Smelling the roses

Preparations

Saturday Dean, Clyde and I were in St. Philips playing in the rain, wind and waves. Dean hasn't paddled much lately and wanted an easy paddle the next day. I suggested he pick the location and mail the group. He picked Avondale and 8 of us answered the call to paddle.

Normally we put in at the wharf in Avondale but today we put in where the Avondale River meets the sea. Here we were able to wash the salt water out of our gear at the end of the paddle.

And off we go

With all hands on the water we paddle out of Healey's Cove.

The Goat Shore

The sun was shining, the water was calm and we took our time paddling. There are days like this I thoroughly enjoy and there are days when I like to be challenged. This was a day to stop and smell the roses.

A few rocks

There aren't many rocks along the east side of Gaster's Bay and where they are found they naturally have to be negotiated.

It was a relaxing paddle

Neville relaxes in Salmon Cove as we all did. It was needed after witnessing Gary's spectacular side surf, knock over and recovery roll. None of us captured a picture of it but it was one of the most awesome things I've seen yet in kayaking. Tsunami Ranger type stuff for sure.

Higher cliffs

The cliffs rose steeply from the water as we paddled northerly towards Salmon Cove Point in contrast to the coastline on the Goat Shore and at Salmon Cove.

Salmon Cove Point

As we got closer to Salmon Cove Point we could see the swells breaking. There's a slit in the rocks there that can be negotiated on a good day but not on this day.

Just hangin' around

The swell giving us such a great show at Salmon Cove Point with the water crashing and spraying into the air we just stuck around for 10 minutes marveling at the waves crashing on the point. After we had our fill of that we made our way to Ballyhack to stop for lunch.