Justine’s Blog

I have about 24 hours left to finish packing, organizing and modifying for Tierra del Fuego. A lot of our kit is already packed but there are a few last minute decisions about things we might leave behind & things we want to take after all. I have multiple cameras, batteries, memory sticks and chargers to sort out, and we both have a few jobs to do to make sure things run smoothly at home while we’re gone, not to mention, finding time to submit our tax returns!

Today we went for a last minute paddle to test out a few bits of kit. We had planned to do this a few days ago but Barry had a severe case of man flu so we had to postpone it!

Barry was testing out his new Reed drysuit. Chris Reed has put hard-wearing cordura on the seat and knees for him and he has single thickness wrist seals. I was seeing how warm my new icebreaker thermals are (very!), and playing with the Oregon Scientific ATC9K camera. I am taking 2 of these cameras to Tierra del Fuego as my on-the-water POV camera. I tested the camera for Seakayaker magazine and was sufficiently impressed with it to want to use them on this once-in-a-lifetime trip. See the full review in an upcoming edition of ‘Seakayaker’.

Thanks to our local kayak store, Surflines, in Llanberis, who have sponsored us with a few bits of gear that we still needed, like a compass with a mirror (we need to have a signal mirror to satisfy the navy in TDF), a pelicase for my G10 camera & lots of bits of string!

Thanks to Kari-tek for a couple of paddle bags for our Mitchell blades, and to Lyon Equipment Uk for giving us some lovely Ortlieb drybags, aquapac waterproof cases and a pair of Julbo floating sunglasses.

We’re working on a map for our Tierra del Fuego trip that will be updated live as we paddle using our SPOT device. Thanks to Track leaders for making that happen.

Enough talk… I’ve got plenty of things to be getting on with!

I’ve been skiing on the road outside my house this afternoon! I think it’s safe to say that the parcels of kit for Tierra del Fuego, and Christmas presents I’ve ordered on-line aren’t going to arrive today, and we’re not going anywhere. Axel tested out his snow tires and JUST managed to get to Holyhead and back but he looked almost as white as the snow when he returned! I certainly don’t fancy driving on roads that I could successfully ski on! We were meant to go to the Mitchell blades factory in Chester today, to pick up our shiny new paddles for Tierra del Fuego, but that will have to wait for another time.

The good news for anyone ordering from the UK / Europe / Australasia Cackle TV webstore  is that the lady who posts your DVDs ( Fflur) lives 5 minutes walk from a post office close to sea level (and less snowy) so all orders will still go out. All UK orders are posted 1st class within 24 hours so you still have time to order Christmas presents.

On the subject of weather, while in Tierra del Fuego, we’ll be sent daily weather forecasts from the other side of the world, in Israel. Karel Vissel is remote weatherman extraordinaire. He offers support for remote kayaking trips, helping people to make informed decisions about whether it’s safe to go on the water or better to stay in the tent. More information can be found on Karel’s website, www.kayakweather.com

One slight snag to this plan is that we don’t yet have a satellite phone. We need an Irridium 9555 phone so Karel can send us texts of the weather forecast, and also so we can let the Chilean and Argentinian navy’s know where we are. They won’t let us kayak in their waters without a sat phone. If anyone can lend us a phone for 70 days, or has any contacts which might help, then please let us know.

Our overworked postman delivered a precious parcel from Canada today. Inside are 2 spot devices which are being lent to us by Avantura for our trip to Tierra del Fuego. Aleks Gusev has sent us the original SPOT 1, and the smaller SPOT 2, so we can chose which one we would like to take on our trip. Both are personal trackers which can work out our location and send the GPS co-ordinates to a google map on a website so that people can track our progress while we are away. If all is well, we will use the SPOT every evening to send an ‘OK’ message with our location, to let people know where we are and that we are fine. If things go wrong, we have an emergency SOS button that we can press to alert the GEOS International Emergency Rescue Coordination Centre and other pre-determined people ( and we will also have an EPIRB in case of emergency).

The new SPOT 2 is 30% smaller and can find a GPS signal quicker, but the battery life is shorter. Since we’ll just be using the SPOT once a day then we’ll probably take SPOT 2, but we’ll have a play with them both over the next 2 weeks to get used to them as see which we prefer.

Thanks a lot to Aleks for sponsoring us with the loan of the SPOT devices. If you are interested in hiring or buying one, then please visit his website, Avantura.ca.