Pos: here
Loc: Bahia Clift
Acc: tent
Dist: 0 km

I checked the forecast early morning 5.30 am, my usual wake up time, and it got worse – 20-25 knots in the morning, 25-35 knots in the afternoon. Reason enough to stay put in my safe and sheltered camp site, as tomorrow will be the same, or even worse.

My body felt very sore in the morning as well, not ready yet to tackle another hard paddling day after the tough effort yesterday. Plus the marginal weather “window” in the morning didn’t sound safe enough to find another sheltered campsite in time. Plus…a lot of excuses…

I really had to deal with a guilty feeling all morning, as it was almost dry, even one or two sunny spells, and as my spot in the tiny inlet was really completely sheltered, I almost didn’t feel any wind here. So instead of enjoying my rest day, I felt guilt no to have paddled at least this half day, those 9,5 km around the corner of the headland, and then turning north east for a while to find the narrow gap…I may have luckily done this stretch against 20-25 knots wind, and then enjoyed the following wind direction for a while…until…until what? Would I have found a reasonable camp site in time, before the strong wind came after noon?

It was as forecast – just at 12.20 the heavy rain started, and even in my sheltered spot I felt a few stronger gusts. Fortunately nothing here to worry regarding the wind, and I even already used my extra tent guy lines. I just have no heavy rocks here to fix them, just have to rely on my wide sand pegs, staking deep in the heavy wet soil.

The only worry I have here is if my spot really stays dry after heavy rain, if the small river just besides me won’t swell so much that my small grassy spot would be flooded, or if the general water level won’t rise that much that at some point my tent simply would float away on my shallow, calm inlet and I’d have company of the many 30 cm fish I saw yesterday….

So far it looks wet, but not on the way to be flooded here…hopefully. That other river in the last unsheltered weather camp site was swelling big after those two days of heavy rain, even making noise transporting big boulders downhill to the sea. But this one is much more tiny, though I heard a difference in the sound already, means it got bigger…but the shallow inlet has no surf at all here, and the only noise now is the river and the more or less rain. It is so far way less rain than last two days on that campsite, but ugly enough to stay in the tent.

Where should I even go if it would be not raining? My original idea of spending weather rest days was to explore the environment in Fjordland, making long walks…I didn’t calculate the inaccessibility of this landscape! No walks at all besides a few meters up and down a rocky beach…

At least I don’t have to worry about drinking water – the first days after Punta Arenas the rivers were all teal or amber colored from the forest, which you can drink, but it tastes strange. Fortunately I didn’t have to use that water, as I carried about 10 liters from the city. Later the rivers got clearer, and I found nice water. You just don’t have to take it from such a swollen river after heavy rain, rather from a smaller steep over rocks flowing one. The bigger ones flowing slowly over flat ground the last 100 m into the sea don’t look nice there either, as you never know how much the sea water mixes with there with the river water.

Generally, Fjordland water is not very salty, regarding the heavy rain and the little exchange with the sea. Still, you have about two meters of tidal range which creates a little noticeable current every day.

Oh, please let me get out of this tent prison again and make reasonable progress every day! My real hope is turning into the north pointing channels with having some shelter on the western side…minimum one more weather day.