Today has been about catching up on sleep, eating (rice pudding for breakfast followed immediately by fried tortillas with cheese and salami since it was practically lunchtime, fruit and nuts and soon to be falafels)

We woke up at 5am hoping for an early start to paddle 16miles across 2 feisty passes to Atka while the tide was in the same direction as the wind and it would therefore be calmer. I’d already been woken in the night by gusts slamming the tent violently so before getting ready in the dark we got an updated forecast from kayakweather.com. It showed the wind was due to be gusting 28 knots from the South. We decided to wait for tomorrow’s better forecast. While I was disappointed not to be moving on, I really enjoyed slipping back into my cosy sleeping bag for another 6 delicious hours! When we finally got up the wind was angrily blasting over the sea, riveting the surface and kicking up spray. A few pretty ducks tried to find shelter close to shore and a curious seal braved the blasts to pop its head up for a good look at the curious goings on. Sand is fired intermittently at the tent and overall we are glad we stayed in bed! This thought was reinforced this afternoon when Sarah had an email from a friend Lisa saying she used to watch the tidal rips at Fenimore rock (one of the passes we need to cross) from a volcanic Island 10 miles away!

If the tent stops shaking so much, we’ll get up early again tomorrow and hope to get across the 2 passes to Atka. In a cunning move we’ve put our clocks forward an hour ( we think the next time zone starts at Atka), but even though we’re tricking ourselves, getting up at 6am feels so much better than getting up at 5am!

Ps. Sarah is valiantly cooking falafels complete with a side of sand outside in the rain while I do essential chores inside the tent