SISKA's November 2021 Newsletter. Upcoming events, reports and articles

November 2021 SISKA Newsletter

Introduction

Dear Tony,

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

Upcoming SISKA Events

For more details, go to the SISKA website

Community Events of Interest

These events are not formally supported by SISKA, but considered to be of interest to a significant number of our members.

Any member may request an event to be included in this section by sending a note to chairperson@siska.ca.

SISKA, Covid-19 Precautions and Plans

by Alan Campbell

Sea kayaking is definitely one of the best and Covid-safest ways to maintain your fitness and health!

However, we must all stay vigilant and take the precautions necessary, including becoming fully vaccinated, to protect ourselves, fellow paddlers, friends, families, and communities.

Almost 90% of eligible people in BC have now been vaccinated once, and about 85% have been fully vaccinated. The very great majority of new cases in BC are among those who have either not yet been vaccinated at all or have had just one dose so far.

Although certain regions of BC remain under tighter pandemic restrictions, some restrictions have been eased in the Island Health Authority, but only for those who are fully vaccinated.
https://www2.gov.bc.ca/gov/content/covid-19/info/restrictions

Since SISKA must now confirm full vaccination status for participants in indoor meetings (which we hope will resume soon), over the next month we will prepare to extend the same requirement to those attending outdoor club events as well.

To better protect all those attending any SISKA event, confirmation of vaccination status, now required in BC for indoor meetings and events, will soon be required for members participating in outdoor SISKA events such as club courses, paddles, or other group gatherings.

Beginning November 8^th all club members will receive detailed instructions regarding how to upload a picture of their BC Vaccine Card to the SISKA website. Once your card has been verified using the BC Vaccine Card Verifier app, the uploaded picture will be deleted, you will be notified by email that your vaccination status has been confirmed, and this will form part of your member record. If you are fully vaccinated, you will then only need to identify yourself to organizers to participate in club events.

In order to provide sufficient time for all members to complete this process, the requirement for full vaccination status will begin to apply to outdoor events as well as indoor ones as of December 15^th.

Thank you for helping us keep everyone safe while participating in SISKA activities!

NOTE: In addition to confirming your vaccination status, you should only attend SISKA events if you can answer NO to each of these questions: In the past 14 days, have you:
1. experienced any symptoms related to COVID-19?
2. travelled outside Canada?
3. had contact with anyone travelling outside Canada, or who has tested positive for COVID-19, or experienced symptoms related to COVID-19?

SISKA’s Festive Christmas Events – December 2021

by Alan Campbell

Due to pandemic restrictions, we have reluctantly made the decision, once again this year, to cancel our traditional Christmas Luncheon/Party at the Royal Victoria Yacht Club. With vaccine and mask mandates for indoor organized events in BC, we concluded that we would be unable to maintain the high level of frivolity, bedlam, and hoopla we have come to love…☹
But it’s hard to keep those SISKA Elves from merry making to help lift our spirits during the dark and rainy mid-winter! Chief Elf Jennie Sutton is busily pulling together her energetic volunteers to support a pair of Covid-safe festive events planned for December, so set aside these dates and times now and get ready to join in the fun!
😊
SISKA Zoom Christmas Party 2.0 – Wednesday, December 8^th at 7pm
Our first Zoom Christmas Party was held last December during an earlier Covid wave and proved to be a popular alternative for members who still wanted to have some festive fun together online!
So, it’s happening again this year on Wednesday December 8^th at 7pm. Detailed information will follow soon, but you should expect to be…

attired in your festive finery - at least your top half!
challenged by the famous Heads or Tails visual quiz!
entertained by talented SISKA troubadours!
amazed by the creativity and craziness that some have been up to over the past year!
given lots of chances to win prizes!

