As I decided yesterday, this day was a weather rest day. During the night, it started to rain heavily, and strong wind came up. Fortunately, my tent was pitched in a bit of wind shelter, but not in shelter from the rising water!

It was close again, the night’s high tide was surprising…those inlets have an own tide table! Only once a day – always during the night , the tide is high, like last night around 1 am. The water reached almost my dry island behind a few bundles of grass. After a few anxious half an hours and a walk outside to check the tent lines, I noticed the water won’t come up higher as expected, and went back to sleep.

The regular tide was expected to be high around 8 am and 8 pm, so why this difference in those inlets? No idea. I assume it will be the same the next night again. During the day, I saw the water only sinking to an almost dry inlet, and it is still very low now. Hope I’ll stay dry next night…moving into the higher grassy bushland would be not much fun.

I spent the day with sleeping long, resting my really sore body from the hard work of long strong head wind paddling yesterday. I fixed a few gear pieces, and read and ate a lot. Nothing special. Rain and sunshine was mixed today, and my tent ventilation had to change accordingly. But it was mostly strong wind as fore casted, only in the morning after the night’s storm it was calm for a few hours.

Tomorrow is hopefully still low wind as fore casted, and I’ll make good progress again! I can’t have those tent rest days more than one in a row without getting crazy…

The whole day was hard work, much tougher than yesterday. The first section to Bahia Woods was the easiest, with moderate head wind and a bit of shelter in the bays. In Bahia Wood was a small fishing boat, which drove away just 100 m before I reached it – were they scared I’d want some help? Or just didn’t see me? Or just impolite?

Deep down on the Magellan Strait in the morning was a passing freighter and a huge cruise boat, later another freighter and another fishing boat. Quite some traffic again!

The next section passing Cabo Holland with it’s small light house to Bahia Andres had on the chart a bit of an outward turn, which indicates no shelter and no bays – and so it was! Steep, huge cliffs, 1127 m high on my map, were towering above me. No place to land and to hide from the increasing strong west wind! The back chop on the steep wall was quite nasty as well, and I was happy to turn eventually into the shelter of the sandy Bahia Andres. I was close to call it a day already…but I just got out for a pee and found it was too early to stop. It was mostly a sunny day, and the water ahead looked more calm, though it was still strong wind, about 20-25 knots. time to keep on fighting the head wind!

I tried to stay inside the kelp belt to find at least marginal shelter. The kelp band was good on the first section, gone on the second section, and now I had to paddle quite often just across it to have at least a bit of use and protection. But more often I poked with my bow on a wave into a nasty long kelp plant, and could see how to get rid of it…mostly hard paddling was enough to eventually slide it off, but sometimes I had to go back wards.

One or two occasional breathers in sheltered small bays which had no good beaches, and I kept on pushing to the wide river mouth of Bahia Cordes. A beautiful sandy beach was lurking on the eastern side already, but it was still sunny, and crossing the bay didn’t look too bad windwise and the few small islands in between.

But the last 2,5 km became really nasty with the wind freshening up in a rain squall to probably 30 knots. my speed was down to 2,5 -3 km/ hr, where before in 20–25 kn head wind I could at least paddle 3-4 km/ hr which is not fast either, but at least some progress. Summa summarum 40 km for the tough fighting day.

A beautiful campsite in a deep bay at the west side was my reward, and a nasty forecast for tomorrow which makes me wonder whether to start tomorrow at all. 5 km it would be to the next sheltered bay only, and then a 15 km unprotected stretch which doesn’t look too inviting in 20-30 knots wind, and even more in the afternoon. Sunday looks much easier. I may have a day off tomorrow!

I was strolling a bit along the beach before hiding inside the tent while it was still sunny, and found an old skull of a big animal. Which one could be native here on the islands? It looked like a cow…on a closer look, the skull had a clean cut from a saw at the end… some boat had live provision on board???

Ah yes, and I ate all my cherries which is not the best food for paddling as they create quite some air in the body, plus I had pasta in a great mushroom sauce with plenty of my latest shopping catch – slices of dried garlic! Good I’m alone in my tent )

Kiko drove me back to the landing spot yesterday, thanks again! Sorry I already fell asleep on the drive… I put up my tent and fell really asleep around 10.30 pm. Still too late for me, especially after the other nights online and having dinner with friends. This meant for today, despite low winds, I was dead tired to paddle. 45 km only, and then a large bay with a big river was lurking. the next bay like that would have been 15 km further, and no idea if in between would be a good campsite. The wind freshened up later in the afternoon as well, so it was time to call it a day.

