Pos: here
Loc: Pichilemu
Acc: Navy Pichilemu
Dist: 63,4 km
Start: 8:30 End: 19:00

I was ready to go in first light again, but the look of the surf was frustrating…what were two clean lines yesterday, were about 5-6 lines this morning…”my” Navy came soon at 8 am, accompanied by the two fishermen from last night. He soon was asking if I’d need help on launching…well…as I’m asked…and the surf looks so uninviting to crash through…and the fishermen seemed to be keen to do it… yes!

We loaded my kayak and gear on a truck, and drove about 1 kilometer into town where the fishing boats were “parked”. It was a narrow spot through rocks, I had no idea how they’d get the heavy boat afloat once my kayak was also loaded on…soon I knew! with two “op’s” – two ox powers! No tractor, no jeep would do a better job in these conditions! The oxen seemed to be willing to walk deep into the sea, until the fishermen thought they could unhitch them and the boat will get afloat with the next wave.

Amazing…I was asked to jump on the fishing boat only by myself first, and was dragged, sitting alone in the boat like on Father X-mas’s sledge (just imagine the oxen were my two “Rudi’s..”), right into the water! Soon two fishermen jumped in as well, keeping the boat in the right direction with two long poles, until the third guy was able to start the engine and we gripped enough water to go.

They navigated out of the narrow rock gap into the breaker lines as they have done often before…IT WAS SCARY! But no problem, and soon we were reaching open water.

I had already done some calculations last night – I urgently needed to reach Pichilemu tonight, for schedule reasons I’ll explain later. But 60-something kilometers were too much in daylight, and there were also quite some headwinds forecast. No chance. So I tried to urge my launching fishermen to drive me a bit further than just out into the unbroken water. But they had only fuel for 5 km…better than nothing. Though those “hitchhiked” km were just the distance I could have done in the time they needed to get me out…but this launch was an adventure itself!

I paddled like hell again, but soon realized there was no chance to reach Pichilemu in those conditions before sunset. As the Navy advised me on another ride in with a fishing boat (remember – Pichilemu is the best and most well known surf spot in all of Chile!), I made the tough decision to skip another 20 km – and requested a boat coming out to pick me up in time before darkness. I was offering them for this “special request” without emergency for sure some $$, as the fishermen would be driving two hours back and forth and would be using quite some fuel.

So overall I decided I had to “cheat” today on 25 km – if I’d have had following wind as usual, I *may* have made it by myself. But there was still the landing…Punta Lobos was already full of surfers (it’s also Saturday of a long weekend – Tuesday 1st of May is a holiday!), and the actual headland into Pichilemu beach was extremely crowded in the water. Being by myself, I’d have landed on the beach just after Punta Lobos bay which seemed to be reasonable calm tonight.

The two fishermen were driving full speed like “motor cycle rockers” around the corner, very, very close past the first batch of surfers, and right *through* a second batch…the guy on the bow was spotting and directing the guy on the engine, both holding my kayak as we were jumping occasionally quite a bit. Still we were running one guy almost over who had to dive down…but he was all right. My god…if the ride out was already scary, this ride in around the crowded corner, through dozens of surfers and huge wave lines, was kamikaze. Not sure if they hate the surfers, or if they just liked to show off, or if this is the “safest” line in…once on the “parking spot” of the fishing boats, looking back out, I’d take a different line out again…

No oxen were waiting tonight, but a modern tractor to pull us on the beach. Pichilemu on a Saturday night was really a busy tourist town, with horse drawn carriages for tourists, a line of take aways and music everywhere. Still, I almost stepped in to a full box of stinky fish residue once I was about to disembark the landed fishing boat…yuck!

I was allowed to camp on the beach, and would have had no problem, but after a while, the Navy officer greeting me offered me a bed in their house – thanks very much! Better than a busy city beach at night!

So why this effort reaching Pichilemu so urgently tonight, with a few question marks on my “trip integrity”? The forecast shows southerly winds all week, that’s no problem. But the swell will rise on Tuesday afternoon up to four meters, and my last open beach landing will be 50 km to Matanzans tomorrow, Sunday night, in swell around two meters. This is supposed to be a reasonable landing, and I hope I can make it without assistance. I may have been able to land today some where along the coast with some high risk, but getting out again on a beach where no people were…plus there would be still a few km missing to reach San Antonio harbor on Monday night! Daylight is just too short these days 8.20 to 7.15 pm only.

I can paddle to Algarrobo’s tiny harbor on Tuesday, regardless of the rising swell I’d have a safe landing. Wednesday will have to be off on 4 m swell, and Thursday I’ll paddle well rested to Laguna Verde…arriving conveniently in good shape around noon before the weekend in Valparaiso on Friday, ready for the “stress” of all reporter and party actions! With 25 skipped km on more than 7500 km…I can take that gap.