SISKA Christmas Paddle and/or Luncheon Picnic – Saturday, December 11^th at 12 noon
This is an outdoor event, held at Gyro Park in Cadboro Bay, at the group picnic area closest to the washrooms. Some members will come early and enjoy morning club paddles while others will choose to join us for the luncheon, socializing and some land-based fun and games!
Details will be coming out soon on how you can reserve your Classic Songhees First Nation Box Lunch with Sockeye/Ham/Veggie sandwich, Chefs’ salad & Bannock bites. That plus hot drinks and cookies will warm our bodies and the fun will warm our hearts! We’ll have canopies set up in case of rain and some contests and challenges to test your skills and imaginations!

Siska November 25th Monthly Meeting Agenda

by Fred Pishalski

Note change of date for this meeting!

The November 25^th (7pm Thursday) SISKA monthly meeting will have Dwayne Wohlgemuth sharing the story of hiking the world’s longest Esker. What is an Esker; it is a long ridge of gravel and other sediment, typically having a winding course, deposited by meltwater from a retreating glacier or ice sheet.
A decision to hold a in-person or Zoom November meeting will be made closer to the meeting date. SISKA members will be notified as to the decision.
In 2020, Dwayne Wohlgemuth spent 40 days alone hiking across some of the most remote tundra in Canada with a goal to hike the entire length of the Thelon Esker. His expedition was chosen as the Royal Canadian Geographical Society’s Expedition of the Year. He filmed along the way and a movie of his trip, titled The High Road, was selected for the Banff Mountain Film Festival’s 2021 world tour. The route crosses numerous well-known rivers including the Thelon, Hanbury, Back, and Coppermine Rivers. All those days of bugs, bogs, rocky esker, windy water crossings, and grizzlies were worth it for the epic esker scenery and the views from the top of a 60-metre-tall esker.
Dwayne grew up on a farm in northern Alberta and after an engineering degree at the University of Alberta and a couple years travelling and learning French and Spanish, he moved to the Northwest Territories in 2006. He realized that the wilderness around Yellowknife was most accessible by canoe, and immediately bought a new canoe. He has completed many multi-month canoe trips since then, first with his spouse Leanne and more recently with two young sons as well. He and his spouse Leanne have also done a couple long hikes including a 480-km hike on the Arctic Coast from Kugluktuk, Nunavut to Paulatuk in the NWT, and the 350-kilometre Canol Trail in the NWT’s Mackenzie Mountains.

Zoom Meeting Info
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/82523868776?pwd=OGxDUi9uMDlYT25rQmNsODh1MWdPUT09

Meeting ID: 825 2386 8776
Passcode: 481301

Upcoming Tides Zoom Meeting

by Kirstine Murdoch

"How tides work" with Mike Jackson

Thursday November 4th at 7:00 pm by Zoom

Tides and tidal currents influence so much of our paddling experience as sea kayakers. Mike will show you and talk about the various tidal patterns we see and then attempt to explain how these patterns happen!
It is a lot more than "just the moon”!

Mike is a wonderful speaker and his presentations are always well received. You won’t want to miss this presentation.

Join this free Zoom workshop at

https://us02web.zoom.us/j/82308792338?pwd=UjgrZTFKOVoxbm5abVo3UWd1U2Rwdz09

Meeting ID: 823 0879 2338

Passcode: 231235

Blue Dog Kayaking - SISKA Kayak Skills Partner for 2022

by Alan Campbell/Dave Nichols

In response to your email of 9th October I write to invite some of your members to take advantage of the new loyalty program we have introduced for the coming 2022 season.

We have been blown away by the friendship and support offered to us by our loyal customers during the last two very challenging seasons.

We are offering all customers who either took courses, went on expeditions or bought equipment during 2020 & 2021 a loyalty discount off all programs and gear sales of 10% for the upcoming 2022 season. The only exceptions to this are the Great Slave Lake Adventure in August and NDK Kayak sales.

Many of your members are eligible and although we have recently sent an email I wanted to make sure everyone who is eligible can take advantage. I wondered if you could publish this in your newsletter to inform your members as we don't want anyone to miss out.