My boat is loaded to the max with food as well, but luckily there is little tide, so that I don ‘t have to walk miles inland if I have to land on low tide like the last weeks in Argentina.

We decided it won’t be necessary to send a food parcel ahead, as the small shop in Puerto Eden, serving 200 people there, must have the basics. And I probably have way more food than needed to reach Puerto Eden! Water is as usual available everywhere, so the space I usually use for that is free for food. I carry now up to 10 l water, which would last for maximum four days. And there will be two “Hotel Navy” on the way until Puerto Montt…hope the families there are as happy about a visitor as the others were!

I did the luxury again to shop for apples, bananas, carrots, avocados, cherries, grapes, plums…and all found space some how some where. Ok, this time I even strapped a food bag to the back deck, which I’d never do in rough water conditions.

But the water here is calm, just a few choppy wind waves, and landings usually easy. and amazingly the food, especially the fruit, disappears fast…

The first half of the day I was paddling in the complete shelter of the coast, going south west, with a north westerly low wind.

At Cabo Froward, a huge massive and impressive rocky mountain, 920 m high and the southernmost point of mainland America, the shelter disappeared, turning north west. But it was not too bad today. The Cape had a big metal frame cross on top, and a light house at the bottom. One more day paddling, and the Magellan Strait will become narrower again, and will turn more and more north.

Ships were around en masse, about 6-8 fishing boats, one even was from Puerto Montt, and a zodiac serving hiking tourists. I saw four people, two times two people, and a single person hiking along the beach south of Cabo Froward, going back to probably Cabo San Isidra, where there is kind of a hostel and that is the furthest one can drive with a 4-wheel drive. This must be a popular trip with the zodiac service in some way. But no sail boats today!

It was mostly dry all day, now it’s raining, and I’m cozy in my brand new tent! This one, again a solid “Hilleberg Stanka”, has added “snow flaps”, or better here “sand or rock flaps”, where I can add some weight to make the tent more stable and wind proof in heavy winds. I should have known about those being available already earlier! This is very comfortable, just shovel some sand or gravel around on the flaps, and the tent inside has no draft at all, and is way more wind stable as well. And if I may encounter again 130 knots wind like on Isla Deceit…no, those times should be hopefully over!

And, for sure, I jumped today out of a complete dry dry suit…what a luxury! The Kokatat Gore Tex expedition dry suit is really the greatest piece of kit, but five months of hard (ab)use like I gave it, wore the old one out on too many spots, and even gluing holes was not possible any more, as the whole fabric was soaking through too early in the last weeks, especially around the hips and butt, rubbing at the seat and backrest all day. But it is still ok for some easy going day paddles!

I decided to carry now two lap tops, the new one I eventually got sent from Denmark, and which Peter managed to configure to my sat phone online yesterday. But guess on which laptop I’m writing…it started on the second try again!

My Punta Arenas host Ricardo, Lieutenant Commander Milidreag Delic, myself, Punta Arenas Port Captain Lieutenant Commander Pablo Ferrada Orellana

Pos: here
Loc: 8 km north of Cabo San Isidro
Acc: Ricardo + Elli’s house in Punta Arenas
Dist: 0 km

The first thing in the morning was a small boat repair on my seat.

Ricardo drove me at 10 am to the Navy office to receive my paperwork from Punta Arenas Port Captain Lieutenat Commander Pablo Ferrada Orellana. All was easy and friendly going, no problems, thanks! I am now Chilean Navy authorized to paddle now by myself until Puerto Montt. There I’ll see the Navy again for the next leg’s permit.

My lovely Punta Arenas hosts Ricardo and Eli. Thanks for your help!

Around noon, I went food shopping, and after a lovely lunch cooked by Eli inthe afternoon was food packing, plus configurating my new computer via Team Viewer with my IT-skilled boyfriend Peter in Denmark.

I’ll drive with Kiko at 7 pm to the spot where I landed on Sunday night, will camp there, and will paddle tomorrow morning again! Tomorrow is reasonable (head) winds, but I like to be on the water early.

