15^th January

There were good conditions for Tom and Fiona to leave Goose green this morning with a light force 3 following wind.

We headed up towards our portage point arriving at Burnside creek for 0630. The creek was small and short, the large lake (approx 800m) marked on the map and the charts was non-existent / dry so we had to add a small overland part to our expedition before rejoining the water at Brenton creek.

There were severe gales forecast for the evening so a paddle to a sheltered spot was required. The Lafonia part of the Falklands is not known for its height of land or shelter with spot heights being around 20 to 30 meters, therefore finding shelter takes a little more time and planning.

We arrived at our camp spot in the early evening in time to put up our tents and shelter for the night.

16^th January

Both tents were tested for their resilience during the night, with some minor damage to Toms. After a brief calm period in the morning we now had another gale coming in from the SW, this meant with the funnelling of the wind it would be best for us to turn our fly sheets around. This was a planned process with Tom and Fiona working together to make it happen. This worked with only a little drama and alot of flapping from the fly, however this proved to be a good decision.

The afternoon was spent distracting each other from the noise of the tents and the fact that the sides were flexing inwards more than we would have liked by playing card games. Placement of the cards on the tent floor were chosen carefully as the large gusts of wind would flow under the tent and move the cards.

Moving out of the tents was not really an option today as it was too windy.

17^th January

Well the conditions had died a little, so the plan was to leave at 1400 with the ebbing tide. Tom spent the morning looking for a water source and then filling his bottles up.

When we left it was blowing a SW 5 (calm for Falkland waters), whilst this was almost following we still looked for shelter from som of the low lying land.

We were planning to paddle late on into the evening so stopped at the entrance of Brenton Loch for dinner. The evening was not as long as intented as the wind didn't drop as much as we would have hope so we did a short hop into the head wind to our final point of the day.

There was some luxury to be had at this camp spot, there was a small stream with a pool on the beach. This seemed a perfect place to try and wash some of the salt off our dry suits etc, naturally the best way of doing this is to lie in the peat coloured water and to make water angels!!!!!

18^th January

With the forecast as it was one of our thoughts for crossing the Falklands sound and making up time was to paddle down to New Haven and jump on the morning ferry to do the 12 mile crossing.

The 6 mile paddle down into New Haven was into the standard F5/6 headwind. The harbour has only been complete since November so it was a great opportunity to see some of the new developments happening in the Islands.

The morning ferry had left, so we waited for the afternoon ferry. Part way into our 3 hours wait we were offered shelter in a vehicle being driven by Trevor Johnson, this was very much appreciated and helped fend off the onset of Hyperthermia.

Once the ferry arrived it appeared we were not going to be aloud on the ferry as we had not booked it more than 24 hours in advance but were given the option of getting the next ferry in four days time. We were offered some sanctuary with Paul and Karen from Goose Green, Paul dealt with shipping movements in and out of the harbour and Karen the full time teacher of the camp school in Goose Green which has 3 students. We went back to their house and had a feast of local fresh lamb and lots of vegetables all home grown, Tom had a chance to check his emails and Fiona had a bath.

The two return to the harbour with Paul after dinner to check for paddling conditions. On inspection and listening to the forecast the pair decided to turn down the hospitality of a bed and get on the water for the evening and paddle down the coast to a more appropriate crossing point.

The evening paddle lasted a couple of hours but got us to a good position for the morning to cross Kelp bay, named this for a reason Tom and Fiona have no fond thoughts of the Kelp beds of the Falklands other than we need 'kelp help'.

19^th January

This day turned out to be a true 'Kurt Hahn' day for different reasons. Fiona because upon waking up yet again the weather was not as forecast and was blowing a good SW 6/7, a potential head wind and progress again would be halted for a while. We had a cup of tea to appreive the situation. We made the decision to possibly go back up to New Haven in a few hours after a little nap, it was still only 0600.

On getting ready to get on we made the decision that we could go up towards San Carlos and cross the sound there. We got on the water and the wind started to drop and become quite pleasant, the suggestion of San Carlos soon became lets cross the Sound to the other side and head North.

This we did and 11 miles and two and a half hours later we hit land for dinner on West Falkland. The evening was glorious although as we looked back across the sound we could no longer see where we had come from not because of bad visibility but because it was just too low lying and in stark contrast to West Falkland and its hills and Mountains.

