Are there any? Do we make them up to suit our purpose? Does anyone care?
18 months ago, Barry and I decided to try to circumnavigate “Isla Grande”, Tierra del Fuego. We poured over Google earth, chatted to paddlers who knew something about the area, wrote letters for permission, told websites and magazines about our ‘world first’ attempt, sought sponsorship and booked our flights. After some delays, we launched full of hope, energy and excitement. But it wasn’t to be. We did paddle almost a third of the distance and made some good friends but tendonitis stopped us in our tracks & we returned home somewhat disheartened.
A year later, we are back to try to finish where we left off. This time, we left more quietly – not wanting to draw attention to ourselves in case there was some reason we wouldn’t be able to fulfil our dream again. But equally hopeful of paddling alongside the beautiful and challenging coastline that we weren’t able to see last year.
Happily, we have already completed the next third of the trip from close to Rio Grande to Ushuaia. Now the most beautiful section is left – the 330 miles between Ushuaia and Punta Arenas where the tail end of the Andes Mountains pierce the sea, and glaciers carve blue ice into the narrow Beagle Channel.
And that brings us to our dilemma? We fly home from Ushuaia, so at some point we have to travel by road between Ushuaia and Punta Arenas. Do we continue to paddle clockwise around ‘Isla Grande’, which is mostly against the dominant westerly winds and currents and then travel back to Usuhaia by road, or do we drive up to Punta Arenas and kayak with the winds back to Ushuaia.
Barry and I have been pondering over this question for a few months and we keep changing our minds. Are we wimping out of a challenge if we don’t do the ‘circumnavigation’ clockwise? Will we be disappointed afterwards if we take the ‘relatively’ easy option? Are we feeling pressured to take the ‘tougher’ choice by being sponsored, or by what other people will think?
I still don’t know the answers, but we have decided to drive up to Punta Arenas and kayak back to Ushuaia. We think we will be able to enjoy the beauty of the area more by doing it this way. If we continue clockwise then we will need to get up in the dark for a week or more, and kayak hard from first light until the wind picks up. We have already done this for a week from the SE tip of ‘Isla Grande’, and it was quite tough, but satisfying. But if we continue paddling from Ushuaia we will feel pleased with ourselves afterwards, but we may feel compelled to make the most of any good weather which might mean keeping going past the beautiful glaciers (which are very close to Ushuaia). We may never paddle here again, so we’d like to spend some time enjoying it.
Monica & Marcelo will kindly drive us up to the ferry to Punta Arenas tomorrow (Saturday). We’ll spend a couple of days with Kiko and his family while we get permission to kayak in Chilean waters and buy the last few things we need, then we’ll be on our way to Ushuaia.
If we succeed in paddling back to Ushuaia we will have paddled the entire coastline around “Isla Grande”, over 2 separate trips, and not in the same direction. Can we then claim to be the ‘first people to circumnavigate Tierra del Fuego’… who knows? I guess if we cared enough about the answer then we’d continue clockwise! 
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