Up to my eye balls in sea stacks

I'm not a big fan of long drives to go paddling but I had something up my sleeve to compensate.  Sunday 10 of us drove the 100 kms out of the big city to Chance Cove on the Isthmus of Avalon.  Shane and I launched from this beach with its view of the lingering fog.

The others beat the harbour master's launch fees putting in at the slipway getting away before he could catch them.

Having left the city at 8:00 and getting ready we were on our way out of the cove at 10:00.

Rounding the north point of the cove we were under the cliffs of the Bull Arm Formation consisting of andesitic and rhyolitic volcanic flows and tuffs.  I'll get the geology out of the way first because after the scenery, its the most interesting. *lol*

For two kilometers north from Chance Cove, between it and Western Head at the entrance to Rantem Cove, an incredible number of sea stacks populate the shoreline.

Dean prepares to paddle between a rock and a hard place.

Some of us have been here before but quite some time go.  Hazen thought it was time to go back to reacquaint ourselves with the place and also introduce it to people like Shane.

Looking and waiting for a chance to get through here Dean, Shane and I lined up but passed to catch the rest of the gang who had padded on.

Did I mention there are lots of sea stacks?

And, there were the remnants of sea stacks evidenced by their roots now mere rocks poking out of the sea, some of which ...

... required a watchful eye.

Timing is everything.  Here Brian goes through at the entrance to Rantem without a problem.  I prepared to follow when two large surges threatened to make me either a swimmer or a talented paddler.  I back paddled choosing not to let the sea decide before making my way through also.

The Tai Chi devotee fronts a trio of stacks.

All that's left of where the shore was at one time.  Who knows how many years ago?  How long does it take the sea to sculpt such a masterpiece?

All morning the fog tried to obscure our views blown in by the northerly wind but the sun beat it back time and again.  We decided against surprise and found this beach protected from the wind just inside Masters Head and the entrance to Bull Arm.

The sun beat down on us making the lunch stop very pleasant.

After lunch we paddled around Master Head to have a look down Bull Arm towards Great Mosquito Cove where the Hebron oil field production structure (a concrete gravity based structure supporting all the production facilities and crew quarters) was being constructed.  It lay 7 kilometers away which was too far for us to approach on the day but it will be a target destination hopefully later this summer.

We retraced our track back to Chance Cove through the same sea stacks to end the day there.  I loaded my kayak leaving on my drysuit to drive to destination #2 while the others headed for tea or coffee somewhere on the road back to the city.

Thanks to Brian, Cathy, Clyde, Dean, Derek, Hazen, Ron, Shane and Sue for sharing a most enjoyable day.

Check out Dean's pix on his blog and Shane's pix on his blog.