| Vancouver Island Solo...First Attempt:
July 20, 2007: Well now, it is Thursday evening and I’m back in Nanaimo British Columbia, back to where the Vancouver Island expedition began on July 2nd. It would seem that an update on recent events is way overdue so here we go! This will be a brief update on how things went on the aborted first attempt at the record attempt around Vancouver Island and a quick note on what may happen in the days to come. The trip started out okay although I was worn out before even departing after 4 consecutive late nights while finalizing plans and making ready for the Monday launch. The start of the expedition was several hours later than hoped for but I paddled off at 9:05 AM, heading out from the Brechin boat launch in Nanaimo. Throughout the first phase of the expedition the story was centered around the relentless headwinds all the way up the inside of Vancouver Island and right through to Cape Scott. Gale Force winds and continuous small craft advisories were the norm. Combined with strong currents on the flood tides, it made for brutally slow progress. From the entrance to the infamous Seymour Narrows on through the entire Discovery Passage and Johnstone Strait, the headwinds were simply insane! At times, I found myself paddling at full on race pace and moving at less than one kilometer per hour, even when in sprint mode! Getting through Seymour Narrows, against the strong winds and wicked currents and turbulence was an epic battle but one that kept me smiling ear to ear and loving every minute of it, enjoying the feel of the kayak lurching side to side, up and down in the turbulent waters and through the oncoming and refracting waves, not to mention the large, choppy wash coming off the larger commercial traffic just to my left. Little did I know that this would be the “Easy part” for the next few days! The next day, continuing up Discovery Passage, the headwinds were brutal right from the onset. After entering Johnstone Strait at Chatham Point and crossing over to the far side, they only got worse! After listening to the marine forecast, calling for Gale Force winds the next few days, I gambled on detouring around the next portion of Johnstone Strait, adding another 30 or so kilometers to the route through this section, all in the hope of escaping the winds of Johnstone Strait. The side channels were far less windy and the speed was much greater, hopefully enough to offset the added distance. Coming down Sunderland Channel however, back towards Johnstone Strait, I again found myself in the situation of paddling against gale force winds and crawling along at just over one kilometer per hour before making camp near the far end of Hardwicke Island. The next day took me past Robson Bight and into the Robson Bight Border Camp. On into Alert Bay the next day where I made a series of phone calls and picked up a few supplies before heading on. The following morning things started out well with very little wind. Soon though, I found myself battling the toughest winds yet as I approached Port Hardy. Hardy Bay itself and the surrounding area was an absolute mess! Nothing but whitecaps EVERYWHERE as the 4-6 foot wind waves hammered my progress to nearly nothing! I ended up making camp today after just a 22 kilometer paddle, dropping my average down near 50 kilometers per day overall! The following morning was better and I was off early, eventually camping at Shuttleworth Bight after making a surf landing after a 60 kilometer day. The next day it was on to Cape Scott, arriving at Experiment Bight near noon, just past favourable tide conditions for rounding the infamous Cape Scott, the so-called “Graveyard of the Pacific”. After waiting several hours, I relaunched and headed for the Cape. The trip around Cape Scott itself was uneventful but very exciting and fun as I paddled in swells of 2 meters plus as well as comparable sized windwaves coming from an opposing direction. Add to this the refracting waves coming back off the rocks and cliffs, bigger than the incoming waves, it was certainly a fun ride! Once safely past Cape Scott, rather than heading straight into Guise Bay and setting up camp, I headed on further, towards Laurie Bay. With increasing winds, this turned into a longer than planned paddle. With increasing winds and larger and larger swells and wind waves, it made for an interesting landing along the exposed beaches in the bay. Sitting slightly outside the breakers for about 20 minutes, waiting for the right time to go for the surf landing, I waited for the right timing between sets and then headed in, making my way for sure along the surf pounded beach. The timing was perfect as I eased the bow of my