Por fin! Finally! We got our kayaks this afternoon. We turned up at the port at midday, as arranged but were told there weren’t enough people there to open the container that the kayaks were in so we had to come back that afternoon. When we returned we had to wait for an hour in an office, but at 4pm we were shown to the wooden crate that Barry made back in November at Valley seakayaks. The sturdy box had done it’s job well and we were relieved and excited to open the crate and reveal two spotless Nordkapps. Kiko, Barry and I spent the next 2 hours dismantling the 6 metre long box, unscrewing the screws with little screwdrivers and crowbarring the plywood and pallets off it! My hands and wrists still feel a bit weird. We had to pay extra fees because the port released the kayaks ‘quickly’ for us! I guess I shouldn’t complain – it only took 3 and a half days from when the boat arrived in Punta Arenas.

We’ve spent the last 3 hours customizing the kayaks a bit; for example putting foam pads by my knees, lengthening the cord that ties the hatches onto the kayak, glueing in under deck bags and securing our kayak trolley on the cockpit floor. It’s the first time we’ve used a Nordkapp on a trip so Barry is out there now working out how he’ll pack his boat. I should go and do the same.

Tomorrow at 9am we have an inspection from the Chilean navy. If they are happy with our kit then we’ll get permission to kayak around Tierra del Fuego and off we can go! I’m not sure if the weather will allow that though. We measured the wind at 63 knots this afternoon, about 120km/hour, from a northerly direction. If it’s still like that tomorrow – or even half the strength, we won’t be going anywhere just yet.

Overall we are very excited to have the kayaks here & it won’t be too long before we’re on the water.

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