Esquimalt Shores

It might very well be summer's last gasp, but you wouldn't know it from the sunny weather this week. Today's daytime high temperature was a smidge off the record, but we'll get another crack at it tomorrow. Then we'll cool off to more normal temperature readings over the weekend. That figures.
Louise and I are also enjoying our last gasp of vacation time and today we headed out from Albert Head, one of our favourite launch points. Usually we head southwest along the coast towards to Witty's Lagoon, but today we decided to head northeast towards Esquimalt Harbour.


But before we headed that way, we watched an otter family playing in the water.

The otters finally noticed us and swam away. It was only then that we realized that one of the otters was actually a small baby seal. It nervously checked out Louise's boat before sliding beneath the surface and swimming away.

A couple of seals watched us from shore.


We discovered what the otters were fishing for. No, not the jellyfish, although that was pretty cool, but the little fish. The little cove was swarming with them. No wonder the otters were out!


The otters climbed the rocks headed into the brush. We think there were five of them in all.


From there, we began our paddle towards Esquimalt in earnest. Mind you, we had to paddle past a few seals first.



The shoreline is mostly a long pebbly beach. Eventually the shoreline behind the beach gives way to Esquimalt Lagoon, and across the lagoon is world-famous Hatley Castle, which you may recognize as Professor Xavier's School for Gifted Youngsters in the X-Men films.


At the Fort Rodd Hill lighthouse, we were planning to turn into Esquimalt Harbour....

...but as I looked across the entrance, I realized that we have never paddled along the Esquimalt shore on the other side. So instead, we crossed the harbour mouth...

...and puttered around some of the small islands on the other side. The water was crystal clear and we watched a seal swim around under our boats.

We get to check another couple of kilometers of the world's slowest circumnavigation of Vancouver Island.

As we headed back....

...the currents turned right on time. The gentle flood that pushed us out became a gentle ebb that guided us home with some gentle swells that we had fun riding, which was a welcome distraction from the man who was sitting on a log in a secluded area of the beach working on his tan. His "all over" tan.

We pulled in back at Albert Head and looked back and saw Mount Baker rising over the city. Wow.


Trip Length: 13.65
YTD: 139.75 km
More pictures are here.

Secrets Revealed

On this second day of the long Victoria Day weekend, Louise, Paula and I made our way to our put in at Esquimalt Lagoon. From there, we were going to paddle into Esquimalt Harbour. Louise and I were in our Deltas, while Paula was going commando in her Advanced Elements Expedition. Actually, we don't know for sure that Paula was going commando -- the subject of underwear (or lack thereof) never came up.


What did come up were a lot of two-foot swells as we made our way around the point and into the harbour. It was a gloriously sunny day with little wind, but an ebbing tide, and the swells made for a fun start to the paddle.


As we made our way into the harbour, the swells flattened out. (Please ignore the super-secret navy stuff in the background. We didn't see it and neither do you.)


Unfortunately, the swells caused some upset stomachs, so we pulled in a small cove for a few minutes in the hopes that the settled water would settle stomachs.



We didn't see much in the way of wildlife today. We once saw a large deer swimming here, but today only a pair of seals were in the water.


We noodled around the rocks for a little while...

...then headed back and hit the swells again. This time, they were a little flatter and not as enthusiastic. (Again, please ignore all the secret stuff in the background.)


We paddled past the Fisgard Lighthouse at Fort Rodd Hill.




After having a little more fun in the swells, we put in, and hauled our gear back to the van. But as I opened the back door, a surprise awaited me -- a PFD was still in the van. My jaw dropped, and I said to Louise, "Who's PFD is that?"
"It's mine," she answered. "I was about to put it on when we were getting ready, but Paula needed some help for a moment and I forgot about it. I didn't even realize that I had forgotten it until we were heading back. Something felt wrong the whole trip, and it was just a few minutes ago that I finally realized what it was."
I was surprised that I hadn't noticed. We briefed Paula as she came up, and then she said, "Let me tell you a secret. You know the time we were here and saw the swimming deer? Check the pictures. I forgot my PFD that day, too."
Maybe this will get us a little more serious about checklists. Louise is always mentioning that she's forgotten something, although never anything vital until today.

