Introduction
Dear <<First Name>>,
Thanks to those members who contributed photos and materials. After enjoying a SISKA event or paddle, please consider sending a short (100-150 words) summary article; for more information, contact one of us. If you would like to start a regular column, please let us know!
Alan Campbell (SISKA president) and Tony Playfair (editor)
PS: You can find SISKA on Facebook at this link.
PPS: SISKA has a Meetup site for "impromptu" and other paddles organized by club members. For more details, go to https://www.meetup.com/SISKA-Meetup/. To join this, you have to be a club member.
PPPS: You can find the SISKA newsletter archive here: http://goo.gl/VUkafR |
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Upcoming SISKA Events
For more details, go to the SISKA website
Saturday, August 03rd, 2019 - 9:30 AM to 3:00 PM - Oak Bay Marina to Contingency Paddle
Sunday, August 18th, 2019 - 9:30 AM to 3:00 PM - Fleming Beach to Fisgard Lighthouse Paddle
Saturday, August 24th, 2019 - 9:30 AM to 3:00 PM - Moses Point to Russell Island Paddle
Sunday, September 15th, 2019 - 9:30 AM to 3:00 PM - Spirit Bay to Cabin Point Paddle
Saturday, September 21st, 2019 - 9:30 AM to 3:00 PM - Telegraph Cove to Margaret Bay Paddle
Saturday, October 05th, 2019 - 9:30 AM to 3:00 PM - Brentwood Bay Ferry Wharf to Mackenzie Bight Paddle
Saturday, October 19th, 2019 - 9:30 AM to 3:00 PM - Amherst to Tsehum Harbour Paddle
Sunday, October 20th, 2019 - 9:30 AM to 3:00 PM - Island View Beach to D'Arcy Island Paddle
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What’s in a Name?
by Vic Turkington
THE GHOSTS of D'ARCY ISLAND
D'Arcy Island lies just south of Sidney Island and about 3nm east of Island View Beach. The island was named after Sub-Lt. D'Arcy (1831-1884), an officer aboard the HMS Herald; he was later promoted to Captain in 1869. A navigation beacon with a red flashing light (chart symbol Fl R) sits on the west shore.
As the island is close to the US border, it was readily exploited by bootlegger Roy Olmstead, who smuggled Canadian whisky during the prohibition era. He brought liquor from Victoria to D'Arcy Is., transferred it to smaller boats to evade the Coast Guard and transported it to the US.
D'Arcy Island was used as a leper colony from 1891-1924. Forty nine Chinese lepers were quarantined and left with meager resources. Existence was severe on this remote island and the colony was eventually abandoned and transferred to Bentinck Island in 1924. Thirteen lepers were buried on D'Arcy Is. and the ruins of various buildings can still be seen.
Today, the island makes an attractive kayak/camping destination. Beautiful shale beaches and arbutus trees cover the island. There are seven campsites, picnic tables, good landing beaches and the quiet reflective aura of a former leper colony and burial ground. The island is well worth visiting – but beware: the ghosts of D'Arcy Island are WATCHING, and LISTENING....and they are WAITING for you!
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Tips from the trips
Weather Watch. Use a dive slate to keep the forecast front and centre on your deck.
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Siska: Kayak Trip with Lodge Accomodation
Jane Jacek ( Siska executive member) and a few others are planning a kayak trip to Quatsino 2019-09-25 to 2019-09-28 staying at Kagoagh Lodge â?? http://www.kagoagh.com/. The lodge had 8 rooms, 7 have 2 queen beds and 1 has a king bed.
The cost per room is $399 for the duration of our stay. This includes each rooms share of the cleaning fee and service fee.... ( Maximum 2 people per room) Added to this will be cost of food which is $75 a day per person.
She is collecting a deposit of $200, per room plus half the food cost $113 per person, at this time. So total of $323 if single or $426 if paying for two. If you are interested please contact her at jane.jacek@gmail.comASAP. Once the rooms are full she will be taking a waiting list.
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From your Paddle Coordinator
by Gary Jacek
How SISKA Plans our Club Paddles
Many SISKA members are unable to attend our club paddles but don’t have enough local knowledge to plan their own paddles with friends.
To make this task a little easier we have created a document that walks you through the process we use to identify good paddling days for our Energizer and Relaxed paddles.
