Day 12, Thursday 29.01.2009

View from top of the dune ridge into the marsh hinterland

view from top of the dune ridge to the sea

I was launching from the Ewing marsh early that morning, to get a bit of quiet wind on paddling. A quick climb onto the dune ridge to get a look what’s behind had to satisfy my curiosity.

It turned out to be a long day, but I was landing once at Pearl Point for my first 1-hr lunch breack of the trip. It was blowing so hard against me again, and I guessed that reefy stretch of beach looked so inviting for a chnge after sand only. Plus I was craving to reach my pre-cooked couscous for lunch out of the dayhatch, which I didn’t want to open oit there on the water maybe catching a wave into the hatch.

I was climbing up the steps to the tourist parking area in the heat, but backed up again when I saw a family camping comfortably with their van there…too much civilisation…

As it was not time yet to call it  a day, I kept on paddling against the draining headwind until it got dark and I felt I didn’t like to keep on going…65 km for that day, still too much watertime for that distance…when do those winds will change to be following? I should padlle from midnight to 9 am or so…but at some point your body needs rest, and sleeping in the extreme heat of the day on a beach is not an option either.

I decided to land near two dark objects on the beach, curious again what it was…but the smell of two very dead seals made me launching again and landing 1 km higher up the coast, with NO smell…

I was hoping to reach Point Hicks that night where Paul stopped as well, but exactly that late launching the previous day was missing to make it…anyway, any place on the beach is as goo as any, if no support team is waiting…

 

Sat-phone message by Freya:
37.46 149.06 — Long, boring, hard day. Can you switch this headwind off?
Tracking Freya: To get Freya’s position directly from her SPOT satellite messenger, you can view her SPOT shared page. That URL will take you to a web page that will indicate the location of her most recent SPOT message. You’ll see a map when the page comes up, but click on “satellite” to get the real bird’s eye view. The route between points is shown as a straight line and may cross over the land, but Freya’s not portaging. 
Freya is currently just indicating her campsites, and leaving her SPOT off during the day to conserve the batteries. When she has long crossigns or passages we hope to have Freya activate the SPOT tracking feature. With that enabled, her SPOT will send out positions every ten minutes so you’ll be able to track her progress in real time. 
Chris