Archive for the ‘kayaking’ Category

It sounded like a whale blow just a few metres from where we set the tent up. Sarah and I both spun round to see two sea lions snorting loudly as they slithered through the water parallel to the gravely shore. They popped their fat heads up higher this time. They were definitely looking at us and all our gear strewn over the beach. Sarah made the realisation that what I had thought may be some thermal mud formation was in fact sea lion poo and we were probably camped on one of their favourite haul outs. As we filmed, photographed and grinned, one of the beasts approached the beach and started to haul his blubbery frame onto shore. Two giant flippers led the way, and I couldn’t help thinking he was like an iceberg with so much more bulk under the water than when you just see his head popping out the sea.
“What should we do? ” said Sarah imagining the damage a careless or angry flipper could do to boat, tent or body. “Should we try to scare them away? ”
Excited at the prospect of being able to watch such a magnificent beast so close but equally nervous, I suggested that we wait and see where the sea lion went and if it was close then we could move our camp further down the beach. In the end, the giant thought better of it and with a final snort, they both headed off to another beach.

This morning was much like the last two, overcast, foggy and grey with a light NE wind. Fine rain fell so lightly that it felt like the air was wet. The coastline was still beautiful and knowing we only had 11 miles or so to paddle, we took our time and poked about in some of the nooks and crannies, discovering gravel beaches at the back of caves, admiring pretty arches and weaving through the rocks.

We made camp at 2pm and enjoyed fried tortillas with cheese and salami for lunch followed by a relaxing afternoon. Despite what I said yesterday we are going to go for the crossing to Seguam tomorrow if the forecast stays at NE 10-15 knots as it’s the best chance we have all week. The last 3 days, the wind had been lighter than forecast so we just hope that extends to tomorrow aswell. We hope we might be able to land somewhere before Finch Cove to shorten the day or we can always turn back after a couple of hours if the wind is too strong.

We think the current will be going south from when it gets light until 3pm-ish – although this could be out by a couple of hours either way. We’ll try to counter this drift away from the island by heading NE from our campsite (as opposed to following the coast east for 4 miles to the end of Amlia Island) and by waiting to start the crossing about 10am. This is a compromise between getting an early start and trying to limit how much the current can push us South. The tracker on Sarah’s website will be set to update every 2 hours when we start out.

I forgot to say that last night we used or foraging skills and picked beach greens ti add to our dinner.

Amlia Island is my new favourite of the Aleutians for scenery. Jagged spires, spikes, islands, arches and pinnacles decorate every headland and much of the coastline in between. The mist shrouding the dark peaks reminds me of gotham city and adds a sense of mystery, although I’d be very surprised if batman came swinging down! Broad bays break up the cliffy sections with steep brown slopes and a smattering of coarse black beaches.

It was another great day for wildlife with seals, a minke whale, an otter draped in kelp, a big sea lion jumping from the water and endless birds.

We are now camped on a lovely beach dotted with pretty green pebbles. I went for a little explore while Sarah had a sleep and watched 2 eagles playing in the sky.

The forecast is for never ending North Easterlies at the moment which is not helpful as we head East. We made 16 miles today and had a slightly earlier finish as Sarah wasn’t feeling on top form. If it’s similar strength wind tomorrow – 5-15 knots then we should reach the eastern end of Amlia, or at least as close to that as we are able to camp. We won’t be going any further until we have a different forecast as from there it’s about 32 nautical miles to our next campsite. The 15 mile wide Seguam pass lies between us and rocky Seguam Island. The pass had a reputation for rough water and the pilot says the current runs at over 4 knots at almost right angles to the direction we need to travel. We have an idea of when it will be going North or South but there are no available current tables so to some extent we will need to suck it and see. So weighing all that up; even 10 knots of headwind doesn’t really appeal. So we’ll wait and see what the weather brings!

I felt quite sad paddling away from the small crowd of people who gathered on the beach at Atka to wave us off this morning. We had a fun 3 days getting to know some of the folks.

Today’s weather was more typical of the aleutians with a layer of fog sitting 100 metres above sea level hiding the peaks and spires of the coastline. It sometimes drifted down to sea level shutting out the view totally or lifted tantalisingly for a few moments revealing a glimpse of a rocky mountain or grassy hill. We crossed Amlia pass a mile North of the narrow part, avoiding the breaking waves that guarded the entrance on the Amlia Island side. The highlight was a glimpse of a whale’s back – Sarah thinks it was a bottlennose whale.

