[pe2-image src=”http://lh4.ggpht.com/-5QC-fDKJZ1g/UX0mMGpu4TI/AAAAAAAAU-M/ecP5Hq9A244/s144-c-o/P4210009.JPG” href=”https://picasaweb.google.com/112133179186774955122/SouthAmericaSection2Stage14Colombia2BoarderPanamaToBoarderVenezuela#5871891478546932018″ caption=”A lonely cactus on a low cliff edge” type=”image” alt=”P4210009.JPG” ]

Pos: here
Loc: “La Piscina” Parque Tayrona
Acc: tent
Dist: 60 km
Start: 5:30 End: 15:15

Getting up at 3.30 am again, but I had a bit of time to do even a few skype calls home until the boys got ready to drive to the marina and load the boat with their needs for a few days. Tonight we won’t drive back to the station! Unfortunately the nice fancy boat they used yesterday was not for us today, but the usual “nutshell” style with high boards, open standing plastic petrol barrels and no seats. It has a tiny bow compartment, but squeezing in there tonight? Not sure yet…

Three guys also had to be enough, again a new crew, means one less sleeping place needed on the nutshell… I was back on my spot exactly at 5.30 am, and launched in the calm water with no wind. But I knew it would be different going around the corner…

And it *was* different, sure!And much more than I was expecting… from no wind to almost 20 knots , with accordingly higher seas…

I was fighting my way between the gap of Isla de la Aguja around the corner into Ensenada de Concho, hoping the bay itself was calmer? Maybe the seas were a bit lower, but shelter??? I only reached the tiny band of the shelter on the other side with heavy hard work. There, I sat in the lee for a while and needed to have my breakfast and a bit of rest before I could tackle the next headland.

Punta El Vigua was still reasonable to paddle, despite big seas, and I sneaked close to the cliffs into a small bay. But behind Punta de Changue it was blowing now solid 20 knots or more across the bay. Shelter in the bays???  Haha…  I had to leave the shorter Punta de Gayraca inside the bay which no provided no shelter at all, and could only aim to get a bit of lee right before the long slim jutting out Punta de Nenguange.

But reaching the cliffs was going to my limits! I am a really good headwind paddler, but what too much is is too much! Gusts close to 30 knots across the bay made me ducking down on my kayak not to get blown over, when I was a tiny bit pointing with the bow away from the wind. My coast guard guys were driving besides and upfront of me, so far away they didn’t even see me if I’d be waving or having worse problems. I had told them before I started to please drive *behind* me, was this again a misunderstanding? In this wind, it is essential that the “rescue crew”, if they want to be one, is downwind behind you, as  if I would have to swim, I’d get blown away into the cliffs so fast they could not even turn around from their position – if they had noticed the incident at all…

We eventually met up in the lee of Punta Nenguange, and I decided I either stop for today here and now – but it was only 8 am!!! I simply have only power to tackle maybe one or two of these headlands per day… if at all in THIS wind… or they would drive me around the next three points for about ridiculous 10-15 km where I knew the wind would be amazingly calmer. Yes, I decided on another necessary hitchhiking in order not to just protect myself and my boat, but I also have to think about the crew…  I’m sure you would do it better!

I was back on the water where the sea was without white caps and the wind was down to less than 15 knots, and skipped exactly 14,7 km. It was a different world here! The wind even went down almost fully the further I got. Amazing… and the deserted mountains also changed to a scenery of beautiful green rain forest mountains with long beaches and granite piles of rocks in between. No catabatic wind falling down from desert mountains any more! Still the swell was up to 2 m, no problem on the sea, but the beach landings now don’t look really inviting! The beaches were steep, and a funny jumping dumper crashed high up. This also got better the further I paddled – and I could paddle now my average 6 km/h on an almost smooth sea surface! I made great progress, and powered on with new energy.

The guys were checking now and then the beaches for anchoring, but when I had enough after my 60 km distance (minus 14,7 km…), they decided to drive back 25 km in about one hour to a spot called “La Piscina” – a natural sheltered harbor behind a long reef. A perfect anchorage – on the way up we already saw one single sail boat in there. They even could drive in the shelter so close to the calm beach I could unload my bags just with wading in, and made camp on the beach while the three guys could squeeze on the boat some how, joined by the unavoidable constant fuel smell. Sleep well, guys and many thanks!