Tonight’s campsite is one of my all time favourites. We’re on a bouldery beach with our very own shipwreck, with sea lions and squawking birds for company. From our small island, our view is the majestic sky scraper ridge of Castle Cape and neighbouring jagged peaks. A couple of whales cruised by as we ate dinner.

Today’s forecast changed overnight so despite sacrificing some sleep for a reasonably early start, we found ourselves battling an unexpected easterly wind. We resigned ourselves to not getting that far but fortunately after lunch, a southerly picked up. Up with the sails and we flew 12 miles North to our current Island, surfing away happily.

We heard and saw lots of whales exhaling today. And our necks got sore craning up at some of the most dramatic cliffs I’ve ever seen. Sarah’s footplate in her kayak broke today and she’s right now trying to epoxy, tie and cable tie the metal back together, a midnight job by head torch. We don’t seem to be very good at getting early nights as we are trying to paddle hard when the weather is favourable, and then we have various jobs to do. On that note. . Time for bed

“We won’t know if the plane’s coming or not until we hear it”, the surveyor said with a grin. That wasn’t helpful to us trying to plan when our electric bear fence might arrive and whether we’d be able to paddle today. But it was accurate. The locals have nicknames for the small airlines Pen Air and Grant aviation that service them several times a week – “When Air” and “Can’t aviation”. Mail and passenger planes are often delayed but usually due to high winds or fog, rather than the airlines incompetence. In reality, the planes bringing people and supplies are a lifeline to these communities with no roads to outside.

The plane finally arrived at 4pm and happily our fence was on it. Rena at the post office kindly let us collect the parcel on a Sunday and we decided to launch. It was nearly 6.30pm when we pushed off the beach and waved goodbye to a few new friends. Ironically the predicted westerly was an easterly across the first Bay and we were cursing the lack of beaches where we could camp nearby. The towering cliffs and spikey pinnacles were beautiful in the evening sunshine. We could see snowy mountains in the distance and the rich reds and greens of cliffs on nearby islands. Once we passed the first Bay, a light wind swung around behind us and Whales were blowing all around. One surfaced 100 metres behind us with a loud hiss. At 10.30pm we landed at the end of a long sandy beach, piled high with a hotch potch of driftwood stacked 5 or 6 logs high.

It took a while to set up the electric fence for the first time but our tent and kayaks are now encased in a 20foot square protected by 2 buzzing wires. Should any curious or hungry bear put his or her nose to the wire he should get 9 volts shooting through to his toes. It’s now late and way past my bed time.

“That’s a bear”, Sarah said in a slightly higher octave than usual. She was pointing at a seal in the water 200 metres from our “bear free Island”. “It’s a seal”, I maintained but at her insistence I got out my binoculars.

Magnified, I saw the light brown fur and two rounded furry ears of a bear, swimming right towards our beach.

I panicked! We were at the shore with our kayaks nearly packed ready to launch but not quite. I threw dry bags into hatches and pulled on my dry suit, imagining the bear had smelt us and was coming for it’s breakfast. Sarah started shouting and the bear suddenly looked up, he obviously hasn’t known we were there before. He changed his course slightly and scrabbled out of the water just the other side of a small sandy bluff. Sarah and I were relieved he wasn’t making a beeline for us and were even more happy a minute later to see the bear on top of the sand dune taking a look at us and then running away. He was only a small one, similar in size to the 2 year old we saw shot in King Cove. So much for our bear free Island plan although the Island was only a couple of miles from the mainland. I was glad we’d made sure we had no food in the tent overnight.

After that exciting start, we had a calm sunny paddle towards Perryville for a few hours. A blue sky sparkled above and jagged headlands, pointy peaks and snowy volcanoes surrounded us on all sides as we snaked through Islands. The wind picked up for the last couple of hours and pushed us towards the native village.

We landed on a broad sandy beach in front of a widespread collection of houses. Gary kindly interrupted his fishing to take us to the post office which shut in 10 minutes. We were too late. At 13.01pm we met the lady who worked there on the dirt road on her 4×4 heading home. But being a small friendly town, she turned around and went back to the post office and returned with 2 packages. Our food arrived ( Thanks Scott) but our bear fence ordered on Monday from Anchorage hasn’t. We were going to get back on the water tomorrow morning to make the most of the westerly winds but we’ll now be waiting for the afternoon’s mail plane with crossed fingers.

Of course spending more time in a community is not a bad thing. We spent the afternoon having a chat and food with some of the locals. We’ve been put up in a room in the city office, we’re clean and about to sleep on a bed.

I nearly suggested going back to sleep for another hour when the alarm sounded at 5am. I hadn’t slept well and the wind was due to be more favourable in the afternoon. .. But we had a mission to try to reach a bear free island about 35 miles away so we needed all the daylight hours available. On the water at 6.30, we paddled into a beautiful rising sun, a giant red orb peaking out from a distant headland bringing an orange glow to the snowy mountains on the horizon. It was worth the early start for that moment alone.

The forecast warned of a 9ft swell. It wasn’t quite that big but waves from almost every direction collided to make a sporty sea. A NW wind blew the top off the waves for the first couple of hours, which hit us side on. Sarah requested less wind and her wish was granted. The sea was ominously calm for 3 hours. Our speed dropped off about the time I realised it was a 20 mile crossing to the mainland, not 16 as I’d thought. I’d measured it from an island we’d initially hoped to camp on that was 4 miles closer! Fortunately the forecast SW wind finally kicked in giving us a nice push to the beautiful Kuprenof point, a steep craggy headland with lush grass covering the few flatter areas. About 50 sea lions lay draped over a cluster of small rocks.

Five miles around the corner, a sandy beach protected from the various swells provided a lunch spot at 3pm. We’d have been pretty happy with that 25 mile paddle on most days but we were on the Alaskan mainland, home of bears. With a following sea we set our sights on an island a bit further up the coast where we hoped there wouldn’t be any bears. We finally landed on Jacob Island at 7.50pm after 12 hours of paddling. I’m happy to report there are no signs of bears although we’re still taking precautions.

We hope to reach the small community of Perryville tomorrow where our last resupply of food should be waiting for us. It’s only about 13 miles away so perhaps we won’t set the alarm for 5am.