Today started well. For the first time in a while, the wind and tide pushed us on our way North and NE. Despite a forecast for SW winds less than 20 knots, it was SE and gusting up to at least 30. Still, it was a helpful push and the sails really helped us to catch more waves and gain a little extra speed. In the first 2 hours we saw dozens of otters, a pod of dolphins, seals and 2 fragrant rocks full of growling sea lions. The backdrop changed between basalt columns, ragged lava flows, sweeping green hills, castlelike rocks on top of conical mounds to long back sandy beaches littered with pale logs and fishing buoys.

Every bay funneled the wind in a different way, sometimes it was behind us, sometimes offshore and occasionally in our faces as we first entered a bay. The gusts increased and I was starting to wonder what the limit was for the Flat earth sails we are using, and the deck fittings, non stretch cord and the kayaks themselves. One of my side stays, the cord which attaches the mast to each side of my deck had come a bit loose and my mast listed to the left slightly. I was worried this was putting too much pressure on the right side stay and I was right because bam, the deck fitting broke and the sail was down. The plastic on the deck fitting had broken in two. Fortunately my deck was still in tact and the kayak wasn’t leaking. We have some spare deck fittings so we can fix it.

Sarah put her sail down for a while but she put it up again when I said I thought my breakage happened due to the listing of my mast. It was interesting to see the difference in our speeds and the amount of effort we put in now I had no sail. My kayak immediately felt twice as heavy and I had to work really hard to try to keep up with Sarah, even when she just braced or used a stern rudder. Having said that, the difference in our speeds was probably not massive especially if I was able to surf enough waves, and as long at I worked alot harder (which I was quite enjoying)!

Then a gust hit Sarah hard and her mast bent out of shape to one side. They are pretty strong metal masts so that surprised me. And that was the end of our sailing for the day and possibly for a while unless we can bend the mast back into shape or get a replacement. I feel a bit foolish after the event as it’s now clear we were trying to use the sails in too strong winds but hindsight is a fine thing, I guess now we know. The sails have been great and using them is a fun learning experience for both of us.

After a couple more hours paddling, Sarah had had enough of paddling across bays in strong winds so we pulled into a small beach to camp. We immediately saw and heard 2 eagles flying low overhead and calling. It was clear they had a nest nearby. Moving to the far end of the beach didn’t appease them so we reluctantly got back into our kayaks and paddled another half a mile to the next beach. 27 nautical miles today and a great day, of course, other than a couple of breakages.