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We passed the kit inspection with the Prefectura and gave them copies of our insurance, health certificates and passports. We are ready to start paddling! First we have been invited to lunch with Monica’s grandmother – one last hearty Argentinian meal before we are cooking for ourselves.

By the time we get to Punta Maria it will be mid afternoon but we hope to paddle for a few hours down the coast to make a start. Tomorrow is due to be very windy, so maybe it will be our first bad weather day.. but we will see! Things change very quickly here.

Barry and I are in Rio Grande, searching high and low for ‘tortilla wraps’ or some sort of flat bread to take for our lunches! We think we have everything else we need, and we’re meeting the Argentine Prefectura at 10am to have a kit inspection. If we pass, and our documents are in order then we are free to paddle.

Monica will kindly take us about 15 miles south to where we finished kayaking last year and we’ll check out the weather and decide whether to get on the water this afternoon…. if all goes according to plan!

Karel Visel will send us daily weather forecasts to our Iridium satellite phone. We’ll be sending back short daily updates which my mum will put on my blog. We can also send updates to twitter via the satellite phone so may send a few extra messages this way. Follow us on twitter, check out the latest twitter messages on our home page, or follow on Facebook (as twitter messages automatically go to Facebook, and vice versa). We have a map which will be updated live as we paddle. the link to the map is at the top of the blog. Thanks to Matthew at Track Leaders for putting the great map together.

Where are we now?  Click here to see the map!

In just a few days, Barry and I head back to Tierra del Fuego at the tip of South America. A year ago, we attempted to kayak 1,000 miles around ‘Isla Grande”, a large island in Patagonia. Wrist problems caused us to stop the trip after about a quarter of the distance. We paddled from Punta Arenas in Chile to just beyond Rio Grande in Argentina along a rugged, windswept coast before coming home early. We hope to start where we left off at a lone building at the small headland of Punta Maria a few miles south of Rio Grande.

I’m pleased to have our Hilleberg Tarra tent, which is built to withstand the strong winds down there.

Big thanks to Kokatat for a few new bits of kit like pogies to go with my drysuit that gave me last year. Thanks to Chris Reed for modifying Barry’s Reed drysuit by putting on looser neoprene wrist seals.

Thanks to Lyon Equipment for topping up our supply of ortlieb dry bags to keep our kit dry, & ortlieb water carriers to keep our water wet! They also replaced my warm Exped down matt (I gave mine to Sarah Outen when hers got stolen).

Iridium agreed that Barry and I can take one of Sarah’s satellite phones to Tierra del Fuego (while she is overwintering in Japan, and doesn’t need a spare)! Thanks to Iridium (and Sarah) for the phone and sponsored minutes.

Sea 2  Summit gave us some great accessories, including fantastic mugs which consetina down into a flat circle, and a handy waterproof first aid kit. Peak UK gave Barry some pogies to keep the wind out.

Icebreaker gave us some lovely warm thermals last year, and gave me another pair of leggings & merino underwear this year.

Big thanks to Keen for giving us some shoes to wear on land and on the water. We both chose the same shoes – lightweight waterproof trainers for on land, and mesh shoes with a good sole for over our drysuits.

Shred Ready sent me a Shaggy helmet to keep my head protected if we have any surf or rocky landings. I’ve worn it on a paddle in Wales and it’s a really comfy fit. I’m almost looking forward to some surf!

Last year Jamie at Natural Balance Foods gave us some fantastic Nakd and Trek bars to fuel our engines with natural goodness, and he’s sent us some more this year. All the bars are 100% natural fruit and nut, and Trek bars have high protein content. Yummy and healthy.

We just picked up a new Bombora LV paddle for Barry from Lance at Mitchell Blades in Chester – the blades are a lovely shade of blue (a brand new colour – the first of it’s kind!). Thanks to Lance for making them at short notice.

We’re really looking forward to seeing Monica and Marcelo again – a couple who we stayed with for 3 weeks in Rio Grande last year. They have now moved to Ushuaia and Moni will meet us at the airport and take us back to their house. Marcelo is paddling on his own trip from Punta Arenas to Ushuaia with some friends – Marcelos’ updates will be here. We will see him later on in February. Good luck amigo.

We hope to start paddling fairly quickly. The Valley nordkapps we shipped over to South America are still there so when we arrive, we just need to buy food and a few other bits and pieces. We are meeting the Argentinian navy on Saturday in Rio Grande and if they approve of our kit, insurance documents etc then we can start paddling on the same day. Providing the weather is good enough, of course!