Theory of movement

Stan moving along the red rocks of Bay Bulls

Well, I'm moving too! I've decided to move this weblog to a new weblog and blog only about kayaking. That's what this is all about anyway so I might as well call it what it is.

I've moved all my posts over there and I'll continue from there. The new link is www.mynewfoundlandkayakexperience.blobspot.com

I hope you'll visit me there and update your links etc.

Tony :-)

Theory of codes

Kayakers to the rescue. Looks like the fisher- man is helping us but looks are deceiving in this case.

There are codes for everything. Building codes, code of ethics for professionals and, aptly today a code for conduct at sea. As we paddled out of Bay Bulls this morning we came upon two fishermen whose boat was disabled by rope around the propeller. We stopped to ask if we could help but they only asked us to ask a zodiac, out by the berg we were going to, to come in and give him a tow. When we got out to the berg the guy in the zodiac took off so we had to double back to see what we could do again. Stan tried a call on the VHF radio and then a try with the cell phone. Eventually, someone did come out from Bay Bulls to give a tow and we went on our way.

Stan and myself were amazed that these guys weren't wearing PFDs and didn't have anyway to communicate with land if they had to. Not even a spare set of oars. We were in much smaller boats but much better prepared.

In any case, we did what we could and there's always something that can be done to help. Stan wondered if we could have towed him ourselves. I didn't think so but we lived up to the code of conduct at sea and we resumed our paddle.

Tony :-)

Stan paddling past the iceberg in Bay Bulls. He's further away from the berg than he looks. The berg has been around for a while and has been melting so its a candidate to roll. This was our third berg for the year, will we bag anymore?

Stan in happy salute to being on the water.

Making our way along the south side of Bay Bulls with the iceberg in the distance.

Stan exploring the south side of Bay Bulls. There were a lot of sea gulls perched on the cliffs behind him.

Stan paddling at South Head, the headland between Bay Bulls and Witless Bay. The rocks here are mainly red sandstones of the Signal Hill Formation. These rocks outcrop at Signal Hill (couldn't see that coming huh?) the type location for the Formation.

Stan at South Head with numerous sea stacks that makes it very scenic and a great place to paddle through.

Sea stack at South Head, a safe refuge always for birds of any species.

Theory of the present

Washing up in fresh water after an evening of kayak practice at St. Phillips (Doug Adams picture)

The day before yesterday I learned a relative had passed away after a lengthy battle with cancer. Every time there's a death I hear people say that you have to take advantage of the time while you have it. I couldn't agree more, except that I try to remember that every day and not just at times like this.

Last evening was one of those moments to live in the present. A group of 10 were on hand at St. Phillips to practice self-rescuse, assisted rescues or just paddle stroks. After, we paddled up the river to wash the salt off our gear and motorcyle rider Doug Adams stopped on the bridge to snap this picture of 8 of us. Yes, there are 8 in the picture. Stan is in all black and just in front of the overturned yellow and his visibility was the subject of a chuckle earlier. All good fun.

We had a great time and motorcycle rider Doug also took advantage of the day. Its not so much sieze the moment as it is to enjoy the moment. I enjoy this "present" of life and I live it in the present.

Tony :-)

Theory of guerrilla gardening

Flowers blooming in a forgotten garden in Tickles

Guerrilla gardening is a form of environmental activism where activists take over a piece of abandoned land and grow crops on it, usually under cover of night. I think it can also be loosely applied to taking plants out of abandoned gardens and replant in ones own garden.

Last year near the end of June a group of us were kayak camping at Tickles in St. Mary's Bay, Newfoundland. Its an old resettled community and these flowers were growing there wild now that there was no one there to attend to it. I don't know what the name of the flowers is but obviously someone had taken care to grow them as a source of enjoyment because they aren't wildflowers, at least not here.

I liked them and even though I didn't know what they were I took a clump, put them in my kayak and planted them in my garden. A winter passed and when spring came I wondered if they would come back. Well, they did and judging by how early they're blooming, we must be almost a month ahead of the season compared to last year.

Tony :-)

And here it is growing almost a year later in my garden at home.

