We had another great paddle today, just north of Nanaimo, out of Nanoose Bay. This is a very pretty area, quite hilly and lots of really nice big houses with magnificent views. We have paddled here once before and we knew that when clear, the coastal mountains can be spectacular so we wanted to see them again with lots of snow. And they put on a great show.

Using the Peakfinder app, we could see all these mountains on the mainland some as far away as 100 km. What great views!

There were lots of little island and rock outcroppings, which meant, at low tide, we had to give some extra space but it was fun to toodle around them with the mountains in the background.

It was a sunny day and since we waited for the wind to abate, it was not cold. Looking into the sun created some nice backlit scenes.

The ‘lion’ part of the adventure was a large sea lion that surfaced not 5 ft from Bill’s boat. It caught both of them by surprise I think, but since he was not social distancing properly, he quickly submerged again. He was a good size and made some noise so it was quite an experience!

The ‘dog’ experience was a unique opportunity to see a Sun Dog. I don’t think I’ve ever seen one before so this was a treat. I had to look up how this phenomenon is created, and apparently it’s caused by the refraction of sunlight by ice particles in the atmosphere.

So, another very enjoyable winter paddle! We had new experiences, enjoyed the scenery and were energized by being outside on the water.