Conquering Vancouver Island

January 2009

Sean Morley sets new speed record for what is likely to become a prized circuit for kayak racers

This is an article from WaveLength Magazine, available in print in North America and globally on the web.

To download a pdf copy of the magazine click here: > DOWNLOAD

By John Kimantas

Sean Morley

On Sept. 24, 2008 at 2:53 p.m., Sean Morley paddled out of Port Hardy to end a counter-clockwise circumnavigation of Vancouver Island. He began with one goal in mind: to set a new speed record. That record was previously held by Brit Keirron Tastagh and Portland’s Jeff Norville in a double in May 2007, a trip of 19.5 days; the single was set later that same year by Joe O’Blenis who completed the circumnavigation in 23.5 days. Morley smashed both records by paddling the approximately 700 miles (1,120 km) in 17 days, 4 hours and 49 minutes –and against headwinds most of the way. Coast&Kayak Magazine editor John Kimantas had a chance to chat with Sean about his experience.

WL: Is it good to be home?

SM: It certainly is, although I’ve had a few days off and now it’s catch-up in the office.

WL: My initial reaction after a lot of those longer trips was I just felt like keeping going. How about you?

SM: This one I was very happy to finish. I was actually away for a month in total with the West Coast Sea Kayak Symposium as well. When you’ve got an 18-month-old daughter, a month is a long time.

WL: That’s changed your impression of long-distance kayaking, endurance racing kayaking, having a child, has it not?

SM: Absolutely. You know, the six-month trip I did around the U.K. and Ireland I could definitely have kept going. I was really enjoying the lifestyle. But on this one, I was definitely ready to stop and head home.

WL: How much of that was the weather?

SM: On this trip, the weather was fine. It was starting to get a little cool, certainly at night it was starting to get a little cold, but no, it wasn’t really to do with the weather. I just wanted to get home and see the family.

WL: Was it worth it?

Catala Island, Esperanza Inlet.

SM: Oh, absolutely. It was tough on many levels, both physically and mentally, and a huge guilt feeling that lot of people recognize; you feel very selfish going off and doing something like that when you’ve got the family at home, but you have to balance those things out, and I needed to do it for my own personal sense of not just talking it all the time but being able to do it. And it was definitely worthwhile.

WL: How old are you, Sean?

SM: I’m 43.

WL: That’s an excellent endurance test for someone entering middle age. I’m 45 and I’m not sure I could do that anymore. What was your longest day?

SM: I haven’t actually measured the distances that I did each day. The longest day in terms of paddling, 11½-12 hours, was the last day. The very last day I finished in the dark.

WL: What was your most difficult day?

SM: Probably the day that I came down the second half of the Strait of Juan de Fuca. I can’t remember exactly where I started out from but I ended up at Jordan River. And I knew the forecast was for wind to switch half-way through the day. So I had sort of a brisk headwind for the morning, and then within an hour it had gone from brisk headwind to no wind at all to a slight tailwind to about 40 knots of tailwind. And just a bit of quartering sea – it wasn’t right behind me. The sea built from flat calm to pretty rough within an hour. And to start with it was a lot of fun and great to be getting really on-surf rides and I really felt like I was moving fast, which after several days of head-banging was a great feeling. But after a while you start to get tired. I started to get a bit cold because I was getting a few waves on the head, you know, definitely cresting waves because not working as hard with a tailwind as a headwind, I definitely started to get a bit chilled. After five hours really fighting to keep the boat straight and surf the waves I was definitely pleased to get off the water.

WL: How difficult was it for you getting campsites along the coast?

SM: For the most part it was easy. Occasionally I didn’t make necessarily a wise choice in so much as I ended up with a longer carry than I would have liked. It was easy to find campsites, but it wasn’t necessarily easy to find campsites that had access to fresh water. That was a challenge.

WL: I guess you were traveling pretty light then as far as the amount of water you were taking and the amount of equipment.

SM: I had a four-litre (one gallon) bag of water and I tried to top that off as often as I could but as it turned out I didn’t run out completely, but I definitely had to ration the water. I assumed at campsites that had a creek clearly marked I would be able to access that water, but as it turns out that's not as simple as it appears. Those creeks marked coming down to a beach, the driftwood is piled so high where the creek enters the beach that you can’t actually access the fresh water there and the forest is so thick that you can’t go through the forest to find the area where there is running water. The stream sort of seems to enter the beach under this huge pile of driftwood so you can’t actually access the water, which a couple of times was quite problematic.

