Last Sunday six members of the Victoria Canoe and Kayak Club and a couple of people well known to the Paddlewise community circumnavigated Mayne Island in the heart of the Canadian Gulf Island's of British Columbia. As Sergeant Friday would say, here's the facts. "Just the facts." The usual suspects were rounded up just after 4 AM (Hans Voerman, John Levey, Bill Hillsden, Steve Davis, Doug Lloyd and Gordin Warner) We call ourselves the Fat Bastard Kayaking Gang. John and Hans are on probation until they bulk up. At this time in the morning we looked like the dregs of an all night beer bash. I've seen more credible looking characters in a murder line up. Anyway after checking alibis. Lloyd said he knocked off a new roof rank in a couple of hours at the wood working shop that would carry four boats. Darned if he wasn't telling the truth. Pulling into the car park in the pre dawn light there it was a sharp looking rack made of ash sitting on top of his van. The center slot contained the venerable old Nordkapp - Blustery Day. Some boats, such as Levey's Jubilee, are sweet and beautiful. Doug's on the other hand is a well modified and functional sled that tips the scales at over 90 pounds. Now this gang is not the sharpest, but the lights were burning bright when Doug suggested they could put three more boats up on the Caravans roof. Five men turned to look at his Dodge and five thoughts burned clear and clean. "What's the load capacity of the roof of a Dodge Caravan?" It was too early in the morning to be running experiments in metallurgy so with only a few minutes to spare the gang sorted out the boats onto three cars - just to cheat the ferry corporation out of a $100 bucks. Then they raced off to catch the 0545 ferry from Victoria to Mayne Island. By 0730 they were on the water and by 0740 they were headed out into a nice and comfortable 5.1 knot ebb racing into Active Pass. This early on Sunday morning Active Pass is not very active. By hugging the shore the gang cleared the Pass and turned the corner at Georgina Point. This is where we got on the train. Riding the ebb south we raced down the Strait of Georgia towards the end of Mayne. While the west side of Mayne Island is familiar to anyone who's ever ridden the BC ferry from Vancouver to Sidney the east side was new territory for most of us. I was surprised to see it's been heavily developed for much of the area round David Cove. Why do people who are fortunate enough to own a piece of heaven spoil it by building monster homes on it. I'm not just talking big - but big and ugly. Luckily some how the Edith Point peninsula has escaped this development onslaught. Probably because it's owned by one person. It could be the people who built a beautiful, large but understated home that blends into the environment at the end of the point. With Bill setting the pace we turned the next corner at Edith Point. Bill had the bow pointed toward Lyall Habour; home of one of the best pubs in the Gulf Islands. I called out to reminded him that it was just past nine and the coffee wouldn't even be on yet. So we turned back and headed into Campbell Bay to explore the other side of the Edith Peninsula. This is a mini version of west side of Valdes Island where the wind and the waves have carved the sandstone into a Salvador Dali like sculpture. Just like the bigger cliffs up on Valdes the cliffs here are pocketed with harder rock the erodes much slower. A famous west coast guide says the formations reminder her of women's nipples. I wasn't staring. Really I wasn't. After clearing Campbell Bay we slipped past Curlew Island into Horton Bay. I slowed the gang down again as I had to check out some launch sites for a trip coming up later in the summer. We stopped at a deserted looking spot. Steve pulled out his smokes while Doug and I of the small bladders made for the bush. As we were climbing back into the kayaks the property owner made his way down the jetty. Without a word spoken between him and us we pushed off. Anchored in Horton Bay is the perfect fixer upper. A nice 30 foot sail boat that's been seized by the authorities. Actually the only way to fix her would be with a fire. I'm sure the boat must have a few good stories in her it's just a shame to see her anchored there fore lone and forgotten. We still had the current with us so we had a good ride through Robson Channel. Here we decided to round St.John Point and head for a small beach about a mile up the west side of the island for what we decided would be brunch. Just as we rounded the point we were overtaken by a Zodiac. It was the guy from the dock where we'd stopped in Horton Bay. He'd raced out to ask where we were headed. We told him we were heading for Miners Bay to which he replied that there was a Gale Warning for Haro Straight later in the afternoon. Without a nano second pause, Steve piped up and said, "That sounds great." The poor guy. His face fell. Here he was draped in St. Christopher's cloak, having raced out to help the unwary paddlers cross the waters, only to find a bunch of ingrates thrilled by the possibility of a good ole blow. We thanked him for his concern and said our good bys. Nevertheless John and I switched over to the weather channel to get the update at 10 AM. We're not sure what or when good St. Christopher got his weather report but there was not a word about a Gale. In fact it barely blew at all. We also made the beach at 10 AM. This is significant because when I put the plan together I figured it would take at least 6 and possibly 10 hours depending on who joined the paddle. We'd just covered the first 10 nautical miles in 2.5 hours. Six paddlers all in sync, all about the same speed. We spent about 45 minutes on the beach swapping lies and telling stories. Doug talked about his writing for Sea Kayaker and how he and Doug Alderson figure there is more money in magazines then books. Still Steve and I decided we'd write a book about pubs you can paddle to. We'll do the research but we're looking for a temperance man to do the writing. Back on the water we anticipated the turn in the current. It was suppose to turn at 1057 and I'm sure it did in Active Pass which was still some seven miles away. Unfortunately for us there's this little thing around here that old timers call - the fill. The big basins fill up first then spill into the smaller ones. The water doesn't read the charts or the tide and current tables and being lazy takes the easy course first. This means that when you expect it to be going one way as per the tables it decides to go the other. It was no real problem, we just shifted gears. It's great to paddle with folks who have more then one speed. The trip up to Helen Point and Active Pass was uneventful. But Active Pass! What a rush! We, through no planning or fore thought, managed to enter the pass just before two of the larger mainland ferries. The flood was running just over 4 knots. As we cleared the light at Helen Point the outbound ferry from Vancouver went by. Without a signal everyone raced out to the center of the pass to play on the prop wash. In such a confined area the sea was turned into a mini maelstrom. Steve estimated the waves were three to four feet. There was no discernable pattern they'd come from all directions meaning you'd be surfing one way one minute then be twisted about the next. Best of all the waves did not lose there force. I suppose it was the confined area and the rebound but it seem we played there off the light in the wash for about 20 minutes. We hung out in the pass for an hour but we never managed to find the same conditions again. Doug related how he use to paddle out to Active Pass when he was a wee lad and play in the current then catch the ferry for a free ride home. That must have been a long time ago cause he's no wee lad now. ;-) After landing back at the dock we had time for a brew at the Sweet Water, a fine pub, where John embarrassed himself by misidentifying the English waitress as being from London. Turns out she was from Underthesheetshire or some such place. Don't worry John, I thought she was from Oz. As we waited for the return ferry the crowd was entertained by a pod of Orcas swimming by right where we'd been paddling hours earlier. The Fat Bastards hardly gave them a glance as we were so engrossed in talking about kayaks and kayaking. Sometimes I think it's the 'yaking' part we like best. The above account is a true story. Some of the facts may be fiction but since there were no innocents involved none of the names were changed. Gordin Warner *************************************************************************** PaddleWise Paddling Mailing List - Any opinions or suggestions expressed here are solely those of the writer(s). You must assume the entire responsibility for reliance upon them. All postings copyright the author. Submissions: PaddleWise_at_PaddleWise.net Subscriptions: PaddleWise-request_at_PaddleWise.net Website: http://www.paddlewise.net/ ***************************************************************************
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