We only made 14 nautical miles today with an increasing wind which threatened to blow our paddles out of our hands, and blow anything away that wasn’t tied on tightly. SE sounded good in the forecast as we are now heading roughly west but the coastline is heavily indented with many steep valleys. Its very beautiful, the landscape had changed dramatically since 2 days ago. In Ungava bay a tall hill was 60 metres, now every headland soars steeply up to 100 or 200 metres, jagged impressive peaks interspersed with more distinct valleys and beaches. These narrow valleys are very effective wind funnels and each time we crossed a bay, we’d cross a line from the shelter of the headland into the fury of a sidewind. Whitecaps, cats paws, waves breaking on us… we’d endure the onslaught for the 2 or 5 km crossing before the wind bent around slightly behind us at the far end pushing us onwards for a few hundred metres to rewards our efforts. Then we’d round the new headland and do it again.

After lunch, the wind was angry and we felt we were using a lot of energy and running the gauntlet, risking being blown out to sea if the wind increased. We turned towards a beach 1.5 km away, now battling straight into the blasts. It took us 30 minutes to reach the beach where we are now camped. We will get an early night and hope for a calm early morning start tomorrow.

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