Northshore Burrard Inlet

Saturday, June 12, 12021 HE

We did a family visit to North Vancouver to visit with the boys’ grandparents. The forecast was calling for sun in the afternoon, but I was pleasantly surprised, as were many people, but the amount of sun and warmth that we received.

After my frustration with trying to get a parking spot last time I paddled from West Vancouver in the afternoon, I decided to cut my losses and not even attempt to park at Ambleside. Instead, I would head straight to Caulfeild Cove and launch from there. When I arrived in the Caulfeild area I was glad to see it nowhere near as busy as the May long weekend. I was easily able to get a VIP parking spot right next to the trail leading to the dock.

The forecast from Windy.com was calling for a light southeasterly wind. But my experience has been that the wind is usually stronger than the forecast. I also checked the Hollyburn Sailing Club’s website for real-time wind statistics. It confirmed the Windy.com prediction. The forecast did call for the winds to change direction later in the afternoon but I didn’t want to bank on that happening. So, I decided to paddle east from Caulfeild Cove so that I could take advantage of the southeasterly wind on my return paddle west. It was low tide but I would be mainly paddling through the slack portion of the tide.

The view from the dock at Caulfeild Cove looked gorgeous with the ultra-low tide showing off the barnacles on the pilings to the Point Atkinson Tide Gauge Station backdropped by evergreen tree line at Eagle Point, scattered cumulus clouds, and baby blues skies.

Here is a short clip of my departure from Caulfeild Cove. There are some small waves as a result of the light southeasterly wind.

It was going to be a good day out on the water!

I made my way out of the cove and then eastward. Below is the view looking back towards Point Atkinson from just outside of Pilot Cove.

The waters here were calm and there was minimal wind.

The cumulus cloud formations were great and I thought to myself that it would have been fun to have my boys on board to look for cloud forms in the sky. I see an alligator’s or dragon’s head coming out of the cloud below on the right.

And here is the view east toward Sandy Cove.

With the southeasterly wind, I was heading into the waves. But they were small. The image below captures some of the chop with the Vancouver city skyline in the distant background.

Here is the second of the two moored tankers that are often anchored at Pilot Cove and Sandy Cove, respectively. The dormant beast lies in wait for its next voyage.

And here is the view of the Cypress Mountain Area. It is all green from this vantage point.

And again here is my alligator-dragon cloud with Point Grey in the background beneath.

I was riding my 2020 board. I was curious to use it as it had been a while. I had been mainly using my 2019 board as it has the action mount at the nose of the board. But after my paddling lesson where Mike let me hold his new ultralight Starboard Lima paddle I was keen to compare my boards again since the paddles are approximately 115 grams (4 oz) lighter between the 2019 and 2020 models. At approximately 795 and 905 grams, respectively, the paddles are nowhere near Lima territory, which ranges from under 400 grams to 570 grams depending on the size and type of paddle (one, two, or three-piece). But as a Father’s Day gift I will be receiving a Black Project Lava paddle so I was curious to see how much of a difference I noticed between my current paddles. I choose the Black Project Lava paddle after watching the SUPBoarder three-piece all-around paddle comparison. Black Project’s site lists the starting weight for the Lava as 450 grams. From the SUPBoarder comparison, the three-piece paddle weight was 635 grams.

I was closely passed by this sailboat so I tried to take advantage of its wake.

I was able to take a bit of advantage of the sailboat’s wake after it had passed by.

Below is the view to the east with Burnaby Mountain hanging out behind the Lion’s Gate Bridge connecting Stanley Park to the North Shore. I found the view of Burnaby Mountain particularly interesting since I have been doing a lot of paddling in Indian Arm with the Tuesday Night Race series.

A little different view with the camera turned around and cirrus cloud sweeping out across the sky.

I paddled as far east as Dundarave Beach before turning to head back to Caulfeild Cove. Below is the West Vancouver city skyline.

There were many sailboats out and about in Burrard Inlet. I heard three different tankers giving the five whistle warning on at least five occasions warning the smaller vessels to get the fuck out of the way. Each time I heard the whistles I chuckled to myself as the lyrics to Ludacris‘ Move Bitch track danced around in my head. Here is one of the tankers that were whistling warnings while withdrawing from the Port of Vancouver.

As I was heading back westward the winds had shifted to being more southwesterly. And the clouds were more cirrus in nature now. Though on the distant horizon there were many cumulus clouds foreshadowing moisture in the future.

Looking over the point I could see more signs of moisture in the future. A sign that my audit of the UBC EOAS Weather for Sailing, Flying & Snow Sports was paying off. Though I guess the true sign of that would come in the future.

But for the time being, I was ready to enjoy the sunshine and taste of summer.

The change in wind direction and tide result in some glassy water conditions. I always find it fascinating to see how the sea state can change and relatively quickly. In this case, it worked to my advantage, but it is also something to consider knowing that you will not always be so fortunate.

My baby blue sky seems to have been replaced.