Thanks very much to Kiko, Ricardo and Eli in Punta Arenas helping and hosting me! Without the help of the locals, all things would go much harder and less smoothly. Good to have the connections!

Navy inspector Troucoso's heart was glowing warmly inspecting my gear ...

Pos: here
Loc: 8 km north of Cabo San Isidro
Acc: Ricardo + Eli’s house in Punta Arenas
Dist: 0 km

Busy day again with calls, e-mails, gear work, a check of my gear for my next permit by Navy officer Troucoso, and finally a dinner with a few kayaking friends which I enjoyed very much. Thanks for inviting me!

The nice dinner party tonight!

Typical cypress trees in Punta Arenas, these are the smaller ones...

Pos: here
Loc: 8 km north of Cabo San Isidro
Acc: Ricardo + Elli’s house in Punta Arenas
Dist: 0 km

The wind was howling again around the house, strong westerlies the whole next week! So nothing to miss so far…

I was unpacking this morning: a new spare paddle and a bunch of rudder fins from epic, a new Staika from Hilleberg, a bunch of promo cards and stickers from Thule, my new old Kokatat dry suit and overcag sent from Germany, a new camera and laptop plus spare batteries from Denmark – so I’m all best equipped again now!

And it was then business as usual in a city, washing gear, repairing gear, emailing, calling my family, checking the weather and the way ahead, making a shopping list, doing a newspaper interview, editing some pictures and so on…and so on…busy times.

H41, the boat of the day!

Pos: here
Loc: 8 km north of Cabo San Isidro
Acc: Ricardo + Eli’s house in Punta Arenas
Dist: 65,9 km
Start: 6:35 End: 19:15

After a good night’s sleep, I woke to a dry and almost sunny, calm morning! Day three with calm weather in a row, but unfortunately the last one…but it will do to make it to my meeting place with Kiko! 60something kilometers to paddle.

The first crossing of a 4 km wide fjord had a lot of current against me, and I made only 4 km/h. But soon paddling close to the next island, the current was gone, and I could enjoy wild rugged steep mountain scenery! I paddled very close to the rocky wall, and watched a few smaller seal colonies sunning themselves on some rocks or basking single ones in the water. Nice view!

Soon I saw an animal I haven’t seen for months, and I really didn’t expect to see here, deep into the fjordland water: A single WHALE! A small one, but definitive a whale, as he showed his beautiful tail on diving. He must have beein swimming up all the channels to that spot! Amazing what drove him to go there…

Small seal colony on the beach and on the rocks

When I decided to cross the channel over to Isla Dawson, one big boat approached me from the south, but I was across before it reached me. Either a modern fishing boat, or an “official” one, as it had only a number on the bow. But a red Navy boat???

Isla Dawson  has a completely different scenery on it’s shore, no steep walls any more, but it was shallow and rocky, with a few accessible beaches, though mostly reef fringed.

Still I found two, about one kilometer long, beautiful wide river beaches, with even some 20 m of dry hinteland! A beach quality I haven’t seen here at all so far since the glaciers! It would have been a perfect campsite.

But I kept on paddling, planning to paddle over to Cabo San Isidro and to cross Magellan Strait for the second time on this trip. But here, it was only 10 km wide! On my way down at the east coast it was 30 km wide, and wayyyyyyy  rougher! Still, there were some 1,5 meter high wind waves developing, and I was eventuallly happy to be across and in the calm water agian. You’re getting spoilt paddling calm waters only…!

The light house of Cabo San Isidro was visible from the other side already, and I was aiming to go there the shortest distance. In the bay before, there was a yacht anchoring. The light house looked like another “Hotel Navy”, but it was not. I didn’t need one either…There was another big house at the base of the light house, obviously a private one as well.

A Zodiac with a bunch of tourists were enjoying the company of a bunch of big dolphins around that house, and I was wondering if that was already the meeting point with Kiko? But the GPS coordinates he gave me were clearly showing a meeting point 8,5 km further up the coast, and I didn’t see anyone waving frantically from the beach, though paddling close! So another hour of paddling along a low easy accesible coast with beaches all along.

