lot of bergy bits floating around. These bits of ice were not there this morning when we passed the berg!!
As we got closer to the iceberg we could see the cause of the bits of floating ice... Holy shit b'ys... the side's come out of 'er!!!
Here is a pictorial of what happened to this particular iceberg in a roughly twenty-eight hour period...
About mid-morning on Saturday.... notice the spot just above Clyde (white kayak)...
Here is a shot of the same spot above Clyde in the previous picture, taken about mid afternoon on Saturday when we came back from our paddle...
When we paddled past the iceberg about mid-morning on Sunday, it pretty much looked the same as the above picture (I didn't take any pic's of it then).
About 1:30 pmish on Sunday, just 2 hours after we paddled past it that morning, this is what it looked like!!!
I wonder what became of it the next day?
On Sunday evening we all went to the supper and presentation. Our guest speaker, Santiago, showed up his video taken from the drone the day before. I wish a could show it here... it was quite spectacular to see the iceberg from above!
On Monday morning, members of the PNL Board cooked up breakfast - pancakes, sausage, yogurt, fruit, coffee and juice. After breakfast, I finished loading up my kayaks and headed for home.
I have to say I had a rather enjoyable time at this years retreat. I think a large part of the reason is that I have not done as much paddling this year as I have in years past. Perhaps it was that feeling of "something old is new again..." Hmmm. Maybe next year...
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