I knew I was drifting closer to the two bears, perhaps too close but it was mesmerising watching mother and cub turning over seaweed with their big paws and munching on the choicest bits. The little one sometimes ate from the same patch as his mother and occasionally wandered off, searching the bushes above the beach and slipping over on driftwood logs.

We’d been watching them for about 10 minutes, slowly getting closer; looking, taking photos and filming. As I filmed them walking along close to the shore, I started wondering if I could paddle faster than they could swim. The wind pushed me closer and I saw the cub raise his nose to the air and sniff. I didn’t want to suddenly paddle away and scare or anger them so I just stayed very still. Mum and cub looked over at me and fire a few seconds I wondered what they’d do. Then they dropped their heads again and continued pawing the ground for food. We slowly paddled a bit further away and watched them for anther 10 minutes. The little one tried climbing up a fallen tree, he stood on his back legs and put guys weight on it. The whole tree fell over on top of him!

That was the highlight of a great day where we also smashed over the 1000 nautical mile mark with a 28 miler. A 5am alarm saw us on the water at 6.45 hoping to get a10 mile crossing under our paddles before the wind picked up. In fact
the wind was much lighter than forecast all day and conditions were lovely with a moody sky and snowy mountains just peaking out from time to time. Offshore craggy Islands provided entertainment as they changed shape and switched positions, and whale blows punctuated the air. Even the headwind this afternoon couldn’t spoil the mood. We landed on a gorgeous sandy beach on a calm sunny evening. I even had a dip in the sea which was great – afterwards!

Congratulations to the lovely Hadas who had just given birth to a baby boy!