2014: Post 39 – Carrying on in Stage Two of the paddling year

Tony and I met in Bay Bulls this morning.  Everybody else were either busy or had no desire to paddle today.  No matter.  It was a chilly but beautiful bright morning, and the wind was low.  We drove to Tors Cove and got ready. 

We made a plan to handrail down to La Manche; I haven’t been there since early June, not sure when Tony was there last.  From there we would come back along the shore a little way and would decide later if we would cross over to the islands….

It wasn't long and we came across some otters.  I guess they were sunning on the rock until we disturbed them.

We did a little rock-hopping along the way.

We paddled on, following the shoreline and checking out the coves along the shore.

We arrived in La Manche and took out on the sloping rocks. 

Before eating our lunch we did a little walk around to take in the view.  We had some snow a couple days ago and it has remained cold enough for the snow to hang around.

When we got back to Bauline Head we decided we would cross over to Great Island. 

Initially we headed toward the northern end of the island, but part way over we decided to head to the southern end and paddle on the outside.  There was swell running from the south but we were able to get through the channel at Southern Cove without any real effort.

  

We paddled along the outside of Great Island but decided to pass on exploring the caves that are there… I wanted to be home by 4 pm and we also wanted to get in our typical after-paddle-coffee too.

  

We rounded the end of the island, passing Cribby Rocks, and made a bee-line to Southern Head at Ship Island.

We then paddled on the outside of Ship Island and from there we crossed over to Fox Island, still staying on the outside of it and then paddled up through The Gut where we watched a seal… or perhaps more correctly it was watching us since we were the visitors to its natural environment.

 From there it was just a short paddle back to the beach in Tors Cove.

We made fairly short order of loading up the cars and went off to grab a coffee before heading home.

I added in the kilometres from today to my years tally and I find I am 240 kilometres behind of where I was at the end of November last year.  That`s a fairly significant amount; but then last year was a banner year in my kayaking life.  To put it into perspective, this year I already have more kilometres under my bow than for the full year of 2010, 2011, and 2012.