2015: Post 22 – This year's first camping trip

Tony, Brian, Terry, and I had been planning a camping trip on the Victoria Day weekend in Placentia Bay. We must have all been very good boys because we ended up with a stellar weather weekend...


Saturday: 

On Saturday morning we put in at Fairhaven and followed the shore down to Big Seal Cove where we camped for the night...

Putting in on the slipway in Fairhaven

The trip begins

Brian

Tony going ashore for lunch

Terry

It was a cool morning and as the sun gained strength
the rocks began to look like they were on fire

This little cabin was blown over at some point in time...

Terry and Brian

Tony

Brian

Setting up the tents in Big Seal Cove

Terry feeding the cooking fire

 

Brian collecting bigger fuel for the evening fire

Happy hour under way

Brian

It was a beauty evening in Big Seal Cove

Sunday:

We woke to a lovely morning in Big Seal Cove.  After breaking fast and then breaking camp and paddled back up the shore to Trinny Cove by way of Iona and Brine islands...

Morning brought another splendid day

Terry cooking his breakfast... he made french
toast, which he shared around

On the water

An eagle

Terry  looking rather relaxed

Brian checking his maps

Lunch beach

Tony

Trinny Cove... home for the night

Terry looking like he could use a hand

Our grassy camp site

Tony silhouetted as he took a walk up a nearby hill 

Relaxing after supper

We got Terry to take a picture of us to send to our buddy  Hazen

It was a chilly night but there was
lots of beach wood to fuel the fire

When we were ready to call it a night we spread the coals
of the fire across the beach and Brian dumped a
few buckets of water over them for good measure

Monday:

The morning was chillier than the last couple days.  We had our breakfast and packed up for the short paddle back to the cars...

Breakfast in Trinny Cove

Getting on the water for the short paddle back to the cars

Terry and Brian

Tony

Back on the slipway in Fairhaven

We covered just fifty-four kilometers over the three days.  The weather was unexpectedly pleasant for the middle of May and we knew we were lucky in that regards.  We had fairly easy paddling, some good meals, a lot of laughs, a few drinks, and a couple decent campfires.  

It was a great start to this years kayak camping trips.

2015: Post 21 – An afternoon paddle

This morning it was windy and a bit on the miserable side.  Oh well... we'll just paddle in the afternoon then...

Six of us met in St. Philips for a short paddle up to Portugal Cove.

A few pics....

A pod of kayaks, all in a row

Terry

Hazen, Brian, and Terry

Tony

Hazen, Gerard, and Tony

I recorded a video clip of the guys as they came in for an easy take-out on the beach in Portugal Cove...

We mulled around the beach for a while and then headed back to St. Philips...

As always, this little paddle proved to be another fun day, especially with a bunch of good natured kayakers...  

2015: Post 20 – Increase engines to ramming speed...

There was a solitary iceberg in Tor Bay so four of us decided to go for a visit.

We put in at Middle Cove...

There was a good swell running so we had to stay outside the danger-zone...

At one spot Clyde and I had stopped looking at the breaking waves.  Then Hazen came over to us, and unintentionally rammed me mid-ship; I think it was more of being pushed into me with the active water.  I took my hand off my paddle and tried to grab his bow toggle to steady myself, but I missed the toggle and over I went.  

I guess I have capsized enough at this point that it doesn't rattle me, for under the kayak I found myself deciding whether to roll on my best side, my not-as-best side, or even just put my hands up waiting for one of the guys to give me their bow since they were not that far from me.  It suddenly occurred to me I had not done an off-side roll in a while and opted for that...  Hazen was quite apologetic for his part in the high seas collision, but there was no harm done or (we assume) intended.  I told him I would just have to pay him back... he would not know when, he would not know where, but he just needed to remember it was coming.  Of course for the rest of the day we jokingly told Hazen to get away when he would come near us...

As we entered Tor Bay we were following the shoreline... I was thinking we might handrail the shore until we got to the iceberg, which was near the shore opposite us.  Before I knew it Tony and Hazen started making a bee-line across the bay to the iceberg.  Clyde and I turned from the shore and followed, not wanting to be the last ones to the berg...

Tony, Clyde, and Hazen

I paddled around the berg and took a few shots to get different perspectives of it... if I didn't tell you otherwise you might think they were pictures of different icebergs...

We kept a watch on the passage through the berg for a while, discussing the dangers of attempting to paddle through, but still wondering if it was timed just right could it be done safely enough....  

Of course, the danger factor was too high and so we only made the run at it in our minds... In my mind we all made it safely through, except for Hazen who was rammed, or rather unintentionally bumped, half way through the passage. Oh, he recovered with a fine roll in the turbulent water and continued to paddle though, with me just behind him apologizing profusely.  Well, I just had to pay him back for knocking me over earlier, even if it was just in my imagination... I guess there is nothing wrong with paddling dangerously in our minds... I suppose a lot of us are much better paddlers in the imaginary paddling world....

As the swells came in it was quite fascinating to watch the water spray upward as it crashed into the berg and then rebounded across the opening...

After we had our fill of the iceberg we handrailed the shore around Tor Bay and then back to Middle Cove.  The paddle was on the short side so we decided to paddle over to Outer Cove to see what was happening along the shore there... then back to Middle Cove, load up, eat our lunch, and go for coffee.

[Hazen, if you are reading this, I have not decided if you paying for the coffee, or me knocking you over in my mind counts as payback... so stay focused out there my good friend...]


I just checked Tony's blog and he has his pics posted as well... click here. 

I also just received an e-mail from Hazen with a pic of me from today, and a couple of me in my RG from last weekend....  The e-mail message simply reads "Am I forgiven?"