Thankfully, all's well that ends well.

My pictures are here.
Trip length: 6.49 km
YTD: 74.00 km

Harbour Patrol

Today, Louise, Paula and I headed out to Esquimalt Lagoon to paddle under a glorious sunny summer sky. Our plan was to paddle around the Fort Rodd Hill lighthouse and into Esquimalt Harbour. There was an offshore breeze that was kicking up a little chop and a flood tide was running, so the Harbour water wasn't as calm as one might expect, but nothing we couldn't handle. Paula was in her inflatable Firefly....


...while Louise headed out to sea in her Delta.


We rounded the lighthouse and into the harbour.


We played in the rocks a bit...


...but Louise was trying to find a beach that she used to walk to. She found it right beside the site of the old Victoria Plywood mill. My dad worked here for 25 years, but now it's a subdivision and shopping mall. This is all that's left -- the steel rails where they brought in logs out of the log boom.


Rental space is at such a premium in Victoria that people are now living in floating barrels.


We puttered around the harbour and then headed back out towards the ocean. This navy boat drew alongside us to remind us that we should stay 100m away from naval facilities on the shoreline.


He came up between us and the shore, and as he pulled away he kicked up a wake. We had to turn towards shore to ride it out. (Please ignore the secret military facilities on the shore in this photo. You did not see them. Neither did we. We were never there.)


As we headed back, the Olympic Mountains made a great backdrop for the lighthouse.


We entered into the Lagoon....


...which turned out to be Heron heaven! I took about 50 pictures of them.





Here's a situation they don't teach you in kayak courses.... how to avoid a dog.



Trip Length: 8.4 km
More of John's photos are here.

13 January 2008--Esquimalt Harbour

(crossposted from Notes From a Year on the Water)

Pulled into the parking area just after 9:00 am this morning, got out and the van with a kayak on the roof that had been parked just down the beach was pulling in next to us within moments; Richard had joined us!
Before we'd even got the hellos and initial picture taking out of the way, Alison pulled in, having successfully navigated her way to the lagoon. With a bit of help, Richard got his new (to him) kayak off the roof and onto the beach, and we geared up and got on the water.The day was a bit dull, but no wind or rain, so for January it was pretty much perfect.
We headed out the race, around the point and into the harbour. About halfway down the harbour the sky darkened and it rained briefly, but then stopped and slowly brightened up. In fact, the morning just kept improving , getting brighter and warmer without any real wind at all right up until we left the beach at about 12:30.
It was an enjoyable slow paddle, exiting the harbour and heading up the brackish estuary under the bridge and next to the 6 Mile Pub.
The water shallowed considerably in the estuary, and then deepened again once we got into the river proper.We were only able to paddle about a kilometre up the river until we were stopped by a waterfall.
We floated about for a bit, took some pictures, and had some hot chocolate--well, I had to test my thermos bottle somehow, didn't I? Then it was back down the river to the harbour.
But with the tide going out, the water level in the estuary was dropping, and Paula and Alison ran up on a sandbar. Rather than muck about too much, Paula simply got out of her boat and pulled the two of them across the bar and back to less-shallow water. causing Paula to have to re-enter her boat with chilly feet....

then it was an uneventful paddle back to the launch site. The swells were breaking on the sandbar at the mouth of the now rapidly outflowing tidal race at the lagoon, so once we had all crossed the bar in the midst of the small breakers, it was time to turn around and do it again! And again! (Repeat as necessary...). At one point I met an incoming swell exactly on the shallowest part of the bar and the resultant breaker swept over the front of my boat and broke across my chest and face. Yee-Hah!s and WooHoo!s were heard from all concerned.
Such an enjoyable day.

So this makes three out of thirteen days that I've spent at least part of the day paddling. Not the ratio I'm shooting for, but not a bad start, eh?
Then off to Tim's for lunch and more chat.

Like Water Off a Buck's Back

A cloudy but mild (for late October) morning greets us on the shore of Esquimalt Lagoon.


