Thu 09/02-2012 Day 164

P2080019.JPG
My additional tent poles give support from inside

Pos: here
Loc: Caleta Villena
Acc: tent
Dist: 0 km

What weather…at least last night was reasonably calm with maybe around 20 knots of wind and no rain. I could take away my additional inner tent poles (the split paddles…), and had a bit more space for a calm sleep.

But soon early in the morning the rain came back, and the wind breezed up way before noon to maybe 25 knots with heavy gusts high in the 30 knots, and I put back up my “tent poles”. They just have the disadvantage to soak  inner and outer tent walls as they were now touching, and were dripping slowly a small puddle on certain spots. But rather small puddles than a broken and flown away tent…

It would be nice to watch the weather outside, but besides yesterday night before darkness, when I was really “admiring” the heavy seas out there, I couldn’t go out at all with the heavy rain, and I was glad I didn’t have to. No “window” opening without a flood inside, and see through windows are not yet available in my tent…

Forecast for today was for it to calm down around 3 pm with the wind, but until 4.45 pm there were still heavy gusts. Now it is “only” raining heavily, with light wind. Thank goodness…but even the rain is allowed to stop for me to to fully enjoy the forecast very low wind day tomorrow! Let’s hope for the best and may it dry out over night, and I’ll make good progress tomorrow.

Last night in no rain, but still strong winds, I could at least hear the river again as the background sound, not the crashing surf. Now I can hear the river again, and know the sea is down as well, but this f…… rain!!! How nice was it in Argentine’s dry desert…or did I forget how I also hated the desert? I’d love to have a moderate, mixed climate…later, around the equator, I’m probably cussing about the heat and humidity there, melting my butter pot, white chocolate and cheese… :-))

So I spent the day again with reading, and wiping up the water puddles on the tent floor. Fortunately, they weren’t too bad. I just hate this wasted weather break time! And still the thought of losing the tent is not fully out of my mind…a human needs to feel good, food (enough), water (enough), warmth (good) and the feeling of safety – which was not 100% there.

The most important piece of “interior design” inside my tent is my warm fluffy polar fleece sleeping bag liner, which I simply sewed at home out of one of those modern lightweight very fluffy blankets. It reaches over my head, and makes my already not bad synthetic sleeping bag as cozy as it can be. It never feels chilly or humid, though the outer bag may take on some humidity over night. I will never go without such a one in such climate!

Regarding my further clothing – my socks are the warmest woolen merino socks I could get – still while paddling, where I am not moving my feet too much, my feet start to freeze. And warming them again at night is not done with putting those socks on, but putting the naked feet in a crossed legs seat under my naked legs, all covered with the fluffy blanket. I should have taken a small hot water bottle along 🙂 – well, a normal water bag would do the job, but that takes too much effort.

I have a lycra bike short and fluffy normal t-shirt to sleep in and as camp underwear, a polar fleece leggings and sweat shirt for warmth over this underwear, plus a wind proof jacket for daily wear and a wind- and water proof pant and jacket of Gore Tex Paclite for rain, which are great and pack very small. I don’t need a rugged outdoor pants, the fleece leggings covered with the wind- and waterproof Gore Tex pants are enough for any windy or wet ugly weather outside.

I also carry a black soft stretchy yoga pant which looks semi-formal in cities and could replace a camp pant if I’d need to used my second fleece pant for paddling if the first one would be soaked, and a lightweight long sleeve shirt which may double as second layer under my paddling polar fleece shirt, if it would be too cold. But so far I’m happy with one layer of polar fleece under my dry suit, and I usually wear the yoga pants and that lightweight long sleeve shirt in a city when everything else runs into the washing machine!

I also carry a second spare paddling polar fleece shirt, though usually I need only one. If it got those white salty sweat spots after a hard paddling day, which are feeling quite ugly the next day and rub your skin sore, you need to watch that at night taking the shirt off, and to wipe those spots at least off with a wet cloth, if you can’t wash or change the shirt. Sore skin from those salty spots is not nice, but if you get the rash, instantly rub soothing Bepanthen cream or such on the spots at night, and it would be good next morning.

Ok, enough of this senseless writing, I’ll go and cook my dinner now!

But if you ever have to spend days as a weather prisoner by yourself in your tent, you are happy about any distraction from the worry about your equipment. But I have enough batteries, working electronics, food, water and warmth, plus a working e-book, so what’s the problem??? This little bit of noisy rain, wind and crashing surf all day…Isla Deceit was worse!

11 comments on “Thu 09/02-2012 Day 164

moin, freya. zwei worte sind es, die zu oft vorkommen in deiner gegend—headwind und rain. ich kann wohl mitfühlen, dass dich dass zeltleben auf dauer nicht begeistert. aber geduld und die gute lektüre mit friedrich gerstäcker hilft hoffentlich ein bisschen.es kommen ganz sicher bald andere zeiten.

Andreas Lichtschlag

Freya, Deine Berichte lese ich jeden Tag. Gerade diese kleinen Details (“senseless writing”) enthalten so viele gute Tipps. Bitte mehr davon! Gruss aus Berlin

Ken

Find a piece of wood or foam to put in the kayak under your heels.

Stop trying to heat the ocean by radiating heat from your feet through the hull.

Steve King

How a Canuk keeps feet and toes warm….
In cold weather, we put on a hat.
Because the head looses heat first.
If our toes or fingers are cold, it is usually because our body is shutting down circulation to the extremities in order to protect the brain and the core.
So a hat and scarf will help to keep the feet warm.

Chuck H.

I totally agree with Jörg and MiataJoe. In fact, you have the makings of a “Hints from Freya” book in all the postings from your expeditions!

MiataJoe

“Ok, enough of this senseless writing”??? Not really.

Your reviews of equipment are very informative and provide a real life, real time experience factor not found in many product reviews. Please continue.

Jörg Hofferbert

Hallo Freya, it´s not a senseless writing. It´s good for you and good for us. How you “manage” your clothing is very interisting. I don´t know if it´s helpfull: Warm up a middlegreat round stone (but not to hot) and put it into the canoe. Stones have a good memory for warmth. Thats good for your cold feet. Maybe…

Caro

La Naturaleza no sabe lo que es la piedad. Por que tendria que tener piedad con nosotros??. Ella no tiene la culpa, es autentica con ella misma. En estos momentos es cuando tenemos que poner a prueba nuestra inteligencia.. Lo unico que importa es no perder de vista el objetivo…. no hay frio, ni agua, ni viento…lo unico que se ve y se siente es tu objetivo. Tu tienes que ser autentica contigo y no perder tu objetivo. como lo hace la naturaleza. Copiate de ella/ FUERZA!!

Beth Stuart

A makeshift hot water bottle made from discarded water bottles or the like filled with hot water sure works for me. I am careful not to heat the water to hot to distort the plastic. Sometimes a sock over it to keep in warmth is nice too. Keep safe beth

roberto

I’ve been reading every word for months. Google earth to follow your course. Good on ya for sharing it all. Brighter days and endless adventures. Stay safe and enjoy it all !

Ah Freya, the waiting game – it’s one of the really tough ones on any expedition when all we can think of is ‘I just want to get on with it!’ I reckon a real plus is doing it alone, sharing a tent at times like this can be testing to say the least. Liked the writing about your gear. Cheers, Graeme.

Comments are closed