Why is Norm not riding his bike?

[Alan]

As some of you know, our Tripleshot bud Norm Marcy is out on the high seas in a tandem kayak with is wife Terry. He sent me this report, by text, and I told him I'd post it on the forum. (I edited it and fixed his spelling)

HALF WAY ish!

Just over 400 km in 19 days of paddling. 24 days over all.

Ok enough stats for you cyclists and strava geeks out there.

We spent an extra day and night in Campbell River after our planned night there was a blow out with a typical November storm. Crazy driving rain. Extra tie downs for the four season tent and still it was wet in the morning with a bit of sogginess.

Finally we were on our way past Cape Mudge and into the mighty Seymour Narrows. Actually, if you follow a plan of hitting the passages with high tide slack current and low or moderate flow in your direction getting through is tough but safely is much enhanced.

In the following days we transited Green Point Rapids and Wellbore Channel - Whirlpool Rapids without any difficulty. Great names don't you think?

As is usually not my approach ( or at least people's perceptions of my approach) we proceed with an abundance of caution. When travelling with only one kayak you have to be in self preservation mode as nobody is going to be close by to help you.

We have been lucky to see Humpback Whales in Seymour and Pacific Whitesided Dolphin and more small porpoises while in the channels. Though we have had reports of grizzly and black bears as we made our way north of East and west Thurlow Islands and Hardwick Island, we have not seen them. One line traveller (Brit on 6 wk solo holiday) saw 3 large cubs and "huge" mommy Grizzly. Each we had just passed an hour or two previously and had actually considered as a camping spot!

Most or our inter island route has been calm and relatively warm. One day so "hot" we did not wear our dry suits. However the forecast strong winds caught up with the last day before our turnaround spot at Kelsey Bay. We just managed an early morning sneak of 18 km before winds of 25 - 30+ knots or 55km / hr hit and continues for two days. As we left Campbell River today the power was out in Seyward and Kelsey Bay.

Lots of Bumps on the flight to Vancouver today we will visit Eva for most of the week and celebrate her uni grad.

Back to the kayak in early June and will keep you all posted on the rest of the round the Salish Sea adventure.

Cheers T and N