Archive for the ‘kayaking’ Category

I am so excited to be able to finally tell you that I was voted the winner of the Media Professional category at the “World Paddle Awards” today. The organisers told me the fantastic news back in November so I would have time to arrange travelling to Portugal to pick up the ‘golden paddle’ award, and it’s been really hard to keep it a secret since then. Unfortunately I am in Antarctica on a sailing and sea kayaking trip. I guess truthfully, it’s never unfortunate to be in Antarctica, but it’s unfortunate timing, as I would love to be in Portugal meeting the judges and other recipients.

It started as a barely discernible rattle that drew our eyes to the glacier. A few small chunks of ice bounced down the sheer face and hit the sea with a thud. Before you could move, or get your camera out, a block the height of a 2-story house disintegrated in mid-air and collapsed with a roaring clap of thunder, slamming into the sea, pushing up a vertical wall of water with frightening force. We all silently evaluated how far away we were and how much energy the wave would have when it reached us. We had paddled as close to the living ice cliffs as we thought was safe, but the scale in Antarctica is deceiving. There are no trees, or plants or people on the ice to help you judge distance. Was the calving glacier 20 meters or 200 meters tall? As we sat and waited, we realized we were actually further away than we had thought. Seconds passed, and nothing happened. Slowly we discerned that the multiple blocks of floating ice from dinner plate to campervan size were being lifted and dropped by a rolling swell. By the time the waves rolled under us, they were probably 30cm tall and bore no threat. You could hear the energy though, as brash ice and icebergs shook besides us. In a second icefall later, a van-size iceberg was rolled multiple times by the ensuing wave. It was humbling to watch the power of nature and realize there was no way to predict what would fall when. I also felt lucky to be able to witness such a spectacle of nature – the changing shape of the landscape.

An hour later, we pulled ashore on a rare rocky point which wasn’t overshadowed by an overhanging icecliff. As we munched on sandwiches, someone noticed tiny krill in the shallow clear water – the lifeblood of the Antarctic foodchain and what brings all the whales, seals and penguins here. Just after we launched, a strong sleek head emerged from the water with a noisy exhale. The leopard seal wasn’t phased by 7 kayakers heading towards him. He stared right into my eyes, giving me a wonderful view of his spotty strong neck, although I was happy that he kept going.

We have paddled 3 days so far after we arrived in the Melchior islands on Tuesday evening. On Weds, we explored that cluster of islands, enjoying calm serene waters on the south side and dynamic swell and boomers on the north. The morning was bathed in sunlight with blue skies and view of the dramatic 1000 meter+ peaks on neighbouring Anvers and Brabant islands. A few chinstrap penguins hung out on the rocks while fur seals sprawled out on low snowy islands. A snoozing humpback was chilling out in the bay while another couple were feeding ahead of us.

On Thursday, the yacht moved us to the West coast of Anvers island and we spent 5 hours exploring Chiriguano bay, the scene of our icefalls and incredible scenery. Our captain and 2nd mate, Zigg and Santi, then moved the yacht to Enterprise island on the other side of a choppy Gerlache Strait, as we huddled inside eating and drinking tea.

Today it started off raining, windy and misty, not inspiring conditions for a paddle but we are only here once so most of us put on an extra layer and headed out to explore relics of the whaling industry. They weren’t hard to find as we are moored up to the 100 meter wreck of a whaling boat that caught fire in 1919 and was ran aground purposely. On nearby islands, small wooden whaling boats have been left to rot and whale ribs lay discarded next to glaciers and under the water. Dave picked one up on the end of his paddle until he realized how rancid it smelt. At some point the rain turned to snow and began to pile up on our decks and PFDs (buoyancy aids), and on the rocks and bergy bits. Hundreds of fur seals watched us, ignored us, or went totally silent as we passed by.

Tomorrow should be nicer weather and we plan to explore Wilhelmina Bay, where there are often lots of humpbacks so fingers crossed. Meanwhile,it’s 7pm and there is some glacial ice onboard that is asking to be combined with some gin, tonic and lemon so I’ll sign off and help it out.

I am in Buenos Aeries on my way to Ushuaia for a month long sailing and kayaking trip in Antarctica. 9 of us – 2 sailing crew and 7 kayakers – will sail across the notoriously rough Drake Passage to the Antarctic peninsula. During the 4-5 day journey, we’ll take it in turns to be on watch on the yacht. Once there, we will have around 2 weeks to sea kayak alongside ice cliffs and rocky spires, weaving between ice bergs, paddling alongside whales, penguins and seals. The yacht, Spirit of Sydney, has a blog that we will be updating every so often with our news. Check it out at http://www.spiritofsydney.co/blog/

Wow, it’s been a busy 2016 so far, but that’s just how I like it. Sorry I haven’t fitted in updating the blog. Here’s a brief update – more to follow when I get a chance I hope.

I spent a great 2 months in Indonesia, paddling with Sandy Robson 1000km or so along the West Papua and Papua coastline. Highlights included swimming with a whaleshark and the local culture and colour.

I had 5 days back in Wales before heading out to the West coast of America where I was the keynote speaker at the Port Angeles Paddle and Film Festival. I rushed from there to Orcas island to see my great friends Shawna and Leon of Body Boat Blade.

I set off from Orcas island on Thursday 28th April to attempt to kayak around Vancouver island solo. I’m writing this from Comox after 5 days. I’m loving the trip so far. I certainly haven’t been bored or lonely, although I did notice that on the day that I set myself a target and fixated on my GPS speed that I enjoyed it less. So the last 2 days I turned the GPS off, enjoyed the scenery and was a lot more content. There will be times for studying speeds and working out landing options but not every day.

I feel that doing a solo trip is great for my soul, especially one is such a beautiful arena. The mountains have a dusting of snow on top, like someone sprinkled them with icing sugar and every day I see some of all of eagles, sea lions, otters, seals and birds. Nature is intensified when you are by yourself and I’m loving it.

I have set up a SPOT tracker every night to show my location. The SPOT shared page will display the last 7 days here.

I tried to set up a SPOTWALLA map which should show my position every day for the entire trip. It’s not working at the moment – it only shows the last 2 days but in case I manage to get help to get it fixed here is the link to that.

I use Facebook and twitter more than the blog these days. For more regular updates please see those.  You can check the “CackleTV Facebook page’ without being a member of Facebook – click here.  For Twitter – click here.