Pos: here
Loc: Fjordo Pia, Punta Falsa
Acc: tent
Dist: 59,8 km
Start: 4:25 End: 18:40

I think I got glacier overload today…

Last night, a big cruise boat was passing by, and two more yachts joined the two Italian ones in the same bay…but they arrived at 1 am, making quite some noise 🙁

I got up at 3.20 am, to make the most out of the calm early morning hours. It was fore cast to breeze up to 15-20 knots after noon, and that didn’t sound very pleasant. Then I rather get up early! But maybe today was just half an hour too early, as paddling in almost darkness in the fjords is quite eerie…but the dawn came soon.

I thought yesterday, after my first glacier on this trip, I’ll paddle close to the glacier tongue very much later of the trip…but today had it all!

The second glacier on this trip was reaching already directly into the channel inside a small bay, where I was paddling, and what did I see there from the distance? Yes, those white pieces can only be a few small calved icebergs which were floating around. Nice! I didn’t dare to paddle too close, as the glacier made a few calving noises like thunder, and some wind was already breezing up.

Next highlight was a huge impressive waterfall right at the channel – nice to see!

Then it was a wide caleta, where I thought I could paddle up to the glacier as well. But large boulders were blocking the glacier river and created rapids I couldn’t handle. I rather got out, and enjoyed walking on the special looking large boulder bar – amazing stone landscape! The glacier was quite in the distance, but beautiful.

The next one in a small bay was a combination of a large glacier and a massive water fall coming out under neath! I have never seen that…really impressive! What mother nature can create…

The wind had already breezed up to ugly 15-20 knots, and I tried to sneak very close to the rocks, paddling into every tiny bay to find the smallest wind shelter. It was not always working, and eventually Iwas  mostly fighting the wind and the choppy water. But as long as I was able to make 4-5 km/h, I was all right.

The entrance of a long two-ended fjord came up, where I had marked a good beach for the night. I felt actually at 2 pm already quite done for the day, only 40 km paddled. Those headwinds!!!

But I knew as well of a nice anchoring bay with a beach 6 km inside the fjord, and my chart showed me at the end of each arm there would be a big glacier as well…my curiosity was gaining over my tiredness, and I happily paddled with the wind into the right arm of the fjord. Getting out tomorrow early morning would have no wind…perfect!

A yacht came out of that arm, and I was hoping to have the fjord for myself. But soon, another yacht was overtaking me, aiming right to that marked anchoring spot. Two more yachts were already in there…

It was only 3.30 pm when I also arrived almost there, but I decided to keep on paddling to the first glacier which was lurking already close by…if I’m curious about some thing, I’m easy to forget my tiredness! It was no wind in here, and the water was dead calm. Quite a relief after the strong wind with the choppy sea out there!

Getting closer to the glacier, the water was littered with ice pieces floating around, the closer I came, the bigger they got!

To the right was another glacier, but this one was fully “dirty” covered with earth…amazing…

The second glacier of this arm was at the end, another 5 km paddling…but who cares! There was time was enough that day, and I simply was curious, just a yacht dared to sail into that last end of the fjord arm. She had to go through now quite some massive amount of floating small ice bergs, which I could easily navigate through, but that big yacht??? It must sound like an ice breaker…but they had the much better overview to navigate, higher up than myself sitting close to the water, where everything looked closed out with small ice bergs, which was not the case, coming nearer.

The ice was floating around about every 2-5 meter, in size of about 30-50 cm, occasionally over a meter in diameter abover the water. The larger piece was under the water! I had to paddle through an ice maze, nice for a change to the daily kelp maze…but hitting even a smaller piece sounded quite ugly on my kayak, and I paddled carefully.

I paddled and paddled, but I couldn’t see the yacht any more! But there she was, barely visible for me behind the icebergs and with the white mast in front of the white ice, floating right under the glacier tongue…didn’t they know the glacier was calving every 15 min or such? I mean, you could hear it…they must be lucky or just far enough away to avoid the falling ice…I didn’t dare to paddle that close!

I had a brief chat when they turned around, it was a French yacht, and they felt like anchoring for the night in a tiny bay where the ice still was floating around…the sound of the ice on the hull at night must keep them awake!

I rather had to find a beach, and on low tide, the sandy spot I was aiming for was only accessible through about 20 meters of slimy mud…oh well! Eventually, I was almost unloaded, a small dinghy from another yacht came up with a noisy engine and wanted to land for a chat…but the ladies didn’t have boots on, and the two guys couldn’t drag the floating vehicle with the three ladies up to the beach…couldn’t help…I rather had my peace anyway!

I had a tiny cold shower, and felt ready to crash for tonight! Well, after cooking and writing this…