Pos: here
Loc: Isla San Pedro
Acc: Navy Station
Dist: 0 km

The forecasted storm came in last night, with heavy rain – worse than at Cape Horn – well, almost. But I was quite happy to be safe and sound and warm and dry in a house, though on an island in the middle of the bush – sorry, sea…

It was rattling and clattering everywhere around the house all night in the strong wind. This morning, I walked early down in still some rough weather to have a look at my kayak which I was thinking about all night…Have I have not properly attached to the wooden rail and it would it fly away…but it was all good. I chose the right rail side on the jetty, the wind pressed it on to it and did not try to tear it off.

But I noticed the roof of the old Navy house was close to lift off and fly away (hopefully not on my kayak then…), and one old huge antenna near the new house had about ten lose metal bars hanging down and knocking noisily …

Tomorrow afternoon on Windguru showed a bit of a weather calming on the south eastern corner of the Gulf, but it already closed down to almost no improvement, and Saturday is very bad again. So if it doesn’t change, I may have to stay…my body likes it, but my mind not at all! But looking outside today gets your mind quickly off of being out there again…in the tent or on the water, no way…big raging white seas, heavy rain…

On the other hand, the place I’m staying here seems to be the worst corner, and if I may have used Wednesday’s full paddling time going north, plus if I would not have lost a full day on that long detour, plus if I’d paddled just 5 km more the last few days, I’d already be in the sheltered north east corner and could at least paddle in 15 knots headwinds or such…but…if…when…now I’m here! And I have to find a weather and wave gap to get away again, until I’m in the bit more sheltered area behind Isla Javier and can enter the river and portage.

The guys are treating me well, letting me use the computer, but I can’t upload pictures or skype…but at least slow email. José was cooking a nice lunch with self caught fish, but when I see the food storage room it is almost similarly equipped to the “super mercado” in Puerto Eden – not much there any more until the end of March, when the Navy boat brings new supplies, and a new crew. No new supplies until the crew changes again in 4-5 months…the three chicken produce just as so many eggs to have one per Sunday per person…and the greenhouse is small…

I assume food resources may not really become better going further north on my second leg of the trip, I have to plan very well in advance and to carry a lot of what I may think I’ll need. But the last section then of the first leg from Puerto Montt to Valparaiso should be easy with sufficiently large cities.

So far, I have not many contacts between Puerto Montt and Valparaiso! Not many kayakers there…but it doesn’t have to be a kayaker! So if you know some one who knows some one who has a friend or family member happy to host me for a day or two in their city, I’m happy to get some contact addresses! Thanks very much!

I learned about a new device today how they record the weather – one important work aspect of the station. The ran measurement tool I knew already and is simply a pot with a scale, but how to record the sunshine hours and intensity? They have a device outside like an old fashioned sun clock equipped with a paper strip inside with a scale of the hours of the day The sun is burning through a special magnifying glass a hole or even a continuous narrow strip depending on the turning of the sun around the glass equipped with the paper stripe with the sunny hours…the result on the final burnt strip looks quite precise! Interesting…but I’m wondering if there are more modern devices for recording sun hours?