Some interesting goings on around here for your consideration: The drug runners are at it again, this time avoiding the use of kayaks, and instead stealing Zodiacs for running BC Bud to the USA. Only in this latest twist last week, the thieves stole a small boat from a dock facing the San Juans here in Victoria (near where the kayaking drug-runner bailed-out a number of months ago). A kayaker's wife saw the thieves brazenly steal the their boat, whereupon the owner, her husband, raced down to his dock and jumped into his kayak in hot pursuit. The Zodiac had some problems going fast (had another boat in tow I believe), so he was able to keep up pretty good. As my RCMP friend said, the guy suddenly realized a mile out that he "didn't have a very good plan" chasing possibly hardened criminals in a kayak. He was able to flag down a passing fish boat, which took him aboard after some convincing on the part of the kayaker (yeah, right man, like you are chasing thieves in THAT). The fishboat estimated the Zodiac was hiding behind Trial Island eventually, and radioed the RCMP patrol boat who after a short chase apprehended the criminals. The kayaker got his Zodiac back. The wife got her husband back. Luna, the lonely killer whale of Gold River/Nootka Sound fame has been constantly on the news. Authorities were set to net-capture the young male Orca a few weeks ago but the First Nation peoples in the area lured him away in their dugout canoes each time. Luna had a close encounter with a float plan, and more recently broke another rudder on a sail boat while toying with it. Authorities want to reunite him with his family (just as they did with the successful reuniting of Springer), whereas the local indigenous peoples believe the spirit of a departed chief now resides in Luna (like, what happened to the vacating Luna's spirit?). They want Luna to stay (if Luna wants to) and/or if he must be reunited, they want to have the Killer Whale follow them down the coast in their open canoes. Authorities feel this would be too "dangerous" - an ironic wording when one considers the original inhabitants use of these open-ocean dugouts in the area. For now, boaters are advised to continue to exhibit caution if Luna is in the area, So far, one kayaker has been pushed around briefly, but nothing severe. While on the killer whale side of things, I have it from some very reliable sources (surfer dudes) that bull (possibly a non-resident rogue) pulled a puppy off Gordon's Beach, sort of like the way they take penguins off the beach in Patagonia. The puppy was in a few feet of water). In another incident, a skiff operator reported being pushed aggressively around in deeper waters in the same area by a large male Orca. And finally, a well known surfer a Zinn's Beach north of Sooke was solo surfing down a glassy swell when he saw a black fin racing toward him. A huge mouth appeared out of the face of the breaking wave, but instantly aborted the attack when the bull realized the prey was human. My brother-in-law, a surfer himself, spoke with a couple of French-Canadian hikers who spoke with the surfer just after the incident. It was reported that the surfer had a bad psychological bit that may have left a few scars. This is not posted as humour, though it appears the above came out that way. Doug Lloyd Victoria BC *************************************************************************** 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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