We continued our paddle North up the side of the cliffs of the island to 'Many branch harbour' for camp.

It was now time for Tom's Kurt Hahn moment of the day, after putting tents up his stove decided to give him a little trouble. This was soon sorted with a little electrical tape and celebrated with desert.

20^th January

Our first night of the expedition without the tents moving vigorously in the night. We had a splendid paddle in the lea of the cliffs up to the top of the island.

We would describe this as one that Walt Disney would have had problems delivering. From the moment we got on the water we had birds new to us, families of seals following us, commerson dolphins and both Rockhopper and Gentoo penguins swimming alongside us it was great.

The weather was most unfamiliar to us as it had gone calm for the first time on the trip so we were not sure what was going to happen next.

We took advantage of this and headed out along the North coast towards Pebble Island. We were now out and exposed to the South Atlantic swell where landings were going to tbe more limited and hugging the shore wasn't and option due to the swell hitting some of the rocks or the surf.

We were aware that the wind would probably kick in and it did about six miles along the coast we started to get gust of 6/7 which was a little hard to paddle into so we pushed hard to a spot where we could land on a very narrow beach surrounded by rocks.

On arrival it was clear that this was to be a penguin beach, mainly Gentoo and there seemed to be thousands in the near by colony. This kept Tom and Fiona happy for the afternoon watching them as they returned from the water propelling themselves onto the land, falling over as they came up the rocks, drying off, preening and then heading up the hill to their nest a KM inland. The supply of penguins from the water was endless and at sunset some 5 hours later they were still coming ashore.

21^st January

We made a concerted effort to be on the water a little earlier today 0530, who ever said we weren't morning people!!! The art of eating bake beans and sausage at 0400 out of a packet is still a hard one to grasp.

We got on the water as the sun was rising within 20 mins of being on the water it was apparent that the wind was increasing we were just hoping it would hold off long enough to get to the Tamar Pass. On reaching mare rock the entrance to the pass both Tom and Fiona had thoughts of turning back to a beach where they could land, the wind had reached a point that they were barely moving forward. On this occasion the fact that we were still moving forward a few cms at a time meant we carried on. We crept past the first part of head land and then did a ferry glide in the wind towards the only rocky beach we could have possibly landed on.

On landing in the cove it was apparent that the other group that are paddling in the Falklands were here too. We took them up on and invitation of a cup of tea and social chit chat and comparisons of adventure had so far.

 The afternoon saw us catching the tide through the pass and a lovely head wind around to Pebble settlement. On the way around we did bump in to Marcus, another paddler in the Falklands, he had come from the South and told us of the many adventures he had had, we wished him god speed and safe paddling before heading off.

On arrival we were met by Arina and offered a cup of tea and cake, this was exceeding good cake. We also met her husband Raymond, who had taken delivery of the pairs food pacel sent 20 days early. The couple offered a bed, food and a beer for the night to all 5 paddlers so alot of catching up was had before getting to bed for 2100.

 

22^nd January

We have gale force NW winds so we are still on Pebble, we are using the time to wash our thermals, unpack our resupply box and get ready for the next leg of our adventure.

Our plans have obviously been adapted since starting the trip and we shall keep adjusting them. The current plan is to keep paddling around West Falkland in an anti clockwise direction towards Fox Bay, where we shall make a decision on our route to Stanley.

 

www.seakayakfalkland.blogspot.com

4^th January

Having finally done all our prep and organisation for the trip we spent the day getting the boats and all our kit to the water.

On arrival at the beach as we were getting our departure snack out of the boat it became apparent that one of the fuel bottles in the back of Fiona's boat had leaked over most of the contents, the O ring had prolapsed. The bags were quickly cleaned off and boat repacked.

We finally got going at about 4 pm with following wind, past some really stunning beaches with Magellanic penguins. We were not able to stop at any of these beaches as these still have mines on them. In fact for our first few days landings were going to be limited because of mined beaches left from the 1982 conflict, we had got maps of these from the bomb disposal unit.

On reaching Cape Pembroke we decided to land, this area was marked blue on our mines map – meaning that there was no reason why there should have been mines there!!!