This document will show you how to determine where to launch and where to lunch, in order to take advantage of currents and avoid wind effects.
And for some destinations that are tide height dependent, we’ll show you how to determine when it is best to go.
All of this information is published in the Members section of the SISKA Web Site, under Members/Documents/Paddle Planning Doc.
Happy paddling.
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Trip Reports
D’Arcy Sunday July 21
by Debbie Leach
A light wind and sunny skies greeted 17 paddlers at Island View for a day paddle to D’Arcy Island on July 21. With minimal boat traffic, we ventured via James Island and Sallas Rocks for lunch on the beach by the campsite. Opting for a 1¼ hour break gave us time to chat with other paddlers, swim and explore. Special thanks to Delcie Mclelland and Edgar Hulatt for setting the pace and getting us back to our launch site by 2:30. Gary Weeks thoughtfully brought extra water, sunglasses and reading material about the leper colony. Pat Hill shared photos of our journey. For refreshments, we stopped at Harvest Road food truck at Michell’s Farm.
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Birding paddle on Saturday, July 27th, 2019
by Jennie Sutton
The paddle location was changed due to the forecast of SW 15 winds. Moving to Amherst Avenue in Sidney from Oak Bay was a good decision as the SW winds were still blowing strongly at 5:00pm!
Six of us first explored the rocky islets near the launch site and observed four different gulls- Heermann’s, Glaucous-winged, California and the smaller Mew…as well as Oystercatchers and Harlequin Ducks. The ducks are molting and unable to fly, thus making them pretty skittish!
We then crossed uneventfully to Sidney Spit where we landed and Daniel Donnecke set up his viewing scope. We were lucky to watch a lone young Caspian Tern both onshore and flying with its graceful, slim wings and gliding flight. There were several Oystercatchers and Great Blue Herons and a few Bald Eagles and Cormorants. We spotted only a couple of cute shorebirds…Spotted Sandpipers with their distinctive flitting behavior both on shore and in the air. The highlight occurred as we headed back across Sidney Channel. We had front row viewing of an amazing feeding frenzy of birds. The noise was amazing, with the gulls first spotting the school of fish and starting their loud calling, this bringing in the diving birds (over 200 Rhinoceros Auklets and several Cormorants). The diving birds scared the fish towards the surface where the gulls could then reach them for a feed. Gulls cannot dive for their fish meal, so depend on these diving birds…Our kayaks drifted right through the middle of this scenario which was quite an amazing experience, with the birds not minding us being there at all.
We then paddled back to our launch site with the flood and light breeze helping to push us “home”… The perfect finish was our debriefing at The Roost! Many thanks to Daniel and his wife Susan for their knowledge and enthusiasm and taking the time to continue to teach us about marine birds.
Jennie Sutton
Paddle Leader
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Broken Islands Group & Sechart Lodge Trip June 21-26 2019
by Don Scott
On June 21st, Sechart Lodge was invaded by some 31 anxious, adventurous SISKA paddlers. Ray and Ed arrived early via Port Alberni followed by Vic, Barb, Edgar and Denise padded over from Secret Beach in Toquart Bay. Then the greying mob arrived onboard the Frances Barkley which was full to the brim with all our gear in big boxes on the mid-deck and some 25 kayaks neatly stacked under the fore-deck. It as a beautiful sunny day and perfect introduction to the Pacific Rim National Park Reserve’s Broken Island Group for those who were witnessing its beauty for the first time.
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Trip organizer Norm Smyth pulled the group together each afternoon at 5 PM to review that day’s paddle and to organize the trips for the next morning. These critical sessions briefed the paddlers on situations experienced (mostly wonderful) and highlights of their paddle that day and trip leaders described what they intended to do the following day so paddlers could sign up for their preferred trip. The trips were set up as relaxed paddles in quieter conditions in nearby Islands, more challenging trips to and about the middle islands and usually a trip to the outer Islands by the Lodge’s water-taxi cum landing-craft and then paddling back some 12 kn. mi. though the Islands. If conditions were favourable with no winds and low swell, this might include some exploration of the outer exposed coasts of the outer Islands before making their way back though the islands to the Lodge.
