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)

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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

 

by Alan Campbell
 

The May 2020 Newsletter article “Canadian Coast Guard Urges BC Boaters to Stay Home” reported the Canadian Coast Guard (CCG) concern that small boaters may unduly stress marine emergency resources during the Covid-19 pandemic. When I called to inquire about the extent to which sea kayakers had needed emergency response, I was asked to make a formal Access to Information request and the results have recently been received.
As requested, the Joint Rescue Coordination Centre (JRCC) in Victoria has provided marine search and rescue emergency call-out data from January 2019 to June 2020 including date, time, nature of incident, type of vessel involved and how the incident was resolved, with respect to calls involving pleasure craft in the area of South Vancouver Island.
The somewhat surprising finding from a review of this information is that of all 122 responses recorded (84 in 2019, and 38 to June 2020), none involved a sea kayak. The very great majority of vessels are identified as Motor Craft and a small number classified as Open Boat, variously described as small skiffs or dinghies.
Sea kayakers have been staying safe or effecting needed rescues themselves, and not required emergency response by the Canadian Coast Guard. Keep up the good work!!
Anyone interested in the details can find the full 10-page pdf file at
https://drive.google.com/file/d/12uioJCT-mvl9ZX8ccoGMmfUHjAL4lEDA/view?usp=sharing

by Barry Copeland via Lynn Baier
 

Curried Chicken Thighs (One Pot Dehydrated Campsite Meal)

Pulled Pork (One Pot Dehydrated Campsite Meal)

Continuing with SISKA’s continuing small group paddles to meet the ongoing COVID 19 restrictions- 5 paddlers (one person dropped out) left our launch point at the Victoria Canoe and Kayak Club (VCKC) Clubhouse ( 355 Gorge Rd. West) on the Gorge Waterway for planned leisurely paddle along the Gorge and up into Portage Inlet.
 
Typical for a paddle in June 2020 (aka “June-uary”), the day began with cloudy skies, wind guests, cool temperatures and a threat of showers.  This grey weather did not last however as the day brightened and became sunny and warm. The sunny skies and warm temps- enticed one of our group to decide to go swimming at lunch from the beach at Craigflower Park ( she had brought her bathing suit just in case!).
 
Our “Relaxed Paddle Light” designation meant a very leisurely pace over a 4-5 nautical mile route. We probably extended the paddle to upwards of 6 nautical miles in the calm and protected waters of the Gorge and Portage Inlet.
 
Lots of interesting sights along the route, including the new “Victoria Waterways Loop ” boat ramp in View Royal on Shoreline Drive, Colquitz Creek and the park-like shoreline at Christie Point. We also loved the fact that the washrooms were open at Craigflower Park.
 
All-in-all a great day to be on the water.
 
Dave Chater, Trip Leader

by Alan Campbell
 

This relaxed club paddle had originally been planned for early June, and then relocated to Saanich inlet due to high westerly winds in the Strait of Juan de Fuca. This time the winds stayed light, so, with Jim Lamb and Barry Copeland also leading paddling pods, 18 of us were able to enjoy the beautiful shorelines of Becher Bay on a sunny/cloudy Saturday! Rocky shorelines, islets and islands, pocket beaches and even a tombolo – Becher Bay has plenty of marine life and interesting areas to explore. If you haven’t done so yet, put this 6nm kayak day trip on your must-do list and look for a light wind day to enjoy it!

by Mike Jackson
 

Following on from Lynn’s article last month, I thought I could write about paddling in the waters where I live in Cadboro bay. Having lived here for 12 years now I have had a chance to paddle the area in many conditions (http://mhjpaddling.blogspot.ca). There are good facilities at Gyro Beach including a big parking lot and toilets (as well as a nearby grocery store and pub!).

 

Launching from the beach at Gyro Park, you have several options. You can paddle to the north around Ten Mile Point, to the south around Cattle Point into Oak Bay, across to the Chatham & Discovery island group or do a loop around the bay.

 

Heading northward you can paddle along the shore past Staines and Flower Islets, past “old boat point” to Cadboro Point (there the green light is). If the tide is not to low, you can paddle through the inside channel, though the current can be quite strong (see below for more about tides and currents).Passing “Smuggler’s Cove (Maynard Cove on the charts) you continue northward to Ten Mile Point (weather station - see below) and then along the shore towards Telegraph Cove and beyond.

 

Heading southward you can paddle past the Royal victoria Yacht Club (which has a weather reporting station - see below). At mid tide levels you can paddle the inside of the marina which can be fun and pass through to Loon bay. After Loon Bay you pass Spurn head, Skegness, Spoon Bay, the Naze, Funnel Cove and Flotsam Cove on the way to Cattle Point. The shoreline here is very varied with many nooks and crannies to check out and is different at every tide level! After Cattle Point, you can continue on into Oak Bay, passing Willows Beach, Oak Bay Marina and the Oak bay Beach Hotel en route to Gonzales Point.Toilets are available at Willows Beach park near the tearoom.

 

One of the more spectacular (and potentially challenging) paddles in the area is out to the Chatham and Discovery island group. As Stephanie Brown posted on the ORS blog: “Paddling to Discovery Island is on the top of a lot of paddlers lists. It is a beautiful escape from the city that provides a wild and rugged west coast experience that can be explored in just a day.” Once you are in these islands, it can seem like you have completely left the city. The shoreline is varied with many bays and coves that vary with every tde level. The biggest challenges for this paddling area are crossing Baynes channel and rounding Seabird Point by the lightstation. Ocean river Sports has a good page about this paddling area: https://oceanriver.com/trip-planning-discovery-island/  and suggests that you avoid paddling to the islands if the winds are more than 10-12 knots. Also be aware that if the currents are strong and the wind is blowing in the opposite direction, steep waves can form.

 

One of my favourite short paddles is to paddle around the bay. Out to Cadboro Point, then over to Jemmy Jones Island and Cattle Point and then back into the bay past the yacht club. This loop is around 8 km (4.5 nm) and is perfect for a shorter excursion.

Tides, currents and weather in the area

The Cadboro and Oak Bay area is subject to some very significant current action which helps to make it rich for marine life, and “interesting” for paddlers. If you want to check the tides for the area, you can use one of many tide prediction apps or use the official CHS tables which can be downloaded from http://www.waterlevels.gc.ca/eng/data. I tend to look at the Oak Bay and Finnerty Cove sites as they are the nearest. Similarly, the only nearby current station available is Race Passage. Baynes Channel is a “secondary current station” and is supposed to run at 75% of the speed of race rocks with all timings 15 minutes before. However this is very approximate and expect times and speeds to be off a bit!

 

The weather in Cadboro Bay can range from a glassy flat calm to 50+ knots of wind blowing waves straight into the bay. I tend to use the weather predictions from Big wave Dave for willows Beach as my goto, but there are many other options. If you want to see what the real-time weather is there are two local reporting stations. The Royal Victoria Yacht Club has a station which can be found on the schools’ network site at : http://www.victoriaweather.ca/station.php?id=217 (as well as on the RVYC web site). Julian Elliot on Ten Mile POint also maintains a weather station which can be found at http://www.tenmilepoint.com/ or on the schools network at http://www.victoriaweather.ca/station.php?id=43 . Both of these are great for getting current conditions and also for reviewing what the winds actually were during your paddle.

 

Should conditions not be suitable for paddling in Cadboro bay due to strong southerly or westerly winds, you may want to consider launching at nearby Telegraph Cove. This spot is well protected from all but Northerly and Easterly winds.