DAY 56 TO DAY 57: PROCTER ISLAND TO KAH SHAKES COVE

3rd July 2023

2nd July: Day 57
Tree Point to Kah Shakes Cove
Distance 32km

That familiar feeling, that picking up of your paddle, the click of the buckles, the zip of your drysuit, the snap of the spray deck! That feeling of excitement when you get into the cockpit, the test of the foot pegs! It is still with us all! The inner child smiling! The kayaking on a polished mirror! The reflection of your paddle in the water, the savage and battered coastline, the 360 degrees of beauty! The never-ending snow-capped mountains! Is this a dream? Looking down to the world underneath the surface the emerald hues turning crystal you can see the bottom! The underwater kelp forest, the clusters of starfish and crabs fighting for dominance! When we have a chance we refill water from streams – we’re averaging 3-4 litres of water per man per day! It feels strange just finding a stream and then pumping the water into your 10liter dromedary! Sitting next to a running stream for lunch, every man gets one wrap: two slices of cheese, one meat stick (unless you are supplying the meat sticks – then you get two) and two handfuls of dried cherries! It is a wonderful memory! Grab a sip of coffee, get back on the water! Check skegs and rudders, aim for the next headland! You are in the kayak for eight hours! The little guillemots are still making me laugh out loud! The flap flap of the little red feet still brings me so much joy and happiness! You find a potential camp site, beach two kayaks, deploy a bear banger – the sound reverberating and echoing through the coves and inlets! Campsite is a bust, push onto the next one! The next one is a great find! Sand to land on and enough space for the team! Deer tracks on the sand and hummingbirds buzzing above you! Trying to locate this clap – there it is again and again! Scanning the water it’s salmon jumping out of the water! I’m getting mesmerized by the sunset! The last golden hues of the sun, the hues of pinks and orange hiding behind snow-capped mountains! Today was a good d

1st July: Day 56 
Procter Island to Tree Point
Distance 28km

Ten minutes! Just 10 whole minutes – that’s how long it took to have a great start to the day versus the relentless sadness you’re going to experience! We had a little bit of rain in the night – and by little I mean it rained for hours! The drip drip of the drops hitting your tent! Then you wake up and great, all the stuff you need is still dry! You look up and all you see is this ominous grey angry sky! Start organizing and packing your stuff into a drybag then pack that into another drybag! Quick shuffle down to your kayak and pack, constantly looking up saying ‘please hold out , please hold out! Your tent still needs to come down! Nine minutes and 55 seconds – your tent outer shell is almost off and then a biblical downpour! The outer shell is sticking to itself, sand is everywhere and now the inner looks like a little paddling pool in your garden! The look on our faces full knowing if this continues tonight is going to be so much sadness! It is going to be your sleeping bag inside a bivouac bag inside your tent hoping that your sleeping bag isn’t going to get wet! At this point you’re just stuffing your inner and outer shell into a drybag; you’ve lost your sense of humour a lot of big sighs and shaking of heads! The rain continued for another couple of hours!! Getting on the water is a blessed relief! All you have to do is concentrate on is your next paddle stroke, getting that connectivity with the kayak, the synchronicity with the ocean! It started with a gentle wind and a gentle swell of a foot, the kayaks rolling up and down and the team just moving forward, always forward! Then the wind started to pick up, the swell increasing to 5-6 foot now – instead of a gentle roll you’re getting bounced and chucked around! You’re battling the elements! Every fibre of your being is screaming, sinews, muscles, tendons and your mind working in unison! That machine repeating the same over and over! Keep the momentum! Loose hips don’t fight the swell! You look around ground yourself in the moment you see your team mates – the look of glee, joy and smiles on their faces tell a story! We are enjoying this! This pitting of mind, body and soul against the elements! This testing of what you are capable off! You forget about everything you are in this moment – you are the man in the arena! The critics can say whatever they like; they aren’t here! Keep going, keep pushing that paddle into the water, keep control! The last couple of kilometres is torture – every fibre of your being is on fire! You see your campsite – this is going to one of our hardest landings! It’s just boulders – the waves are breaking over the boulders! Get the order of landing; first kayak in! Guide the second one in pull them up onto the boulders grab logs wedge them between rocks; third kayak in – pull it up onto the logs; fourth; fifth kayak circling waiting for the right moment! All kayaks are in! Then comes the unpack grab your kit and traverse the boulders and the logs the high tides and storms deposited! Don’t switch off – the sites for tents need to be created, there’s still work to be done! At least it stopped raining!! We found this old disused mill! We will have a roof over our heads and get to dry our kit!

Like the sands of time runs through an hourglass, everything returns to nature! Mother nature slowly reclaiming what was taken from her! These old tracks slowly rusting away, the steel getting warped and falling apart! Dinner was spent sitting on sun bleached logs! To mark our arriving in Alaska we opened a bottle of port, raising a toast to how far we have come since our first paddle stroke! That bottle of Port came from Port Hardy and it felt like a lifetime ago!!