August 28th - Russel Island (#6)

Monica, Jenny, Claire and I went for a "family" day trip out to Russel Island. Jenny had been there by kayak once in grade 10 and Monica and Claire had not been there before. We decided to try our hand at crabbing and prawning. Crabbing success in the Sidney spit area was poor (one red rock crab) and the prawning success was better with 27 nice prawns in one trap. We put a second trap in deeper water and it came up with nothing but a few squat lobsters. Natural C-lection performed well giving us a comfortable ride and it was a great day spent together! My beach anchor system using an anchor buddy worked well also, keeping the boat off the beach while we went for a walk around the island. I used a trailer hitch extension for the launch which definitely helped as it was a 1 foot tide at Tulista. Retrieval of the boat is still a problem as the boat still does not want to stay snug up to the front roller after being pulled up the ramp. The boat runs along nicely at just over 40 kph at wide open throttle. Fuel economy was so so, using 61 litres to cover 82 km.

click to enlarge (gray sections of track indicate over 40 kph)

82 km. (1.34 km/l, 3.16 mpg)