Pos: here
Loc: Bahia Juanchuquita
Acc: tent
Dist: 00 km
Start: 0:00 End: 00:00

Tomorrow:
A well deserved day off!

But now came the sleep deprivation in this night… We were able to take naps last night in the compulsory stops, although being freezing cold, now we were planning to paddle through with just regular stops.

But as my body felt now warm and cozy, and I was more tired anyway and it didn’t really matter at what time in the morning we would be landing on the island, my body and mind told me very soon at night it wanted to have at least a few cozy cat naps!

Peter, though having napped also the other night, was a bit annoyed about my constant wish to have a small catnap on every break, and eventually even between the “official” 5 km breaks, so I rather had to nap without him assisting. This worked well on the dead calm sea, as our boats were not banging against each other while holding them together. I just bent forward, with my paddle across the cockpit in both hands, elbows close to the body. My mind fell briefly asleep, while my body felt as if the paddle would hit the surface too hard and if I’d be close to capsizing, which basically was not the case.

My naps felt so great! I was warm, it was really necessary relaxing, and made me able to tackle the next set of kilometers without falling unexpectedly over to the side in an overtired state. I knew from all my previous night paddles what I’d need!

Peter rather was looking into the beautiful night sky, and was a bit angry not to be able to keep on going as fast as he’d like…hey, guy, get also a relaxing nap instead of getting angry and shouting at me! The other night, we were both singing a lot to stay awake, but for some reason I was out of songs this night and rather into naps…

The night had beautiful open sky with lots of stars at first, which was very nice and helpful before the moon was due to come out at 1.15 pm. When the moon came out, it overcast a bit, but at any time the visibility in this night was great. We had beautiful bio luminescence in the water with each paddle stroke, and when a seal was swimming around us we could see his trace. I was making my wishes on each of the very many shooting stars we saw!

Peter at some point bumped into a sleeping seal, which we thought was quite funny when he was heading off scared to death with a big splash…sorry guy!

We also were disturbing a lot of sleeping birds, who rushed off with quite a noise. At some point, this kind of rushing noise was loud and lasted long, so we thought this must be a huge bird swarm flying off! But the noise came closer, being even louder…it sounded we’d be approaching a big rushing tidal race! Being already close to the island gap, it was not totally impossible, as Peter read something in the pilot about unclean water in the gap…but such a violent tidal race here??? No way…

But the clean flat water started to become bumpy, and the noise was loud…what the heck was that? We even got a bit scared in the darkness and rather rafted up… 🙂

I eventually grabbed my strong flash light and shone on the water’s surface, spotting a bunch of huge fish – no, they were dolphins! Many, many dolphins, hunting fish at night in a big school of probably hundreds…really amazing! And it was a relief it turned out not to be just dangerous rough water…

Actually, as to be expected, when we were nearing the island, surely the swell on the calm water even disappeared in the shelter of the island.

But where was the island? Morning came with diffuse light only, as it was eventually fully foggy. We may have had visibility of maximum 500 m or such only. Thank goodness to a great working GPS! I wouldn’t be confident at all to find the island even on a night paddle with a compass bearing only….

So we actually eventually could hear the noise of the surf to the left, additionally to the low noise of the surf to the right on the long beach. Plus we heard a lot of seals barking to the left. So the invisible island must be there!

In the morning fog in front of us, there was sun behind us, which eventually created a beautiful rainbow like light arch in front of us where we had to paddle through! We had 3 km to go only to the bay, when eventually, like magic, the foggy curtain lifted itself and the rocky shore of the island showed up. What a view!

We were wondering about people being here, as we knew of a few buildings on the shores of the main bay. Soon we spotted a bunch of small fishing boats anchored in the bay, a few being out a bit more, and some driving along to the southern end. Coming closer, the anchored boats were all busy with divers down in the water on the long air hoses run by a generator in the boat, probably collecting shells. All were waving friendly, some even frantically at us! They must know we have had a long paddle behind us!

The water in the bay was very clear, and we spotted already quite early a bunch of big turtles! A clear sign this corner gave us some climate change, in water temperature, weather conditions and sea life. No penguins any more, but turtles!!! Approaching the tropics…

The island itself is rocky, with two main bays looking inviting to land. It was a nature reserve, but what else could we do? We left the houses in the left bay, and opted for the second bay, offering a selection of beaches occupied also more or less with birds. we chose a small beach at the end which seemed to have as few birds as possible, and landed easily.

Still, the inhabitants were a bunch of pelicans and a bird species which was new for me – they had bright *blue* feet and were whistling like humans! All were very much not scared of us and didn’t move a bit, but leaving us a good space for our tent upfront the sandy beach. Ok guys, we leave you in peace, and you leave us alone! Still, our sleeping bags covering the outside tent for additional shade all day was splattered with bird poop…

We got a bit of sleep during the day in reasonable temperatures inside the tent, and were just relaxing all day. Tomorrow will be also off!!! We need it…

The noise of the boats was reasonable, the surf low, the birds a bit funny sounding with their whistling, but the guano smell quite strong! Our refreshing dip in the clear water made all up again!