We got our first insight into the size of wildlife we were going to meet there was a dead sea lion on the beach without its head the rest of the carcass was about 11feet in length.

5^th Janaury

Fiona and Tom both struggled with the planned getting up of 2 am, we delayed the get up until 4 am meaning we were on the water by 6am.

On one of our snack stops along the coast we landed on a tussac island, there were several live versions of sea lions and the groups of females and pups. They were as predicted very smelly and very loud, Tom and Fiona were not going to be going near them.

We also had our first introduction to the thick kelp there is here which at times goes miles out to sea and is extremely hard to paddle through, picking our line was crucial.

We landed at the end of the day on East Island, there was quite a bit of wind and the only place to put a tent up was on the end. There are alot of geese and ducks here and they seem to keep and area of grass for themselves on each island, you could say 'where there's ducks there's grass.

6^th January

We woke up a few times in the morning to check the state of the wind which was still blowing at 5am. Tom had a sore back so we decided to stay put for the day.

One of our missions for the day was to look for water, we are aware that it is a scarce commodity throughout the islands in fact most islands are tinder dry, with fires not an option in case of setting light to them. Most islands are peat and can burn for a while, some islands have recently been set alight by lightning.

The only water we found was an extremely peaty lake at the top of the island, in fact it was a good look alike for black filter coffee. We took some anyway just in case we had no other option.

We had lunch on the beach in the lea of the island, it was here that Tom and Fiona started there "twitching" career. We had a book of birds and mammals of the islands and we started to tick off sightings which were numerous. A sighting of two Hour glass dolphins going past the bay was a highlight, their natural behaviour is to project themselves forward acrobatically through the air in a rifling action.

The other noticeable thing were the nests on the beach of the Giant Southern Petrels with their chicks which are on the venerable list.

7^th January

We moved today not because the weather was good but to get to the main land. We at best managed to move forward at about 1 mile an hour, which meant that our 5 miles travelled took about 5 hours. It was a head wind paddle, there were a few squalls that came through which at best can be describe as halting any progress and at times it was all we could do to try and hold position and not to go backwards too quickly. We reckon that these may have been force 8 or 9.

We stopped at the first available landing spot on the main land and put a tent up for shelter. Hoping that the wind would drop we decided to go in search of water to fill in the time.

We found water in what you could very loosely describe as a stream the trickle was about three inches wide but running, we made sure we filled up the bottles above the dead sheep lying across the trickle further down.

On arriving back at the tent we decided as conditions were not improving we would camp for the night.

Weather forecasting is interesting here, there is a shipping forecast put out each day on the radio on MW, however this can only be used as a rough guide and monitoring the barometer aids in helping to forecast what will really happen.

8^th Jan

We stayed at the beach at Pleasant roads for the day as the weather was a little windy still. Fiona put hygiene at the top of the list today washing her thermals and having a good wash, Tom chose to sleep.

We collected water at the end of the day to make sure we had as much as we could carry which is approx 22 litres in preparation of leaving the next day.

9^th January

We had a good paddle today managing 22 miles our longest day so far taking 12 hours. We haven't really had any favourable winds. We paddled past Bertha's beach which was our first chance to see Gentoo penguins we had only seen Magellanic penguins up to this point. The beach gave us the first insight to how beautiful some of the beaches can be, miles of white sand and crystal blue water.

We managed to get to Philimore island to camp, again full of wild life. We have now gained a good repertoire of Falkland bird knowledge being able to identify 26 different birds.

 

10^th January (Margret Thatcher Day)

We got up at what is now our usual time of 4am, this is because the winds tend to blow slightly less at this time in the morning and gradually increase before becoming too hard to paddle at about 10am. The wind then tends to drop at about 5pm so after a long siesta you can resume paddling for a quite a few hours.

We got on the water and headed out of the shelter of the Island and headed over towards Lively Sound, we stopped for a quick rest on Kidney islands. The paddle over had been quite exciting with some good sized wind waves and a quartering wind to the bow of the boat. Once on the island Tom and Fiona had a discussion about the conditions, we got out onto the Island to have a look. After fighting our way through the tussac grass to a vantage point it was clear that there were some good conditions out in the sound. We decided to hold up on the Island for a few hours to see if the weather would subside to that which was predicted.

