Sunday, January 10, 12021 HE
Well, it is January and the days are short. In the summer it was so easy to get out early for a paddle but I have been reluctant to go early in the winter for good reason. Cold. Poor visibility both for me and for others. But in the spirit of Janus, the god of new beginnings and the namesake for January, I decided to buck the trend and get out for an early morning paddle. With lights for safety of course and staying close to the shore in an area busy with morning pedestrian traffic. Also, I planned my trip so that I would prepare my kit in the astronomical twilight and then set out during nautical twilight leading into civil twilight.
I planned to take advantage of the easterly winds and launch from the Spanish Banks Off Leash Dog Area and paddle towards Jericho Beach. I set a timer on my phone to go off when it was time for me to turn around.
I still had the Insta360 One X camera that a client had lent me to test out. Dave had graciously let me hold onto the camera longer to test out some of the other features. Specifically the time-lapse video feature. Unfortunately, my patience for editing video is short so you will have to bear with the nauseating rotating camera angle that occurs on the time-lapse videos. Ideally, you would edit the videos to have a select view to avoid the spinning image. But I gave up after slowing down the speed of the image lapse sequence and deleted the originals before I realized how nauseating the videos were at this image sequence speed.
The video below is short and dark enough that I did not get nauseous viewing. But consider yourself warned. View at your own risk.
The colours of the morning sky were amazing. The blurry photo below does not do the terrestrial beauty justice but it gives you a sense. It is tough to keep a camera steady on a stand up paddleboard to be able to take a photo in low light.
This time-lapse video is a bit longer and later into the twilight so for the prone to motion sickness view with caution. You can toggle the view but the images are changing so fast it is difficult. If you are prone to motion sickness but set on watching the video then just pause the video and manually scrub through.
Not quite sunrise but the photo below is now in the official civil twilight. Though it is still a challenge to get a clear picture under these conditions.
And this is the end of my eastward journey looking towards downtown Vancouver from just past the Jericho Pier in Burrard Inlet.
And a look back over my shoulder as my board rotates in the wind at Point Grey to the left and Bowen Island to the right.
On my return leg, there was a tanker ship heading into Burrard Inlet passing through some interesting fog.
All in all this was a good confidence builder for winter twilight paddling. It is good to know that it is an option as often the easiest time to be away from my family and not be missed is the morning.
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