Tag Archives: canoe

Leap Day Weekend

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Wind: yesterday 12-35 knots from W, today 2-28 knots from N to S to W
Sea State: yesterday rough with chop up to 1 m, today calm until turning rough in evening
Visibility: both days 10-15 NM
Sky: yesterday partly cloudy, today clear turning overcast in late afternoon
Temperature: yesterday 6-7 °C, today 4-7 °C
Atmospheric CO2: 414.12 ppm (recorded by NOAA at Mauna Loa Observatory, Hawaii)

Routine tasks were done over the weekend: making water with the desalinator, tidying the Tank Shed, refuelling the generator and writing the month end report.

The elephant seals rested on land for most of the weekend. The youngest female pup joined the oldest male pup on the boardwalk by the jetty.

There was more than the usual amount of self-propelled activity in the ecological reserve today. This morning, a group of five people spent two hours snorkelling at various spots around the main island. One person spotted in the small inflatable boat, while the other four snorkelled in pairs. This afternoon, two big canoes with 12 people each paddled by. They might have paddled around the island, but I only noticed them passing north through Middle Channel.

No boats were around yesterday, due to the rough seas. Today, other than the boats mentioned above, there were four tour boats and one pleasure boat.

Beautiful weather

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Weather

  • Visibility: 15 Miles
  • Wind: 0-15 NE
  • Sky: Clear
  • Water: Flat

Boats/Visitors

  • quite a few boats the last couple days, from canoes to sailboats and some people from the college

Maintenance

  • There has been so much solar, I don’t need to run the generator very much, so thats been really nice

Ecological

  • There was a pretty young sea lion pup on the rock by the crane today
  • the pups have not gone in the water today but they are wandering around quite a bit, so they will probably be splashing around soon, I think the female pup might have put her flipper in for a moment but I’m not sure
  • One of the mothers came back very briefly, the tagged female, pink tag T562, who gave birth to the female pup on Jan 4th was here for maybe a couple hours then she went back into the water

Visitors, injured seal, and canoes

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Weather

  • Visibility: 15 miles
  • Wind: 15-20 knts W
  • Sky: Partly cloudy
  • Water: Ripply

Boats/Visitors/Sightings

  • Kyle visited the island today and brought Nick along, who is a former Ecoguardian and currently works as a facilitator for Pearson’s PSYL program. They brought my my food supplies and Kyle gave Nick a tour on some of the newer systems here.
  • Lots of whale watching boats in the area today
  • Saw a bunch of canoes paddle past the island, headed south. I believe they originated from Beecher Bay. Photograph below.

Marine mammals

  • Noticing a slow rise in the steller sea lion population on the northern rocks. There’s at least one really massive sea lion. I’ll get an accurate count later this weekend.
  • The injured seal that showed up a few days ago with predator marks and molting fur, returned to the island today and seemed to be more injured. I think it is a female. I’ll keep an eye on it.
  • Possible humpbacks far south of the island – too far to see the whales, but there was a gathering of whale watching boats in the spot where the humpbacks like to hang out.

Boat Mania

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Weather

  • Visibility: 15 miles (except foggy towards Victoria in the A.M.)
  • Wind: 0-10 knots South
  • Water: rippled
  • Sky: sunny

Golden Sunset

Ecological

Cormorants and Sea Lions

Maintenance

  • Cleaned the solar panels.
  • Provided two canoeists with duct tape to help repair their broken paddle.

Boats

  • As befits a very lovely Saturday, there were numerous boats in or near the reserve all day.
  • A diving boat was out at Middle Rock and it seemed as though they sent down some divers.
  • Two sailboats passed through the SW corner of the reserve.
  • One fishing boat passed through Middle Channel.
  • The very large catamaran eco-tour was back.
  • A couple of young lads in a canoe came up the ramp. I sent them on their way, but not before a rest and some help with their broken paddle.

Visitors

  • The aforementioned canoeists were on shore near the ramp for a little while as they rested and fixed their paddle.

Canoeists

Earle Claxton Reflects on Early Transportation

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At Race Rocks we have an old dugout canoe which provides the focus on the way of life experienced by the First Nations people who lived in the Coastal Areas of the Pacific North West. In this video the late Earle Claxton reflects on the different boats used by his people in the early days.

canoe jimneleboat jimboat joaoboat
The first nations canoe found on Taylor Beach now displayed at Race Rocks . Pearson College students Jim and Nele talking about the canoe with visiting elementary school students. Jim Palardy discusses First Nations history in the area with a group of students from a grade 7 class. Joao and visiting students examining some of the First Nations food items.