Theory of first love

In my Necky Looksha IV at Great Island (photo by Derrick B.)

I've had my Nordkapp for a month now and I'm just reflecting back on my first love - my Necky Looksha IV. Its something like first love or your first car. I'll never forget the first paddle, I was pretty green. I've had some great paddles in the Necky since and learned a lot.

Somehow, when I got the Nordkapp I didn't know if I was doing the right thing. Did I really need to buy this boat? Was I deserving given that I'm not a skilled paddler? A month later and the answer is in. I'm still not the paddler that a lot of Kayak Newfoundland and Labrador members are but I've grown into the Nordkapp. I feel really comfortable and I'm ready to continue learning.

I still have my Necky and I won't abandon her; I'll still take her out for a spin from time to time. Little does she know that it'll be to rockhop or paddle in ice. I figure I owe her that given she was the first love of my paddling addiction.

Tony :-)

Three weeks later and I'm in my Nordkapp on Fair and False Bay on the way to St. Brendans. Thanks Derrick for the picture; it was a memorable day.

Theory of seasons

Tulip Princess Irene finding it rather cool for this time of year

There are of course, nominally, 4 seasons.

Today I'm reminded of a Crowded House tune "Four seasons in one day". There can't be too many places on the planet where you could literally have 4 seasons in one day. But, one place is Newfoundland.

They say here that if you don't like the weather, wait 5 minutes and it will change. This morning started out with snow falling. It snowed for about 5 hours (winter), then it started to warm and the snow turned to light rain (spring), then the sun made a feeble effort to shine (summer) and this evening it cooled (fall).

The snow didn't last but it was a bit of a shock to the system, especially as I hadn't started Christmas shopping yet.

Tony :-)

Theory of go west young man

Stan at Cape Spear

John Soule first coined the phrase "Go west young man, and grow up with the country" in 1851. It was used in an editorial to urge young men to head west in the USA to forge a trail through the wild west and settle the states of California, Washington and Oregon. That period was imortalized in countless western movies where wagon trains were attacked by Apache indians and rescued by the U.S. cavalry.

Stan and myself paddled, kinda unplanned, from Quidi Vidi to Cape Spear this morning. Cape Spear is the most easterly point of North America and as such the only way to go was west. To go east would have meant a long, long paddle to Ireland. It would have essentially been the same as throwing a message in a bottle, only a couple of skeletons in kayaks would have wash up on the shores of Europe instead.

We stayed at the Cape for a few minutes, content we had made our first trip to Malcolm's Cape. No cavalry rode back west with us but we did have a following sea which was pretty sweet.

Tony :-)

We came out of Quidi Vidi and paddled along the Southside Hills down into Freshwater Bay. Though the picture doesn't show it, the water was pretty confused until we got deeper into Freshwater Bay and behind Sprigg's Point.

Stan making his way down into Freshwater Bay.

Stan paddling into Freshwater Bay. The red Signal Hill sandstones form the shoreline here.

Stan on the Deadman's Bay side of Sprigg's Point. An oil industry supply boat had come out of St. John's harbour and laid to for a while.

Theory of the chicken or the egg

Beothuck stone quarry at Bloody Point

So, what came first? The chicken or the egg? We know with certainty that the native Newfoundland Beothuck were here before the English arrived to settle Newfoundland. There's no doubt about that. There's plenty of archaeological evidence for that, and previous occupiers of the land.

This was a stone quarry of the Beothuck where they came to collect rock for arrow heads and stone cutting tools. Its not a natural talus slope where natural processes weathered the rock from the cliff face. These rocks were discarded by the Beothuck quarriers as unsuitable for their needs.

Standing on this spot is a little awe inspiring. First they had to collect the rough rock, carry it back to camp and then fashion it into arrowheads and tools. No Wal-Mart then. We maybe should have appreciated the culture more when it still existed. We're still struggling with how to treat first nations. I'm not directly involved with that but I hope that those who are do remember who came first and treat their culture with the respect it deserves.

