Sunday, July 05, 2009

There and Back. Again.

We've had a bit of a small heatwave over the last few days, but it looks to finally break today. Although still warm and humid, thin clouds rolled in overnight, a foreshadowing of the rain and cooler temperatures to come over the next few days before the sun and hot summer weather returns later in the week.
2009-07-05 Caddy Bay Pano

Louise, Paula and I put in at Cadboro Bay under those thin clouds to kayak out to Chatham Island.
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We weren't the only folks hitting the water this morning. Down the beach we saw Mike Jackson and a couple of friends launching. Mike's heading out in a new Tahe Greenland that he's been raving about on his blog.
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There wasn't much wildlife out as we kayaked down Ten Mile Point except for lots of geese and they really weren't doing anything particularly interesting, although we occasionally saw quick glimpses of stealthy otters.
The water was dead flat at the start of our paddle, just perfect conditions for the crossing to Chatham.
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There wasn't much wildlife at Chatham either. Only a small ᐃᓄᒃᓱᒃ (inukshuk), silently staring out to sea.
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From Chatham, we decided to go for the grand tour and crossed over to the Chain Islands, keeping our eyes out for seals. As we approached, we saw that the rocks and islets were bereft of seals, with one exception. For some reason a large group were congregating on this rock. From our angle of approach, these were the only seals we could see and we were quite baffled as to why they would all be crowded here.
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We soon found others, of course, and most were lazily enjoying their Sunday morning.
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The current carried us towards a rock with a couple of baby seals on it. We paddled wide to give them plenty of clearance, but as we drifted by I took out my camera to try to get a shot. I wasn't getting a good angle for a picture, so I lowered my camera for a moment. Suddenly a seal's head popped up right behind Louise. I quickly turned to take a picture but only got the "plop" of the water as he went back under.
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I turned back to the baby seals, and that's when Louise's seal popped up again, this time right in front of me as I pressed the shutter! What a ham!
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2009-07-05 The Grand Tour

Trip length: 11.53 km
YTD: 158.89
My pictures are here.
The Google Earth kmz is here.

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