Today was supposed to be the day we could start paddling again, but Mother Nature had other plans.
If we paddled today we would have been paddling in a 10-15 knot south easterly. As we are paddling down the west coast, this would mean kayaking into a strong headwind.
Our basic parameters for headwinds are... - From 0-5 knots is ok (we wouldn’t try to do 40km on a day with any headwind though) - 5-8 knots we will do a short day if we need to, but it won’t be a fun day - 8-15 knots we will only paddle to get to a safe sheltered cove or somewhere with fresh water (if it’s essential)
We have kayaked in a 15 knot south easterly on this trip, it was definitely the cutoff, neither of us were having fun and if we couldn’t have landed we would have become very tired very fast!
The beauty of this coast line is that there is always a sheltered cove within paddling distance. One of Ngaios new favourite things is after a windy day on the water, pulling into a sheltered cove away from the wind.