We have been helped, supported, sheltered, showered with hospitality and befriended by an army of people. We would like to acknowledge how grateful we are to everyone for their involvement.
First, we want to say a huge thank you to our wives, Anne Reggler and Penny Dutton. An expedition such as ours takes a lot of planning, with our consequent removal from familial duties (neither of us have touched our gardens for a very, very long time) and the weight has fallen on the shoulders of Penny and Anne. Resupplies in Sayward, Port Hardy, Winter Harbour, Tofino and Sooke relied on both our wives, sometimes with only 24 hours notice, hightailing it to the appropriate place with boxes of kit and food.
Others in our families played a major part in resupply runs or in their support, either physical or emotional. So our thanks to Doug’s son Christopher, brother Don and brothers -in-law Ron, Rob and families; and to Jonathan’s son Will and daughter Clare. Also Jonathan’s parents Mike and Daphne who thought he was a bit mad to be trying this in the first place.
Don Lockwood of Comox Valley Kayaks put us in contact with each other two years ago. Our thanks to Don for recognizing that we just might be able to make a go of this together, and for his friendship, humour and real support with kit and resupply, especially at Winter Harbour.
We had hoped that Brent Arnold would be able to join us for more of our expedition. Pressure of work in a difficult industry – logging – kept Brent, who trained with us during much of the winter, from paddling alongside us except on the first two days and the last one; but we were delighted he could join us then as he is a fine paddler who is an inspiration to both of us.
Our thanks to the following for their parts in our adventure:
Rhodos Coffee Shop especially Janice Proudfoot, Bea, Kim, John and Kelly
The many members of the Comox Paddlers who gave us such a great sendoff and escorted return
Jill Blacklock and Sharon Crowe for the laminated front page of the Comox Valley Record that they presented to us on the Puntledge as we left
Sally Atton for meeting us in her kayak and providing a fabulous fruit cake
John and Jackie Watson for their kindness and back yard campsites
Charlie and Jill from Quadra and Qualicum
Jennifer and Scott Larsen who provided the dehydrated carrot cake for our celebrations
Alice Woods and dog Maggie from the Chatham Point light house
Steve Emery and Louise Defryn of North Island Kayaks at Telegraph Cove
Pat and Jackie Kervin from Port Hardy
Curt Usherwood, Bob Gilbey, Dan Baudin and Earl Sontag who assisted us at Nissen Bight
Jay and Heather McGee and their dog Ty
Robin Rooke, Adrian Le Pitre, Ron Greene and Bruce "Pockets" for their hospitality at Winter Harbour
Kristy from the Kyuquot Market
Tom and Nancy Murphy, Dave and Diane Lewis and Dean and Geoff Johnson from Esperanza for their extraordinary hospitality
Fred Martin from Fanny Bay who was also circumnavigating the Island by kayak
Cliff and Linda Haylock and sister Marie from Bamfield for their hospitality
Fellow paddlers and friends from Ecomarine including Joan Mercier, Eric Schwartz, Lisa Blachut and Charlie Easton
David Lecovin and family paddling out of James Bay
The ladies from the Nanaimno Paddlers including Lyn Hancock, Laurie, Bonita, Gloria and Kalavati for excellent hors d'oeuvres at James Bay
Steve Davis, Jenn Erlendson, and Ziggy the dog for their excellent company and goodies at Thrasher Cove and again at James Bay on Prevost Island
Brent and Merle Middleton from Chilliwack for their appetizers and travel stories at Pirates Cove
The crew from Power to Be and their happy kayakers/campers from BC hospitals
Ken and Olga McClean for the great photos of us in Baynes Sound as we flew past
Mike Jackson and Roy Messina for their advice
Doug Alderson and John Kimantas for their excellent books and charts on expedition paddling especially around Vancouver Island
Nigel Dennis for designing and building the very fine Explorer kayaks that we paddled for over nine weeks
And finally, to those not mentioned who followed our journey through our blog and your comments there.
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We are attempting a circumnavigation of Vancouver Island during May, June and July of 2008. We are paddling NDK Explorers, British skeg kayaks. Doug Taylor and Jonathan Reggler
About us
DOUG TAYLOR - former officer in the Canadian Forces (36 years) and manager at Osgoode Hall (7 years), retired to the Comox Valley in 2004. Can be found in my NDK Explorer HV, when not having a coffee at Rhodos or hanging out at Comox Valley Kayaks where I teach Paddle Canada courses.
JONATHAN REGGLER - Ex-British Army medical officer, became a civilian GP in the United Kingdom for 11 years then immigrated to the Comox Valley on Vancouver Island, BC, in 2003. Sea kayaking since 2004. Family physician in Courtenay.
JONATHAN REGGLER - Ex-British Army medical officer, became a civilian GP in the United Kingdom for 11 years then immigrated to the Comox Valley on Vancouver Island, BC, in 2003. Sea kayaking since 2004. Family physician in Courtenay.
WHERE ARE WE?
Click on the link to maps.google.com in the latest post and follow our progress.
A message sent in the evening means we have been paddling and have reached a new place. A message sent in the morning means we are staying put.
If there is no SPOT message for a few days do not panic! SPOT is new technology and a glitch or two may happen. We have loads of back-up with VHF radios and EPIRB.
