Pos: here
Loc: Golfo Elefantes
Acc: tent
Dist: 40,3 km
Start: 8:30 End: 16:00

The night was noisy from constant rain, heavily lapping wind waves on the shore and from occasional lound sounds of crashing icebergs or calving from the glacier tongue. They sometimes sounded like shots! I felt soon I had  to use my earplugs to get some sleep. My body needed urgent rest from this strange effort yesterday. Basically, everything hurt. Even my left index finger tip has a heavy pain today – I froze it first grade by working with the ice piece for my drinking water…

The high tide time yesterday was according to my watch 8.15 pm, you could literally hear the change of the tide, as the wind was going down accordingly.

Somehow I noticed the last days my GPS, which updates the time zones automatically by checking in with the satellites, had an hour earlier, I didn’t really know I was crossing a time zone? Must be…or did it change to wintertime? Peter will find out for me.

The tide in the lagoon was not related to any of the tidal ports I had in my GPS, as it is a dead end here. I subconsciously noticed happily it was high tide at 8.15 pm, so as well around my morning launch time, and I’d be running out north with the tide. But I didn’t really give it much more attention!

I decided to paddle directly to Rio Témpanos, the outflow of the lagoon. It was a dark morning with low hanging clouds, and the glacier tongue didn’t really look inviting. And it was not the first glacier tongue for me to see…and it was cold…and a few big icebergs on the way gave some nice pictures of the lagoon. Generally, there were quite few icebergs and floes in this lagoon, I have seen more in other places. Plus, just at 7.30 am when I was launching, I heard a ship coming into the lagoon, which disturbed my peace and solitude. Let the tourist watch the glacier tongue…

It was my luck I didn’t really waste much more time, as the current out of the lagoon into the connecting river was heavily with me! I paddled easily 12-14 km/h, flowing the other way round would be a hard time to maybe sneak out in a possible eddy…I just paddled happily right in the middle, enjoying the help of the current.

The crossing over to Punta Leopardo was still with strong current, dancing around the point in quite strong whirlpools and whatever water movements. But though being all on a flat water surface, it was looking quite scary! The current soon went down after that point. I was still paddling in the middle of the Golfo Elefantes, not able to decide which side would be better to head to.

There was another point coming up, with another small lighthouse island in the middle, where after my calculation I still should be still with the current. But my calculation was wrong, due to the time change and due to the obviously already different tide times down the lagoon and here. It was the same dance on whirlpools on the level of the light house, just that I didn’t make any progress to the direction I wanted to go! Eventually I had to let go, and to see where the tide would be flooding me…right into the eddy in the bay before the point on the left. Ok, there were a few nice beaches to camp on…but I could paddle so close up to the point in the eddy that I was able to see the really very strong current flowing like a river around the corner! No way to sneak around still in the eddy, as the eddy at some point disappeared!

But I could land on a small beach before to have a look…I had marked a nice camp beach *after* that point, or I would have to paddle back for about maybe 3-4 km to the next suitable one.

I climbed over some rocks up to the point, seeing confirmed it was impossible to paddle around. But there was a small arch in the headland rocks…an arch, rather a big hole, just big enough to push my kayak through, plus myself and the gear, right to the other side of the point to a nice camp on the beach, or just to the beach, and to safely launch from there away from the strong current!

This was a small “portage” I was happily doing! I quickly unloaded, pushed the two gear bags and the kayak through the hole in the rock – you couldn’t really call it an “arch” – and was in safety, avoiding the strong current, on a nice gravel beach! Hehehe!!!

Now, it was only 3 pm, and I had only paddled 40 km, should I keep on going? Loading again? Leaving this inviting place, for somewhere unsafe along the cost finding another beach like this? I haven’t marked any more places there, as Google Earth just had again a few clouds on the satellite picture…so I opted to play it safe, excused myself my body was still hurting from the long portage, and the last 30 km were really boring paddling, and it was starting to rain, and…and…and…I put up camp, with a bit of a bad conscious, as I really like to be done soon!!!

This beach had the same layer of small floating puffy stones on the round gravel as the lagoon beach had, the same stuff you use in the hydro culture for plants inside the house. Strange stuff!

High tide seem to be here minimum two hours earlier than yesterday in the lagoon, no wonder it had already changed at the point! I saw now on my printed official chart a few more strong current signs with 2-3 knots in both directions further up north…well, right timing is crucial then!