Pender pending.

Ewwww... it was a nasty one last night... windy, cold, and pouring rain. Now it's snowing, lightly but it's definitely snow. I'm only carrying enough dry tinder and cedar to start a fire for a meal, so I'm hesitant to use it to keep warm last night. I'm having great results with my little hobo stove, glad I have it. Difficulty with late landings is that they force me to scavenge firewood in the dark. Hard to tell what's wet, green, dry or something I wish not to grab. LED lights don't help a whole lot.

I'm waking up a few hours before dawn, when the frost comes and the chill wakes me up - and going to bed when the sun goes down. No alarm needed when my cold ached toes are screaming at me to to get up, go for a run, rub them, or do ANYTHING to get the blood flowing at 0430hrs...



Not getting as much paddling in as I expected as I've spent a lot of this week trimming my gear down, and working out systems for packing, loading, unloading, and sleeping. K.I.S.S. 'Keep It Simple Stupid' applies in kayak expeditions, apparently as well as it does in the rest of my life. I just need to remember to simplify. Simple right? Simple... yeah right.



Hang-on... Have to reposition myself behind a log, and go fetch my tumbling hat, as the wind is blowing 15 knots with gusts of 25 from the SW. Cold wind too, This is in sheltered Bedwell Harbour - looks pretty snarky out there towards Stuart Island. Terms heard on the VHF WX weather bands that make me go hmmmm... 4-6 foot wind wave, gale warning, 35&40 knot wind. Looks (sounds) like weather is going to hell in a handbasket later this week. Best to get my butt over the border before things take a turn for the worse.



The paddling pattern thus far as I ease into my new life as paddler - one day on and one day off. 40km a day seems a managable and immediately obtainable goal until I get fully settled into the routine. For ease (mine)I'll start refering to distances in Nautical Miles. You can do the conversion yourself if you'd like :P



Whoosh - wind is still picking up - 30 knots plus - The fir trees are sounding like the surf as the wind rushes through their bent boughs. It's not even 0900hrs. yet!



0900 - time to get back to camp and get my laundry organized, and things tucked away in their drybags. I could write a novel about the things I've learned, and the love and hate relationship I have with the various dry-bags - albeit a small novel, but a passionate one!



~d