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Day 40, Day 15 from Punta Arenas – Wednesday 29 February.

6.43am: A light easterly wind and light rain as we set off up Seno Pia.

8.38pm S54.50 W69.41: We have had a great day paddling up Seno Pia, covering 35 nautical miles in 11 hours. We went through a patchwork of ice chunks from the glaciers and enjoyed amazing views of the glaciers all day. There was very little wind until a breeze picked up behind us around 3pm. The favourable tide meant that we made good time. It will be a short day on the water tomorrow when we’ll head for the Armada post at Yamana. We’re tired now and will sleep well, with a smile.

Day 39, Day 14 from Punta Arenas – Tuesday 28 February.

8.18am: Wow! We had a really comfy night – in a bed! We are setting off later today so that we can give the kids here a go in the kayaks in the bay. It looks like the wind will be behind us. Yeah!!

6.00pm S54.50 W69.41.3 We covered 22 nautical miles. It has been a great sunny day with clear views of the glacier. After a calm morning we finally got our tail wind for the last 2 hours, prompting big smiles. Our position is 9 miles up a narrow fjord with three glaciers at the head. The view of the icefields from our crescent pebble  beach is gorgeous. We hope to paddle up Seno Pia tomorrow.
Thanks to Jose and Nancy for a great time – and cake – at Timbales.

There are so many possibilities for a blog title to reflect on 13 exciting days kayaking from Punta Arenas to Timbales – where we are now. I could have chosen the 5 humback whale sightings, one of the amazing creatures appearing from the depths about 50 metres behind Barry and startling us with its loud blow. I could mention that we long ago stopped pointing out penguins to each other, as small groups of these small black and white, or black, white and red birds pop up from the sea many times each day. Sometimes they disappear straight away, other times they swim very slowly away but dont really seem bothered by us, and occassionally they delight us by jumping through the air. We see albatroses almost every day, sometimes 6 or 7 at a time, and many other birds – comorants, skuas, terns, oyster catchers, ducks & geese. We see less seals and sealions on this stretch than on the SE tip of TDF, but most days we will see at least a couple lazily splashing about, or curiously bobbing their heads vertically out of the sea to get a better look at us. Today we passed 5 big fat male fur seals, grunting and snorting at us from their perch on a rock by the shore. There must be lots of fish here for them all to feed on.

The scenery is amazing and has changed gradually over the 200 or more miles since Punta Arenas. For almost 2 days we paddled alongside a road, with scattered houses which gradually got futher apart. Lorries honked their horns at us, we saw a group of tourists out on a seakayaking day trip & we passed a hostel at the end of the road, which I am sure we would have stayed at if we had been a few more days into our 1 set of kayaking thermals!

After a 5 mile crossing, we left the road behind and witnessed the magestic beauty of the Channels (Canals) that this region is famous for. We gazed at snow capped moutains, rocky brown  islands, and rich green  trees that lie plastered on every inch of coast alongside the sea. We also experienced the changeable weather that this region is famous for. Every 10 minutes it switched from sunny with no wind, to rain with a following sea, to sunny with hailstones, to rain with a strong headwind,  and every possible combination.

On our first day we had a tail wind but by the end of our 2nd day a strong head wind fought to keep us from our desired campsite – a little oasis between 2 islands that Marcus Demuth had told us about. We battled on into the wind for an hour, teeth gritted, but once we arrived, the bitter southerly was howling through the grassy field where Marcus camped. I was chilled to the bone just getting out to examine the site and we turned back to a less glamourous but more sheltered campspot besides an old fishing camp. It was dry and we could build a welcome fire in an old fire pit.

Its day 13 from Punta Arenas now and, with the exception of about 5 miles yesterday, we havent had a tailwind since day 2! We battled mild headwinds for a few days when we were heading east & then they had a lot more fight for 3 days, reaching 35 knots. Instead of staying in bed we paddled a short distance every day – at first because our campsite on a flat grassy rock a metre above the high tide mark wasnt as sheltered as it might have been, then because we were SO sheltered that when we got up really early, we couldnt hear the wind howling & it was too dark to see the whitecaps or the clouds racing across the sky! Once we realised how strong the wind was, we were up and ready to go, so we saw how far we could get. On the 3rd day, the wind was a little less and once more… we decided to see how far we got.

The Brecknock peninsula is beautiful in a different way. Bare rock dominates the skyline – great big globules and domes of dark brown rock rise up high all around. Trees or grass manages to take hold in places, but over great stretches the hard igneous rock wins and stands proud. I enjoyed a fantastic scramble up one of these rocky butresses on our windiest day, and had amazing views across the peninsula, across to some turcoise lakes, with a clear picture of where we had been in different inlets and between islands. The sea looked wild and I was glad to be on land looking out!

Since our 3 really windy days, the weather has been amazingly calm. If we had any wind, it was against us, or at best side on, but its not been strong and we´ve been able to cruise along in a relaxed manner, looking at the views, stopping to photograph the wildlife & spotting the occassional boat in the distance.

Today we only paddled 8.5 miles to the Chilean Armada station at Timbales. Marcus & Marcelo had urged us to stop here for the night and spend some time with the couple who are stationed here for a year with their two sons. The family live here for a year and arent allowed to leave in that time, and they get food dropped off by boat every 2 months. They get very few visitors so we hoped they would be pleased to see us! We were certainly very pleased to see them!  Jose is very proud of his work as he monitors and talks to any ships that pass by, reporting their time of passing and their route plan to his boss in Puerto Williams.  As we stood chatting to him about his job, a humpback whale surfaced a few hundred meters away out of his office window! Not a bad view at all! Barry and I both had a wonderful shower – it was SO good! Barry says my hair no longer looks like a damp dish cloth stuck to my back – which I think is a compliment. We had some lunch made by Nancy, Jose´s wife so muchas gracias to her for the steak and rice with brocoli. Delicious.

We have about 80 miles left to Ushuaia and finally a tail wind is forecast for tomorrow! (after a flat calm paddle here this morning, there is actually a tail wind now!).  A friend sent us a message saying “remember to ye haah as you are surfing the waves”! We hope we will be doing tomorrow!!

Day 38, Day 13 from Punta Areanas – Monday 27 February.

7.30am: The view out of our tent is gorgeous on the calm and chilly morning. We’ll soon be heading for Timbales.