Dear <<First Name>>,

Happy 2018, all! This issue marks the start of our third year with the SISKA newsletter. Do let us know what you think and if there is anything you think we should be adding or subtracting from it. It seems as if over 100 members open the newsletter each month and a good number find useful links to click!

Both Ben and Mike are expecting to be away for much of 2018 on various trips, so we are looking for someone to assist with or take a primary role as the club newsletter editor. The newsletter is produced using the popular MailChimp system which is pretty easy to use and maintain. Please email the newlsetter team if you are interested/willing.

Thanks to those members who contributed photos and materials. After enjoying a SISKA event or paddle, please consider sending a short (100-150 words) summary article; for more information, contact one of us. If you would like to start a regular column, please let us know!

Michael Jackson (SISKA president) and Ben van Drimmelen (editor)

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PS: You can find SISKA on Facebook at this link.

PPS: SISKA has a Meetup site for "impromptu" and other paddles organized by club members. For more details, go to https://www.meetup.com/SISKA-Meetup/. To join this, you have to be a club member.

PPPS: You can find the SISKA newsletter archive here: http://goo.gl/VUkafR

 

Haro Strait is well known to SISKA paddlers as we paddle to Chatham, Discovery, Sidney, James, Coal, Knapp, Pym, Piers, Moresby, Portland, D'Arcy and Rum Islands.

Haro Strait extends roughly from the south end of Discovery Island to the north end of the Saanich Peninsula, where it joins Boundary Pass.  The much listened-to "Haro Strait Marine Weather" forecast from Environment Canada describes conditions at Kelp Reefs buoy, just southweast of D'Arcy Island, near the major shipping channel. (The mid channel forecast is often worse than inshore conditions).
 
The Spanish naval officer Manual Quimper was the first European to see our waters and named the strait in 1790 after his first mate "Gonzales Lopez de Haro".  Hence, we have Gonzales Bay\Point\Hill, Lopez Island in the San Juans and Haro Strait all named after him.

A dispute broke out between the British and the US in 1859 over whether the  international boundary between Canada and the US should lie to the east (Rosario Strait) or west (Haro Strait) side of the San Juan islands. This led to an armed standoff: the so-called Pig War - triggered by the shooting of a pig!. However, no additional shots were fired. The dispute was eventually resolved by an arbitrator (Kaiser Wilhelm 1) in favour of the US, so the international border was established along Haro Strait. (Too bad, as San Juan Island might have been Canadian!)

- Debbie Leach

 

HANG IN THERE!

Stringing a line through the “cargo net” loops in the top of your tent makes for a handy airing/drying line.