WHAT A WATERFULL WEEKEND.

Besides increasing there calorie intake at various Thanksgiving Dinners at their various family kennels, a number of Gonzos did manage to burn off some of these potential fat globules skimming across a number of lakes in NB and NS.

The first annual Paddle FROM the Sea on Monday.

The weather report was for developing rain, 30 mm, and 50 km N winds. The morning started cloudy and a bit of a breeze. Could the MAN be wrong "again?" And does it matter anyway?

Dipper in his (Gordon's) beloved blue K1, and Viking and Sungod in the 18' Stealth left Banook Canoe Club at 8:30am for the 20 km paddle through Lake Banook, Lake Mic Mac, Lake Charles, Lake Williams, and Lake Thomas--and portages through the various locks-- to the Warnica Marina.

While passing through Shubie Park we were joined by Ian and Brenda, who continued on with us. Though the winds did pick up a bit the paddle was basically uneventfull, arriving at the Marina for tea and cookies. We were joined here by Hardware Helga and Judy Hunt in their sea Kayaks and newbies, Sungod's niece Joanna, and her beau Eddie, paddling the Sungods medal winning Penobscot.

We were also joined here by the rain and wind. The next two hours, 10 kms, would not be pretty, but would be lots of fun and a feeling of accomplishment would be felt. We became pretty strung out at times with Dipper escorting Joanna and Eddie, while Viking and Sungod would zip up and down the lake in the Stealth, trying to keep warm and offering any assistance, moral or physical.

Things got a bit exciting running through a bit of white water at Lock # 5. Nancy and Joanna/Eddie shooting right through, Viking/Sungod walking waist deep to free their ship off the shallow rocks, Brenda dumping--full emmersion, and Judy hung up sideways in the rapids--basically laying in the river.

We were now wet, and getting cold, but the best (worst) was yet to come. We were now at the start of Grand Lake, and had to go "ONLY" 1/4 of a mile to get to the Hunt House. I say only since we were faced with rolling whitecaps of 2 to 3 feet, waves that we had to cross at 45 degrees. Bruce M., Joanna, and Eddie arrived at this point first, the problem being they didn't know where Judy's house was, and crossing the open water without a place to go get dry/warm would not be the smartest thing to do. There fore they went right to Eddies Grandfathers who just happened to live there.

The rest came through 10 minutes later, after some river rescues in the white water, to PLOW through the waves to our place of rest. Nancy and Judy handled the waves magnificiently, or at least their sea kayaks gave them that edge. Ian's Canoe Scout also handled the whitecaps reasonably, the only thing in danger was his and Brenda's arms were ready to fall off after a tough day, to be topped off by a really tough situation. The toughest paddle was Viking and Sungod in the "high tech" kevlar Stealth. Built for speed and cutting easily through water, it did just that. The problem being when a canoe cuts through high waves, it does not spread the water to the sides, but slices through like a knife--the water then rolling in over the sides. Every good wave was lots of fun, but put more water into the boat. Bottom line is we all arrived safe and sound-but very wet and cold--to munch on RumRunner Pizza and coffee and tea provided by our host Judy and Paul Hunt. Many thanks to them. You can easily imagine 9 sloppy wet and cold people out in the rain for the day and then arriving at your door.

Much appreciation and love to them.

Cheers and love to all

Hope to see you in Keji on Friday-Is your throat sore??????????

-- The Sun god