Ngaio woke me early this morning so we could leave on low tide and before the wind picked up. I climbed out of the tent and started to get the fire going, in the nude (because that’s what you do when you’re camping in the wild right...right!?), I was crouching over my little fire when a black bear cruised around the corner, about 10 steps away from me! I don’t know who got a bigger fright, me or the bear, he scrambled back around the rocks and I zoomed to the tent. It was my closest encounter with a bear, and it made me feel like a little human meatball waiting to be a bear snack. The bear ended up taking a wide berth around our camp to get to the other side of the beach to forage.
One of the things that is hard to get across is how hard things other than the paddling are. For example, this morning we had to carry our huge heavy boats, one at a time, 150m across slippery kelp covered rocks, to the low tide mark. This took us almost an hour and it was so awkward and just plain hard. We were both sweating before the paddling had started! Every day we are carrying our boats, unloading, setting up camp, packing the boats and carrying them again.
We got on the water and much to our relief that swell had dropped and the wind had changed. The swell was still decent but with the wind behind us it was so much better than yesterday. We paddled down the coast, adjusting to the new conditions. After a little while I noticed Ngaio was yawning a lot, I asked if she was tired but she said she was fine. Then I saw she was taking off her sun glasses and wanting to take her jacket off. She was getting hot and bothered, because she was getting sea sick. Ngaio has many strengths, but motion sickness really gets the better of her.
I could see the nausea sucking away her energy but she pushed through and stayed so positive, she kept telling me she was fine and she wasn’t sea sick it was just a temporary feeling. She also added that tomorrow she would be taking the drugs she takes before she goes fishing with her dad, to stop her getting sea sick! 28kms later we came around the corner into Grant Bay. A beautiful little white sandy beach, with turquoise water and driftwood shelters on the shore. I went out to try my luck at catching a fish while Ngaio set up the tent and beds. It was a huge day today, it feels awesome to be getting some distance behind us. Tomorrow we head into winter harbour, a little off course but it looks like a wonderful place to explore!
GPS Tracker Tips - If you are following Brando & Ngaio on their TRACKME GPS tracker, here's a tip; Once you follow the link, click on the 'Brando & Ngaio' location icon and select 'path'
(If the Brando and Ngaio Icon does not show up on the map click the menu then participant list then 'show all')
(first image and blog via satellite phone)