It's just Louise, Paula and myself. We're not planning to paddle the lagoon today, but we're launching from here to explore a spot that we've never paddled before, Esquimalt Harbour. We had the choice of launching in the lagoon and heading out of it, or just launching directly into the ocean. We decided on the ocean launch because there was a bit of a current coming into the lagoon, and why should we fight against it? On our return, we thought we might ride the current in.


But that's later. First we head out into the morning sun, er, cloud.


We noticed that there were some sandbars offshore creating some breaking waves. Nothing too big, but we thought we'd head out around them to be safe.


To get into the Harbour, first we had to swing around the historic Fort Rodd Hill lighthouse. It's part of a base built in the late 19th century to defend Victoria and is now a national historic site.


What's that on the rocks? Could that be...?


Yes, it is. Ol' eagle-eyes has done gone and spotted hisself an eagle.



Now we're in the Harbour proper. In the background is Canadian Forces Base Esquimalt, one of the large naval bases here on the south end of Vancouver Island. There's also the Esquimalt shipyards here, and yes, that is a BC Ferry that's getting some repair work done on it. There's also some naval facilities on the other side of the harbour so we are in fact paddling between two naval bases. I took a lot of pictures today; I wonder how many were taken of us.


Anyway, we continued on. After we passed the base, we crossed over to the right side. Louise was looking for a park she sometimes walked in along here....


...but Paula suddenly saw something and pointed. "What's that swimming in the water?" she called.


We looked over and there was something swimming. Our first thought, of course, was that it was a duck or a seagull, but it was moving too fast. Our brains were trying were trying to match shapes we were familiar with to this totally unfamiliar shape. Dog? Cat? Ocelot? Hippopotamus? Finally, it became a recognizable shape. "Deer!" I shouted.





It was a deer, alright. A big buck with a big rack.
If you've ever wanted to see a big buck shake himself dry after a swim, here's your chance.


I'm no good for estimating the size of this guy, but he was big. And fast. If we had been racing in the water, him swimming and me in my kayak, I'd be hard-pressed to think that I might win.
Just when you start thinking that this kayaking business is getting ho-hum...oh yeah, more seals and eagles...like, I'm so booored of that scene....nature gives you another gift.


We carried on and found these old buildings on an island at the end of the harbour.


At first glance I thought that they might be old boat houses, but clearly they're not. But they have some sort of cranes in the top, presumably some sort of loading equipment.
[Addendum: Long-time reader Scott The Hoople believes that these building may be old munitions warehouses.]


We turned around at the top of the island and found some geese. They didn't seem at all frightened of us. As you can see, Paula paddled right by them. In fact, a lot of the waterfowl were pretty fearless today. Earlier, a seagull had come down and landed right beside me. He swam along with us for a while before he got bored and left. Later, as we neared the end of the paddle, a small bird like a kingfisher suddenly popped up out of the water right in front of Paula's pink kayak. He dove right away, otherwise Paula might have run it over. We both started laughing, although Paula was apologizing to it even though it was long gone. I was thinking that the bird would have quite a story to tell when it got home.
"Hey man! I almost got swallowed by a pink whale today!" it would say.
"What are you talking about?" its mother would say. "There's no such thing as a pink whale!"
"But I saw it! I did!"
"There's no such thing as a pink whale! You young birds and your crazy stories! You wait until your father gets home with some salmon fins! He'll spank you so hard that you'll wish you were back in the egg!!"
But I digress. Back to the geese.


They let me get close, too.



We found another old building on the island.


We headed back. We approached the lighthouse again as we headed to the open sea.


But once again, Paula spotted something on the causeway...


....another deer.


We swung around the lighthouse and Paula decided to run the current into the lagoon. She headed for the sandbars where the waves were breaking. She caught one, surfed it for a bit, then followed the current into the lagoon.


Louise and I watched her go. Louise was ahead of me and I called out and asked her if she was going to do the same thing. "I'm not sure," she shouted back. I saw that she was drifting into the area where the sandbars were. "Make up your mind quickly," I shouted back, "or the waves will make it for you." And no sooner had I finished than a wave came up and broke behind her, carrying her towards the shore.


She was heading in whether she wanted to or not!


But all's well that ends well. And we put into the beach after another fine paddle.


John's photos are here.