Please ask them to apply coupon code LOYALTY22 when booking online to redeem their discount. Discount on equipment sales will be applied at the time of purchase.

Many of our loyal customers are not members of paddling clubs and we wanted to find a way to include all those whose kind support we received. Therefore, we are limiting all other discounts during the 2022 season to our Level 1 skills program where any club SISKA member will be able to get a 10% discount by applying coupon code L1SKILLS22 when booking up online.

Regards
Dave Nichols
Blue Dog Kayaking
250 710 7693
bluedogkayaking.com

SISKA Mugs

by Fred Pishalski

At our monthly SISKA meetings we have been giving the speakers specially printed quality mugs with our logo, as a way to show our appreciation for all the work that goes into a presentation. We have had the mugs printed up locally at Out of the Blue. Over the past couple of years, a number of folks have asked me if it was possible to sell them a mug or two. Unfortunately, I have had to say no because of stock issues. We have come to end of our supply of mugs and need to order another batch. The minimum order is 24 before will they will do a reprinting, which I will send in. We can however, add any additional number of mugs to this order. The mug comes with a cloth carrying bag that comes in handy for personal items while paddling or hiking. This is a quality mug, good for both hot and cold drinks with a push button to open plunger on the lid and an excellent water tight seal. Our cost is $30 each which is what we will be selling them for. If interested please send your order to Fred Pishalski at gailmiller@shaw.ca with the title “Mug”. The cutoff date for orders will be November 15^th. The best way to pay for the mug is by e-transfer.

Off Water Clinics Committee

by Kirstine Murdoch

Your Off-Water Clinics committee is busy planning workshops for the upcoming season. We’re hoping to provide some in-person workshops (COVID permitting) as well as some Zoom workshops where we can accommodate a much larger number of people. Upcoming workshops will be posted in the SISKA calendar and an email will be sent out to all members. Note that you need to be a member to attend any in-person workshop.

In the meantime you might be interested in some of our past workshops which you can view on the SISKA YouTube channel. You can access that via the SISKA website under the General Information tab or directly via the link below.

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLtOFczeBegOITK9D3g0HdotQaU3fFucb6

We may be offering some of these workshop again this year, stay tuned.

Thanks
Kirstine Murdoch
250 884-9603

What’s in a Name?

by Vic Turkington

THE GHOST of the SS VALENCIA

The SS Valencia was a 1,598-ton, 252 ft iron-hulled passenger steamer with a cruising speed of 11 knots. It left San Francisco on January 22 1906 bound for Victoria and Seattle with 108 passengers and a crew of 65, under the command of Captain Oscar Johnson.
The weather began to deteriorate and the captain was forced to navigate by dead reckoning, using compass courses and distance travelled. The ship missed the entrance to the Juan de Fuca Strait and Victoria and continued straight ahead in the middle of the night to finally run aground at high tide on the Walla Walla reef, near Pachena Point on Vancouver Island,. The coastline was a continuous 100ft rock cliff, pounded by crashing breakers, making rescues hazardous and almost impossible.

(courtesy Maritime Museum)

Over the next 36 hours, terrified people were forced to huddle on the uppermost hurricane deck with some climbing into the rigging. The captain ordered the crew to lower six of the life boats with 50 passengers aboard. In the dark and confusion, some boats capsized in the violent seas and passengers were drowned or dashed to death against the rocks; only 12 men survived.
Rain, strong SE winds and heavy swells persisted during the night, as huge waves pounded the Valencia, which slowly began to break up. Rescuers were unable to approach the ship due to the rocks and were eventually horrified and helpless as a huge wave swept 40 people overboard into the sea. Some drowned or were beaten to death against the rocks. Others, clinging to pieces of wreckage were swept out to sea and died of exposure. Overall, there were only 37 survivors from the wreck, while 136 souls perished in what was one the most tragic maritime disasters in Pacific Northwest history – aptly called “The Graveyard of the Pacific.”

