Last weekend’s Club activities included a kayak trip to the Thormanby islands. This is a great destination, easily accessible from Vancouver and highly recommended as a beginner or intermediate trip. A large portion of South Thormanby island is a marine park that has been left in a more or less unimproved state (e.g. no toilets or picnic tables). It appears that the old homestead at Farm Bay has been left to decay and the meadows are slowly going back to forest. The lake on the map also seems to be going back to marsh, so don't get your hopes too high for swimming .  The bird life is fantastic, and you can enjoy a real nature experience if you can pitch your tent far enough from the snoring masses.

Among the highlights of our trip

• Experimenting with the use of Coleman fuel in an alcohol stove

• Nearly losing one paddler and some of her footwear to a pit of quicksand at low tide

• Improving access to our cove by moving several inconvenient logs at high tide

• A lunar eclipse

• Eagles wrestling in mid-air off the north tip of Merry Island

• Being overtaken and passed by a pod of seven orcas (including an albino), shortly after launching from Halfmoon Bay

If you are planning to visit Farm Bay, note that launching and landing will be nearly impossible at high tide levels, as your access to and from the beach will be blocked by the remaining mat of floating logs and related debris.  Also remember that the demand for Sunshine Coast ferries is currently well in excess of supply, so if you don’t have reservations you could be in for a several-sailing wait.