Pos: here
Loc: Rio Grande
Acc: Club Nautico
Dist: 83,1 km
Start: 6:35 End: 20:15

I woke and knew it would be the perfect paddling day…still I was not sure if I’d be happy to paddle all the distance to Rio Grande!  It would be more than 80 km…Saturday morning was supposed to be still quite all right before the wind kicks in, but I should have known myself…

I made great progress with the tide flushing out of the Bahia San Sebastian after 8.30 am, paddling with great digging in easilyover 10 km/h for two or three hours. But I knew it would be changing at some point…

But the water stayed calm, though the tide turned, and my kayak is a flat water runner…still making 6-7 km/h. Once I neared Cabo Doming, seeing all those people on the beach on a Friday night out and Rio Grande in the distance, I knew I’d not stop there and just keep on paddling.

The tide was just perfect: high at 8.15 pm, so I easily could head into the river which I assumed would be dry and inaccessible the two hours  before and after high tide.

After the nice beaches of Cabo Domingo, the approach to Rio Grande was not really the sight of a beachfront holiday town, but that it was not meant to be. The water was dead calm on the flooded sandy reef, plenty of weed fields which would get a big boat stuck immediately. Rio Grande has no fishing harbor or fleet, hence mostly not much water in the river. At least I had something to watch the last km paddling into town, though it was really not the most pretty and odorless view…

My aim was not to slow down, but to push it hard, as the next three days would be off. I’d be arriving perfectly at high tide 8.15 pm, as I announce 4 hrs earlier on my website. I was not really sure if anyone has read it, and I hadn’t really fixed a contact yet. The blog entry before I assumed I’d be arriving Saturday…I had a name of a kayaker from Alejandro, Pablo Komer, but haven’t talked to him yet either. But I knew the Prefectura would always be the first place to stop and look for help!

I eventually reached the Prefectura beach, and landed without seeing any one expecting me. Quite unusual! I was walking up to the office, being wet and cold still in my dry suit after over 80 km of paddling, and the reception there was a bit semi-enthusiastic, probably due to my language barrier! But soon a half-English speaking young officer came and made some calls to the Club Nautico.

Fabio and another kayaker, still in his dry suit from the last paddle, came after half an hour to look after me! Thanks a lot! I was happy to get out of the office and to unload my kayak, to load it on the car roof. Actually, I could have paddled the 600 m up to the Club Nautico…but they rather wanted to drive me! No problem…

In the Club Nautico, which was well equipped with nice hot showers and wifi (what else do I need…), I could spend the night upstairs in the fitness room. Plenty of nice clean space for me! The only issue was, which I at first liked very much when I came in cold and wet in my dry suit, that it was quite over heated for my liking, and Fabio didn’t now how to turn the four radiators upstairs and the two downstairs down…just open all four windows, he said! Which I did, to find a bit of a cool sleeping place…

But the necessarily strong cool draft around my head turned out to be not friendly, and I already thought of moving my sleeping pad and bag into the boat house where it was nice and cool…but then, and idea struck me, just get your pliers from the multitool and turn the tiny knobs missing on those valves of the radiators around and off…”Selbst ist die Frau!” 🙂

Soon some cool peace set in, and closing the three now banging windows, leaving only the last one open, I could get a bit of well deserved rest.

Actually, sleeping in a city always  makes me aware of some strange noises here or there…either it is too hot, or dogs are barking, cars are honking, neighbours are arguing, windows are banging…how nice and peaceful it is on a remote beach! But there, it is sometimes the surf or some strange birds or penguins keeping me awake without earplugs…

Before I actually went to sleep, the friendly first Jeffe de la Prefectura, Senor Borrelli, came himself to make a date tomorrow 11 am for a talk. Thanks!