2009-07-11 49 -123

Location

Kayak hash in the Burrard Inlet! Possibly even a transit-kayak hash!

Participants

Planning

See Talkpage.

Expeditions

The Sailboat Expedition (Plypkie, Yangman and Elbie)

Plypkie and Yangman met up at 10:30ish, and rode their bikes across town to jericho beach. They met Elbie there and rigged up a small sailboat from the sailing club.

At the sailing club
Three panniers barely fit into a locker
Getting the boat onto the cart
Carting the boat to the water
Getting the sails set up
Dealing with the last sail

We then set out to sail across the bay. The winds were great, and it seemed like we'd make great time. Somewhere near Stanley Park we ran into an area with very little wind, and slowly made our way the rest of the way toward north van where the others were.

When we were almost across, we started looking around for the inflatable yellow kayaks of Xore and Rhonda, but we couldn't see them anywhere. We then received a phone call from Xore and headed straight toward the beach where they were inflating said kayaks. On the way, we spotted what looked like a kayaker and someone rowing an inflatable dinghy (while towing a large inflatable toy of some sort). As we got closer, we realized that the inflatable toy was a large airplane, and the "kayaker" was actually paddling a raft of logs. We decided we had certainly found Robyn. Elbie stood up and waving, but no response was observed.

Before we could reach them, however, a boat came speeding up with flashing lights on top. The coast guard arrived and began talking very sternly to Robyn and Wade. We kept our distance and pretended we didn't know them ;). At that point, ANOTHER coast guard boat sped in and also began talking with them, and eventually escorted them back to shore. It turns out they were in the shipping lane, and there was an enormous freighter about 5 minutes away and coming in fast. the hash point was right in the freighter's path.

After the crisis was averted, we all gathered on the beach. The three of us set off again in the sailboat to attempt to hit the hashpoint on the way back across the bay, with Xore and Rhonda quickly catching up in the kayaks. There was still very little wind there, so we mostly bobbed around and watched Xore and Rhonda paddle happily away. They reached the hashpoint while we bobbed uselessly a few meters away. Wanting to get there too, we had them ram our boat with their kayaks so that we would drift in the right direction.

Once the festivities were over, Xore and Rhonda returned to the beach while the three of us...stayed in the same spot for a long time. We eventually flagged down a passing power boat and got them to tow us out of the shipping lane. We briefly found some wind...and then lost it again...and then got some more!...and then lost it again. We ended up calling for help from the sailing club at the beach, and they sent a zodiac out to rescue us. Several times Plypkie was sternly talked to, although for some reason the nice people did not charge him the rescue fee. \o/

Elbie quickly left, horribly late for her evening plans (sorry :( ), while Yangman and Plypkie sat around in the shade going "zomg" for a while. Eventually tacos and tequila were had, and thus ended an exciting adventure.

The Raft Expedition (Robyn & Wade)

We built an elaborate raft out of driftwood and paddled it out to sea, wearing pirate garb.

The Kayak Expedition (Rhonda & Xore)

Ribbons

water geohash for Elbie, Plypkie, Rhonda, Xore, Yangman
MacGyver honourable mention for Robyn
Pirate honourable mention for Wade?
Transportation failure for Robyn & Wade?


Sat 11 Jul 2009 in 49,-123: 49.3206566, -123.1604565 geohashing.info google osm bing/os kml crox