2013: Post 53 – Geological paddling

On Thursday past, Tony suggested a paddle to Gallows Cove with the put-in at Indian Pond.  Of the other people Tony e-mailed, only Neville and I were able to join him. Tony and I have done this paddle before (new territory for Neville) but Tony had a special reason to want to do it again.  

Tony has already done his blog entry so no need for me to reiterate things... Whew! There was no way I would remember the geology stuff he explained to us today!!!.  See his blog entry and you'll see what I mean.... click here.

I'll just post some pics from my perspective to add to those of Tony's...

The put-in

Neville 

I was ahead and think I was the only one to get a pic of this eagle

The guys nearing the jetty

Crossing over to Chapel Cove

Paddling along an interesting shoreline 

Tony

Neville
Much to my dismay he switched over to his Euro paddle
since he was paddling so close to shore and amongst the rocks.
I kept telling myself it was all for the benefit of preserving his
all-cedar Greenland paddle....

Tony ran out of water in a few places along the way...

Lessons in geology at Gallows Cove

Tony trying to get as close as he could to
cobbles embedded into the cliff face

More lessons in geology

Salmon Cove Point

Neville

Tony

Neville playing on the kelp covered rocks, letting the bit
of swell push him back and forth in a little slot 

The take-out

I did a geology course in high school but it's all just mostly rocks to me.  But Tony has a university degree in Geology, and I have to say it is very interesting to have him along to explain to us some of the geology that we see on our paddles. 

Thanks Neville and Tony for the paddle today.  

2013: Post 52 – A monumental paddle day

At the end of our trip around New World Island and Twillingate (see post 31 at the end of June this year), Tony and I each had slightly over five hundred kilometres accumulated from our day paddles.  We do not count distances that we put under our bows during Thursday practices; we only count actual paddles...  

On a paddle shortly after our trip Tony suggested that maybe we could shoot for one thousand kilometres for this year.  Tony came pretty close to hitting the thousand mark a couple years ago; and I think that same year I had just over eight hundred (my highest in a year).  A thousand kilometres seemed quite monumental to me. But we decided we would just keep paddling and see where we would end up.

Today we paddled from Tors Cove to LaManche, by way of outside the islands, and early on in the days paddle we each crossed the one thousand kilometre mark since January 1st!!!  I had seven kilometres left and Tony had eight. Since we paddle so much together we thought it fitting that we should hit our lofty target at the same time.  So, just to keep things official-like, Tony jumped into his kayak and made up the one kilometre deficit before I got on the water... 

Anyway, it was a very good day to be on the water.  The wind was low, there was some swell, and the air temperature was cool.  And we had some good paddling friends to share the day with.

Some pics to share...

Tony

Hazen and Ron

Julie

Ron and Tony

Hazen and Julie

Tobias

Hazen

Julie

The group

I was watching my GPS and when I hit my 7th kilometre of the day to put me at my goal I held up my hand in triumph... Tobias was near me and snapped this pic of the moment...

Hazen and Tony were paddling to my port side and I took a picture of them at the point that Tony and I reached our target...

Then Tony came over and we congratulated each other on our reaching our goal...

We then we carried on to LaManche....

Tobias

Tobias (at LaManche River)

Lunch at LaManche

Tony

Julie, Hazen, and Tony

We hung around at Bauline and I got a few pics of Tobias playing...

... he was nearly pitch-poled on this wave!!!

Tony caught a really good wave but I missed the shot... 

Tony just before he got his wave...

Here is the wave he was on, but I was in too much of a
hurry to get the pic and I missed him (he was
to the right) and blurred the shot too

All hands back at the cars

It was another really good day to be on the water.  Thanks to Ron, Julie, Tobias, and Hazen for sharing this monumental day with Tony and I.

2013: Post 51 – A trial run or a paddle restoration?

I sanded my newest Greenland paddle last weekend.  It needs a final sanding, and I think I will probably take a little more wood off the blades... seems just a little too thick.  This particular paddle is the first one I have made that is all cedar wood; my other ones are either solid spruce or lamination's of spruce/cedar. Since the cedar is softer than the spruce I decided I should add some PVC to the tips the way Sean does... see this post by Sean.

I consulted with Sean as to what epoxy to use to bond the PVC to the wood and the process involved. Today I finally got around to getting the job started.  But I had not tried this before and I figured that I would do a test run on the paddle I had broken last year (see this post). Then I decided my time would be better put to use if I did my trial run on the paddle I have been using since last year.

The Greenland paddle that I have been using for the last sixteen months has the ends well chewed up as you can see below...

I cut a couple pieces from the PVC pipe I had on hand and traced out the shape on the ends of my paddle.  Once the frayed wood was removed it exposed the sound wood lurking underneath...  

A little bit of work with a file and the fit was decent enough.  The epoxy will fill any little gaps....

Per instruction's from Sean, I roughened up the smooth inside face of the PVC with sand paper, then mixed the epoxy, and held things in place with a few finishing nails....

Sean had told me that he had mixed some black ink with his epoxy so it would blend in with the black PVC.  I did not have any black ink around and since I am using my worn paddle as a trial run I really don't care about the aesthetics of it.  Maybe the white epoxy between the wood and the PC might be kind of interesting.   

I have to let the epoxy set on this end of the paddle and then I will do the other end; I have it already cut and the piece of PVC ready to be adhered.

I am thinking that adding these PVC tips to this older paddle may not be a 'trial run' after all... perhaps it is more of a 'paddle restoration'.  If I've done the job properly, and the epoxy holds the PVC in place, I will have greatly extended the life of my older paddle... unless I break it.   

2013: Post 50 – Still paddlin' close to home

There was an annular eclipse this morning.  Tony suggested we meet early at St. Philips to be on the water when it was happening.  The weather was calling for rain which meant cloud cover, and that meant we wouldn't see the eclipse.  But four of us showed up anyway...

Tony already has his blog entry done on the morning's paddle (click here to see his entry) so I'll just post a few of my pics to add to his...

The tide was pretty high when we arrived

Tony

Hazen

Tony and Derrick nearing Topsail Beach

Having a snack and a little chat at Topsail Beach 

Tony and Hazen

Derrick with the West Aquarius in the background 

The West Aquarius 

Derrick and Tony getting closer...

The fellow in this boat came over to tell us we were inside
the safety zone and that we had to keep back at least five
hundred metres.  Tony put on a serious face and asked the fellow
"how far is five hundred metres?"   I had a good chuckle at that...
if you knew Tony well enough you might of had a chuckle too.

Hazen

Hazen back at St. Philips... all of the slipway seen here
(and more) was under water when we first arrived...

Well, there wasn't much action in terms of swell or waves today.  It was just one of those relaxing paddles with a few good paddling buddies.  Thanks Derrick, Tony, and Hazen for sharing the water this morning.