The wind was NE but not as strong as expected so we were able to paddle 20 nautical miles. The coastline was really pretty with spires, stacks, small islands and lots of rocky or pebble beaches.
Thousands of birds sat on the sea and swirled around our heads; puffins, eider ducks, black guillemots and many others.
As we came ashore tonight Sarah spotted steam rising from the sea and suggested it might be a hot spring. I was sceptical but we went to check it out. The sea water was indeed warm, almost warm enough to go for a dip.. But not quite. We searched for the source of the heat but couldn’t find any one spot. It seemed to be seeping up over a large area. Very exciting none the less!

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The 5 day forecast showed an opportunity to push hard for 3 days and reach the settlement on Atka before some bad weather grounded us. We took the chance and paddled a couple of 10 hour days to put us 21 miles away on the third day. We started the day with a 13 mile crossing of a large Bay in a side wind. The sails helped us maintain a little over 3 knots, increasing to 3.5 when we decided to head inland slightly to improve the angle.

A few people have made comments that we somehow aren’t kayaking if we are using sails. Or suggested that it’s cheating or against the rules. We don’t really have any rules and if it makes us quicker and therefore safer in this remote, windy, cold, unpredictable environment then I’m all for it! We are still paddling but the sails make us quicker in certain conditions, much like a longer, sleeker kayak would or even a rudder. In other ways, they make our journey trickier – gusts can offbalance you more eaisly and the sail and lines on our deck could get tangled or caught on rocks or kelp. Rolling with a sail up is something we aim to avoid as we need to release one of the lines underwater before attempting it.

I digress…. I wanted to talk about Atka. I didn’t know much about this city of 75 people before coming here. I knew they had a fish processing plant, 3000 reindeer and an airport that is serviced from Dutch Harbour 3 times a week. Local resident Crystal Dushkin agreed to let us ship some food and supplies ahead to her. When we arrived, she arranged for many of the Atka folks to meet us at the beach and perform a traditional drum dance. The kids got to leave school early so they were happy! Both Sarah and I found it really moving to be greeted in such a dynamic and special way.Overall for me sailing is a new and exciting extra dimension to a paddling trip and I like the fact that we are travelling through waters that the Aleuts paddled hundreds of years ago. I’ve seen old photos of their iqyax (kayaks) with sails- so I somehow feel like we’re using good style.

We soon learnt that the dancing is just one way that Atka is a hotbed for preserving local Aleut culture. It’s the only place where the ‘Unangax’ language is currently spoken in every day conversation. They have a cultural camp every year where the youngsters are taught traditional skills like making kayaks (iqyax), weaving grass baskets, dancing and harvesting sea food. On our first night we were treated to Sea lion soup and reindeer bolognase. Last night we had battered halibut and three salmon dishes – breadcrumed, baked and smoked. Today Crystal and Danny took us to the seashore at low tide and we harvested sea urchins, chitons and sea weeds. They showed us how to eat the various parts so we can supplement our diet from now on along the chain. I really enjoyed the sea urchin eggs and will definitely be finding some more of them.

It’s always really interesting to chat to people who live in a remote and unusual place. Atka has a happy, friendly feel to it as well as having an important role in keeping alive the Unangax culture. The people seem to love being so close to nature, living from the land and their lack of ‘big brother’. I feel privileged to have spent a few days enjoying an insight into a way of life that is often overlooked in the fast pace of modern life.

We’ve had 3 days in Atka – the first two were too windy to paddle (a 25knots headwind). Today was still a headwind but more like 10-15knots. We simply weren’t organized enough to leave this morning after spending the first two days in a whirlwind of being looked after, fed, shown around and taught what goodies will help us survive if we end up stuck on a remote island for longer than our food lasts. In the end we decided not to rush off this afternoon, but to leave first thing tomorrow morning and have a full day of paddling… albeit into a headwind still.

So thanks to the kind folks of Atka for welcoming us so warmly. And onwards from here until our next brush with civilization in Nikolski, an even smaller community of about 16 people 250 miles along the chain. I expect this next leg to be our most challenging – with several long crossings through tidal passes with not entirely precise information about the currents. Once across, the landings are scarce and affected by the ever-present swell. While I’m looking forward to spending some time in this rarely visited part of the world, we’ll be hoping for some good weather to let us reach Nikolski before our food (or patience) runs out!

You can follow our progress via a tracker on Sarah’s website. Sarah varies how often it updates – often every 6 hours, but we might make it more often during the tricker crossings. Sarah’s blog is here.

I try to put up a photo on Facebook every day (it formats it weirdly if I do it onto my blog), and Sarah puts out regular tweets. I’ll also try to write a short blog post most days on here.