Today we three, Dean, Gerard and myself, met in Bay Bulls and drove to Tors Cove. As we climbed the road on the south side we were looking down on the water that was frozen well out into the bay. I had my doubts if Tors Cove would have open water. We were surprised we were able to put in but there was a thin skim of ice. We figured we were there so may as well give it a go.
On the east side of Fox Island the water was open. It was cold but sunny and the wind and water were absolutely still.
It was glorious paddling as we made our way out to Great Island. As we approached ...
... we found our approach blocked by ice. We gave it a good go but the closer we got the thicker the ice became. We gave up on our objective and ...
... pulled ourselves through the slobby ice back towards shore where we could see open water ...
... which reluctantly let us pass. My GoPro developed miniature icicles!
We did get into more open water and explored along shore.
We made good use of the open water but were stopped again at Bauline East. Our paddle south stopped we turned north towards ...
... Ship Island occasionally driving ourselves over floating sheets of ice on our way towards ...
... a takeout on Ship Island for a snack and to answer the call of nature. We had paddled up to that point approximately 10 kms, a paltry distance. We discussed our options and decided to follow the open water where we could around the islands on our way back to Tors Cove.
Coming around the south end of Fox Island. We went completely around before ...
... ending our day back on the beach. The forecasted east wind had blown the slobby ice into the cove.
It seemed like we didn't go anywhere but we did clock almost 16 kms. About half of that we figured we should get credit for double, at least in terms of effort.
Spring is a week away but its arrival today looked like its still a long way over the horizon. Meh, we'll paddle anyway next weekend if at all possible.
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