kayaking – Riveted

Melanie Cove | Desolation Sound | BC

Laura Domela — Thu, 22 Sep 2016 20:13:20 +0000

After our stop at Mitlenatch Island yesterday, we continued on to Melanie Cove, inside of Desolation Sound Marine Provincial Park.

There are three areas to anchor in Desolation Sound Marine Park: Prideaux Haven, Melanie Cove, and Laura Cove. There were 4 or 5 boats in Prideaux Haven, and 5 boats in Melanie Cove when we arrived last night (which seems a like a lot for end of September). We anchored in about 35 feet with plenty of room and no need to stern tie. (A stern tie is a line attached to something on shore like a tree or boulder or a nice chain like the one pictured below, that acts as a second anchor and limits the swing of your boat. It’s common practice in tighter, more popular anchorages.) Over on the opposite side of the cove there are some really nice stern tie chains attached to the rock:

After we got settled, I made us a quick dinner (gnocchi with sauteed mushrooms and the last of the truffled pesto sauce, with a spinach salad). We met Norm and Jane from a super cute blue-hulled Nordic Tug called Toot Sweet (they were stern tied on the opposite side of the cove and came by to say hi).

This morning we woke up to this view:

I suggested we have a quick coffee and then go kayaking before breakfast and while it was so calm and beautiful out, which turned out to be a very good good call!

That’s a little Ranger Tug anchored over in the shallow area of Laura Cove, in the middle of this next shot:

This is one of the most spectacular places to kayak, especially in this weather. Every time we stopped paddling it was absolutely silent, save for a few bird sounds or the burble of a nearby waterfall. We paddled over to Laura Cove and around a bunch of little islands and inlets. The tide was high, so all the green areas on the chart were easily passable by kayak. Here’s our track, starting and finishing at Airship in Melanie Cove (just over 3 miles total):

There’s a trailhead at the head of Melanie Cove that I think we’ll explore after we get some more work done. I made us a sort of huevos rancheros for brunch this morning (crunchy chipotle tostada on the bottom, black beans, grated cheese, over easy egg, homemade salsa, with a couple slices of avocado on top) and it was yum! Now we’re just working here on Airship. There’s only one other boat in the cove with us now and it’s VERY quiet. The wind is supposed to pick up this afternoon but calm again by tomorrow afternoon, and the weekend looks like a great time to make our way down the Strait of Georgia (WITHOUT the conditions we had last year for this part of our trip).

Misty Fjords | Day 2

Laura Domela — Sat, 28 May 2016 23:22:00 +0000

Airship Goes to Alaska 2016

This morning we woke up early, made some coffee, and sat out on the bow watching bears. We decided we’d take a dinghy ride further around to the end of Walker Cove before pulling the crab traps this morning. It was early and quiet and the water was glassy still. (So nice to have the electric Torqeedo for these kinds of quiet expeditions, instead of the loud gasoline outboard!)

There are a couple of decent spots to anchor further into the cove, and I think we may try one of them next time. Bears on the beach, waterfalls and snow-capped mountains around you…it’s like a different world in here.

Little (not really) bear ears:

Kevin dropped me at the boat (after a two-hour cruise) and I started breakfast while he checked the traps. Two more Dungeness. We’re going to stay in here another night, so he reset the traps (with a little more raw bacon…it’s our secret crab-getting bait).

Here we are, from the dinghy:

After breakfast Kevin took the drone up and I shot some photos of our anchorage:

There are four bears in this picture:

The sun came out for a bit and we decided to get the kayak out and go for a paddle. First, we headed over to the river (there are two bears in this photo):

And then, we saw more bears. The sow and her one cub were eating grass on the shore, so we stopped to watch them for a bit:

Kayak. Grizzly bears.

Back to Airship:

Dinner tonight was crab enchiladas. Yes, again. Hush.

Kayaking Echo Bay

Laura Domela — Sat, 25 Apr 2015 17:06:44 +0000

This morning we left Fossil Bay and headed around the corner to Echo Bay for a change of scenery. We grabbed a mooring ball, made brunch, and then inflated our new Sea Eagle kayak for a test paddle. It's fantastic! We paddled 2.5 miles around the bay:

I love getting up close to these alien landscapes out here:

It's so nice to have a kayak again! This one inflates and deflates really fast, and we were 25 minutes from unhooking it from the top deck to fully inflated, outfitted, and in the water ready to go. Not bad for our first time with it. (And that's with the manual foot pump…just wait 'til we get the electric pump out here!)

And brunch was delicious! A bed of wilted spinach, then fresh crab meat, two poached eggs, topped with hollandaise sauce (awwww, no chives), served with a side of leftover roasted potatoes from last night's dinner, and some greek yogurt with blueberries and raspberries. Super yum, and good fuel for the paddle.

It's still pretty choppy in here, so we might head around to the back side of the island to Shallow Bay, and then get in a nice afternoon hike.

We Kayaked with Manatees

Laura Domela — Tue, 16 Oct 2012 19:36:59 +0000

This morning over at Curry Hammock State Park we got up early so we could rent a tandem kayak for a couple hours before we headed out (and before our West Coast office was awake).

We paddled out to the sandbar (about 1/4 mile from shore):

And around Little Crawl Key and through the mangrove tunnel:

..and then out and around Deer Key. We saw some spotted eagle rays (very cool…couldn't get a proper photo but here's the one from Wikipedia:

So then, we headed back over toward where we'd first seen the stingrays, and came upon about a dozen manatees hanging out near where we first put our kayaks in. We paddled around with them for about an hour and it was AMAZING. They'd come up for a breath every minute or two, and the water was really only about 4-5 feet deep so we could see them very well the whole time. They're so cool and gentle and we imagined them down there going "Hey! OMG! There's one of those yellow things, and it's just RIGHT there next to us! How cool!!!" because that's what we kept saying about them.

Here are some of the many photos I took with my iPhone:

This one's my favorite. Look at that sweet face!

This is a nice shot of this guys' huge paddle-like tail:

It was one of the coolest things ever. They were probably around 8-9 feet long and who knows how big around (big!!)

Here's a little iPhone video, too:

Odell Lake, OR

Laura Domela — Sat, 29 May 2010 18:13:36 +0000

This is the view from our campsite at Princess Creek. We took our kayak out fishing for a while but didn't catch anything (yet).