How Good Does It Get?

Anyone who knows me can tell you I have four great loves - my wife, our two daughters, and boats . While paddlecraft are my special affliction, there's always a place in my heart for others - trim and tidy sailboats, and even the big power cruisers like Demissanne.

The past few weeks, I've been helping a friend who's made his living for the past 30 years  tending to various craft with haulout at at a local marina. The big boys come ashore via the travel lift, an amazing machine that can trundle a 10 tonner around like I handle my kayak. Grab the pressure washer, blast the slub off the bottom, get her cradled, climb aboard, coil up the lines and power cords at her berth,  clean out perishables,  tidy up the lines and fenders on deck, winterize the water systems and engines, chase the odd leak - lots and lots to do, all of it good and straightforward and useful.work.

Weather's been fallish - temps in the low single digits, winds 80-100 kms/hr. NE to NW in off the bay most days - brisk and bracing, you might say. (I'm thoroughly enjoying it - dress right (lots of layers, poly and merino, with a good windblocking outer shell) and keep dry, and you'll stay warm as toast. Us North Atlantic kayakers know a thing or two about warm and dry...)

All in all, it's a good... no, make that a great - life - down by the water, with a multitude of boats to keep one amused and learning, and no shortage of 'air conditioning'. The folks around - owners, or others working on the boats - are , as you'd expect, the best kind - boats just naturally seem to attract people who can laugh, joke and help each other. There's worse things a man could be at, like trying to explain to an irate customer that the three-year warranty doesn't apply to the drill he bought last week;  having it crushed when he backed his pickup over it isn't really considered a defect in materials...

Here's a final view of the 'office'.

Codroy Valley

Located on the island's west coast, just a few kilometers from the Port aux Basques ferry, the Codroy Valley is one of the most spectacular and interesting places in Newfoundland.

The river runs between tall hills, wending it's way thru the range of mountains that form, amongst other things, the notorious Wreckhouse section the TCH, where tractor trailers are regularly blown over on their sides by the fierce wind gusts that barrel thru the gaps between the hills.

When we visited in early July, however, the weather cooperated, and our visitors - Michael, Gaetan and Helene - enjoyed civil breezes when they joined Chris and I for a  paddle on one of the most beautiful river estuaries Newfoundland has to offer.

The area isn't always so friendly, though. We took advantage of a  wait to get a table for an incredible  halibut dinner one evening to drive the few miles to Cape Anguille, where a  lighthouse overlooks the mouth of the Codroy.

With the wind in off the Gulf, it's a rough looking spot, where we had to lean into the wind to stay on our feet.

Definitely NOT the place a kayaker, or at least this kayaker, wants to be!!!

We're Back, Yet Again

Procrastination is a wonderful thing.

It's been over a year since I lasted posted to Ballyhack Point, and the longer it is, the harder it seems to get to do it. So here's a first attempt at rejuvenating something that I've enjoyed doing in the past.

The year has been a great one, blessed with lots of family and friends and things to do. The summer was, to put it mildly, a blast, with lashings of visitors and new experiences, especially on the paddling scene. In the next few posts, I'll hit a few of the highlights, but for Chris and I, our first on-water visit to Dildo Run - yes, there is such a place - was surely a "Gotta go there again" sort of thing.

The Run, located in Notre Dame Bay, snakes its way thru islands, runs, reaches, and tickles, offering some of the most protected and diverse paddling waters you'll find around Newfoundland's coastline. You could spend a week exploring all the nooks and crannies, never be more than a few hundred yards offshore, and still not see it all.

Besides a wonderful provincial campground, there are endless places where you can pitch a tent amd enjoy an evening of solitude and beauty, in a place that's quiet and largely undisturbed. Of all the spots where we've wet a paddle, this is the #1 destination that, God willing, we'll be headed there for a much longer visit next summer.

Yo, We're Back!!!

Just spent the summer in Eastport - that's my excuse for not visiting Ballyhack Point since late June, and I'm sticking to it. Had a phone line that was truly unbelievable in the 21st century and dialup on top of that, since the Community Access Point (CAP) site at the school in Glovertown was closed for summer while the building was being rewired. So a slow connection, lots of dropped sessions, and besides, we were having far too much fun to spend time writing and editing pix...