In 1910, it was reported in the Seattle Times that mariners had seen a ghost ship with people clinging to the rigging, which followed them to the site of the wreck, when it crashed on the rocks and disappeared. Also, Indian (First Nations) fishermen had reported seeing a lifeboat manned by skeletons. This may serve as a ghostly reminder of the dangers at sea – (especially at Halloween!)
As a result, a lighthouse was built at Pachena Point (1907) and a lifesaving trail was constructed for shipwrecked mariners, known today as the West Coast Trail, as part of the Pacific Rim National Park. Fortunately, today we have radar and satellite technology to aid navigation in foul weather.
(The wreck of the SS Valencia is currently featured in the Victoria Maritime Museum)

Farmer John Fallacy

by John Abercrombie/Lynn Baier

Thanks to John Abercrombie for finding this truly ‘food for serious consideration’ article.

Jay (the author) refers to the 55F (13C) water temp when he describes the springtime incident involving his hypothermic friend. That's warmer than our waters ever get!

Here's the temperature chart for Victoria ocean waters from
https://www.seatemperature.org/north-america/canada/victoria.htm

Tips from the trips

by Debbie Leach

Charts-in-the-RAIN. Copy sections of your chart onto “Rite-in-the-Rain” paper. Bob uses a plastic template( e.g. 11X17 inches) to mark sections for copying that fit into his map-case. Your charts stay in good shape because they don't get wet or need to be folded.

Kayaking Klips

by Debbie Leach

Here is Heather doing a self rescue called the Scootch that may require some practice before you get it right. First shown by one of our instructors, Michael Egilson.

A Note from our Librarian

by Heather Jones

Our library may be closed but you are welcome to contact me, Heather Jones, to borrow a drysuit gasket repair kit or a greenland paddle.

Camp Cookery

by Lynn Baier

This month I’m going to draw your attention to a newly discovered YouTube channel. It’s called Wild Harvest and is the brainchild of Les Stroud (Survivorman). I’ve only watched the first episode but it is intriguing.

SISKA 2022 Calendar

by Fred Pishalski

For the past number of years, I have been putting together SISKA kayaking calendars and selling them with the small profit being donated to charity. I would like to do another calendar for 2022. Most of the photos have come from SISKA members. The company I have been using in the past is Vista Print Canada which usually has a sale closer to Christmas with saving up to 50%. In the past, the price of the calendars was $20 each and I would hope that this year, I can keep it the same. If you are interested in purchasing a calendar, please send your order to Fred Pishalski at gailmiller@shaw.ca with the title “Calendar”. I will hold off on asking for money until I can confirm this year’s price. I can’t give you an exact cutoff date, as I will be watching for one their sales before placing an order. However, I would like all orders to be in to me by December 1^st.

RCM/SAR Summer Roundup

by Roger Botting

Please note that SISKA donates a substantial amount to the RCMSARS each year in recognition of their important safety role for all of us on the water.

Click HERE for the report.

Trip Reports

Swartz Bay to Fulford Harbour - October 13, 2021
by Norm Smyth

Click HERE for full report with images

Galiano Island Glamping - 2021

by Jennie Sutton

Read full report HERE

Lighthouse at West entrance to Porlier Pass

Fantasy formations in sandstone!

One of many striking totems on Jackscrew Island

BC Marine Trails

October Newsletter HERE

Coming in 2022, Cleanup Paddles

by BJ Porter

We at SISKA are blessed to paddle in the beautiful environment of Victoria and the surrounding waters. In order to play our part in maintaining that beauty, Cleanup Paddles will be introduced in 2022. These will be occasional outings, included in the list of paddles, that will entail an hour or less of cleanup at beaches that have been designated as requiring debris removal. Participants will be asked to provide their own work gloves as protection against sharp objects etc. Sharp knives (no naked blades please but suitably sheathed or folded) will also be useful for cutting net and rope, as will small saws.

