Relive the Sea Squash Paddle
Alternate title: The sea DOES provide!
Alternate alternate title: Adventures in urban marine foraging.
Alternate alternate alternate title: Further adventures in surviving kayak-themed cooking.
I checked January off my “Paddle in every month of 2022” challenge yesterday when I went out for another long paddle around Nanaimo’s harbour! This time I put in at the Charlaine Boat Ramp, one of the closest launches from my place, and paddled south out of Three Lagoon Islands Park. Fun fact: that’s what Shack Island seems to be officially named. Who knew!
It was a foggy late-morning so I stuck close to shore fighting a bit of a headwind-meets-outgoing-tide chop. Once I got to Departure Bay entrance, Newcastle Island provided a bit of shelter and I crossed over at Jesse Island on flat calm seas. I followed an outrigger canoe into Newcastle Island Passage and passed the marinas sitting quiet in the mist.
By the time I reached the Newcastle anchorage and broke into my lunch as I drifted through the narrows the wind had completely died down and the fog had risen to low cloud. It was kind of eerie, one of the four ships anchored behind the islands had disappeared into the mist!
Lunch with a view! 8km in, reached the turnaround point.
Speaking of ships, one was looking so close that I had to go check it out. The African Arrow has been sitting in Nanaimo for eight days already after leaving Yokohama, Japan on Christmas Eve. I paddled around the 200m long bulk carrier, which looked to be empty, meaning for the first time I circumnavigated a ship!
Since I was already off shore a bit, I thought it would be just as fast crossing Departure Bay entrance and making straight for the Hudson Rocks ecological reserve. Probably four times longer than my normal harbour crossing, I made sure the BC Ferries ship and a small sailboat had gone through and no other vessels were nearby before I set off at a pretty quick pace.
Reaching the Hudson Rocks ecological preserve. No seals on the rocks today, probably because of all the sea lions in the area.
Then one of the strangest things happened. I found a butternut squash! Right there, floating in the water not twenty strokes from where I had set off. I think it must have come off the sailboat somehow because the papery sticker (showing it was grown right here on Vancouver Island) was still attached and there were no bites out of it from the curious sea lions swimming around me.
Well there’s dinner sorted!
Would you eat something you found in the middle of an active harbour? It looked fine to me, so…why not? I brought it home, cut it open (still looking fine), and roasted it! I made a hack of Jamie Oliver’s Zucca al forno (the only ingredient I actually had from Jamie’s list was olive oil…) and served it with carrots, potatoes, and a honey garlic pork tenderloin!
I’m still alive the next day, so it can’t have been that bad!
While the squash definitely became the highlight of my paddle, I had originally hit the water wanting to test the Relive app, recommended by Michael from the hiking group, to see how it could show my route. What do you think of it?
For some reason it tracked my elevation and put a challenge tag at the end that I hadn’t seen on the app. The map is interesting, but I wonder if it is better for land-based activities. Apparently you can go back and upload past events from GPX files, so maybe I’ll try making one from my biking adventures last summer, or I’ll just try it with the next hike/paddle. If I was doing a multi-day trip I would definitely get the paid version because then you can add videos, more images, and edit the videos together.
Paddle stats: 16.67km, 3:17, 2 eagles, about 10 sea lions, 1 ship, 1 marine vegetable.
11 more months of paddling, and if my shopping list gets filled each time I’ll be a happy paddler! Next time I’ll ask the ocean for a loaf of bread, a couple avocados, and maybe some chocolate cake.