Whilst waiting for the wind to drop we had the opportunity to see why Toms boat was still leaking. After a soap and bubble test, we thought there maybe water coming in around the hatch rim.

Indeed the NW wind did drop to about F4/5 so we decided to get on and resume our paddle. Within Half an hour the wind dropped completely changed direction to a SW and increased to about a force 6/7, we returned to Kidney Is to rethink our strategy.

On hearing the forecast on the radio a few hours later they described the day as slightly windy with a steady 60mph wind and not a good day for putting washing out, this explained the conditions we had been experiencing!!!

We found a nice patch in amongst the tussac and set up camp for the night.

11^th January

We got up at our usual time and inspected the conditions and it was still quite windy so we went back to bed for a few hours.

On getting up a little later we had to have a think about the big picture plan of our journey. We had left Stanley with 15 days of food it was now day 8 we reckoned that it would take at least 6/7 days to get to Fox Bay where our next food drop was so we would have to make a decision today as to whether continuing south would be a viable option. We decided that by 5pm we would need to make a decision as to whether we could cross over lively sound and continue to head south or we would head to the settlement on Lively Island to fill up with water and then make our way to Goose Green where we could get some more food or at least top up our food capacity to 20 days and then portage over the narrowest part between the east and west side of the Island approx 500m to Brenton Loch and continue the journey over to West Falkland.

5 pm arrived and it was still blowing old boots, so we made the decision to head down wind for Lively settlement.

On arrival there were some people sorting the sheep, so we headed up to the building there was a memorial to those who had died on a landing craft from HMS Fearless during the '82 conflict. We met a couple of the farm hands and went up to the house to fill our water carriers and have a tea and homemade cakes.

We spent quite a time talking to the owners and then once replete we climbed back in our boats and continued to our camp spot for the night.

12^th January

We left camp early, only after being kept awake all night by the noise of the sea lions on Green Island and the Penguins up wind of us. We paddled over to Mare Harbour which was another passage of interest due to the conditions. Once hitting land on the other side we got out of the boats for a little stretch, before another push into conditions towards Goose Green.

Once the wind got too much (ie going less than 1mph) we set up for a siesta out of the wind and then lunch.  This also gave us time to continue looking for the reason for Tom's boat leaking in the back hatch. Looking at the pre exisiting damage to the skeg box, we found another small crack. We cleaned it out, let it dry and then filled it with resin. We returned to the water at about 5pm paddling until almost sunset at 9pm, this was the best sunset we had seen since starting the trip.

13^th January

Another eventful day to be had on the water due to the wind, the wild life was by now mainly limited to Rock shags and Falkland steamer ducks. We got off the water as usual for our siesta, the birds were giving us some good entertainment.

The Chilean skua's were picking on the South American terns and the rock shags as they surfaced from the kelp, the giant southern petrel was standing its ground. We were waiting for the Falkland steamers to display one of their behaviour patterns which is to swim under the water and come up underneath the skua's, and hence we were witnessing a full circle of survival of the fittest.

After this exciting lunch break we got back on the water to fight our way up to Goose Green. Approaching Darwin Harbour there was a little wind against tide so hence a few waves which gave us a bit more excitement for the day as we crossed over the narrows to land on the mine free part of beach at Goose Green.

We spoke to the manager of the farm settlement there, Keith, to ask where to camp and he offered a roof over our head for the night. It was a heated port a cabin connected to the sheep shearing shed, this had a subtle aroma but was great as it had now started to rain quite hard.

We moved into our accommodation which was fascinating we had toilets and hot water so we could wash before dinner at the settlement's cafe where everything is home cooked from local produce.

14^th January

A full cooked breakfast was had in the cafe this morning this included lamb chops off the farm. Definitely beats breakfast out of a bag!!!! They have lots of home cooked things we will also be picking up later to supplement our lunches for the next couple of days.

The rest of the day was spent sorting our kit, shopping for extra supplies in the small settlement shop and visiting the museum before making our way over the island onto Brenton Loch.

The shopping was a bonus for Fiona who since having the petrol leak in her boat has been eating snacks and chocolate that have a petrol lilt to them, some may say an aquired taste.

We had an added bonus this evening Keith the farm manager let us clean our selves up with a shower in his house and a cup of tea from his wife as well as the use of the internet, so thanks alot for that.