Greenlander Pro onto the sandy beach and jumped out, muscling the fully loaded kayak up onto dry sand just beyond the reach of the biggest waves thus far. Popping off the hatch covers and tossing them inside the cockpit, I quickly pulled out a couple armloads of drybags from the hatches and hauled them up another full boat length up the steep sandy beach, lightening the lao0d before hauling the heavy kayak up further. Now THIS is where things quickly went to hell in a hurray! No sooner had I set down the first armload of drybags on the beach, 20 feel away, I heard a large BOOM…looking back, I saw the kayak getting sucked back down the steep beach to the waterline where the next wave of this largest set of waves yet flipped it upside down in the crashing surf. Running like mad for the water I quickly hauled the kayak back on shore, ran back down to retrieve a few small items that popped out of the open hatches and then hauled everything further up on the beach. Moments later, I had a terrifying thought….”where are my hatch covers”? Well they were nowhere to be found! A frantic search ensued, up and down the beach, in and out of the water fighting the now pounding surf (wetsuit and PFD still on) as I desperately searched for my two main hatch covers! After a few hours, nearing high tide and total darkness with the time approaching 11:00 PM, I gave up my search until morning, hoping against all hope that, at low tide, the hatches would be found among the reefs just offshore, or buried nearby in the churning sands of the crashing surf. Feeling too devastated to prepare a meal, I had a “dinner” of a Snickers Bar! before crawling into the tent and trying to get some sleep before morning and low tide when I'll again search for the lost hatch covers. Up at 5:00 AM the next morning, I scoured the beach at low tide and then proceeded to spend another 5 hours digging in the sand on a grid pattern for the lost hatch covers, hoping they’d merely been buried in the sands. After several hours of digging, I did manage to find the one other lost item of significance, my Victorianox Swiss Tool, an expensive multi-tool I’ve had since 1999. Still no sign of either hatch cover though, let alone both of these badly needed items! Eventually I had to give up the search and look at my remaining options. Here I was, stranded on the remote west coast of Vancouver Island in highly exposed water and without hatch covers! I spent the next several hours scavenging along the beach and then, using whatever I’d found along the beach, creating an emergency set of replacement hatch covers for my Nigel Dennis sea kayak. On the hatch opening on these British sea kayaks, the rim on the hatch opening is only about 1/8 of an inch thick, designed for the British style rubber hatches of course. Now these, in my opinion, are by far the best hatches on the market and are completely watertight and never implode in my experience! BUT…the lip on the rim itself being very thin, it would be a challenge to create the emergency replacements…so I thought! Walking the beach, I found an old blue tarp that I cut out a couple of circular sections from. These I lined with heavy duty duct-tape on both sides. I then secured these with spare bungy cords in my repair kit….(onto the 1/8” lip). I also found a couple of old plastic 5 gallon barrels along the beach. From these I cut out the bottom section with my SALVAGED multitool, punched holes on them and then secured them as “outer hatch covers” by way of additional bungy cords wrapped around various deck fittings. In all, it took about 3 hours of work to come up with my newly created replacement covers. Let's hope they hold up! With my temporary hatches in place, I thought it possible to paddle back to civilization in Port Hardy, or beyond, where I could either arrange a shuttle back to Nanaimo or, if the hatches held up, paddle back to Nanaimo along the Inside route I’d already paddled, paddling only on calm condition days. As for continueing on with the expedition however, although I wanted very badly to push on, make up a bit of time lost to the winds on Johnstone Strait, and knock off a solo speed record, I knew that it would be foolhardy to cary on without proper hatch covers. Paddling semi-protected waters is one thing, paddling the exposed west coast of Vancouver Island however is another matter altogether! On the trial paddle that evening, a short paddle to Hanson Lagoon from Laurie Bay, the hatches proved seaworthy as I made my way through 5 foot wind waves and a moderate swell. I set up camp that night in Hanson Lagoon, planning to head off the next morning and get around Cape Scott again, then make my way back along the more protected waters