I saw at some point a red objct moving, and eventually realized that was a 4-wheel driving car making it’s way along a path up to me between the beach and the forest! So you obviously can drive to the lighthouse, but only with 4-wheel drive. Kiko’s car must have no 4-wheel drive then, as he would be waiting further north-east.

Another car with some kids running in front of  it passed me slowly, and even a guy on a bike made his way up to the light house!!!

But soon I saw Kiko waiting on the agreed GPS spot, this was as far as he could drive his old US-pick up truck with no 4-wheel drive. Though we agreed on meeting at 7 pm, and I was only 15 min late on this 65 km paddling day, he had already been waiting since 2 pm!! Thanks for picking me up, Kiko!

The drive along the coast to Punta Arenas I was envisioning I had to paddle all that 70-80 km way…dead calm boring water and not too pretty coastline with small fishermen and holiday houses here and there, and agaist the strong wind the same way back…this was the way better solution!

We went  first to pick up all the parcels from Kiko’s house which got sent for me there, and then we drove to Ricardo and Elli’s house, who had a nice seperate apartment upstairs free all for myself! Thanks for hosting me, Ricardo and Elli!

I was dead tired from the day, but couldn’t fall asleep until way after midnight, too many distractions with shower, dinner, and being online again…

My double sided campsite on the open sandy ledge

Pos: here
Loc: Ilsa Capitan Aracena
Acc: tent
Dist: 50,1 km
Start: 7:30 End: 18:15

Now Fjordland is becoming the “easy walk in the park” as I was estimating it to be…though walking in a park is on the long run quite boring as well. But no complaints!

It was dead calm water all day, I could feel just some current, amazingly mostly all day against me The wind was very low or non-existing, only at night just before I landed it breezed up to maybe 15 knots. Tomorrow is supposed to be very calm again.
It was even almost dry again all day, after I was again so clever to wait in the morning for the rain to stop. And if it rained, it was just a light drizzle. So all easy and good!

The sound of a motorboat coming closer you can hear here in these conditions already an hour before you actually can see the boat. Then it takes another hour to reach you, and another hour to pass, and another hour you still can hear it…at least one old “working horse” fishing boat was like that this moning, it must have been fully loaded with a good catch down south, as it was almost sinking at the stern. Or it was simply leaking…?

Another small yacht passed at noon, but not as noisy, but that tiny last yacht tonight when I was making my camp on a beautiful spot was noisy for hours again. I think they are “sailing boats”…but as soon as the wind isn’t there or right, they start the engine. How sporty…

Just some nice fjordland islands...

After all morning with scarce campsites again,in  the afternoon the mountains became less rugged and the less rocky, with more vegetation and probably being also lower. They provide now again plenty of beaches, narrow, but good enough to camp for one tent not getting wet on high tide. Just a bit of levelling  is always necessary, but usually no problem.

I’m camped tonight on a beautiful spot on a ridge between two beaches and bays, the gently splashing water noise now from both sides. Yesterday I had that river noise, and the night before the water fall. Nature is not too bad here!

60 km left to paddle tomorrow to the meeting point with Kiko north of Cabo San Isidro! Pit stop in Punta Arenas then for two or three days. I decided not to paddle two days into and out of Punta Arenas, as it would be a dead end on my circumnavigation. I rather asked Kiko to pick me up as far south he could drive. Thanks, Kiko! It will be nice to eventually meet him, as he already did so much logistic and organization work for me! Muchas gracias!

I was aiming for the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow...

Pos: here
Loc: Isla Prowse
Acc: tent
Dist: 62 km
Start: 7:30 End: 20:00

After I wrote my update yesterday already after lunchtime, believe it or not – it almost stopped raining between 3 pm and 6 pm! That meant as well the wind was increasing – the solid 40 kg rocks I carefully placed on the tent pegs since last night weren’t sufficient any more, and three of them got lose. I probably didn’t hear the first one, but with the next two getting lose at one time I heard the metal noise of the pegs on the rocks…high time to get dressed and to jumps out to fix it again! Can’t believe those boulders weren’t enough to hold my tent…

