Feb 5 2010 - Gord paddling a canoe

Who would have believed it! On Feb 5th 2010 Gord's canoe club arranged to come and pick him up on the beach in front of our condo at 7:20am. Gord could hardly sleep the night before - he didn't want to sleep in and miss it...

These pictures tell it all. To our surprise...especially Bob, Gord asked for a paddle as soon as we got him into the canoe. We all kind of looked at each other and went ...well, ok, let's try it and Bob gave him his paddle. Off they went and there was Gord contributing to the team - paddling with one arm. I went out in my kayak behind the canoes but soon realized there was no way I was going to catch up so I just floated around with my hydrophone in the water and lo and behold the whales were so loud it was amazing. I looked up and Gord's canoe was sitting right beside a 42 ton humpback whale. They were about 10 feet from it! And that was not the only one...all around us they were popping up .... quite a greeting for Gord. There were lots of tears ....

And then to top it all off, when they successfully manoeuvered back onto the shore, Carlos came up to me and told me Gord was counting the Hut Ho ....they go about 12-15 strokes on each side and then on command the paddlers change sides. Another great feat.

The pictures may not be in order.....use your imagination. The young man and younger man you see in some pics is our son Geoff and his son Jack - our grandson. They are here for a visit and getting to witness these firsts.

Also notice the help this guy gets from his friends. Awesome.....