Black water, black rocks, white ice

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Nothing says winter paddling more than ice, either on the sea surface or hanging onto cliff faces, and black water. Stan and Gerard were in Cape Broyle last Saturday and there was ice everywhere. I wanted to check it out for myself. This week Clyde, Gerard and I were in Cape Broyle.

A torrent

Sunday past it rained hard, 70+ mm of rain. Then once more during the week we had another 50 mm and it has been warm. I hoped against hope that there would be ice. The first stop at the falls didn't look good. What was frozen solid a week ago was now a raging torrent of water.

Between a rock and a hard place

Leaving the falls we crossed over to the south side where the cliffs are protected from sunshine. As we made our way along the shore the swell built piling up as it reached shallower water.

White ice

Ah ha, there was some ice left hanging on the north facing cliffs but it wasn't much.

Froth

The water turned to froth where it washed up against the cliffs. Gerard and Clyde paddled through the airy fluff going to check out this cave.

A roof over our heads

Clyde leads the way out of the cave. Caves are interesting places with the sounds of water sloshing around, paddle mates hooting and howling and then the odd bang of the kayak against the rocks.

Pass the shampoo

The 120+ mm of rain this past week has to go somewhere. The height of this waterfall and the volume of water fell hard on the head.

Remnant ice

Here, there was also some ice left on the cliffs but had we been here a week ago, what was flowing water today would have been hard frozen ice.

Made it!

We paddled out of Cape Broyle Harbour out into the wide open Atlantic far enough to be able to see up and down the whole coast. It was pretty calm today, just a long open swell.

So, I have to say it was a disappointment having missed the masses of ice that were here a week ago. Nevertheless, there was still lots to see and enjoy. Best of all, being able to share it with a couple of friends.