Pos: here
Loc: Peninsula Brecknok
Acc: tent
Dist: 21,8 km
Start: 14:30 End: 20:20

It is a horrible feeling to be trapped in your tent while outside it’s raining cats and dogs…yesterday was the only about 80% dry day, but it was obviously, though I tried those short 3 km, too windy. Or I was not in shape yet to fight after the tough 40 km the previous day…

But this morning started with rain, rain, rain…Karel’s for cast was 13 to 20 knot, which I couldn’t really believe, looking out there…it was at least 20 knots. Still I thought it calmed down again a bit after noon, and I thought rather than staying in my tent trap all day, and maybe another day on Thursday, I can as well go out and paddle with fighting the 20 knots head wind.

I knew I’d be not faster than 3-4 km/h in average, but better slow progress with hard work in rain than no progress???

The final decision made my feet again – toasty warm around noon, and outside it was not as chilly as it has been on the 40 km day. It actually felt reasonable warm…two comfort factors to enhance my decision to go.

If you are feeling comfortable, you can perform well, and when you perform well, you are feeling safe, and when you are feeling safe, you are feeling comfortable…and so on…

The main discomfort factor was the continuous rain on packing my boat, I hurried and may got a spell with just a bit “less” rain, but it was still *rain*…

I was dry and warm in my dry suit, and thought this would stay the whole day like that…but for some reason, I am not sure if it was because I was wearing my PFD all day and this made me either sweat, or the PFD acted like a wick sucking water inside my suit – at the end of the day, my fore arms were dripping inside, and I felt on a brief jump out of my boat to check a possible campsite, the water running down to my feet…yuck!!!

I already knew my bottom was somewhere soaking, but though having paddled already in rain all days, it was just a *bit* wet, and my feet were all dry! This night, my feet were soaking wet inside, so was my bottom, and my sleeves…I don’t believe my dry suit booties both the same time started to leak…how am I yearning to get my “new old other” dry suit sent from Germany in Punta Arenas! The brand new one sent from Kokatat didn’t make the way to South America via Argentine – f… the Argentine customs.

The paddle itself was an almost constant fight into the wind as usual, with little shelter in the lee of the islands, and tough going on the two crossings to the next islands. All decorated with no view at all, I barely could make out the shape of the next island and guessing where I should head to. My GPS map is still out of correct placement, I only can guess the direction from that one in this obviously badly surveyed area. But the printed GPS map is at least more or less correct and shows at least roughly the shapes of the island and their bays. Well, rather roughly at some corners…

I am quite sure, not many other people would have paddled today in those conditions, rather sat out another day in the tent. Without a good technique of core paddling you are lost, would damage your tendons and won’t make much head way. But slowly but surely I always reached the other island, or the other bay, once with such a strong gust I almost capsized just from the wind on calm water.

One very annoying thing are those kelp plants – not only they grow en masse just there where the best lee of the islands is, but if in a small wave you get one washed on your bow stuck behind the toggle, you can only stop and paddle back wards to get rid of it…

I was about to turn around before the last crossing to Peninsula Brecknock, but after a short break in a tiny wind protected harbor (there were no beaches at all at that side…), I was determined to cross the 3-4 km and to take the first best campsite. Originally, I was aiming for the next bays west to my bay now, where I knew was a common anchoring site for yachts, waiting for good weather as well to go around the corner.

I had good reason to assume there may be at least one in there, as a yacht was passing by me yesterday, and I don’t think it has been moving today in this weather…

But the shelter of an earlier deep bay was lurking too much to stop *now*, rather to fight at least 4 km more of big white caps, until I eventually would reach the shelter of that bay. And who knows, how the campsite is in there, or if the yacht would be really in there, and would have given me asylum…and I rather be independent.

I paddled into the shelter of my own deep bay, a beautiful spot with steep mountain walls, surrounded by two water falls. I could land at the river mouth, but camping I was envisioning today to do high and dry “on the rocks”, climbing a bit of on the bare rocky areas to find a place level, big enough and without puddles of water to pitch my tent.

On climbing, I could feel the water slopping around in my dry suit feet…it is so yucky to be wet inside the dry suit!

Pitching the tent with heavy rocks on the pegs again, I started to wipe dry my “interior design” of wet dry bags and the tent floor, as much as I could. The main thing to keep dry is my “island” of my Thermarest sleeping pad, with my sleeping bag including the most important thing – a cozy always fluffy feeling separate inner bag fleece liner inside. This works so far, as well as my camp clothes are all dry.

But stripping the wet dry suit, plus the wet fleece underwear and socks tonight was no pleasure, as I don’t know how to get those things dry again for paddling on Friday. Thursday will be strongest wind again, and I don’t think the sun will be shining that day…

I may sacrifice my other fleece pants from my camp clothes for the next paddle, as I could as well jump instantly into my sleeping bag at night and not hang out in the long pant outside the sleeping bag at all. And I do have a spare dry paddling shirt plus socks. This would work, if my under wear won’t dry on Thursday inside the tent.

I was wiping my dry suit inside as much as I could, but at some point my towels are damp as well. But I won’t wear my PFD any more on constant rainy day…at least it is supposed to be lower wind around 15 knots and even lower on Friday, and I should get around the corner and make good head way toward North East then. But lower wind doesn’t necessary mean here *no* rain…

I heard already some other critics about “Fearless”, the new book about me, saying it is written quite harshly, at least at the beginning, regarding me and some other persons described – I have to say again it was not *me* at all writing the book!!! Though I was reading some drafts and noted and corrected here and there, Joe, the author, and the publisher Globe Pequot/ Lions Press, didn’t show me the final version, and I don’t know if my any or all of my corrections and notes came through.

I will get my own final printed version in Punta Arenas, and hope to find Joe wrote it all if not to my satifaction, then at least to my acceptance. He has his very own special way of drawing a picture of the persons described, and I hope no one feels offended at the end. If so, I can’t let it pass as an “authorized” biography, as a German publisher asked me if it was, for translating it into German.

But basically, I thought, from what I have read so far, this style of book will at least give a lot of discussion subjects – and that my personality was polarizing people happened quite often in my kayaking career…I like to be as special as this book! 🙂