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Tag Archives: Georgia Strait
Belle Isles Tour
From the east side of Mayne Island, there is a lot of good paddling along the shoreline, around bays, through channels, and around islands. We paddled from the Horton Bay area around Curlew Island and out toward Georgia Strait to a chain of rocky islets called the Belle Isles. They act like a breakwater to the incoming winds and waves so we paddled out on a calm and sunny day to the first islets.
We heard there was a colony of sea lions on one of the outer isles, so we paddled along the sheltered side of the chain, parallel to Samuel Island. 
Winds were light right across Georgia Strait. We looked for Mt. Baker, 100 km east, but it was wreathed in clouds. We had great views a few days later from the ferry.
On one of the islets sea birds were perched, mostly cormorants and seagulls.
We spotted many seals in the channels, and sunning on the rocks.
The cormorants were alert to the approach of the kayaks so we kept a distance, using a longer lens to photograph them standing on the seaweed at low tide.
We got close enough to hear the sea lions, but the winds picked up so we did not get closer. We were told there are up to 300 of them on one rocky isle right out where the waves run onto the rocks.
We paddled back on a circuit between islands, about 9 km on the waves. A Google Earth fly-over is provided here as a tour of the Bell Isles:
Paddling the Miracle Beach Shoreline
We brought our kayaks to paddle the shoreline of Vancouver Island. Since we were camping at Miracle Beach, we launched from that beach. Miracle Beach has extensive shallows at low tide so launches and landings have to be at high tide. Even then, we had to put the wheels on our kayak to get them to the beach and down to the water. The tide table determined our paddling times, but once in the water, we enjoyed our paddling in the rolling waves of the Strait.
The paddle north from Miracle Beach to Salmon Point and back was our favorite. On the way is Black Creek, Saratoga Beach, the Oyster River Estuary and then the Oyster River Nature Trails. With the nutrients from the Oyster River, kelp beds were abundant and there was more sea life in the section north of the estuary.
We were pleased to spot fish jumping and two types of jellyfish.
For people who live on the Island, this would not be destination paddling, but we only get to the ocean once a year so we want to get our kayaks wet when we can. Last year we did the Broken Islands and future trips will be to destinations like Desolation Sound, Nootka Sound, and the Gulf Islands.
