Justine’s Blog

“Splat”, the unseen bird flew off the rock, leaving his gift as he went. I was on my way to the tide line to leave my own morning offering and now I had three white circles on my thermals adding to the other pungent smells. It felt like a blob landed on my forehead too so i washed my face in the sea just in case.

Someone once told me that being pooed on is lucky. I’m not sure I’d go that far but we did make it across the notoriously windy Puale bay today. We had a light headwind all day. It was a bit annoying and it slowed us down a bit but perhaps the now familiar headwind was better than the recent NW wind tunnels because it let us across a crux Bay. We just covered 17 miles today, partly because we had a late start due to glueing Sarah’s kayak together late last night. I’m pleased to report that Krissy stayed in one piece today and is looking good for the last 200 miles or so.

We hugged a spectacular cliffy coastline this morning, serenaded by a choir of kittiwakes and murres perched in tight formation on tiny ledges hundreds of feet above us. The brown rock was too steep and too prone to rockfalls to allow any grass to take purchase and was weathered and cracked like an elephants wissened hide.

Now we’re camped on a lovely tombola looking at the mountains of Kodiak Island on one side. Only about 30 miles away they are glowing pink in the last of the sun. On the other side is the dark silhouette of the mountains we paddled past today. The wind had totally dropped and we are both lingering outside enjoying a beautiful evening instead of getting to bed early.

“It’s windy round here, be careful”, the fisherman warned me today. He was reiterating what another boat skipper and a local pilot had told us about this area. In a north westerly, the winds funnel out of the valleys in the many big bays we need to cross. We’ve been told to add another 10 knots to any NW forecast we’re given. I’d say that’s an underestimate if anything. Today’s predicted 15 knots is still raging, whiping up the bay into white caps and slamming into our Hilleberg tent. We managed to pull off 29 miles today and it felt like we crossed many boundaries into lanes of strong and then weak winds. Sometimes it was obvious that we were crossing a gap between Islands or that a bay would funnel winds in a particular orientation but not always. We got caught out on a 12 mile crossing of Portage Bay, lulled into a false sense of security by a light breeze as we set out. The wind suddenly picked up about 3 miles in but we could sail and make good progress, as long as w e took
an unconservative direct line course. All was well until 3 miles from the end when the wind steped up a notch and changed angle to be more offshore. We had been paddling NE but ended up paddling due North to reach the headland.

Round the corner we met our Kodiak Island fishing tender who was anchored close to shore waiting to take delivery of Salmon from a purse seiner who we’d just passed setting her nets.

“Puale Bay… That’s a blow hole”, he warned referring to the next Bay that we need to cross. And for good measure he added, “Watch out for bears, we saw one on that hill earlier”.

Now camped up less than a mile from “that hill”, but with a raging fire, I got a big shock when carrying Sarah’s kayak up the beach tonight. I heard a sickening crack and the back end felt like it had come away from the rest. It hadn’t totally, 6 clips hold the three pieces of the kayak together and 4 of them had come undone. The metal part that clamps down has bent with the strain on two of the clips and they wouldn’t shut properly. Sarah tried bending then back and she filed the screws down to try to tighten the whole thing up. . No luck. In the end she glued the 2 sections of kayak together with epoxy. Hopefully it will last until we get to Homer which is probably 200-250 miles away now.

“It’s windy round here, be careful”, the fisherman warned me today. He was reiterating what another boat skipper and a local pilot had told us about this area. In a north westerly, the winds funnel out of the valleys in the many big bays we need to cross. We’ve been told to add another 10 knots to any NW forecast we’re given. I’d say that’s an underestimate if anything. Today’s predicted 15 knots is still raging, whiping up the bay into white caps and slamming into our Hilleberg tent. We managed to pull off 29 miles today and it felt like we crossed many boundaries into lanes of strong and then weak winds. Sometimes it was obvious that we were crossing a gap between Islands or that a bay would funnel winds in a particular orientation but not always. We got caught out on a 12 mile crossing of Portage Bay, lulled into a false sense of security by a light breeze as we set out. The wind suddenly picked up about 3 miles in but we could sail and make good progress, as long as w e took
an unconservative direct line course. All was well until 3 miles from the end when the wind steped up a notch and changed angle to be more offshore. We had been paddling NE but ended up paddling due North to reach the headland.

Round the corner we met our Kodiak Island fishing tender who was anchored close to shore waiting to take delivery of Salmon from a purse seiner who we’d just passed setting her nets.

“Puale Bay… That’s a blow hole”, he warned referring to the next Bay that we need to cross. And for good measure he added, “Watch out for bears, we saw one on that hill earlier”.

Now camped up less than a mile from “that hill”, but with a raging fire, I got a big shock when carrying Sarah’s kayak up the beach tonight. I heard a sickening crack and the back end felt like it had come away from the rest. It hadn’t totally, 6 clips hold the three pieces of the kayak together and 4 of them had come undone. The metal part that clamps down has bent with the strain on two of the clips and they wouldn’t shut properly. Sarah tried bending then back and she filed the screws down to try to tighten the whole thing up. . No luck. In the end she glued the 2 sections of kayak together with epoxy. Hopefully it will last until we get to Homer which is probably 200-250 miles away now.

The tent was shaking when the 5am alarm went off. A look outside confirmed the wind had pulled an all nighter and was at least 20 knots. No point in getting up early for that so we went back to sleep until 8am. The sea was all full of white caps so I turned my alarm off. 11 delicious hours of sleep later I emerged into a sunny, windy day. The gusts must have been at least 35 knots and it’s not dropped below a bracing hold-onto-your-hat blow all day. It’s been great to catchup on sleep after not getting enough recently, phone familyand friends and eat delicious things like pancakes and falafels. We braved a walk in “bear country” to find water. The landscape here is mostly low grass and mosses, none of the thick alder bushes that we’ve started to see in lots of places. The long range visibility made us happier venturing a few miles to look for a river. In the end our steam was dry and we walked all the way back to not much more than a puddle in the dried up bed. But the view s were
well worth it. We could see a fishing boat sheltering in the next small bay and beyond that the string of flat topped islands that stretch like steeping stones across the 12 mile Wide Bay. Hopefully we’ll hop between them tomorrow.