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The less distance covered, the more the chance to slowly explore the rich intertidal waterways and the marvelous variety of sea life that always impresses. The Sea Stars are recovering well, especially the Ochre Stars but also the Leather Stars and Bat Stars, the latter of which did not seem to get hit as badly with the sea star wasting disease virus. Much of the rocky shoreline was covered in a wonderful variety of Giant Green Sean Anemone, Plumose Anemone and various other filter feeders. On the more exposed shoreline rocks, the Giant Mussels looked to be a meal in themselves. Perennial kelp seemed more plentiful than Bull Kelp and there were lots of rockweed.
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The scenery paddling through the islands is simply calming. The coastal mountains of Vancouver Island made a wonderful backdrop.
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BJ offered great hour-long yoga session after the paddlers’ return (usually by 2:30 PM) and before our debriefing and planning sessions. She had us stretching muscles we never knew we had.
After each great all-you-could-eat supper, Sechart co-manager Gord pulled out his guitar, foot drum and various rattles and shakers, got a roaring fire going in the fire pit in front of the lodge overlooking the beautiful bay and islands for an evening of songs most of us were of the era we could sing-along with.
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With a tired and retiring gang, the sing-songs ended at 10 PM as the electric generator was shut down to save fuel and encourage those still up to call it a night as their great all-you-could-eat breakfast is served at 7 AM and those heading to the outer Islands usually left around 8:00 AM, the rest by 9:00 or so with Sechart’s 5 lb lunches.
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Besides the Outer, Inner and close-by paddles, Lynn Beak also led a very popular trip on our last full day exploring the Indigenous history of the BIG, where human habitation has been traced back several thousand years. They visited fish traps, piles of rocks along the shoreline in a small inlet where fish would swim in during high tide and get trapped as the tide ebbed and numerous other sites where archeologists have traced the ancient history of human inhabitation. It is easy to understand why there was such early settlement in the area. Waters are generally protected; sea life is extremely plentiful, and it would take comparatively little effort to secure enough food year-round to sustain a small population.
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Perhaps a valuable lesson was learning during the week as well. A group of 4 paddlers left to escort one of them back to Secret Beach on the Toquart Reserve, where some of the paddlers launched and paddled out to Sechart three days earlier. After seeing Denise safely off, the threesome left Secret Beach and made their way out a chain of Islands in the Loudon Channel. By the time they were ready to cross the channel, the winds had risen beyond expectations, and the channel became rather challenging with choppy 2’ and 3’ waves with whitecaps. They made it to Castle Rock and took some refuge from the waves and headed over to Bryant Island in the choppy seas and stopped for lunch. By this time, they had covered 6 nm., and two were feeling rather nervous about heading out into more choppy open water with a following wind and knowing that winds can rise during the afternoon, and Sechart was still some 5 nm. away. After some discussion, we decided to call Gord and have him come pick us up in the water taxi. Purely by coincidence, we had talked to Gord the night before about rescue procedures. You could radio the Coast Guard in Bamfield or you could phone Gord for the water taxi. I had put his phone number in my phone, just in case. It wasn’t an easy choice, but when you are out in unfamiliar waters and in a small group, it was one we became comfortable with, although it did cost me a bottle of wine, plus the water taxi fair, which was $75 each. Sometimes, $75 seems pretty cheap. And we had a good story.
Thanks go to Norm for organizing a fun 6-day adventure: 2 days of travel, and 4 days of great paddling thanks to our outstanding paddle leaders: Vic Turkington; Edgar Hulatt; Dave Chater; Lynn Beak & Roger Graves; Barbara McDougall, Jane Jacek and David Anderson. A memorable week to say the least, paddling in paradise. Norm will arrange a return to the Broken Group from 19 to 24 June 2020. Watch for an email in late October.
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Water for the Wolf
Did you know that Peter (and his friend Mike) regularly take water over to Chatham and Discovery Islands for Takaya to drink?
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To Buy or Sell
Avocet LV Carbon Kevlar kayak with Werner paddle and accessories ( two types of rescue devices, skirt, pump. $2900
Karen Longhurst
250 801 8626
If you have any buy/sell items that you would like to post in the Newsletter, please send a short description and your contact info to newsletter@siska.ca.
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SISKA’s Kayak Skills Course Partners
There are some fine discounts available from our kayak skills course partners for SISKA members who sign up for their skills training programs; have a look at http://siska.ca/docs_public/SISKAsKayakSkillsCoursePartners.pdf.
Our partners are:
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