Blog

We are still at our lovely beach at Lava Cove. Our neighbors the white caps were joined today by 2 fat sea lions who spent most of the day plonked on the other end of the beach, stirring only to scratch an ear with a flipper or pick a short fight with each other. At one point an eagle flew over scanning the sea for fish and I got a photo with the eagle and sea lions in the same shot. Since I had to point out the tiny dot that was the eagle to Sarah, I don’t think it’s going to be an award winning photo!

Today we mostly relaxed in the sun, and of course ate. Sarah rustled up some powdered mashed potato into potato cakes for lunch which were particularly yummy. As was the hot chocolate we made by melting a bar of chocolate into some powdered milk. It seems we have more bars of chocolate than we have chocolate powder! All this elaborate camping food might seem excessive to some but why not bring some delicious things along instead of all dehydrated meals? Food is our engine and it’s also a great morale booster and an activity on a day off paddling.

I haven’t seen tonight’s forecast from Karel at kayakweather.com yet but if it’s the same as last nights then Saturday looks good for our next crossing. For now, in curling up with “where the sea breaks it’s back” , an excellent book that Michael Livingston sent to Sarah about the naturalist Georg Steller’s role in the exploration of Alaska.

To see our progress and follow our tracker visit Sarahs page here

No alarms were set this morning as we knew it would be too windy for our next paddle which is a 37 nautical mile crossing. I woke up when the sun warmed the tent and enjoyed laying in my cosy sleeping bag for a bit longer. It was great to come outside and take in the gorgeous expanse of black sand surf beach framed on either end by short, steep lava flows, with the snowy peak of a volcano just visible in the distance.

Last night when we arrived late, I discovered a crucial bit of our excellent optimus nova stove was missing. The top bowl of metal which spreads the heat must have fallen off when I was packing the stove that morning (possibly because I was watching the sea lions at the time?) or if it fell off after that, we can’t find it. I managed to boil enough water for dinner using a square of foil from the heat shield as a replacement. On the list of jobs for tomorrow is to try to make a more permanent replacement from the lid of a tin can but for today we enjoyed making a fire and cooking everything on that. I set myself the challenge of lighting it using just dried grass and driftwood from the beach, and my firestick that makes sparks. Within a few minutes we had a roaring fire and the kettle was on which I was excited about ( Thanks Patrick from Backwoods survival for showing us how). Sarah jubilantly got out her machete and saw and started producing batons to burn. While I woul d have
made do with driftwood of all shapes and sizes, it was easy having the batons there ready to go and I know Sarah really enjoyed playing with her toys!

First use for the fire was pancakes with freeze dried Black currants (yum). Then we heated up hot water and washed body, hair and thermals. Lunch was home made dough made into pizzas. We took a break for a beautiful walk to three impressive 30 metre waterfalls streaming down over a black lava flow, sending spray flying sideways, and forming small rainbows. Lots of little birds tweeted away everywhere we walked and some stood still for photos. The ground is so spongy here, it’s packed with mosses and small wiry plants. It feels very healthy and alive. Sarah even found a Japanese glass fishing float on the beach!

Back to the fire and dinner was a delicious lentil stew with beach greens picked from a few metres away ( Thanks Crystal and Danny for showing us you can eat them). Desert was 3 marshmallows each roasted. .. We don’t have many so we had to ration them! Now I’m laying in the tent about to go to sleep and hoping tomorrow is as sunny. At the moment, the forecast is looking too windy to move to the next island until possibly Saturday so we are in a nice spot to be stuck. Before then, we may move 8 miles to the easternmost point on this island where the pilot says “there is a fair landing North of the neck”. If it is somewhere we could land and camp then we’d be knocking 8 miles off an already long day to Amukta island.

Today started at 4.30am when Sarah woke me up saying she could hear the sea lions back again. In the dark we could just make out the shape of a large rock- or sea lion in the water- and another one on land snorting loudly. They plonked themselves on the beach 150 yards away from us. Every half hour or so a cascade of grunts and snorts would come our way but apart from one brief move towards us they stayed put. We tried to go back to sleep with the tent door partly open and would check they were still there every time there was a grunt. When we finally got up, we made breakfast and took down the tent before our new neighbours noticed. After staring at us for a while, they flopped back into the water, their gigantic bulk dissapearing into the liquid. Their cobra like heads craned up for one last look before they disappeared off.