A message sent in the evening means we have been paddling and have reached a new place. A message sent in the morning means we are staying put.
If there is no SPOT message for a few days do not panic! SPOT is new technology and a glitch or two may happen. We have loads of back-up with VHF radios and EPIRB.
Comments
Doug and Jonathan love the fact that so many of you are following their progress but they also enjoy reading your comments when they have access to the internet. The links are at the end of the Spot message for the day. To read the comments: click on the Comment link. To leave a comment: click on the Envelope. They even answer some of them!!
WHAT WE ARE DOING
When Don Lockwood, the owner of Comox Valley Kayaks, a fine kayaking emporium stuffed with goodies, learned of my plan for a solo circumnavigation of Vancouver Island (I did not imagine I would find anyone willing to join me) he put me in touch with Doug Taylor. We met, gelled, and the trip was on.
We leave on May 4th, weather permitting. Vancouver Island is a fantastic kayaking destination and we both feel extremely lucky to live here and to be able to undertake this expedition. We are not racing around the island. We want to be able to make safe decisions each day and to stay on dry land when that is the sensible thing to do. We also want to take the time to nose into inlets and thoroughly explore some of the more remote parts of the island.
We have lots of safety equipment. Doug and I will be wearing dry suits. We will have incendiary flares, laser flares and GPS. Both of us carry VHF radios. We each have a personal locator beacon which allows us to alert the emergency services in case of disaster, via satellite.
Doug's personal locator beacon is a little electronic wizard called "Spot". Spot will send an email message out twice daily, via satellite. Each message will appear on the blog. Clicking on the link in the latest message will allow you to see where we have got to - maps.google.com will open in all its glory, showing you a satellite image of our last notified location. If we appear to have stayed in the same place for more than a night the possibilities are:
- The weather is foul, we are hunkered down under a tarp waiting for a storm to blow through
- The weather is great, we couldn't resist a day lazing in the sun
- Doug lost Spot on the beach.
JR
About NDK Explorers - for our non-paddling friends
Both of us will be paddling Explorer HV kayaks designed by Nigel Dennis in Wales. Explorers are small by the standards of kayaks designed in North America. They are narrow of beam and low in profile but this makes them extremely easy to control in water that is bouncy. In common with almost all British kayaks Explorers do not have rudders, which means the paddler steers by means of differences in paddle stroke power, good (hopefully) paddle stroke technique and by setting the boat on its edge. There is a drop-down fin near the stern, called a skeg, but this is to help with straight line tracking in wind - it is not for steering. In case of capsize Explorers are also easier to right using the "eskimo roll". We absolutely love them. Anyone on the Island who is interested in Explorers or one of the other Nigel Dennis boats can try them out at Comox Valley Kayaks. No one else on the Island has them.
3 comments:
Hi Doug & Jonathan
Congrats on completing the circumnavigation! That's a great accomplishment!
I was hoping that you might be willing to share some of your wisdom and information from your trip - I'm curious about some of your recipes, especially the corn bread you mentioned at Thrashers. Steve also mentioned that you had some yoga warmups in the morning, and a contract that you both signed. As well, I'm looking at a digital camera and am wondering what you took on your trip. I am also interested in finding out more about what when into getting this trip off the ground. (Preparation is always key.) I noticed that Jonathan has been kayaking for about 4 years and am wondering what it takes to get to this level? I only started paddling last fall and after having met you 2 on your voyage, am starting to think more about longer expedition trips.
I'm not sure what you're willing to share but feel free to email me at jen_erlendson@hotmail.com. I'm hoping you'll check your blog as I don't have any other contact information for you.
Congrats again & welcome home! Cheers Jen
PS. All I had left by the time I was at Sidney Spit was the trail mix - if I had McVities I would have shared them :) Thanks for the mention in your blog posts too!
Jen,
Nice to hear from you. I think I can speak for both of us and say that we are willing to share all of the knowledge that we have gained through both the preparation stage and the execution of our trip. I'll answer a few of your immediate queries and again, invite you and Steve to come up to the Valley to try boats and talk about expedition planning.
Camera: We both had Pentax Optio waterproof cameras> I had the Optio W20 and Jonathan the Optio W30. They both performed superbly well. We each carried a spare battery and 4 to 5, 1 x gig memory cards.
Cornbread: Any recipe or mix will do. Best ones have all the dry ingredients already mixed so you just add water. The real secret was the Outback oven (purchase at MEC) that converts your stove (we used "dragonflies") into an oven.
Skills. I started taking the Paddle Canada skills courses (currently completed level 3) and eventually instructor courses. skills courses are highly recommended. Check out SKILS at www.skils.ca. They run excellent courses.
I'll contact you via email and ask away. Other paddlers such as Mike Jackson and Roy Messina, both expediton paddlers, shared their knowledge with us and we are happy to add to it and pass it along as well.
Hi Doug
Thanks for the response! I'm hoping to be up island over the next few weeks so will try to stop in the store, or see if you are at Rhodos. I'm looking into cameras and courses now, and just bought the Dragonfly stove so will check out this outback oven too.
Looking forward to hearing from you! Cheers Jen
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