Did some paddling, a little hiking, a bit of camping, cut the grass, ate really well, polybonded the rusting 4Runner winter beater, read books, got to know a really good mechanic at the local service station, walked the beach with the dogs almost daily, had lots of great visitors - all in all, a fine time was had by all.

We also finished Chris' GLADWIND, which is a somewhat modified VOLKSKAYAK that she's taken to like...well, like a VK to water. Nipped the beam in about 1.5", hacked the same off the forward bulkhead peak, and 2" off the rear bulkhead peak for good measure - the result has a slightly deeper "V" to the hull, and lower decks than the VK Standard. A little less displacement, and a fair bit less windage - was kinda hoping she'd hate it, 'cause I really, really like it - no such luck! Been told, point-blank, that I'm gonna have to build myself one, if that's what I want - the GLADWIND is hers...

Mother and Child

That grouse wasn't about to move - no sir, no way! Standing at the near end of the boardwalk in Minchin's Cove, it seemed unconcerned as I got a few quick pix from maybe 15 feet, then started slowly moving closer and closer...



Then we saw them - three chicks, each egg-sized, making their separate ways across the boardwalk, one at a time. Momma wasn't budging - no big fuss, just staying right there while the kiddies toddled across. Kinda like a school crossing guard, having an eye to the traffic and stopping anything that might cause harm...


With the last one safely accounted for , she strolls off into the tall foliage herself, still very relaxed about it all. Then she stands there, side on, and has one final look at this creature with the camera...

Small Stuff...

...can be wonderfully interesting. Lately, we've been taking a look at our world thru the macro setting on our digital cameras - and finding lots of fascinating sights.

Take a common leaf, for example, just after a rain - have a close look at the water drops - besides glistening like little jewels, they act as magnifying lenses and convex mirrors, little distortions you'd not likely see if you weren't looking with the camera's eye...



Sometimes, the right things happen for entirely the wrong reasons. This 'flower', for example, struck me as odd - never seen one like it, I thought, and so snapped a few shots to get it I.D.'d later on. Well, duh - turns out it's a dandelion, but with most of the seed dispersed. There is, however, enough seed left to show just why the plant is such a tenacious species - the brown seed and dispersal 'parachute' show clearly with the camera's detailed eye - another small wonder...



A gull's feather on the beach - not a lot to look at in most folk's books. Closeup, however, there is stuff to see - the shadings white thru grays, the drift of sand along the quill, contrasting with the strong green of the seaweed bladder. Another small visual world, caught and recorded by a close focus lens...



And while it isn't strictly macro work, there's always the whole other world beneath the water, a place most digital cameras fear to go. The Pentax WPi, however, is reputed to be waterproof to a depth at which the state of his/her camera becomes of academic interest only to an air-breathing kayaker. So stick your hand down, aim, and fire - the LCD screen freaks out with the cold, going gray for about 10 seconds...and then the bottom life slowly emerges, just like pix used to do back in the days of developing trays in red-lit darkrooms...



We'll be off to Eastport soon for the summer, and hope to have some really neat pix of some really neat places to post as the summer progresses. May be a bit hit and miss, tho, since we'll be doing the uploads thru the Community Access Point at the region's public library and have to hit it on days when it's open and the weather's not fit for paddling...first things first....

The KatYak - What Can You Say But !!!"WOW!!!"

There's kayaks, and then there's kayaks. There's VOLKSKAYAKs, and then there's VOLSKAYAKs. And there are certainly spectacular VOLKSKAYAK paint jobs - and there's the KatYak, the Queen of Them All.



As artist Reg Cantwell notes in his explanation of just what happened, a simple question became a commission that became a case of "Go Big Or Go Home", something that seems to have a way of happening when Kristy and Tim Way are around. Tim built the VOLKSKAYAK Standard for Kristy, and Kristy's innocent query to their friend Reg triggered the whole incredible thing. It's led to a perfectly serviceable kayak being turned into a floating art exhibit, and a darn fine one at that...


If you'd like to see more of where obsession can lead, the juicy details can be found at http://www.regcantwell.com/katyak.htm