Remembrance Day Tors Cove

Wednesday we had some decent weather and the day off so 10 of us got together for a paddle in Tors Cove.

My favorite quote of the day was from Dean- "This Is Sea Kayaking"

Here is a video of what brought us that quote.

Here is the link for the you tube video.  Its a little better quality.

https://youtu.be/FFhu5mUnt3M

Tors Cove is always a little intimidating for me but my next trip out there I'm going to push myself a little farther.

I started the trip with a fun seal launch

Here we are ready to head out.

Here is a good shot of us heading to Ship Island

So much nice scenery out here.

Sorry I didn't get a lot of individual photos but I have lots of video

I really like this Picture!

Gary

Some parts of the day were fairly calm and other parts were a lot of fun and kept you on your toes...

Little clip of Dean

Tony

 Lunch time at La Manche!  Here is a good picture of everyone.

This is another favorite picture of mine...this one might get hung on the wall.

One of my favorite parts of the day was on our way back we stopped at this Irish Loop coffee shop.  

Here is the view out the coffee shop window behind us.

Had an awesome day!  To everyone that joined in...Thanks for all the fun!!

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Sunday stuck on Land

Usually on Sundays a few of us get together to go for a paddle somewhere.  This weekend the winds were 50 km/h with gusts of 80 km/h so that kind of ruled out a day on the ocean.  I e-mailed anyway to see if anyone was up for a paddle thinking a day to play on a lake somewhere would be ok.  A few friends knowing I'm new to the sport e-mailed me to inform me about the winds thinking i was going to head to St. Philip's and suggested a day off maybe to take care of home projects.  I thought it through and took their advice.  There was no way I was going on the ocean alone and to be honest the lake probably would have been all work with very little fun, so here is how I filled my day.

So I'm going to say thanks to Tony and Dean for checking in with me and here is why...

I had to take a trip to St. Philip's to see what 50 km/h would produce and here is a few shots of the water.

As you can see there are some pretty decent waves.  The pictures never do this kind of stuff any justice but believe me it was intense.  

Again thanks for checking with me by's, you never know and its better to check because if anything happened and I was caught capsized alone in those waters.... we'll it might have been a bad day.

On a brighter note I did have a few thing to finish up, and one of those things was getting some deck lines on the front of my kayak.  My kayak didn't have deck lines all the way to the front and there were no points to add them so I did the best I could without drilling holes (its actually a loaner kayak) so I didn't want to drill new holes in it.

A few weeks ago I capsized in some rougher conditions and as Tony was trying to help empty my kayak a bigger wave came and he lost control of the boat because I had no line on the front.  Its not perfect but its something to grab on to.  That was the first order of business.

Fixed up the back deck line as well.  HARDEST part...tying the damn knots haha....thanks you tube!

I built my first Greenland paddle a while back but only used it for a few minutes because there was a crack in the loom I didn't notice until I started paddling.  A few weeks ago I made another paddle, nothing fancy, just for smacking around the rocks and things like that.

So last week I started a nicer looking paddle I plan on using for the calmer days or maybe on an overnight trip.  Its clear pine an padauk.  I add padauk on all my paddles just because its my favorite type of wood.

I started the rough cutting last week, now I'm down to smoothing the blank.

I tried to add a little style to the tip...I think it turned out pretty good.

Here it sits almost finished.  I just have some light sanding and then the clear coat. 

I'm also in the middle of making a foam core fibreglass greenland paddle so stay tuned for that one.  Should be finished within the next 2 or 3 weeks.

Even though I didn't get out on the water today I still had some fun fixing up my kayak and making another paddle.  We have plans already for a Wednesday paddle at Tors cove so check back for those pics later this week!

St. Philip's to Topsail

I really wanted to go for a paddle today so I sent out an email Friday to see who was interested.

A few people were either busy with other plans or sick but we managed to get a group of 4 out today.

Brian, Julie, Cathy, and myself had a great time on our trip to Topsail beach.

I was surprised it was so choppy today but that's what made it more fun.  Group shot of Brian, Cathy, and Julie

Cathy...she was in some pretty good stuff here.

 Julie

Brian

Gives a pretty good idea of how big the waves were today.  I like this picture!

Another nice shot.  

I was busy paying attention to my camera and not the waves.  At the last second of the video you can see a big wave caught me off guard.  I didn't tip over... here...thanks to my friends giving me a heads up haha.

Here's the still at the end of the video

We made it to Topsail and pulled up on the beach for a rest and a snack.  We had a chat about different boats and swimming and then took off back to St. Philips

 I like this one of Julie and Brian on our way back.

