Sunday, May 27, 2007

Sunday, May 27

I received word from Jeff and Keirron last night (Saturday). The phone connection was not the best. I did discern something about flying sea otters, a pod of backpackers, and some Gray Whales hiking on the West Coast Trail. Then again maybe not. I did however get some particulars: Jeff said they spent the night in Carmana Bay which is ~ 15 miles north of Port Renfrew. Port Renfrew is only 55 miles north of Victoria. Their plan is to knock out as much mileage as possible today and arrive in Victoria on Monday. They seemed to have damaged the skeg of their Triton somehow. Jeff said they spent some considerable time and effort creating an outrigger to replace it. When Jeff gets back I will be sure to mention it would be good to actually learn how to paddle a tandem correctly (without a skeg) at some point before he leaves for his next adventure ;) . I was going to post a weather update but Jeff and Keirron managed to get a NOAA forecast. For those of you who do not sleep with your weather radio, they are forecasted to recieve some force 7 Nw/ W winds this afternoon. However this should ease to Nw/W force 5/4 later in the day and for tomorrow. With luck they should have some manageable following seas for at least part of today and tomorrow. One obstacle they will have to contend with is Race Rocks. Corrected slack before flood tomorrow at Race Rocks occurs at ~ 11:00. It is only 20 nm to Victoria from there. Best of luck to my skegless friends! Cheers, Dan

3 comments:

DarrenM said...

Great trip!
If I knew where they planed on camping tonight, Id bring them some cold beers and a steak bbq :)

J. Etzkorn said...

Too bad we didn't know they were camped on the beach just below us. It would have been interesting to meet them, and we could have shared our chocolate cake. We saw the drag marks of a kayak on the beach in the morning and wondered who was paddling in 25 knot westerlies.
Jerry and Janet Etzkorn
Carmanah Point Lightstation

Jeff said...

Wow Jerry, I'm sorry we missed that opportunity!

As an aside, our kayaking guidebook specifically mentioned camping along that stretch of trail. However, we learned from an outfitter in Port Renfrew that kayakers are being actively discouraged from landing on those beaches - fines and all - with the goal of discouraging heavy use.

This isn't the greatest forum for a discussion, but if folk can email me their feedback I'll compile it and roll it into my presentation. Thanks!