“It’s windy round here, be careful”, the fisherman warned me today. He was reiterating what another boat skipper and a local pilot had told us about this area. In a north westerly, the winds funnel out of the valleys in the many big bays we need to cross. We’ve been told to add another 10 knots to any NW forecast we’re given. I’d say that’s an underestimate if anything. Today’s predicted 15 knots is still raging, whiping up the bay into white caps and slamming into our Hilleberg tent. We managed to pull off 29 miles today and it felt like we crossed many boundaries into lanes of strong and then weak winds. Sometimes it was obvious that we were crossing a gap between Islands or that a bay would funnel winds in a particular orientation but not always. We got caught out on a 12 mile crossing of Portage Bay, lulled into a false sense of security by a light breeze as we set out. The wind suddenly picked up about 3 miles in but we could sail and make good progress, as long as w e took
an unconservative direct line course. All was well until 3 miles from the end when the wind steped up a notch and changed angle to be more offshore. We had been paddling NE but ended up paddling due North to reach the headland.

Round the corner we met our Kodiak Island fishing tender who was anchored close to shore waiting to take delivery of Salmon from a purse seiner who we’d just passed setting her nets.

“Puale Bay… That’s a blow hole”, he warned referring to the next Bay that we need to cross. And for good measure he added, “Watch out for bears, we saw one on that hill earlier”.

Now camped up less than a mile from “that hill”, but with a raging fire, I got a big shock when carrying Sarah’s kayak up the beach tonight. I heard a sickening crack and the back end felt like it had come away from the rest. It hadn’t totally, 6 clips hold the three pieces of the kayak together and 4 of them had come undone. The metal part that clamps down has bent with the strain on two of the clips and they wouldn’t shut properly. Sarah tried bending then back and she filed the screws down to try to tighten the whole thing up. . No luck. In the end she glued the 2 sections of kayak together with epoxy. Hopefully it will last until we get to Homer which is probably 200-250 miles away now.