Jeff Hancock, from Dutch Harbour, Unalaska warned me on the phone that the weather here doesn’t read the forecasts; it changes many times as if on a whim. Today perfectly illustrated that. The forecast was for Eastetlies about 15 knots. It started with thick fog and a light northerly breeze and we thanked our luck. Within 90 minutes it had picked up to over 10 knots and proceeded to swing around to almost every direction possible, varying from 2 knots to 20. The advantage of the stronger winds was that it blew the fog away, treating us to a view of snowy volcanos on Seguam, cloaked in a veil of mist.

To start with the current was running South -ish as expected, at a maximum of about 2 knots. I was pleased to find that it turned about 2pm which is pretty close to the predictions and gives me more confidence when planning for future crossings. .. including the next one which is the biggie; 37 miles.

It was a long old crossing; at times we moved quite slowly with wind and current hindering progress. Hundreds of birds kept us company including petrels running on the water and albatrosses who landed right by the kayaks during the lulls.

We decided to head for a beach on the South coast hoping it would be sheltered from all the NE winds we’ve been having. As we approached it a20+ knot offshore wind sprung up from nowhere and it was a battle to reach the beach. Spray was being carried towards us from the surf which was a worrying sight but it was just 1 breaker that you could avoid with good or lucky timing! A wave broke on Sarah on her run in but she braced into it and rode it to the beach with style.

We were very happy to land on Seguam Island after 10 and a half hours on the water and 28 miles. Tomorrow is definitely a rest day and we look forward to having an explore.

It sounded like a whale blow just a few metres from where we set the tent up. Sarah and I both spun round to see two sea lions snorting loudly as they slithered through the water parallel to the gravely shore. They popped their fat heads up higher this time. They were definitely looking at us and all our gear strewn over the beach. Sarah made the realisation that what I had thought may be some thermal mud formation was in fact sea lion poo and we were probably camped on one of their favourite haul outs. As we filmed, photographed and grinned, one of the beasts approached the beach and started to haul his blubbery frame onto shore. Two giant flippers led the way, and I couldn’t help thinking he was like an iceberg with so much more bulk under the water than when you just see his head popping out the sea.
“What should we do? ” said Sarah imagining the damage a careless or angry flipper could do to boat, tent or body. “Should we try to scare them away? ”
Excited at the prospect of being able to watch such a magnificent beast so close but equally nervous, I suggested that we wait and see where the sea lion went and if it was close then we could move our camp further down the beach. In the end, the giant thought better of it and with a final snort, they both headed off to another beach.

This morning was much like the last two, overcast, foggy and grey with a light NE wind. Fine rain fell so lightly that it felt like the air was wet. The coastline was still beautiful and knowing we only had 11 miles or so to paddle, we took our time and poked about in some of the nooks and crannies, discovering gravel beaches at the back of caves, admiring pretty arches and weaving through the rocks.

We made camp at 2pm and enjoyed fried tortillas with cheese and salami for lunch followed by a relaxing afternoon. Despite what I said yesterday we are going to go for the crossing to Seguam tomorrow if the forecast stays at NE 10-15 knots as it’s the best chance we have all week. The last 3 days, the wind had been lighter than forecast so we just hope that extends to tomorrow aswell. We hope we might be able to land somewhere before Finch Cove to shorten the day or we can always turn back after a couple of hours if the wind is too strong.

We think the current will be going south from when it gets light until 3pm-ish – although this could be out by a couple of hours either way. We’ll try to counter this drift away from the island by heading NE from our campsite (as opposed to following the coast east for 4 miles to the end of Amlia Island) and by waiting to start the crossing about 10am. This is a compromise between getting an early start and trying to limit how much the current can push us South. The tracker on Sarah’s website will be set to update every 2 hours when we start out.

I forgot to say that last night we used or foraging skills and picked beach greens ti add to our dinner.