Justine’s Blog

It's always so tempting to ignore the alarm at 5am but when we make the effort we are rewarded with a few hours of magical calm paddling. Under a pink sky, we paddled in rippled mercury, past jagged peaks glowing red and golden. Around us birds of all shapes and sizes chattered away and otters gazed warily at us as we glided by. One otter was fast asleep on his back with just his blonde face and his little paws poking out above the water. I mistook him for Bull keep but Sarah spotted him. We drifted close before he finally sensed us, and he suddenly jerked his head and his two front paws up like he was surrendering. He looked at us for a few seconds before disappearing under the surface.

A breeze picked up about 9am - northerly instead of the forecast NW so it was a headwind. It was 10 knots by the time we started crossing our 2nd Bay and 20 knots by the end. The 4 miles took us almost 2 hours. We continued on along a craggy coastline with low conglomerate cliffs eroded into caves, arches and spires. Behind them, grassy flanks rose up to bare mountains, a few snowy peaks and a minty Blue glacier.

We spotted a fox trotting along a cliff top, it's majestic red coat glowing in the sun.

"No way", Sarah suddenly called with an excited lilt. I followed her gaze and saw a honey coloured mound of fur lying on the grass at the edge of the cliff. As we watched, the bear stood up and walked a few steps to the right revealing a tiny darker Brown little bear. The baby bear also stood up and moved slightly revealing another cute little face, and then another.

"There are three of them", Sarah mouthed with an excited grin. It really was special. The wind was whistling offshore and we were confident the bears wouldn't hear or smell us. We watched them baking in the sun for a bit longer before carrying on with big smiles.

We paddled on until we reached the brink of the next large bay. Rather than take on the 20-30 knot gusts, we finished early and camped on a small sandy beach with views of sculpted headlands, craggy mountains and a grassy valley dotted with ponds. It was really hot out of the wind and I enjoyed an afternoon snooze in the sun.

I always feel that if you paddle enough hours in beautiful wild places then you'll enjoy some great moments. Today was a case in point of that for me!

A vast reef stretched out half a mile from our campsite this morning. We rolled the kayaks over logs to get them the 200 metres to the sea and tried to find deep water between grass like weed and rocks to the open sea.

Strong NW winds were forecast so we hurried to cross the 10 mile Bay ahead. The wind was already quite strong and offshore and we planned to break up the crossing by stopping in the lee behind some small Islands in the way. The wind actually died off towards the end of the crossing which was great.

Once we rounded the next headland into Port Wrangel the wind kicked right up. We stayed in close out of the worst of it and crawled up the coastline until the gap was only a mile to the other side. The advantage of our slow pace was that we had plenty of time to take in the beautiful mountains, rocky pinacles and crescent beaches littered with logs. After ferry gliding across, the wind helped us for a while, then we managed to shelter from it round the next corner. After another hour we were battling a headwind again and decided to stop relatively early after just 17 miles. We’re in a beautiful location overlooking several Islands and some craggy granite mountains. All sorts of different clouds are flying by but it’s hot when the sun is out. We even had a sunbathe earlier. And made bread on a sick over the fire – filled with honey of course!

I think its due to be similar weather tomorrow but I live in hope for a South westerly!

I knew I was drifting closer to the two bears, perhaps too close but it was mesmerising watching mother and cub turning over seaweed with their big paws and munching on the choicest bits. The little one sometimes ate from the same patch as his mother and occasionally wandered off, searching the bushes above the beach and slipping over on driftwood logs.

We’d been watching them for about 10 minutes, slowly getting closer; looking, taking photos and filming. As I filmed them walking along close to the shore, I started wondering if I could paddle faster than they could swim. The wind pushed me closer and I saw the cub raise his nose to the air and sniff. I didn’t want to suddenly paddle away and scare or anger them so I just stayed very still. Mum and cub looked over at me and fire a few seconds I wondered what they’d do. Then they dropped their heads again and continued pawing the ground for food. We slowly paddled a bit further away and watched them for anther 10 minutes. The little one tried climbing up a fallen tree, he stood on his back legs and put guys weight on it. The whole tree fell over on top of him!

That was the highlight of a great day where we also smashed over the 1000 nautical mile mark with a 28 miler. A 5am alarm saw us on the water at 6.45 hoping to get a10 mile crossing under our paddles before the wind picked up. In fact
the wind was much lighter than forecast all day and conditions were lovely with a moody sky and snowy mountains just peaking out from time to time. Offshore craggy Islands provided entertainment as they changed shape and switched positions, and whale blows punctuated the air. Even the headwind this afternoon couldn’t spoil the mood. We landed on a gorgeous sandy beach on a calm sunny evening. I even had a dip in the sea which was great – afterwards!

Congratulations to the lovely Hadas who had just given birth to a baby boy!

I knew I was drifting closer to the two bears, perhaps too close but it was mesmerising watching mother and cub turning over seaweed with their big paws and munching on the choicest bits. The little one sometimes ate from the same patch as his mother and occasionally wandered off, searching the bushes above the beach and slipping over on driftwood logs.

We’d been watching them for about 10 minutes, slowly getting closer; looking, taking photos and filming. As I filmed them walking along close to the shore, I started wondering if I could paddle faster than they could swim. The wind pushed me closer and I saw the cub raise his nose to the air and sniff. I didn’t want to suddenly paddle away and scare or anger them so I just stayed very still. Mum and cub looked over at me and fire a few seconds I wondered what they’d do. Then they dropped their heads again and continued pawing the ground for food. We slowly paddled a bit further away and watched them for anther 10 minutes. The little one tried climbing up a fallen tree, he stood on his back legs and put guys weight on it. The whole tree fell over on top of him!

That was the highlight of a great day where we also smashed over the 1000 nautical mile mark with a 28 miler. A 5am alarm saw us on the water at 6.45 hoping to get a10 mile crossing under our paddles before the wind picked up. In fact
the wind was much lighter than forecast all day and conditions were lovely with a moody sky and snowy mountains just peaking out from time to time. Offshore craggy Islands provided entertainment as they changed shape and switched positions, and whale blows punctuated the air. Even the headwind this afternoon couldn’t spoil the mood. We landed on a gorgeous sandy beach on a calm sunny evening. I even had a dip in the sea which was great – afterwards!

Congratulations to the lovely Hadas who had just given birth to a baby boy!