We woke up to a beautiful, sunny but quite cool day, and after breakfast (which Julio ate while still in the tent, he really was cold) and pictures, we broke camp to leave again. According to weather predictions, the pressure was going to go down during the day, bringing wind and waves, but when we left it was perfect, if a bit cool.
Julio waiting for me to be done with pictures.
Around lunch, we stopped at a beautiful beach that Julio wanted to go exploring for fishing possibilities. He hadn't brought his neoprene suit though, but with the kayaking jacket and a neoprene hood and boots, staying for a bit was feasible. While he went off with his harpoon, I walked around exploring the beach then lay in the sun enjoying the scenery and taking pictures.
After a bit though, I thought it was weird that Julio hadn't come back. I figured with as little clothing as he had, he couldn't hunt for more than 20 minutes, so I went toward where he had gone in to see what he was up to. But I couldn't see him come back up for air, which worried me a little, but as he is very experienced and I had no bad feeling, I figured he'd probably just come back from further than I expected. I walked back to the kayaks, but didn't see him. I was about to get worried for real when I saw him huddling on some warm rocks further ahead, trembling with cold. The fishing had been unsuccessful, but he'd managed to get himself thoroughly chilled!
We stayed close to the warm rocks, hidden from the wind, eating a bit, until he got warm again. By this time, the wind had picked up, and getting back in the sea was a bit more difficult for him. Not for me though, since he just helped me in, but then there was no one to help him.
The waves were huge and rolling, the kind that make you really dance from side to side. I am surprised Julio didn't give himself whiplash, he turned around so often to make sure I hadn't flipped over. It was a great deal of fun though, the waves got progressively bigger and sometimes made it so we could barely see one another.
During the trip, we'd often stop to take a break, holding both kayaks together while we drank water and had a snack. This time, it was a strategic meeting we had to decide where to stop. Right now, we had the wind blowing at our backs, which made us travel very fast, but couldn't find a suitable place, which meant we had to turn around and go back to one of the places we'd seen earlier. If we went much further, it would make it almost impossible for us to get ourselves back the next day, as we'd be fighting the wind the whole time.
So we turned around, and I dreaded it. The wind hitting us full force now together with the waves hitting against us made the going really difficult. I paddled as hard and fast as I could and it was barely enough to get me to advance at all; had I stopped at any time, the current and wind would have taken me further behind. It was an adrenalin rush! And quite the workout, complete with heavy grunting. Julio had warned me that I might flip over when trying to beach, and I was prepared for it, at least mentally. The waves were pretty big, and until the last second I thought I would make it just fine, I'd managed to get myself in a straight line before putting up the rudder, but then a wave made the kayak do a sharp turn to the right and flip seaside, and I found myself lying down sideways in the shallower water, with the kayak arriving at the beach before I did! But it was thrilling, and we had a good laugh!
We took the kayaks in deep; with the full moon, the tides are bigger than usual, and we wanted to make sure there would be no problems. Then we changed into dry clothes to avoid getting chilled. The campground itself was a canyon strewn with rocks, not the best spot, and there were few places to erect the tent. I put it up in the most likely spot, then started cooking, as it was my turn, while Julio busied himself with the fire.
We had a delicious dinner! Julio made a cooked onion and pepper salad and I couscous with sundried tomatoes and tuna. We were almost done our meal, eating leisurely and laughing with some wine, when the wind picked up, brutally and quite suddenly, blew sand into our eyes and all over our food, and when I managed to open them while trying to pin down everything that was flying away, Julio was running after the tent which, despite being pegged down, had inflated and blown off into the air! The wind was so strong that he had to flatten it to be able to bring it back, then left it in a corner with big rocks on top of it while we finished securing the rest of the camp.
We figured that since we both had sleeping bags with Windstopper, we could do without the tent. I was having a grand old time and went into a laughing fit as we tried to make ourselves comfortable on the rocks, the bottom part of my sleeping bag open so I could walk with it on with only my feet and face sticking out.
It didn't take long before the sand whipping our faces seemingly to shreds made us consider the tent again though, and we brought it back. Julio went into it to hold it down while I tried to make it as strong as possible, and we had a pretty uncomfortable night, with the tent being constantly bent down by the wind, hitting us from all sides. At least it was funny!
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