A typical day for David MacKay and Jack Kotaska this summer time began at Newfoundland’s first contact of solar. They slipped into their kayaks in the fragile silence of daybreak. If they had been fortunate, they had been already out tracing the rugged coast whereas the wind nonetheless slept.
As sandy seashores turned to rock and cliffs into fjords, the kayakers lastly obtained to witness lands that they had solely dreamt of. They stuffed lengthy days with tales of previous arctic expeditions, Harry Potter audiobooks and good dialog. Out at sea, simply the two of them, Kotaska and MacKay rejoiced when a new concept popped into their heads, having assumed they’d exhausted all avenues of human thought.
With dozens of kilometres to go till sleep every night time, their paddles gripped the present. Like good groups do, they propelled one another towards their huge aim of the summer time: to circumnavigate the island of Newfoundland by kayak, and to do it in report time.
“Four years ago, I was a sea kayak guide in Cape Broyle, and I had the idea that it would be a crazy kind of trip to kayak around Newfoundland,” MacKay instructed Newz9.
At the time, it felt like an insurmountable problem. The quickest journey around the island was accomplished in 45 days, a record held since 2008. Besides, the journey itself is gruelling. So he stored it in the again of his thoughts: “Maybe one day it’ll happen.”
MacKay met Kotaska whereas the two had been posted for work in Whitehorse final yr. Both skilled kayakers, MacKay reached out to Kotaska around Christmas with a proposal he could not refuse. “I’d always wanted to visit the East Coast,” Kotaska mentioned. Both had been up for the problem.
It could be uncharted territory for the each of them.
“I’ve spent most of my life on the Avalon Peninsula, so it was cool to get off the Avalon Peninsula and see some more remote parts of Newfoundland,” MacKay mentioned.
As a whitewater kayaker, this was Kotaska’s first ocean journey. “It was all new,” he mentioned. “Every day, seeing the world from that perspective was cool.”
But there isn’t any actual method to put together for weeks of dwelling out of a kayak.
“You can have all the safety aspects down, but it’s hard to train for 60 kilometres a day for almost two months,” MacKay mentioned. They embarked from Quidi Vidi harbour in St. John’s on June 18, heading south to circle the Rock clockwise.
At the whims of the wind and sea, there may be nothing one can do apart from settle for when the climate turns towards you.
“There’s two sides to the deal that have to go right to achieve a goal like that,” Kotaska mentioned, “and for the most part we held up our end of the deal.”
The two had been placing in as much as 14-hour days. But when the wind swept away their possibilities of a report by the final two weeks, MacKay and Kotaska weren’t too bothered.
“It was kind of a relief to be able to slow down and enjoy some time off in places like Fogo and LaScie,” MacKay mentioned.
David MacKay and Jack Kotaska had hoped to interrupt the kayaking report of 45 days to circumnavigate Newfoundland, all 2,0000 kilometres of it, however got here up a little brief. But it wasn’t nearly a deadline. See the highlights from their journey and what they are saying about it now that it’s over.
Visiting Newfoundland’s outport communities was the spotlight of the journey for Kotaska, who’d heard a lot from MacKay, who holds this half of his province’s tradition pricey.
“Most of the trips I’d been on before were completely isolated,” Kotaska mentioned, “so it was cool having connection with people on a near daily basis.”
And folks welcomed them warmly. One man in Bonavista gave them a free night time in his Airbnb and dropped off heat meals. Another in LaScie lent them the keys to his truck for the day to restock in city and provided his shed to sleep in that night time.
“That day we were also welcomed to a singalong to play some good Newfie music and learn some history of the area,” Kotaska mentioned. “There’s lots of people that I’m going to have to go back and visit again, for sure.”
Even at their slowed tempo, they arrived again in St. John’s on Aug. 9 to a singing and cheering crowd of family and friends — 49 days after their launch. Still in restoration mode, MacKay says he is already starting to look again with rose-tinted glasses.
“We’re good at having fun and not taking stuff too seriously,” he mentioned.
For him and Kotaska, prioritizing enjoyment is what makes challenges like this sustainable. They do not know what journey lies forward — however they’re positive it will not be their final.
Download our free Newz9 app to join push alerts for CBC Newfoundland and Labrador. Click here to visit our landing page.
