Post-Expedition Comments and Thoughts
"We’ve weathered highs and lows on this trip, both literally and figuratively." - Chief Navigator Santhi
Expedition Fishbait: In May 2001, five friends embarked on a kayaking trip through the Broken Islands group of the Pacific Rim National Park off Vancouver Island. This is the journal of that trip as kept by me. To see all the photos from this trip you can view the associated photo gallery.
10:30am Chief Navigator reporting from Tofino — After nearly a week of relatively problem free navigation through the many islands of the Broken Group, Tofino thoroughly defeated us. We drove back and forth searching for in vain for suitable accommodations. All places were either 5 times what they should have cost, left one of our intrepid group on the couch, or were just plain “icky”. After nearly three hours of indecision, our flag bearer Dups seemed at the end of his rope. Due to the decreasing visibility on the road due to the smoke coming out of his ears, we elected to take accommodations in a place we had already looked. Said place had been refused because having only three beds — One member would be relegated to the couch by the Satellite TV. Private Dups bravely volunteered to take this spot.
Our final night as Expedition Fishbait passed without incident. All in all the endeavour was thoroughly successful. Promotions were granted all round and the journey will I am sure, pass into the annals of myth — to be hashed out over many a coffee or pint in times to come.
Santhi’s Report
We’ve weathered highs and lows on this trip, both literally and figuratively. Our low point was definitely the crash landing on the north beach of Turret. We were wet, cold and suffering from mild hypothermia. However, it made us able to appreciate the good days. My high points were many: oysters on the first day, relaxing on the beach at Turret, paddling to Effingham and cruising, surfing to Sechart. I was riding in the bow of the double and going up and down with the 1m swells. Anyway, all in all a fabulous experience and a much needed vacation. N.B, Dups and Dave will be in permanent possession of the orgasmatron at the end of this trip.
Dave’s Report
First of all I would really like to thank Haseena and Santhi who basically took 100% responsibility for the food, from planning the menus to buying the ingredients in the supermarket, to carefully dividing and labeling the menus by day to the actual preparation. It was absolutely delicious, by far the best camp food I’ve ever had and in many ways even better than the food I eat at home (I’m talking about the food I prepare, not Nancy’s of course!) On the couple of days when we landed on new Islands cold and wet, the food was a real spirit lifter. Without them we surely would have starved.
I would also like to thank Aaron for his extensive camping knowledge from putting up tents and tarps to selecting and splitting firewood, to building the fires, not to mention shucking mussels and many other miscellaneous skills, without him we surely would have been colder and wetter.
And of course, I cannot forget Dups. Without his always positive attitude, upbeat spirit and tremendous sense of humour we surely would have had far less fun.
One quick note which I think was left out of Dups’ report: On Friday we saw a rainbow which completely encircled the sun like a hole. It’s the first time I’d ever seen a complete rain “circle” although I’ve read that all rainbows are in fact circles. We also saw bald eagles soaring overhead on several occasions which was pretty spectacular.
I along with Haseena, brought disposable waterproof cameras for taking pictures in the kayaks and underwater. Up until the second-last day I hadn’t tried an underwater shot. Then I saw two starfish clinging to the same rock which I thought would be a decent shot. I tried to take an underwater picture from the kayak and then realized I had used the last picture. DOH!
Overall, it was a fantastic trip with great people which I thoroughly enjoyed. It was great to get away from so called civilization for a week. It makes you realize what the really important things in life and what is just excess. The only regrets I have are not seeing any whales and missing out on the sea lion colony, and these are minor to say the least. I’m now looking forward to operations Kelowna/White Water Rafting and Dawson City.
