After a great couple of days bear watching, we made time for one last cooked breakfast at Hallo Bay Camp and waved goodbye to new friends. 8.30am was a bit late to launch to cross the Shelikof Strait to the Kodiak archipelago but we wanted to get a reasonable sleep and leave when people could wave us off. The forecast kept changing and wasn’t ideal but we gave it a go. A surprise tail wind gave us a boost for the first 4 miles as did lots of curious otters and some snorting sea lions on a small island. It was abruptly replaced with a headwind the that caused us to discuss options. It was 34 miles to the closest point so a headwind for 30 of those would mean landing in the dark and an unpleasant day. One of our 2 forecasts called for light winds in the afternoon so we decided to continue, for now at least. The wind died right down for the next 2 hours raising our hopes again but then a strong NNE wind kicked in for the rest of the day. Sailing helped us make good speed at firs t – at
least we think it did as our two gps’s which had found a second wind both stopped working again. The disadvantage was that we were being pushed much futher South than we wanted. Without the sails we could move in a better direction but only made 2 knots. One gps kicked back into life and I did some sums. At this rate we’d reach land after midnight.

A slight drop in the wind allowed us to sail again, and we finally arrived at a headland we’d been calling Paracetamol Cape because we couldn’t read the name properly. It’s 2 steps forward and1 step back as we’re about 15 miles further south than we were yesterday. I’m sad to leave the peninsula as it was a beautiful place but happy to have that long crossing out of the way. We’re camped on a steep pebble beach covered in driftwood with a pine forest behind. I could smell the resin from the trees from about a mile away.

From here we’ll head north up the West coast of Afognak, cross to the Barren islands then up to the Kenai peninsula where Homer is.