2014: Post 14 – A three week paddling hiatus

It's been three weeks since I sat in a kayak!  I caught a bad cold a couple days after my last paddle that just did not want to let go of me.  It still has not completely left me but it was time to get back on the water...

Seven of us paddled from Tors Cove to Lamanche yesterday.  The day started in some rain on the drive to the put-in, and fog at the start of the paddle.  The fog lifted before too long, and the sun came out to reveal another fantastic day on the water.

Here are 22,000 words to describe the day...

Here's a pic Old Wobbly sent to me he took from the bridge....

What else can be said?  Well, it was really good to be back on the water with good paddling friends...

2014: Post 13 – Bergs in Torbay

This morning Tony, Gary and I put in at Middle Cove and paddled to Torbay to check out the ice bergs...

Tony and Gary with the larger ice berg behind them

It's hard to resist touching a bergy bit...

... and harder still to not try to run your kayak up on them!!!

Underwater shot of the above small berg

Not the largest one today, but this was had interesting features

The side of the berg above... I wondered if this side
was once on the bottom and the grooves came from
scraping the ocean floor...

Gary

Gary and Tony checking out another bergy bit

And of course, some pics of the largest iceberg in Torbay today...

The thought did occur to me to put down my camera and paddle
into the lagoon and through the opening on the other side...

We continued along the foggy shoreline after having our fill of the icebergs in Torbay.

We took out on the slipway in Flatrock for a little break and a snack.

The fog remained as we retraced our path back down the shore.

When we arrived at Torbay we had another brief look at the larger iceberg before making our way back to Middle Cove.

The berg had rotated about 90 degrees counter-clockwise from
its position when we were checking it out a couple hours earlier...

Right now there are plenty of bergs around, so there will likely be more iceberg paddles forthcoming... they are fascinating to look at from the seat of a kayak.

(See Tony's account of the morning's paddle...)

2014: Post 12 – A berg in Bay Bulls

Clyde had a few hours to spare this morning and sent out an e-mail to see if anyone was interested in a short paddle in Bay Bulls.  Only Gary and I answered the call.

I checked the Icefinder website and it was showing a berg near North Head but when we arrived in Bay Bulls it was actually on the other side off of South Head... I guess it must have moved since the last time it was entered on the site.  As we rounded the head there was a much smaller iceberg (called a 'bergy bit') against the shore and there were smaller bergy bits and little pieces of ice floating in the water.  It was evident the smaller berg and the pieces had come off of the larger iceberg... a good sign that the weather is finally warming up around here, and also a sign that these bergs are becoming unstable as they melt in the warmer weather.

I took lots of pics other than of the icebergs but figured I would just post some shots of the bergs as it was the primary focus for the morning, and there will be lots of non-ice berg pics later in the season when they have all gone from our shores....

My pics to share...

The iceberg in the distance

...getting closer

Gary

Clyde with the smaller berg near the shore

... getting closer

The iceberg looked interesting from this side...

... but not so much from this side.

Gary

Clyde

The smaller berg

An inside view of the smaller berg

Heading back toward the iceberg...

We paddled across the bay to the north side and followed the shore up to a little beach past Bread and Cheese Point where we took out for a lunch.  Clyde and Gary had a rougher landing in the surf but I lucked out as things calmed down for me to land (or maybe I was just a little more patient).  While we were enjoying the sun and having lunch some larger swells came in and so I shot a bit of video....

We all agreed it was a great day for Gary's very first paddle of this year... 

2014: Post 11 – Ice ice, baby...

Today we paddled in Conception Bay to check out an iceberg.  But first we paddled down the shore past the electricity generating station at Indian Pond...

...and then we crossed over to Harbour Main Point, and then just around the point we took out for an early lunch.

Hazen decided he would seal-launch when we got back on the water...

I told him to enjoy such things in his plastic kayak now because when he gets his new fibreglass kayak in a few weeks he won't be doing that stuff anymore.  He said he intends to treat the fibreglass the same as his plastic!  We will see. 

We carried on up to Salmon Cove Point, checking out this cave along the way...

...and a couple of us waited patiently for a chance to run the slot between waves... 

From there we crossed over to the reason we were here today... 

As we turned our bows away from the berg to head
for the cars I  thought I heard Hazen singing....

Yo, man,  let's get out of here!
Word to you mother!
Ice ice baby, too cold...

If you think the pictures of the berg are interesting then you should have seen it from the seat of a kayak... quite fascinating...

Be sure to check out tony's pics of the today's paddle... click here.