Ready and waiting at Port Hardy

Brian Coggan and I left Port Angeles, WA yesterday evening on the ferry to Vancouver Island. We enjoyed a beautiful sunset down the Straits of Juan de Fuca. We stayed the night with Doug Alderson, author of the fabulous guide book, Around Vancouver Island (see previous blog). We talked through our respective routes and gleaned tons of useful information. Brian is probably going to head NE from Port Hardy and make his way island hopping over to the BC mainland coast before heading south weaving his way through the islands in Johnstone Strait and the Discovery Islands before crossing back to VI and heading south towards Puget Sound. In the meantime I will wait for the weather window I need to make a start on my record attempt. We are Port Hardy, ready and waiting. At the moment there is a big fat weather system, the first of the autumn moving onto th west coast of VI. Whilst I may be able to head up towards Cape Scott tomorrow it may be more prudent to wait a day and let the system blow itself out over the island.

I shall probably be blogging again tomorrow but if I don't it means I have started! Keep checking the Spot Share page (link below)

Cheers
Sean

Route Plan - Vancouver Island

My route plan for my circumnavigation of Vancouver Island is online at http://www.expeditionkayak.com/expedition_kayak_worldwide_kayak_adventures/?q=vancouver_island

Cool new logo!

Check out the new logo on my van - thanks Dom!

Getting Nervous!

So I am busy doing all the last minute preparation for Vancouver Island Expedition.

I will be taking a Spot Messenger www.findmespot.com/ and you can track my progress at:




http://share.findmespot.com/shared/gogl.jsp?glId=0d2xnkdma8kEkOFlEHZF8RdCltLlDtL2r

I want to say a huge thanks to Kokatat who have once again been a tremendous support providing me with a gorgeous new Gore-Tex Meridian dry suit.


Thanks to Chris Mathais, sales rep for Mountain Hardware who has arranged for me to take a Stiletto tent described as: "Our lightest, most advanced tent for the solo backpacker. New ultralight components developed exclusively for Mountain Hardwear bring the Stilleto in under 2 1/2 lbs: superlight fly and floor fabrics, new Atlas UL poles and 1/4" webbing with molded clips throughout. All-mesh canopy reduces weight and provides excellent ventilation. Innovative hoop design with our patented Evolution Tension Arch delivers strength with a minimum of poles".

I also want to thank Katadyn http://www.katadyn.com/ who have supplied me with an Optimus Nova+ multi fuel cooker http://www.optimus.se/ and a very trick titanium cookset as well as a load of Micropur water treatment tablets.









Thanks too to Gaia who have supplied me with a few dry bags, a very cool stow float and a paddle float (just in case).






And thanks to Valley for letting me use a demo boat for the trip! I will try to look after it!

I still plan to start from Port Hardy on September 23rd if the weather looks good.

Cheers
Sean

Vancouver Island Record Attempt

Well folks I am delighted to announce that I have been given the opportunity to have a go at the record for circumnavigating Vancouver Island by sea kayak. Firstly I want to thank my wife Gina for giving me a pass and my Mum who is flying over from the UK to help look after Shea Bella for the three weeks I will be away.

You can find out more about the expedition by following the links on my expedition website http://www.expeditionkayak.com/ The plans is to start my expedition immediately after the West Coast Sea Kayak Symposium on September 22nd 2008.

Thanks once again to Dom Miles of IceTea web design who looks after all my websites. Dom and his family live in Devon, England but will soon be here in California for a holiday and I can't wait to see them and show them the beautiful county of Marin.

I also want to thank Valley Sea Kayaks for their support. I will be using a Rapier 20 for the expedition http://www.valleyseakayaks.com/rapier20.htm

I will be travelling fast and light and hope to knock out 50 miles a day. In theory that means I could complete the 700 mile journey around the island in two weeks but the weather may have other ideas! I will be starting at Port Hardy, up on the north east corner, the idea being to wait for a good weather forecast before starting the 'clock' and knocking off the crux moves around the most northwesterly point, Cape Scott and the notorious Books Peninsular before any bad weather arrives.

September and October are traditionally are good months for weather up there. The land is cooling off so the big thermal winds of the summer will be easing off and hopefully I will complete the circle before the winter storms arrive. I hope to use a Spot messenger:

http://www.findmespot.com/Home.aspx so you will be able to track my progress.

More details will follow soon.

Kelowna Kayak Symposium

Kelowna is described as Canada's best kept secret. Deep in the Okanagan Valley known for its fabulous wine, Kelowna has a wonderful climate and the 90 mile long lake is stunning. Kelowna Kayak and Outdoor is a full service kayak store and the owner Ray Chelini and his staff are extremely knowledgeable and professional. I first met Ray and his family at the West Coast Sea Kayak Symposium in 2007 and I loved his enthusiasm for the sport and for Valley Sea Kayaks. He has quickly become one of the my best customers and I supply him with Valley kayaks, Lettmann and Mitchell paddles and Barz sunglasses. As a former member of the Venezuelan national kayak racing team he recognizes good quality when he sees it!

Ray and his wife Jacqui were wonderful hosts to Rob Avery and myself and it was well worth the 2400mile round trip to enjoy their hospitality. It was also great to meet Greg Alderson, author of "Sea Kayak -Around Vancouver Island" as well as several other publications including his latest release:

Doug gave me loads of information to help me plan my forthcoming expedition to circumnavigate Vancouver Island (more of that in a later post).

It was also great to meet Nick Castro, owner/instructor of Active Sea Kayaking: http://activeseakayaking.ca/ His sense of humour had me in stitches and I couldn't think of a better guy to go for a paddle with.

I also want to thank the folk from the Kelowna area who came to see my slide show. Hopefully next year I will have some more stories to tell you about Vancouver Island. Kelowna is a very special place and the prefect location to enjoy Lake Okanagan.

Aquanfest 2008

Congratulations go to Vince Pao, owner of Aquan Sports for hosting Aquanfest 2008. It was a great event blessed with good weather and an excellent number of attendees for this inaugural event. With an emphasis on introducing new paddlers to the sport the location on a sheletered lagoon in Foster City was perfect.

I want to thank Randy Kneeland who gave up his Saturday to help me with my booth. He owns a Valley Avocet and a Kokatat dry suit and is a great advocate for both brands. He also 'volunteered' to race the Rapier 18 in the fun race and did really well considering it was his first time in a race and in a racing kayak.


I also want to thank Galen Licht who helped me out on both days. He also easily won the sea kayak class racing the Rapier 20.

My treat for Father's Day was to go kayaking for the first time with Gina and Shea Bella. The picture says it all.

Life doesn't get any better!