I assume they were simply slipping over the relatively smooth rock surface…I tried to squeeze them into a rock gap before I took three more heaviest boulders for each dangerous corner and made a pyramid…this will last! Or the guy lines would break first…I hope not, as I left my spare kevlar lines down in he boat…but I could assume the forecast30+ knots wind would try to blow my tent off this exposed rocky hill…the inlet was not sheltered enough in general to be wind free. The wind blows heavy down the steep cliffs! I finished my improvement work, not without lying in the tent for a few hours, wondering if my construction and the guy lines would hold up…but Isla Deceit’s storm was worse…

Already on pitching the tent on that spot I thought I better collect the rocks for the pegs first, as the full size tent blows easy out of your hands…and yesterday, just before I could build the first solid peg holding rock pyramid, a heavy gust almost blew me and my tent away! Yes, both of us…I could barely hold it for a few seconds…a horrible vision! The tent with all contents flying over the rocky hill into the water…with me probably still attached holding it, as I would never let go…:-)

This morning started with heavy rain again, waking at 4.30 am, I rather turned around again, though the wind was supposed to calm down soon to a reasonable level. But no way I’d start in heavy rain again!

Around 6.30 am, I heard a bit less heavy rain, I opened my tent window and had a look outside – a vision was just passing by my view! All was gray out there from the rain, but I could see a brightly lit floating object just straight across my bay! A huge cruise ship, preparing for their early morning breakfast in dry and warm sheltered fancy rooms…I knew I had the better accommodation!!

I was waiting until the rain finished fully, and even had my breakfast inside the tent, waiting…but now! I was convinced, this was the end of the rain, and so it was!!! I packed, my kayak almost flooded during the early morning high tide, but only almost  …and it was strapped to a small tree. Still, in the heavy wind yesterday, I was not too sure about my baby, but with shoes I couldn’t get down the hill dry to have a look – I would have to put on my dry suit for that walk…

It was a miraculous paddling day no rain until 5 pm!!! Even 50 % open sky!!! And a view into the distance I haven’t had since weeks, I guess! Beautiful paddling! First a bit headwind, but around 15 knots, decreasing. Still some work, but I knew it would get better soon.

Once I was turning north east, into the shelter on Isla ?, it was dead calm. A yacht came past me on the other side, not taking any notice. But lots of flippered animals around! Once out of the island’s shelter, now really turning north east, I could feel the movement of the open sea for a while – nice! But I assume this corner can be pretty nasty in windy conditions!

I was sneaking next through a maze of smaller islands, mostly marked with poles on top for some yachts, and another corner came where you could feel the ocean swell! But soon I was turning almost due east, and I was fully in the dead calm Canal Cockburn. The wind was fully down, the all the time nasty west wind was helping me now! But paddling on mirror calm water was fast and easy. I couldn’t really decide to stop, though at 5 pm it started to rain again after a bright almost sunny beautiful fjordland paddling day out of the picture album! Bu the rain was just over quickly, and I soon saw the sky clearing up again – and the most intense rainbow developed in front of me! How beautiful!

It was actually almost a perfect day again after all that tough headwind work – well besides my freezing feet and the complete lack of landing possibilities in the second half of the day. Not a single beach! I barely got once out of my kayak in a shallow area.

I covered my tent entrance and floor with some fresh green leaves on the sticky yucky old sea weed...

But eventually I spotted a beach, but that one was really nothing for camping! Boulders too big, and too narrow as usual. Another one came around the corner, and this one was at least acceptable, and I was ready to call it a day at 8 pm. I had to clean up my tiny spot besides a small river mouth from logs and sea weed and whatever rubbish came ashore, but eventually I had an even surface on fist sized rocks. Even a blue broom was among the rubbish which I jokingly used to clean my camp site!

The last finish gave a carpet of big green leaves to cover the rest of the stinky sea weed I couldn’t remove…but then I was ready to move in! A bold body wash in the small river, but I almost forgot my towel was still damp from the last camp…

View out of my tent over the now quiet fjord, the next morning a well lit huge cruise ship was at the horizon!

Pos: here
Loc: Peninsula Brecknok
Acc: tent
Dist: 0 km

Rain, rain, rain all day, is all what I can write today, not much of drying my clothes…

At least the charging of my e-book through my laptop is working all right, hopefully lasting until Punta Arenas…this is not my favorite way of making (not much) headway in an area! I am hopefully able to make good progress the next day and maybe even Saturday, until the wind picks up again – maybe then south west, pushing me a bit? I don’t know yet…