Photo Gallery

• Croquet Tournament
• Whale Watching
• Sea Kayaking
• The Keltic Lodge
• Scenery

A winning shot by Riccardo Pucella, on the left a cheering crowd of admirers, on the right our venerable croquet chair dissecting the rules of some esoteric variant of croquet	A dramatic shot by Heiko Mantel. Steve Schneider watches	Iliano Cervesato retrieving a ball send way off-field by a mean adversary

Åsa Hagström about to strike the ball through a wicket. Cheering crowds in the seats of honor	Ajay Chander evaluating the trajectory of the yellow ball he just hit. In the foreground, Geoffrey Smith does not seem worried by this move of his adversary	The champions resting

For the chronicle, this year's champions were:

1. Steve Zdancewic and Peter Ryan
3. Paul Syverson

Everybody is looking in a different direction, scouting for whales. Francesco Parisi-Presicce and Thomas Santen are particularly concentrated at the task	The whale has been spotted! Observe the satisfied expressions of Geoffrey Smith, Wenliang Du, Somesh Jha, and Carl Gunter.	Waiting for the whale to re-emerge. Jon Millen and Joe Halpern forseeingly look at a different area of the sea

No whales for a while! Among people engaged in fervent conversations, Nancy Durgin, Ajay Chander, Jonathan Herzog and Bruno Blanchet pose for a picture	Long after the last whale was spotted, Joe Halpern and Paul Syverson are chatting amicably

Just to prove that there are whales out there, here are a few pictures I took last year in the middle of a storm.

Sea Kayaking

• On the first one (Saturday June 9th), I paddled the coast of Bras d'Or Lake near Baddeck by myself. The expedition was organized by North River Kayak Tours, an outfitter near Baddeck. Its cheerful owner, Angelo Spinazzola, is a talented song-writter and performer.

• The second excursion took place on a rainy Sunday morning (June 10th) where everybody but Rebecca Wright and myself chickened out (well, some were not feeling well).
• The third trip, on a beautiful Tuesday morning (June 12th), had Roy Maxion and Kymie Tan paddling on the frigid waters of Cape Breton (can you believe that there are people swimming there!).
• The fourth trip took place once the workshop was over, on Wednesday afternoon (June 13th), again a great day to be out there. Paul Syverson, John Mitchell and the recidives Rebecca Wright and I took part in it.

Iliano Cervesato paddling amidst the green scenery of Bras d'Or Lake	Rebecca Wright and Iliano Cervesato in the latest skirt fashion are about to start off from the narrow end of the fjord	Rebecca's launch using Mike Crimp's special glide-in technique. Iliano is watching

The white dot high up in the trees is one of the many American eagles we encountered during this excursion. Rebecca could spot the most invisible eagle, making thousands of years of eagle evolution vain	Snack time. Half way through, Mike ordered us to shore and pulled fruit and cookies out of his cockpit	Rebecca ready to get back in the water

Say "Cheese!"	At this point, it had started raining, which is not as bad as one may think since we were surrounded by water anyway. It started being pretty cold also, which is unpleasant	Mike Crimp took us outside the protected fjord and along the open Atlantic coast. Rain or no rain, it was the best part of the trip! Those towering cliffs are magnificent, and the big swell of the Ocean is a much more enjoyable ride than the flat waters of the fjord

Next trip: Mike Crimp teaches Kymie Tan and Roy Maxion how to hold a paddle	Surrounded by summer leaves, Kymie and Roy paddle the calm waters of Ingonish Fjord, Mike Crimp's favorite launching point	Roy and Kymie are ready to get back in the water again after the mid-trip snack

Roy and Kymie, now outside of the fjord, paddle comfortably on the Atlantic in front of the red cliffs of Cape Breton ... and, lucky them, it's a sunny day!	Back on shore, Kymie and Roy, now experts, pause for a last picture	After the last trip, Iliano Cervesato, Paul Syverson, Mike Crimp and Rebecca Wright are having a fruit and cookies snack on the rocky shore of the Atlantic [photo by John Mitchell]

Our landing spot, the sheltered side of the narrow arm of land that separates the fjord from the ocean. The mist is rising on the distant hills [photo by John Mitchell]

The Keltic Lodge

The main lodge is the oldest building and a trademark of the area [photo by Andre Scedrov]	A northward panoramic view from the Keltic Lodge. Whales are often seen from this privileged viewpoint, although lobster traps are more common [photo by Andre Scedrov]

A southward panoramic view from the Keltic Lodge. In the distance, Cape Smokey Mountain rises about 366 meters (about 1000 feet) above sea level and hosts a small ski resort in the winter months [photo by Andre Scedrov]

The intense colors of a river leading into a fjord	View of Bras d'Or Lake from the Graham Bell museum in Baddeck	The same lighthouse from Baddeck's harbor a few hours later as a storm was about to unload

A picturesque cemetery overlooking the Atlantic	The Cabot Trail winding along the Atlantic coast of Cape Breton Island [photo by John Mitchell]	Sunset over Ingonish island. The shallow bay is peppered with lobster traps

A lovely tract of the Atlantic coast of Cape Breton [photo by John Mitchell]	On a hike on the Coastal Trail in northeastern Cape Breton, Rebecca Wright points Paul Syverson and Iliano Cervesato to a patch of sea where a whale has just dived [photo by John Mitchell]	Lobster boats brighten the misty landscape of this little harbor. A lobster trap appears in the foreground [photo by John Mitchell]

The "Muddy Rudder" a little seafood shack at the very bottom of Ingonish Fjord recommended by visitors and locals alike [photo by John Mitchell]	The Englishtown ferry: probably the shortest ferry ride in the world! [photo by Andre Scedrov]

This year I was a bit too busy with the organization to take nice pictures. However, here are a few shots from last year: