[blockquote]“The boat sinking was depressing but the worst thing was the sea sickness. The day I crossed the halfway line, I became seasick. Obviously if I threw up over the side I’d have capsized into it so I just had to throw up over myself.”

-Helen Skelton[/blockquote]

It’s been a busy couple of weeks here at Johnston Land. I took last week off work and went car camping with a bunch of families from the kids school. In total 11 adults and 11 kids under 9 went up to Awenda Provincial Park (2.5 hours north of Toronto) to spend 4 days hanging out during the best camping weather ever.

It was hot and sunny the whole time leaving us with little interest in doing anything but a bit of hiking in the morning and sitting at the beach in all afternoon. It was absolutely fantastic.

In September of 1908 an iron-hulled, three-masted sailing ship called the Star of Bengal departed the Southeast Alaska fishing town of Wrangell laden with 5,260 cases of salmon.

It wasn't before the weather turned for the worse and the tug boats who were guiding the Star through the difficult navigation channels had to cut the lines in the extremely rough seas. The Star of Bengal was quickly lost on the rocks of Coronation Island.

I finally got out paddling this weekend after being away from my boat for way to long. We knew the weather was going to be good since the marine forecast was predicting 30 knots winds with gusts to 40. The only problem was that the winds were coming out of the NW which isn't great for Toronto. For us, the best winds are coming out of the south or southwest.

I'm heading off with the family shortly for a short vacation in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina next week.

I know it is the mini-putt capital of the world but I'm putting out a call to see if there are any surf kayak rentals in the area that paddlers would suggest. I'm also in the hunt for anywhere that I might be able to take a lesson as well.