Tony :-)

View towards Rocky Bay, Bloody Reach in the foreground from the top of Bloody Point. A friend has a cabin on the small island tucked in behind the larger island right of center. We visited there 20 years ago and it was interesting seeing it again from this vantage point. I wonder if the Beothuck also identified points of interest from here hundreds of years ago?

Theory of wooden ships

A fleet of wooden kayaks

How many different materials do we make kayaks out of? Skin-on-frame, fibreglass, kevlar, plastic, wood. And, there are as many people who prefer one over the other. The Inuit didn't have these choices.

On Sunday past Paul remarked that the group of 8 had a majority of wooden kayaks - 3 strippers and 2 stitch and glue. That doesn't happen very often. It think it was Paul also who noted that if we got stranded we wouldn't have far to look for fire wood. *lol*

This picture also reminds me of a Crosby, Stills and Nash song "Wooden Ships". Here's the chorus (if you're not as old as I am!)

Wooden ship on the water, very free, and easy
Easy, the you know its supposed to be
Silver people on the shoreline, let us be
Talkin' 'bout very free, and easy.

Tony :-)

Theory of love thy neighbour

Put-in at Burnside

We all know that Jesus Christ taught that we should "love thy neighbour". For me its still a theory because the fact that mankind follows this commandment is still unproven.

Probably not moreso than in the 1800's in Newfoundland. As English settlers spread across the island of Newfoundland they came into contact with the native Beothuck who were living here when the English arrived. The English expansion started to crowd the Beothucks out of their traditional hunting and harvesting territory. The Beothuck reaction was to cause a nuisance to the settlers by stealing fishing equipment, cutting the mooring of boats and similar acts.

That resulted in numerous skirmishes where Beothucks were killed and occasionally settlers. We were paddling in an area where a massacre occured in the mid 1800's - Bloody Point and on the other side Bloody Reach. Pete thought English settlers were enticed to a Beothuck camp and slaughtered. A friend tells me the English slaughtered the Beothuck and an ancestor of his wife was involved. It doesn't much matter who is right, one group of people killed another group.

We haven't learned much either in the time since.

On Sunday a group of eight paddled from Burnside to Bloody Point and then on to St. Brendan's to catch the ferry back. We stopped at Bloddy Point and reflected. I wondered when we would get around to living peacefully together and "love thy neighbour".

Tony :-)

Fishing stage at Burnside. This is a typical scene in most fishing communities in Newfoundland.

Here we are leaving Burnside. A group of four turned left and handrailed along the coast down to St. Chads and the eight in our group paddled towards Bloody Point.

After we left Burnside we crossed the open waters of Fair and False Bay on our way to Bloody Point. The view of islands floating in the bay, still waters and a little breeze make for a pleasurable crossing.

Here's the group on top of Bloody Point, about 100 metres above the water. We had a great view about 270 degrees around. Its kind of sobering knowing without question the Beothuck stood on this site 200 years or so ago and had the same thoughts about the great view. People aren't so different based either on ethnic background or time.

After we walked up to the top of Bloody Point we returned and had lunch, fuel for the run up to St. Brendan's.

Wharf at the archaeological Bloody Point site, getting underway again to meet the ferry at St. Brendan's.

Theory of J. L. Seagull

Ralph in his Valley Auqa- naut. Ralph is living the good life like myself in the Freedom 55 Club.

Jonathan Livingston Seagull was one in a flock of seagulls in that wonderful book by Richard Bach in 1970. As there's safety in a flock of birds, so is there safety in group kayaking. But, as the story of Jonathan Livingston Seagull told us, you can be an individual within the flock and explore your own horizons.

My camera caught a number of paddlers individually on our paddle on Saturday and they have their own stories. Its what makes paddling also a social event where you can chat it up and get to know your fellow adventurers. As the foreleaf in the book stated "To the Jonathan Livingston Seagull in all of us".

Tony :-)

Tony, as comfortable in a kayak as he is on his motorcycle. Did I mention he's got a great kayak website with lots of great shots at www.kayaktherock.com ?

Paul is our weatherman. People on his mailing list know what I mean. Here he is out on his first paddle for the year.

