Escape from sickbay

Two weeks ago I came down with a nasty cold - congestion, hacking cough and a lack of energy.  Its been a long, in a way depressing, two weeks.  I still wasn't over it Sunday but I felt maybe a bit of fresh air would help.  The planned paddle was advertised to be a relaxed affair which suited me fine.  There were eight of us.

We drove the 45 minutes out of town to Conception Harbour where we put in under blue sunny skies.  The first order of business when we paddle there is to check out the sunken shipwreck but we were sidetracked.  Today, there was a diversion.  Shane borrowed Clyde's RM Nordkapp to try it out.  Its considerably narrower than what he's currently paddling so stability was an issue.  I think he enjoyed the water because he refused an assisted rescue.

With Shane back in his kayak we went to check out the sunken wreck which is a local landmark, rather seamark in this case.

Everything was going very casually as we gave Shane time to get used to the Nordkapp.  It felt a bit like a 100 yard dash for people with no sense of direction.  So far so good.  I wasn't looking for a workout and the slow pace allowed us to take in the fall colours as we slid down into Middle Arm.

We hugged the shoreline and coming out of Middle Arm we reached the light at Ballyhack Point making our way to ...

... our lunch stop at Broad Cove.  It was only early but with the clocks going back at the end of daylight saving time, our stomachs weren't informed of the time change.  So, we had lunch early having paddled only 6.5 kms.

Now, while I wasn't looking for a workout I also wanted more than a float.  I felt better than I thought I would.  I suggested a paddle up to Salmon Cove Point.  That seemed to be accepted so Gary and I made our way across Avondale to the east shore of Gasters Bay and headed north.

Light winds coming from the southwest stirred up the water just a little bit.

Near Salmon Cove Point the red slates of the lower Cambrian Period gave way to greenish grey siltstones of the much older, Proterozoic, Conception Group rocks.

The attraction of Salmon Cove Point is the slot.  On Sunday it was pretty benign compared to the last time we were there.  Then, waves roared through the slot as high as the lowest rocks on the left, about two meters.  Only Terry and I were foolish enough to give it a go then but today all eight of us did, some for the first time.

Leaving the Point we paddled broadside to the wind crossing towards the community of Kitchuses where we would finish our paddle back to Conception Harbour heading into the sun.

It felt so good to be back on the water after two weeks of tissues, cough drops and benylin.  Still not over the cold but I'm over the worst.  I have some catching up to do.