All being well we leave early in them morning for darwin and then over onto brenton Loch, the wind is forcast SW so hopefully some surfing to be had.

Our blogging updates are limited to finding someone in a settlement with a computer that is connected to the internet, we hope we should be able to do another update when we get to Fox bay.

 

 

www.seakayakfalkland.blogspot.com

3rd January
 
Well things are looking pretty good for us to start tomorrow. Tom's boat is finally fixed and he is out on the water now testing that it is water tight!!!! we have done all our packing so we know all the equipment fits, we have been sorting our food supplies we have sorted supplies for 45 days split into 3 blocks of 15. Two are going out by plane drop to islands off West Falkland.
 
Some of our delay in getting going has been sorting land owners permission, here in the Falklands you cannot land on any of the beaches without permission. The last couple of days has seen us ringing 79 different land owners, mostly with a very positive and helpful response not only to landing by to visiting them as well.
 
We are slowing getting into the swing of the fast weather systems here, with barometer watching being an art. We have got used to taking sun hats and lotion, down jacket and waterproofs every time we step out side. The big bonus is with all the wind there are no midges and it seems that dispite the high ratio of sheep to humans there are no sheep ticks on the islands.
 
well hopefully the next blog will be from a remote area
 
Fiona and Tom

 

www.seakayakfalkland.blogspot.com

1st January 2009
well we kind of survived new year, a little hung over!!!!!
sorting boats and kit was the name of the game again. There was also a really good chat with a guy called Pat who was skipper of the Tamar a local supply vessel he gave us loads of good information about currents on the West side.
The eveing was spend chatting to Lief Poncet a local sailing and kayaker the only person perviously to have manage to complete a circumnavigation and an alround great guy.
this is hopefully the final prep day with a hope that we will get going tomorrow or Sunday weather depending.
 
31st december New years eve
 
we spend quite a bit of the day sorting out our food supplies and packing them ito boxes to be sent to food drops, finding fuel and local information on local proceedures and tides.
We found someone from the camp who offered to repair Tom's boat so good news.
As a group of 5 with the other 3 kayakers we went out for diner before sampling the pubs of Stanley.
 
30th December
 
well on getting up this morning, not quite used to the timings and the sun rising at about 3.30 in the morning. We went and unwrapped the boats and give them the once over. Most seemed good unfortuately it looked like Toms boat had been dropped on the skeg box and had broken throught the hull so good glass work was going to be required.
We spend some of the day walking into town and checking out some of its history which was a great experence.
we have already experience the range of Falklands weather rain, gale, hail, sun with sun burn and thats all within and hour.

December 29th
 
Well after a long flight we arrived at mount pleasant airport. The quot of the day coming from the cabin crew saying there was a gail warning so please dont carry small children off the flight let them walk.
Chris from the other party had manage to get us accomodation at Hillside camp, so we are living in style with a good bed, lots of good food and fanstanic hospitlaity from the Camp staff.

 

www.seakayakfalkland.blogspot.com

We have met up with the Chris, Rich and Tim, the party of 3 we have been sharing logistics with to get to and from the Falklands as well as sharing local information. Thier blog site is seakayakingfalklands2009.blogspot.com

It feels like Tom and I are in the departure lounge on Tracey Island our Flight number is 'Romeo Romeo 3210' with an hour and five mins till take off. Tom is on good form he has already been lynched by security for taking photos of sensitive places. Next stop Acension Island sometime early in the morning.

www.seakayakfalkland.blogspot.com

I am now on my way back to the UK to meet with Tom, after leaving my lovely dog Jet with my parents in France. Tom and I will be meeting up in the morning before travelling to the airport in the after noon.
 
We have come across a couple of websites one which gives a good insight as to what we can expect to see in the Islands once we get there. The other is a site which gives a 6 day forecast which will give and insight into what summer conditions are like in the Falklands.
 

www.visitorfalklands.com

www.weather-forecast.com/locations/PortStanley1/forecasts/latest

 

Fiona Whitehead 

www.seakayakfalkland.blogspot.com

Tom and Fiona are now doing there final packup after surviving christmas in 48 hours we will have checked in for our flight to Port Stanley.

Fiona Whitehead 

 

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