Dear <<First Name>>,

As many of us head off to summer adventures, it is good to see that we still have plenty happening in the club with eight paddles over July and August.

Continuing thanks to the members who contribute photos and 100-150 word articles. For more information, contact one of us. And if you would like to start a regular column, please let us know!

You can find SISKA on Facebook at this link. SISKA also has a Meetup site for "impromptu" and other paddles organized by club members. (To join this, you have to be a club member.) For more details, go to https://www.meetup.com/SISKA-Meetup/.

Please also note that you can find archived newsletter articles in the SISKA newsletter archive page. These can be also be found via the members area of the website.

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

On July 8th, there are two SISKA paddle events happening - a paddle from Whiffin spit to Otter Point led by Debbie Leach and a Butchart Gardens fireworks paddle led by Mark Byrne. However, our web site currently has a quirk in that it cannot display more than one event on the same day.

So note that the Whiffin Spit to Otter Point paddle is actually happening on July 8th, as shown below, and not on July 7th as indicated on the SISKA website.

- Vic Turkington

 

 
On the return paddle from the north end of Chatham Island we often cross Baynes  Channel to Jemmy Jones island. The island is named after James (Jemmy) Jones (1830-81), a well known skipper who built several schooners, including the Carolina. The Carolina was later wrecked on Jemmy Jones Island.

Jemmy was quite the character and adventurer. He was imprisoned in Victoria for debt. Later, he took his steam boat, the Jenny Jones, to the US to avoid creditors. However the law caught up with him and he was arrested and his ship seized. He escaped from jail and crossed the Juan de Fuca Strait in a canoe, disguised in women's clothing and boarded his ship at Olympia, as a passenger. When the crew of the Jenny Jones went ashore the next night, he hijacked his ship and steamed it single handed back to BC. The intrepid mariner then sailed to Mexico; sold the boat and was later arrested again and released in San Francisco, before finally returning home to BC. - quite the adventurer! 

So as we paddle past Jemmy Jones island on the way back to Cadboro or Oak Bay, we can give a thought to this old colourful mariner.

- Debbie Leach

TIE ONE ON!

Attach strings to the items that you stuff into the bow and stern. That makes it easy to pull them out again.