Aquaforte club paddle

The last Paddle Newfoundland and Labrador club paddle happens near the end of September every year.  For he last two years its followed by a barbecue.

Seventeen of us met at 10:00 on Saturday morning, September 26, at Aquaforte.  We were surprised by work in progress on the harbour facilities.  At first there was some confusion but eventually the kayaks were placed at the water's edge.

Once the group was on the water the plan was laid out and we ...

... paddled east out the harbour on the south side.  The vanishing point at the entrance of the harbour lay almost 6 kms away.

The group passes by a small sea stack topped by a few scraggly looking trees.

Nearing the entrance to Aquaforte harbour Spurwink Island takes form.

Near South Head at the entrance of the harbour Hazen asked how far around the headland Spurwink Arch was.  I said it wasn't far, in fact, just around the corner.  So, we passed Spurwink Island and paddle around the head to ...

... check out the sea arch.  Outside of the harbour the scenery got more impressive.  After having a look at the arch we ...

... paddled through a passage that opened up big enough to accommodate everyone for ...

... a group photo.

The south side of the harbour was frequently shrouded in shadow where the cliffs were high enough to block the sun.  So, we crossed over to the north side where we would find a beach in sunlight ...

 to stop for lunch in Broom Cove.

Back on the water refreshed we stopped not far from our lunch beach to check out the falls where the Spout River ends its journey spilling into the sea.  At high tide we can paddle right up to the falls.  However, as it was low tide there wasn't enough water to float the kayaks.  But that didn't stop some of us from trying to fight the flow of water and wet our decks in the spray.

Paddling back into the harbour on the north side we concluded the day to see if we could get up Aquaforte River.  Again, low water thwarted our effort before returning to the put-in to end the paddle.

I passed on the barbecue as I had other plans.  I didn't even have time to stop for a coffee but rest of the gang went before returning home.

It was the last club paddle for the year but some of us will continue to paddle, not even winter will stop us.  Which, judging by the mornings temperature at 4C didn't feel a long way off.