through which I’d already journeyed. Looks like the ‘round Vancouver Island Expedition is over for this year! Once around Cape Scott, I made my way to Port Hardy, left a couple of phone messages and continued on, heading back the way I’d come. In Alert Bay, I restocked on supplies and then continued on back towards Nanaimo along the Inside Passage. After crossing the channel from Cormorant Island towards Telegraph Cover, I got a call from John Kimantis, author of “The Wild Coast” series of BC sea kayaking guidebooks and a close friend of mine. He was in the area doing research for another book and we arranged to meet the following day in Port McNeil. About 25 kilometers back along the route I’d just retraced. I camped out tonight on the Blinkhorn Peninsula and had a couple very relaxing beers while going through my thoughts on the recent turn of events. Dejected about the trip coming to such an end, I mulled over my options, considering the idea of restarting the expedition back in Nanaimo after picking up a new set of hatch covers or waiting until the summer of 2008 to do it all over again. I at around the campfire until midnight this particular night, pondering what to do next. The next day, I met up with John over in Port MacNeil and we spent the next few days driving around northern Vancouver Island, mostly on old logging roads, checking out various points of interest along the way. On Thursday afternoon, we stopped in at Comox Valley Kayaks in Comox, the Island’s Nigel Dennis dealer. I bought a new set of hatch covers off Karey and Don before we drove off, arriving back in Nanaimo shortly past 5:00 PM. Now the question that everyone has been asking me was “Are you doing it again?” Even Don at Comox Valley Kayaks added to the fire, offering to loan me his personal Greenlander Race sea kayak if I wanted to use it rather than the Greenlander Pro that Nigel had shipped over for me to use. The Greenlander Race model had been my first choice but I wound up with the Pro instead as the factory was behind schedule and had to instead send over an in stock kayak, a Carbon/ Kevlar Greenlander Pro instead of the longer, faster Race model. So, with everybody wondering what I’d do next, plus the offer of Don’s Greenlander Race, I started leaning strongly towards doing a quick resupply while in Nanaimo, picking up the Greenlander Race sea kayak up in Comox, loading up the boat and relaunching within the next few days. As I type this out, it is now 7:00 AM on Friday morning and I’ve decided that if I can get everything in place within the next 2 days, I will relaunch the expedition, shooting for a very fast time around the Island. Looks like round two is a go! I learned a few things during the first attempt and with what I’ve learned, I feel confident in being even faster this time around. I am certainly stronger right now than when I began. The first week of the trip I found myself getting tired during the first long days. Soon however, I felt my body adapting and was getting stronger and stronger in the kayak. Physically, I never felt better in my life. No injuries, no strained muscles or joints. Much of this I credit to the fact I’ve been paddling exclusively with Greenland kayak paddles which I believe are far more efficient and certainly much easier on the body. The Nigel Dennis sea kayak has handled superbly well in the varied conditions thrown at it and I have full confidence in either model, the Pro or Race, to get the job done quickly. My expedition paddling gear from Kokatat has been simply amazing, keeping me warm and comfortable in the boat in all conditions while the destination wear series of quick dry clothing has been perfect for on shore after paddling. As for finding my route along the coast and locating campsites, water sources and points of interest, the Wild Coast guidebooks have proved extremely valuable as has the pair of Marine Atlases, also by John Kimantas. The atlases by the way arrived ONE DAY after the trip initially launched. That day, John contacted me on my cell phone and we arranged to meet near Comox. Here he dropped off his one and only advance set of copies and I gave him the stack of nautical charts to take home with him. The atlases are very well done, are user friendly and provide more than enough information and mapping detail to navigate the entire island. I’ll again by counting on these atlases and guidebooks as I relaunch in the coming days for the second attempt. Well, my “To Do List” for today is HUGE so I better post this and then get at it! I’ll add a further update later on today along with a few photos from the first attempt. Cheers…Joe O’Blenis |
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