WL: What was your best day out there?

SM: After I’d come around Brooks Peninsula the next two days I had just perfect weather – no wind or a very slight headwind but most of the time no wind at all and it was just gorgeous, just a gentle swell, fantastic visibility and wildlife everywhere, nobody about. I didn’t see anybody for six days until I got down to Tofino. And it was just glorious.

WL: Are you done with setting records, or do you have more in sight?

SM: I don’t know at this stage to be honest. There’s something I’ve been sort of thinking about for a while that I have a fancy having a go at, and that’s a Caribbean crossing from Florida to Venezuela. Politically at the moment it’s not so easy to do and it would be a long trip, so it would necessitate my family being able to follow me in a yacht, so it becomes a big-bucks expedition. That’s kind of on the backburner at the moment, but it’s definitely something I’ve been thinking about. And at some point I’d like to do a polar expedition. So I don’t think I’m quite done yet but I definitely want to spend some time at home. I don’t have anything planned at the moment, that’s for sure.

WL: It seems to me Vancouver Island is ideal for trying to set a speed record. Do you expect other people to try and beat your mark? Do you think you’ve contributed towards something that could grow quite a bit larger?

SM: I’d like to think so. I certainly didn’t start it. Leon Sommes from Body Boat Blade was the first , sort of, that I’m aware to not necessarily declare a record but got around in 28 days, and that was the mark to beat, and then Joe O’Blenis last year lowered the record to 23 days, so hopefully I’ve raised the bar. But I would certainly like to think other people will have a go at it. And I think you’re absolutely right, Vancouver Island is ideal in terms of the challenges the island presents in terms of rough water, tides and landings and that sort of stuff. It’s the right sort of distance where most people can find three weeks to have a go at the circumnavigation. I would really ask people not to underestimate the challenge, because it’s definitely one of the toughest things I’ve ever done.

WL: Was it much tougher than the British Isles trip?

SM: No, British Isles was a lot harder in many ways, but that was because it was a six-month trip, so inevitably I encountered six months worth of weather. I was definitely out in much bigger seas and much rougher weather during the British Isles trip, but there wasn’t the pressure of trying – I was paddling 10 hours a day most days and some days longer than that, but it wasn’t quite as intense as this Vancouver Island expedition. But Vancouver Island is challenging because it is so remote. I definitely experienced more wind, more weather, going around the British Isles than Vancouver Island, but that’s just luck.

WL: How bad was it pulling out at Ucluelet and waiting that extra day?

 

A moody afternoon at Clo-oose, Juan de Fuca Strait.

SM: It was fine. It was just what needed to be done. Definitely the day I didn’t paddle I could probably have made it to the Broken Group Islands but it wouldn’t have been sensible to do that, and I think I was definitely better off waiting at Ucluelet and being able to check the forecast. I knew the long range weather the next five days wasn’t great and I really had to make sure I had the window I needed to make it down the Strait of Juan de Fuca and I couldn’t do that at one of the Broken Group Islands. So having access to the internet was really useful for that. And to be honest my body and brain needed a rest anyway, so it was good timing from that point of view.

WL: Any advice for anybody who decides to try this?

SM: My advice is to speak to the real experts like yourself and Doug Alderson who was a huge help to me, and really not underestimate the challenge involved. I had lots of headwind but I didn’t have that many storms, and I think you really do need to get your planning right and have an escape route in mind, as I can imagine the conditions could be far worse than I encountered, and you do really need to be able to find shelter.

WL: When you come back to the island what’s going to be the place you want to visit?

SM: All of it! There are many, many places I definitely want to go back to. I think Checleset Bay, Nootka Island, those two areas I’d like to explore more, the Bunsby Islands, that sort of area. It looked fantastic the little bits that I saw. The Broken Group Islands looked amazing. In Johnstone Strait I had the pleasure of paddling with killer whales for about an hour, so that was amazing as well. But of course there are lots of other places to go in the world as well. There’s the rest of the B.C. coast and Alaska as well. But I will definitely be back to Vancouver Island. A very, very special place, no doubt about it.

You can follow the blog Sean and his wife Gina kept during the journey at http://riverandocean.blogspot.com/. Previous record holder Joe O'Blenis has already vowed to take the title back in June 2009. We'll keep you posted on that trip as it develops. Also, visit the Wavelength forum at wavelengthmagazine.com/forum "Paddling Places" for commentary.