Sunday, June 6, 12021 HE
There was a bit of wind and swell forecasted for the evening. I sent out some feelers to see if anyone was available in the evening when the wind would be at its strongest.
Trevor got back to me and he was keen. I kept an eye on the conditions at Jericho as the day went on hoping that the wind would be stronger than the prediction. Below is the prediction from Jericho. It looked like it could be decent. My only concern was that perhaps it was a bit too southerly and we would get pushed offshore and have a bit of challenge docking.
With the waves looking to be stronger earlier in the evening, we decided to aim for around 16:00 to launch. Just before leaving my place to meet Trevor, I checked the conditions on the Jericho Sailing Centre to get some real-time data. The wind was up and coming more from the east which would be to our advantage.
After picking up Trevor we discussed whether to do some upwind/downwind legs or try to do a one-way route from Kitsilano Beach to Spanish Banks. We decided we would decide once we were out on the water to see if there was enough wind to make the one-way route worthwhile. I had checked to see if there were any Evo cars available near Spanish Banks. And there were quite a few. With the questionable beach weather, I figured they would be moving quickly. Here is a quick video summary of our trip.
From the shore at Kitsilano things looked relatively calm. We hoped that once we paddled out there would a bit more wind building through the fetch offshore.
We started by paddling straight out into English Bay. Little ways offshore the wind and waves were starting to pick up. We decided to head upwind for a bit before turning around to head downwind. The upwind chop is a nice way to wake up your sea legs. The picture below is Trevor making his way upwind.
As we turned to head downwind the waves were small. But they were going in the right direction.
We made our westward. Near the Royal Vancouver Yacht Club, we were both feeling pretty warm. We decided to work on some choppy water pivot turns with the thought that we would likely fall in and cool off. Our plan worked.
We did another small jaunt upwind as the conditions here were feeling pretty good. Then it was off towards Jericho and Locarno Beach. Just before we started to head westward again, I realized that we hadn’t yet booked our return Evo car. Luckily, when I opened the app there was one waiting perfectly situated between the parking lot at Locarno Beach and the Spanish Banks East Concession.
There was some light surf at Locarno so we did a few runs up and downwind. It worked well as we had a few more minutes before our Evo reservation expired. We made it to the car with three minutes to spare. Then it was back to Kitsilano to pick up the car.
Here is our route from Google Fit activity tracker.
And the statistics from Google Fit.
I SUP Explore 