Wednesday 9 September 2015

Sea kayaking from Grassy Point to Phillips Point on Hornby Island



 by Keith and Heather Nicol
    For our first 3 days of paddling on Hornby Island we decided to concentrate on the southern part of the island where there are numerous islands and shoreline cliffs to explore. For our last day we decided to check out Grassy Point on the north side of Hornby and paddle west. Also the wind had now changed direction and was blowing more strongly from the southeast so we thought this shore would give us some shelter. The put in at Grassy Point Community Park (10 U 0379334E 5490039N) was easy since the steep gravel beach is located just a few steps from the car park.  This park has a few benches and some nice areas to scramble along the low rocky shoreline. 
Getting ready to launch at Grassy Point
   The coastline is not as dramatic along this part of Hornby Island since the backshore is lower in elevation but you do see Denman and Tree Island  and in the distance you can see north to Comox and beyond. We had to give Collishaw Point a wide berth since the tide was relatively low and there were extensive shallows. We noticed the wind picking up and coming more from the east so we decided to start to head back before the waves got too large. We turned around just before Phillips Point and were surprised by how quickly the waves had built up. Before long we were in waves up to 1 meter in size that fortunately were right in our face so we could paddle directly into them.  Fortunately our launch point was nicely protected from east winds and so we could land in flat calm conditions. Overall this trip was about 8.5 km and it took about 2 hours and 15 minutes of paddling to complete.

For other blogs on sea kayaking on Hornby Island see:

Heather paddling along the north shore of Hornby with Denman Island in the distance

   

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