No alarms were set this morning as we knew it would be too windy for our next paddle which is a 37 nautical mile crossing. I woke up when the sun warmed the tent and enjoyed laying in my cosy sleeping bag for a bit longer. It was great to come outside and take in the gorgeous expanse of black sand surf beach framed on either end by short, steep lava flows, with the snowy peak of a volcano just visible in the distance.

Last night when we arrived late, I discovered a crucial bit of our excellent optimus nova stove was missing. The top bowl of metal which spreads the heat must have fallen off when I was packing the stove that morning (possibly because I was watching the sea lions at the time?) or if it fell off after that, we can’t find it. I managed to boil enough water for dinner using a square of foil from the heat shield as a replacement. On the list of jobs for tomorrow is to try to make a more permanent replacement from the lid of a tin can but for today we enjoyed making a fire and cooking everything on that. I set myself the challenge of lighting it using just dried grass and driftwood from the beach, and my firestick that makes sparks. Within a few minutes we had a roaring fire and the kettle was on which I was excited about ( Thanks Patrick from Backwoods survival for showing us how). Sarah jubilantly got out her machete and saw and started producing batons to burn. While I woul d have
made do with driftwood of all shapes and sizes, it was easy having the batons there ready to go and I know Sarah really enjoyed playing with her toys!

First use for the fire was pancakes with freeze dried Black currants (yum). Then we heated up hot water and washed body, hair and thermals. Lunch was home made dough made into pizzas. We took a break for a beautiful walk to three impressive 30 metre waterfalls streaming down over a black lava flow, sending spray flying sideways, and forming small rainbows. Lots of little birds tweeted away everywhere we walked and some stood still for photos. The ground is so spongy here, it’s packed with mosses and small wiry plants. It feels very healthy and alive. Sarah even found a Japanese glass fishing float on the beach!

Back to the fire and dinner was a delicious lentil stew with beach greens picked from a few metres away ( Thanks Crystal and Danny for showing us you can eat them). Desert was 3 marshmallows each roasted. .. We don’t have many so we had to ration them! Now I’m laying in the tent about to go to sleep and hoping tomorrow is as sunny. At the moment, the forecast is looking too windy to move to the next island until possibly Saturday so we are in a nice spot to be stuck. Before then, we may move 8 miles to the easternmost point on this island where the pilot says “there is a fair landing North of the neck”. If it is somewhere we could land and camp then we’d be knocking 8 miles off an already long day to Amukta island.