You can start submitting your suggestions now of beaches or other areas below or near the high tide line that would benefit from our efforts. Please note and describe large or difficult to move objects. If possible note if there is road access to the area in question.

Also, if you are interested in joining work groups that undertake longer and more involved trash removal projects, please let me know.

If you have a canoe or very small watercraft suitable for towing behind a kayak that you are willing to lend, please let me know. Inflatables are not advisable because of the wire and sharp metal that will be toted.

You can reach me at director1@siska.ca.

Become a Citizen Scientist

by BJ Porter

As ocean-going kayakers, SISKA members spend a great deal of time in the marine and coastal environment observing Nature. We are well placed to assist organizations whose mandate is to conserve and protect wildlife and the natural world.

If you would like to move from mere observation to active participation, consider becoming a ‘citizen scientist’ in the following ways:

Canadian Wildlife Federation
cwf-fcf.org/en

The Canadian Wildlife Federation’s mission is to conserve and inspire the conservation of Canada’s wildlife and habitats for the use and enjoyment of all. CWF reaches over 2.5 million people each year who work from coast to coast to maintain a bright future for Canada’s wildlife. cwf-fcf.org/en

To read more about their Coasts and Oceans programs go to cwf-fcf.org/en/explore/coasts-oceans.

A ‘BioBlitz’ is a time and geography limited examination of a specific ecosystem or floral or faunal population. To join a BioBlitz go to cwf-fcf.org/en/explore/bioblitz.

To explore the CWF’s encyclopedia of invasive species go to cwf-fcf.org/en/resources/encyclopedias/invasive-species

iNaturalist
inaturalist.org

The app iNaturalist has become one of the world’s most popular citizen scientist nature apps. You can create your own profile, browse a huge database of photos and descriptions, report observations, upload pictures and sounds, and share information with others.

I found the website quite complex and somewhat opaque at first but here is a resource to get you started: inaturalist.org/pages/getting+started

Observations are categorized as to completeness and accuracy. The highest rating is ‘research quality’ and is widely used and trusted by ‘real’ scientists.

Invasive Species Council of BC
www.bcinvasives.ca

The website of the Invasive Species Council of BC is simpler and its scope is limited to our province.
They have a colorful library of BC-invasive species here: bcinvasives.ca/take-action/identify. There is a link to their reporting app here: https://bcinvasives.ca/take-action/report Conveniently, there is also a helpful video of exactly how to file a report, and hints such as including an object to provide scale in your photographs.

Become a volunteer at bcinvasives.ca/take-action/volunteer but note they only have a youth volunteer programme (15 – 30 years of age).

Other programs of the Invasive Species Council of BC are less citizen science oriented but are opportunities to be environmentally proactive.

Clean Drain Dry
https://bcinvasives.ca/play-your-part/clean-drain-dry

Kayaks can carry invasive species between bodies of water. Aquatic invaders are entering BC’s beautiful lakes, streams, and wetlands. Boaters, anglers and paddlers can all take action now to help stop the spread by practicing Clean Drain Dry.

Opportunities are available to post information in specific (especially freshwater) bodies of water where you paddle. bcinvasives.ca/play-your-part/clean-drain-dry-partners

Plantwise
https://bcinvasives.ca/play-your-part/plantwise

PlantWise helps gardeners and industry understand which plants are invasive and harmful to our communities, and how to make ‘PlantWise’ choices.

Buy Local Burn Local
bcinvasives.ca/play-your-part/buy-local-burn-local
BC’s forests are threatened by non-native insects, often first found in campgrounds and parks, that can damage large numbers of trees. Wood-infesting species can be transported long distances in firewood. The Council discourages the transport of firewood.

If you do seize any of the above opportunities to ‘activate’ your time in Nature, please share your experiences by e-mailing me at director1@siska.ca.

BJ Porter (Director at Large)

To Buy or Sell

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.

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 https://siska.ca/docs_public/SISKAsKayakSkillsCoursePartners2020.pdf

Our partners are: