Return of Gullfeather

In January 2011 Stan and I took winter kayaking to a new level.  Granted others had paddled winter time but not consistently over the whole winter.  For a variety of reasons we hadn't paddled together for quite some time.  Today, we re-established the connection.  We, along with Cathy and Dean put-in at Tors Cove.

We decided to make for Great Island on our way to the resettled community of LaManche.  Cathy in foreground, so to speak, and Stan, in his kayak "Gullfeather".  It was an open water crossing to the island directly over their heads

It was cloudy and -5C with the wind chill but I believe it was colder than the weather forecast promised.  The sun tried its best to penetrate the clouds but still brightened up the sea ahead.

Arriving at Great Island.

Some recent warm weather and rain took away a lot of the snow but not the cascade of ice.

Stan!

We decided to head for the mainland shore but not before Cathy suggested we should paddle around this seastack and rocks.  Turns out it was a great idea and a first time through we had not noticed before.  A first time is always memorable.

Back on the main shoreline we poked into this deep cleft in the cliffs.

We reached the resettled community of LaManche and its signature suspension bridge of the East Coat Trail.  A quick stop to answer the call of nature and a quick snack and we were on our way back to Tors Cove.

It was cold, just sayin'!  We were chilled and our hands were cold but they soon warmed up wrapped around a bowl of hot chili or, in my case, a bowl of spicy Thai soup.  And a hot covfefe of course!  It was an awesome day with a little chop.  Thanks to Cathy, Dean and Stan.

Grey foggy day on the water

The forecast Friday was for light southerly winds and sunshine and so it was when I left home Saturday morning early.  Then it changed to fog lifting around noon.  Arriving in Tors Cove it was foggy with Fox Island barely visible from the beach.

We couldn't see the islands of the Witless Bay Ecological Reserve so it was a paddle along the shore to LaManche.

Hazen paddles past the micro hydro generating station in Tors Cove.

It looked like it might clear up as ...

... Great Island rose out of the fog and ...

... Pee Pee Island also but Great Island was began to again lose the battle with the fog.

Dean and I paddled around the rock in Bauline East where the wind picked up a little forcing me to pull on my neoprene mitts as it picked up the cold of the ocean.

Heading into LaManche Bay where the bit of swell ...

... went skywards as it hit the shoreline but it was nothing to worry us as we ...

... arrived at LaManche dominated by the magnificent suspension bridge of the East Coast Trail.

The group of eight - Brian, Cathy, Clyde, Dean, Gary, Hazen, Terry and myself stopped for lunch in LaManche.  There it became known that we had a casualty.  Hazen had slipped as he got out of his kayak and injured his shoulder.  It was clear he wasn't going to be able to paddle back himself so after we finished lunch we agreed on a towing arrangement.  More on that later.  We were lucky.  The group was large enough to share the load and what wind and swell there was was at our backs.

We all made it safely back to Tors Cove, packed up and stopped for coffee on our way home.  An eventful but good day on the water.

Island Hopping

Shane came up with the paddle plan for Sunday.  It was a trip to Tors Cove where we would check out the islands on our way to LaManche.  Here, we're looking out across the water towards the islands and ...

... here's a Google Earth overhead shot of the islands of the Witless Bay Ecological Reserve.

It was overcast when we arrived.  Leaving Tors cove we paddled past Fox Island to get to ...

... the east side and open water where a bit of swell was running.

From Fox Island we made for Ship Island and thence to Great Island, here in front of our bows.

Finishing the short crossing we arrived at Great Island, the largest of the group.

Cathy making her way to paddle between this sea stack and the island.

These islands of the Ecological Reserve are home to tens of thousands of sea birds that come in from the open ocean in the spring to nest.  The effects of the birds can be seen as Dean and Shane paddle past massive sandstone cliffs covered in guano.  As its winter, the birds weren't home but were at sea.

These thick sedimentary beds are the west limb of a south plunging syncline.  Each bed represents a change in environment where either there's a change in ocean depth or an interruption in the delivery of sediments.  Dean and I went to get a closer look entering the cave but avoiding paddling under the icicles hanging in the ceiling.

In the next cove we got into this larger cave.  The interesting feature in this cave were ripples in the sand of the sea floor that were preserved in the rocks.  In the roof rocks on the right were casts of the ripples in the overlaying bed and on the left we could see ripples right side up.  These rocks are undated from the Pre-Cambrian because they do not contain fossils but are in excess of 542 million years old.  So, we were looking at very ancient sea floor.

Further along we came to the Great Slot where the sea had eroded a bed that was made up of weaker sandstone.  Dean, Shane and I had a look but decided the swell made it too dicey to try to get through.

I've only managed to make one passage in the few times I've been here and that was in 2013 when Tobias recorded some video on a less dramatic day.

So, the three of us paddled around to look through the slot from south to north.

Having reached the south end of Great Island we turned east to make the short crossing to return to the mainland.  From there the plan was to stop at the resettled community of LaManche which is now part of the East Coast Trail dominated by ...

... this impressive suspension bridge.

Here we stopped for lunch protected from a light northeasterly breeze under clearing sunny skies.

The rest of the paddle was uneventful returning to Tors Cove where we packed up and stopped for coffee on the way home.  Cathy Gary and I were in LaManche on November 11th last year.  We've pretty much been everywhere in our area so some places take on an air of sameness.  This day's paddle, while it ended up in the same place, was different because we hopped from island to island to get here rather than handrail the shoreline as we did the last visit.

14.3 Squared

Today was Friday, Remembrance Day, 2016.  On a grey cloudy day Cathy, Gary and I arrived at Tors Cove to paddle to the abandoned community of La Manche.  It was supposed to be windy but it wasn't when we arrived so ... on with the plan.

We put in and headed south inside the islands of the Witless Bay Ecological Reserve.  The Reserve is home to 10's of thousands of sea birds but they have already departed for the winter to live on the open sea.  Here, inside the islands we were protected from the open North Atlantic and I mean open.  Open all the way west to Ireland.  But, as we paddled south we lost the protection of the islands and ...

... it got lumpy.  Lumpy and confused with waves we had to climb over and ...

... down.

All along the shore where the sea ended, it ended in foam.  There were places it went 5 - 6 meters into the air but trying to catch that and stay upright proved to be hit and miss.  Actually, miss.

The water all along was a mass of peaks but we stuck with it and soon we were at Bauline Head and the entrance to La Manche Bay.  In the middle distance loomed Cape Neddick.

While we paddled south we were padding into the waves.  As we turned west into La Manche Bay we had it on the beam with occasional waves breaking over the deck.  No big deal and when we got further into the Bay and got protection from Cape Neddick the water flattened out as we cruised into La Manche with its scenic suspension bridge of the East Coast Trail.

As we paddled into the harbour we were greeted by two people on the bridge who shouted out that there were 7 or 8 seals by the falls where La Manche River runs out.  We went to look but the seals are elusive swimming under us and out into the harbour so we ...

... took out for lunch.  There's no beach at La Manche as can be seen from ...

... old photo dating to 1966.  We pulled out onto the seaweed covered rocks just about where the white house is in the center of the photo.  Back up on the hill where the dark grey house is located we ...

...sat on the old foundation to eat lunch.

Cathy brought a bag of twigs and grass *lol* ha ha clippings. to start a fire and warm us before we got going again.  There was no wood around to add so it was a pretty modest fire but we convinced ourselves we were warmed.

As we got in our kayaks to return to Tors Cove one of the seals was hauled out on a rock (bottom center).  We weren't going to get close so we went on.

The conditions for the run back had not changed except we then had the waves to push us back.  At Tors Cove I checked the GPS.  It read 14.3 kms.  Not a long paddle because we had to stay offshore but the conditions made it seem much longer; at least squared.

Bird has flown

Wednesday 10 of us arrived at Tors Cove for a paddle out to the islands of the Witless Bay Ecological Reserve.  During the spring, summer and early fall the reserve is home to hundreds of thousands of birds.  This time of year and winter they spend their time on the open ocean.  In season though they are a sight to behold; take a short detour to see 2 minutes of video I recorded in July of 2013.

It was a sunny but cool day with temperatures near 0C.

Leaving Tors Cove we paddled outside of Fox Island, onto Ship Island before ...

... crossing to Great Island.

We went to explore this cave in a small cove at Great Island.  Yes, this was a true colour of the water caused by aeration of the water as it bounced around in the constricted cove.

Leaving the cove the water returned to its natural colour punctuated by the white surf breaking over the point.

I thought it was too rough to paddle through the slot which unfortunately the angle didn't capture.  That didn't stop Terry though.  There are two slots formed by erosion of the sedimentary rocks which at Great Island form one limb of a gigantic syncline.

Andrew, visiting the province from Massachusetts, plows through foam created by waves crashing on the island.  From here at the end of Great Island we crossed back to the mainland

We paddled into LaManche Bay handrailing until ...

... we reached the site of the former community of LaManche dominated now by a modern suspension bridge of the East Coast Trail Association.  The trail runs north - south along the coast of the Avalon Peninsula.

The foundation of an abandoned house looks out over the cove.

While the temperature hovered around 0C and the sun seemed to do a disappearing act, it wasn't uncomfortable where we had lunch tucked in a sheltered hollow.  Some boiled a kettle for hot tea.

I felt chilled as did a few others but it didn't take long to warm up as we left LaManche.

Brian, Dean, Shane and I handrailed the shore coming out of LaManche Bay reaching Long Point with the high land of Bauline Head in the distance.

On the outbound paddle we went outside of the islands on the horizon.  On the return we hugged the shore passing Bauline East, Seal Cove, St. Michaels and Burnt Cove returning to Tors Cove.

A fun day on the water for the ten of us ended with a stop at a coffee shop in Witless Bay before driving home in the dusk.

Here's the track, in hot pink on a cool day.