One more shot of the group...it goes Brian, Cathy, Julie.

So I thought I would finish today's post with some humour.

 Here I am thinking about it.

 Here I am going for it.

 And I almost made it when...

 Beached.

This was a really fun day I got wet a few times but that's all the more fun.  I think everyone enjoyed the day...it was a fun trip to Topsail back.  Thanks Brian, Julie, and Cathy for the great day and especially thanks to Brian for helping get back in my boat a few times and Cathy for the great pictures.

If you guys are up for another laugh check out this video.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/rw9qlcu41ol88w4/2015-10-25%2009.57.12.mp4?dl=0

this link shows a better video.

The Extended St. Philips Paddle

Yesterday Tony sent out an e-mail suggesting a paddle from St. Philips to Topsail Beach.

As usual I said I would join in so we met up in St. Philips this morning with a pretty good turnout of 8 or 9 people.

Our plan was to go from St. Philips to Topsail beach, but when we got out in the cove we noticed a bunch of whales playing around down by Portugal Cove so we headed that way to get a closer look.

I got close enough to get a few little videos but there were a lot of whales today.  Nice surprise on a Sunday paddle

This was the best video I thought.

A few time a whale came up right beside me but I wasn't quick enough with the camera to get any shots.

The whales seemed to have slowed down so we moved on to Portugal cove.

It's been a while since I had a paddle with Dean... Great Colinet Island I think? 

Most of us trying to squeeze through every little channel we could.  We had a high tide today so it was a lot of fun paddling between all the rocks.

When we got to Portugal cove there we a lot of rocks to meander through so we stopped to have a little fun there.  No big waves or anything but fun all the same.

After we had our fill of fun we made our way back to St. Philips.

Dean just couldn't keep his boat away from the rock today haha.

I must have paddle this at least a dozen times this year and today was the first time I notice this little mini sea arch.

That's pretty much it... for the St. Philips / Portugal Cove run.

I think it was Tony, Dean, Brian, Clyde, Cathy, Derek, Gerard, and myself for this portion of the paddle.  I don't think I forgot anyone there.  Anyway a few of us weren't satisfied yet so Tony, Gerard, Cathy, and myself carried on to Topsail beach.  My camera ran out of battery so I didn't get any pictures of this leg of the trip, but Tony had his camera to catch a few shots.

We stopped half way to Topsail and had a little rest and a snack then continued on to finish the trip.

I believe we did close to 24 KM today, not bad for a Sunday paddle.

Between the whales and the rocks I had a great day paddling.  Thanks to everyone who joined in the fun!  Hopefully we'll do it all again next week!!

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for more picture of the day.

Solo trip to Kelly's Island

This year I have paddle a lot with PNL, and with our regular group that gets together on Wednesdays and weekends.  I've gained a lot of confidence and learned so much so I decided it was time for me to do my first solo trip.

I left from Long Pond, CBS and made my way over to Kelly's Island.  Not an overly long trip but on the Ocean and solo all the same.

Here is Long Pond and the island you see out past the ship is Kelly's Island

 Got the kayak unloaded and geared up and made my way out.

Here is the end of Long Pond and where the Ocean starts.

 I'm out in the open sea here now and I have to admit being my first solo trip I was a little nervous but very determined to get to Kelly's Island.

Here is a shot of CBS from about ⅓ of the way across.

I'm getting close to the Island here as you can see.  I like how you can see the different layers of rock in the cliff face.

And here we are, the beach where I'll stop for my snack and some rest.

Got a decent panoramic shot of the beach and CBS in the back.

 I knew there was a small beach where I could get out and rest for a minute from some pictures I've seen of Kelly's Island.  As you can see most of this island is cliff so its a good idea to make sure there is a place you can get out of your boat.  Especially going solo.

I took the day off work to go do this, so after I had a snack I relaxed for a while and took in the scenery.  Perfect day off!

 Time to head back.  There was a little bit of waves so I paddled out around the end of the island for a bit before I headed back. 

 Kelly's Island in my rear view.

Ship Docked in Long Pond.

This trip took me about 2 ½ hours, but I was taking my time and a lot of pictures along the way.

Feels good to do a trip alone.  I think my next solo trip will be an over nighter somewhere.

The Paddle season is slowing down now with PNL done for the year and Wednesday evening paddles all finishes BUT I will be paddling all winter long and I will post new pictures of different trips every chance I get

Thanks a lot to all the guys that helped me grow my skills throughout the year, you guys all know who you are and I appreciate all the help.  Great group of guys to learn from.  I love the sport more than ever and can't wait to get back on the water.