Our second race took place around 5pm, a bit later than expected due to some delays in the morning. The wind has much more of a factor in this race because it was more of a crosswind and made lining up at the start a bit more of a challenge. That combined with choppier water meant that steering was tougher, but our finish time of 2:15.44 was still better than our best time from the last few years. (Most times in the afternoon races were quite a bit slower than the morning.)

Overall, this puts us in 32nd place for the mixed teams, which we’re very happy with.

We also raised enough money through donations that we had a third race, but that time wasn’t available when this was being written.

Many thanks to everyone who sponsored me! Your donations helped the team raise $5257.00 for the Ottawa Dragon Boat Foundation charities so far!

The Algonquin College Singapore Slings took position at the start line in lane #6 and sped down the course to reclaim their challenge cup after a couple of years of letting other teams have it.

Our official time for the race was 2:13.18, which was more than 7 seconds faster than the next fastest team.

Our next race is sometime after 13:30.

Once again this year, I am steering a dragon boat in the Ottawa Dragon Boat Festival for the Algonquin College Singapore Slings.  And like the other teams in the festival, we’re taking part in the pledge challenge raising money that will go to support the charities selected by the Ottawa Dragon Boat Foundation. These charities do very important work in the Ottawa area and are worth supporting.

If you’d like to help my team reach its pledge target and thus help the various charities selected by the ODBF, please consider clicking here or on the link at the top of the right column, and sponsoring me.  All donations of $20 or more automatically receive a tax receipt and you can request one for donations of less than $20.

Many thanks for reading this and thinking about it.  And a special thank you if you do sponsor me.

A couple of days ago, I wrote about the imminent archiving of about 300 geocaches in Gatineau Park. Based on the information being provided by one of the geocache reviewers based in/near Quebec City who is responsible for caches in western Quebec, it appeared that the NCC had requested the removal of all geocaches in Gatineau Park before the end of June. The reviewer in question sent an email to all owners of geocaches in Gatineau Park that contained the following:

The National Capital Commission (NCC) wishes to control Geocaching in the Gatineau Park.  Therefore, it is currently setting a procedure for caches within its territory, and is asking geocachers to archive all caches in the park.  They are requesting the cooperation of concerned geocachers to pick up all the containers.

Since then it has been determined that the National Capital Commission has contacted neither Groundspeak (the company that runs geocaching.com) nor the reviewer in question. Rather, the reviewer apparently took it upon himself to issue the email, without actually reading the Gatineau Park Ecosystem Conservation Plan.

The local geocache community is, to say the least, extremely unimpressed. The actions of the reviewer have seriously undermined the confidence some cachers have in the reviewer system in general, and in the reviewer in question specifically. Especially in the reviewer.

There have been some calls to have Gatineau Park removed from the area of responsibility of the reviewer in question and given to a reviewer who lives closer to the national capital region. Personally, I think there’s merit to this suggestion and hope that this is what happens. There two or three reviewers who are closer to the national capital region who would be good fits, though one is active in the local geocaching community so they might be too close. But either of the other two would be good choices.

I’m glad that the NCC isn’t the culprit in all this. Regardless, they’ve probably taken some flack that they don’t deserve. I tried to be fairly restrained in my previous blog entry about this topic, but I still pointed the finger at them and for that I apologize.

There are still some geocaches that are going to have to be removed because they’re in integral compensation zone (ICZ), but the number of affected geocaches is around 40, and nowhere near 300.

Hopefully, the local geocaching community and the NCC can work together with respect to geocaching in Gatineau Park. I know that I, for one, am interested in this and I’m almost certain that other members of the geocaching community are, too.

The last couple of days I’ve felt kind of crummy. The kind of crummy that often precedes a change in the weather.

If you’re in Ottawa, then you know that we’ve had unsettled weather since Wednesday morning, which corresponds to when I started feeling crummy.

This isn’t the first time that I’ve commented on this phenomenon. The last time was in October 2008 when a big low-pressure zone blasted through Ottawa.

The graph shows the pressure in Ottawa for the last day or so. And during this times I’ve felt varying degrees of crummy.

When the weather was clear sky and warm earlier this week, I was feeling great (and not just because of the sunshine).

Do you feel the weather?

As things like pesticides are being legislated out of existence, landscaping becoming an increasingly important part of construction projects and sustainability being on the minds of planners everywhere, all of which lead to an increased demand for horticulture technicians, one can be forgiven for wondering why Algonquin College is looking to cancel their horticulture technician program.

Obviously, Algonquin probably feels the need to cut their budget and identified the horticulture program as a low-profile program. Who cares? They’re just gardeners, right?

Wrong.

Read the rest of this entry →

A couple of days ago a number of geocachers who own caches that are in Gatineau Park received the following message:

You are receiving this message because one of your caches is located within the territory of Gatineau Park.

The National Capital Commission (NCC) wishes to control Geocaching in the Gatineau Park.  Therefore, it is currently setting a procedure for caches within its territory, and is asking geocachers to archive all caches in the park.  They are requesting the cooperation of concerned geocachers to pick up all the containers.

We are asking for your cooperation in collecting your cache and in archiving the listing. Note that on June 20, 2010, all remaining caches within the territory of the park will be archived.

All new requests for publication at this location will be denied until permission of the NCC and the new procedure are received. We apologize for this inconvenience, which is beyond our control, and solicit the patience and cooperation of all geocachers.

Thank you

The Quebec Reviewers

About 300 geocaches are affected by this mass archiving. Needless to say, the local geocaching community is not impressed.

Read the rest of this entry →