Alex, what can I say? Alex is Alex and loved by all. Alex is the current President of Kayak Newfoundland and Labrador. An accomplished paddler himself, he'll do anything to share his knowledge and assist novices by sharing his paddles. Alex is also known to be involved in many interesting paddles and because of that, has towing down to a science.

Neil putting his self-built stitch and glue kayak on edge. Neil is a kayaking instructor, thats why he looks like he knows what he's doing. Working in the environmental field, Neil is great to paddle with if you yourself don't know much about wildlife.

Paul is from Marystown area and was a competitive runner and represented the Province at the Canada Summer Games. He's still pretty competitive as I would find out on Sunday.

Craig is from Twillingate on the Northeast coast of Newfoundland. Craig, in one of his own boats, builds kayaks as Eastern Island Kayaks. They have five models to choose from and you can contact Craig for more information at "craigeik@hotmail.com"

Julie in her Necky Elaho. Julie is a former municipal and provincial politician and most notably a cancer survivor. She's also a scuba diver and involved in dragon boat racing.

Theory of flocking - more pics

Black bear hunters

Craig saw a black bear close to where we stopped for lunch so a few of us went to have a look. As we got close to where Craig said he saw the bear Neil said if we met the bear he was going to pull someone's dry suit down around their ankles and run. Notice, I'm safely taking up the rear!

A few more pictures from our paddle on Saturday in Newman's Sound, Terra Nova National Park during Kayak Newfoundland and Labrador's annual Retreat.

Tony :-)

Theory of flocking

Kayakers exhibit flocking behaviour, what a great sight.

Flocking refers to the collective motion of a large number of individuals and is a collective animal behaviour exhibited by many living things like birds and fish. Birds flock together for a number of reasons. I think one reason is to confuse preditors - so many targets that its hard to focus on one.

On Friday past, 89 paddlers from all over Newfoundland flocked to Splash -N- Putt waterpark cabins for our annual kayakers Retreat. The Retreat kicked off with registration from 7:30 to 10:30 and icebreaker social hosted by The Outfitters. Volunteer Phyllis and myself were busy with registration and missed out on the icebreaker but there's always overhead to a successful event.

Saturday there were 2 groups of paddlers. One group of about 50 paddlers had a shorter paddle to ease themselves into the paddling season. I was in the second group of 22 paddlers who wanted a bit more of a workout. We had a great day on the water and after cleaning up we had a dance (music by DJ Justice Malcolm) but not a lot got up to dance. No big deal, we were here to paddle anyway.

There's a saying "birds of the feather flock together". One a year its great to get the flock together, meet new paddlers and start new friendships based on a common interest.

Tony :-)

Here we were putting in at Salton's Wharf in Terra Nova Park in Newfoundland.

Paddler Tony Lee. Tony has one of the best Newfoundland paddling websites at www.kayaktherock.com and has taken pictures of me on many occasions. But, of course, very few pictures of himself. I hadn't paddled with Tony since I bought my Olympus waterproof camera so this time I told him I was turning the table on him and putting him on my blog. Obviously having a good time.

We left Salton's Brook and paddled west down Newman's Sound with a bit of a breeze blowing from the southwest. There was a small inlet here where we found we were protected from the wind.

Derrick with his "stick" (Greenland paddle). Derrick seems to be using his GP exclusively now and says that he thinks he gets more purchase with the GP than the Euro blade.

More flocking paddlers *lol*

We stopped for lunch at South Broad Cove. There's a back-country trail that goes by here with something like 6 wilderness campsites. There are structures to tie camp food up high out of the reach of bears. Craig went looking for a restroom that Neil said was nearby but found instead a black bear. He came back unflustered so we went back to where he saw the bear but it was gone.

Here the paddling got pretty tough as the paddlers had to paddle through the rocks!

The group got spread out a bit and stopped here to re-flock.

We encountered an immature seal on our paddle back to Salton's. I stopped paddling and the seal approached my kayak. It was as curious about what I was and I was pleased to have it stay around for a couple of minutes. At one point it swam under the kayak and I could feel it bump the hull of my boat.