Sunday last, the weather forecasters were calling for the second significant storm of the season to hit Victoria BC on Wednesday. By Monday morning my paddling buddies were asking me where we'd go paddling on Wednesday. The marine forecast for Wednesday included a small craft warning, with predicted winds climbing from 15 to 25 knots out of the southeast. This would be coming against an ebb current in Baynes Channel that would reach it's maximum of 2.5 knots at 1305. Baynes and Mayor Channel separate the Chatham and Discovery Island group, to the east, from the lower tip of Vancouver Island and the city of Victoria . The islands are jewel like and the waters a pristine aquamarine that on warm calm days easily compare to south Pacific island lagoons - except for the water temperature. Most of Chatham, part of Discovery, and the smaller islands and islets that make up the group is an Indian Reserve. The remaining part of Discovery is a marine park that fortunately does not have great anchorage. These are two of the reasons this area, even though it is so close to Victoria, has remained to a very large extent unspoiled. The other reason is the choke point of Baynes Channel to the northwest and Mayor Channel to the southwest. A narrow gap only 1.4 kilometers wide is formed by Ten Mile Point on Vancouver Island and the aptly named Strongtide Island adjacent to Chatham. These channels are the direct and shortest link between the very large Juan De Fuca Strait and Haro Strait. Imagine what happens when the water in Juan De Fuca Strait on the flood, or Haro Strait on the ebb, tries to push through a channel that narrows to less then 1.4 kilometers wide. Compounding the strong currents in this area are the head lands that jut out into the channels, the shallows, and the numerous small islets that make up the Chain Islets at the south end of the channel. On the chart for this area there are over a dozen of those little wavy lines that denote overfalls, tide rips, and clapotis in this area. Add in fickle weather and wind patterns and you have a natural barrier between the islands and Victoria. This barrier is so formidable that local outfitters and guides will not guide beginners across the channels to the islands. One outfitter ferries paddlers across on a specially designed kayak transporter. Once in the safety of the lagoons the clients climb into their kayaks for a couple of hours then it's back to the transporter for the return trip to Victoria. I told my friends, John and Mike, that we'd paddle across Baynes to Chatham and Discovery on Wednesday from the end of Ten Mile Point. If this was impossible we'd paddle into sheltered Cadboro Bay and slink along the shore. But that they should come anticipating some vigorous paddling. On Wednesday morning at 8 AM from the top of Mt. Tolmie, 124 meters above sea level, I could see Mt. Baker over 160 kilometers to the east and the mountains to the north of Vancouver far to the North. My heart began to sink. All this visibility meant the predicted storm had not arrived. At Smugglers Cove, the launch point, the wind was barely noticeable and still out of the northeast. Just off the headland a tide rip had formed. The chop might have reached one foot in height - barely a flicker on the adrenalin scale. We decided to punch through it and made for Strongtide. It took 14 minutes to make the crossing. The only significant thing that happened on the crossing was a shift in the wind. I felt the wind change on my face. I looked down at my compass and sure enough the wind was now coming out of the southeast. That's a storm wind around here. I took a careful look at the sky. Then I asked the guys which way they thought the water would be flowing through a narrow gap connecting one lagoon with another. The gap runs SW to NE and just about everyone guess's the wrong direction of the water flow here. The trick is to forget about the ebb and flow and to think of the water flowing from a large basin into a small one. John guessed wrong it was against us but not strong. We slipped through the gap with the idea of turning north and skirting along Chatham back to the top of Baynes Channel. But the current pushed us south and we went with it deciding instead to circumnavigate Chatham. Once out of the lee of Chatham we could feel the force of the oncoming wind and storm. It's a long fetch between Discovery Island and the next landfall to the southeast and the wind was taking full advantage. Three and four foot waves where being pushed back against the ebbing current. We clawed our way out and around Chatham to the northeast end of the island. To the north of us the buoy at Fulford reef was being knocked about by the wind and waves. Riding a rush of adrenalin we made our turn and surfed the waves back into the protected basin between Chatham and Strongtide. Slipping south between the islands we decided it would be prudent to have lunch on the other side of Baynes Channel. I lead the way back through the gap we'd travelled through only 45 minutes earlier. There were whitecaps in the basin. I hadn't seen that before. Chatham performed one more favour for us by acting as a perfect wind break. We were two thirds of the