“Only 33 km?”, Larry questioned.
“Yeah, well 33.2” replied Frank. “I already double checked with Justine and JF”.
We’d just pulled onto a wide, rocky beach after 7 1/2 hours on the water without landing. A 5 m wide river gushed onto one corner through a vast boulder field. A 1000 foot high mountain appeared faintly through the mist above it. A triangle of blue sky teased us from up the valley. Would the Sun finally win the day long battle with the fog? We’d worked hard today, putting our heads down against a mild headwind and choppy sea. A white haze cloaked all but the adjacent lower slopes and a chill breeze felt like it blew right through me. We didn’t stop much to take photos, ploughing on over a furrowed sea, confused by wind, swell and rebounding waves from the cliffs. I lost sight of JF and Larry to my right as a line of swell rolled in. The swell must be at least a meter I noticed. Along a steep coastline there were just a couple of places where we thought we might be able to land. We hoped to get out for lunch, at a small valley where a previous Expedition told us they had camped. The low Rocky shelf looked very uninviting with waves crashing on it. It would be a challenging, wet landing. A few small cobble beaches nearby were battered with surf and overhung by steep gullies, full of loose rocks. Our speed had been dropping over the last hour and we needed to eat. We finally rafted the four kayaks together for a late lunch on the water, helping each other get food from hatches. I felt a lot better after the first few bites of cheese and crackers. I was getting really low on energy. I think we’ve done seven nights in a row of bear watch now and the sleep disruption takes it’s toll. I was yawning a lot on the water. I think it’s the first day I didn’t actively enjoy all of the paddling. Without a view and working hard in the chop, I was going through the motions like a paddling robot, and not a very efficient one by the end.

As we approached a fjord called bear gut, we were on the lookout for anything white as wed been told it’s a hot spot. I was just studying a white object in the water just ahead, trying to figure out if it was a bird when JF said “bear”. This one was swimming towards us. We should probably paddle away, so it knows our intentions, Larry said wisely. Pointing our kayaks offshore we made a detour to arc around the bear. For some reason, I didn’t expect to see so many bears swimming. From the front, you just see a couple ears, two black eyes, and a black nose. This bear was raising his nose high in the air trying to get our scent. After we passed him, I stopped to film him swimming away and he swam around behind us, coming slightly closer. I hurriedly put my camera away and started paddling. Happily the bear also decided to swim away.

Our valley campsite is a beautiful meadow. The Sun did break through the cloud. right now on nightwatch, the last of the mist disappeared and I can see the island in our bay for the first time, lit by a crescent moon. Distant lights from a us radar station are twinkling on the horizon.