Canoes and Kayaks and....

It seems to me that in the last few decades there has been a real upsurge in the kinds of boats that people use. It used to be you either had a canoe or a rowboat or maybe a small sailboat. Then kayaks started to become more common. Stand-up Paddle-boards are another new entry. Recently I am seeing these large team-paddled canoes, often with outriggers. Perhaps the Dragon Boat races have made this kind of activity more popular. I like to see that many of the new canoes and kayaks have outriggers. I have always been a bit wary of the kayak lesson on how to get your kayak upright when it has turned over. Turning over is a bad characteristic for a boat and I am never going to get into a boat that offers that opportunity. I suspect outriggers make this much less likely, sort of like training wheels on a bicycle.

Mural

Here's a mural I have long enjoyed but never stopped to photograph before. It's on Douglas Street, Victoria's main thoroughfare, and depicts a coastal scene from pre-contact days, very appropriate for a marine supplies store.