way back before the wind became a factor. With the winds on our back we surfed into the mouth of Cadboro Bay and rounded the end of Flower Island - also know as Tobacco by a famous local kayaker who has perfected the flop cock rolling technique. We landed on a nice lee beach for lunch. We were less then 2 hours out on the water and only had about a kilometer to go back to the put in. Sitting with a small bank of rocks and trees sheltering us from the wind we pulled out the Thermoss' and stoves and wolfed down some hot food. When we were ready to leave we hike the 20 meters out to the exposed point to have a look. "Mary Mother of Jesus!" Directly to the east the sky was dark and overcast but to the south sunlight was breaking through and back lighting everything between us and the Chatham Island. Mostly what lay between us consisted of hills of water spilling over unseen obstacles in the shallows. It was elemental. It was beautiful. It also lay between us and our take out point around the end of Ten Mile Point. At the end of the Point waves of water were smashing into the light on the reef. Short of the head land we'd have to make a choice; try and round the reef and light, or sneak through a small channel that splits the end of the headland. From our island we could stay inshore and miss the worst of it until we reached the headland. But I felt drawn to those breaking waves. I worked my way out into the waves. Up onto the crest, hang, then down into the trough. I measure waves like this. If it breaks over your bow it's eight to 12 inches high. If your partners head disappears in a trough or behind the next crest; the waves are two to maybe three feet high. Mike who was inside of me closer to shore slipped a wave dropped down and I counted, one one thousand, two one thousand, three one thousand," and his boat popped back into view. How high that is I don't know but it seemed an eternity. Each of us chose our paths back toward the head land yet as we neared the light we converged. Shouting to Mike I asked him if he thought he could make it out and around the light or if he needed more sea room. The water here was definitely steeping up. Mike didn't know about the cut off route and was game to take on the rip off the reef. I turned to John, who at over 60 knows when he's had enough, and he said so. Instead of explaining to Mike our escape route I shouted at him to follow John. With the waves breaking all around us we turned our boats 180 degrees so the wind and waves were directly aft. John started his surf ride between two reefs. I had only a second to tell Mike (who treats his Nordkapp like a lover always protecting it from the slightest scratch) about the unseen rocks between the reefs - I decided to say nothing as a wave picked me up and started to hurl me forward into John who for some reason had decided to turn directly in front of me. He was desperately trying to miss one of those before mentioned rocks. I applied a stern rudder with my paddle blade and surfed on coming right up beside John who had deftly maneuvered his boat around the rocks and back through the gap. Mike followed us through the reef and then on past the end of the head land but instead of turning into Smugglers Cove we turned back into the waves and went out to see what would have awaited us on the other side of the light. Looking from the light and waves I said to John, "Nice call back there." Just then Mike paddled over and looked at John and myself and said, "Good call back there." On this side of the headland the waves had almost doubled in size. Still we ventured out, maybe 200 meters turned around and surfed back to the beach. We'd travelled less then 10 nautical miles, flirted with a perfect oncoming storm, had a lot of fun and made sound decision based on our knowledge and interpretations of the weather and water. It was a great day. Today the power was out to some of the traffic lights in the city and folks where hydro planing their cars off the roads. Crazy or what! 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/ ***************************************************************************
Crazy, Gordin :-) I know y'all can handle it though :-) My first paddle in my new boat with a paddling newbie friend was through that very spot several years ago, in a building storm. Definitely crazy, and very stupid on my part as well, given our lack of skill at the time. I count myself lucky to be here as it was a huge challenge to get out of the middle of what you described. We headed for Jemmy Jones island and finally after a protracted struggle found some lee there. That's when I started to cry ;-) It's a very interesting area. Glad you had fun with it :-) Diane >On the chart for this area there are over a dozen of those little wavy lines that denote overfalls, tide rips, and clapotis in this area. Add in fickle weather and wind patterns and you have a natural barrier between the islands and Victoria. (snip) Today the power was out to some of the traffic lights in the city and folks where hydro planing their cars off the roads. Crazy or what! 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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