Bahia de los Angeles (October 18, 2010)
Monday, October 18, 2010
I got up just before sunrise. This must have been the longest awaited dawn in my life. I was sore, stiff and tired and the wind kept on blowing much harder than any forecast that I had recorded in the planning of this part of the trip. But, I was OK and felt ever more that my decision not to try to cross the Canal de Ballenas to Isla Angel de la Guarda was the right one. I believe that I might have gotten myself into a lot more trouble than I care to think about and although I was in a way still disappointed, I had no regrets whatsoever about my decision.
Today was the day to explore the southern part of the island. The wind was too strong and swirling too much to think about fishing so I decided to climb some of the hills to see what lay on the other side. I went south first; this hill was not very steep, or very high and I got to the top in about 30 minutes. The spot I had targeted was a slight depression in the hill which would allow me to look south, in the direction of the frigate bird rookery. I also hoped to get a glimpse from the top of the spot where I had seen the whale carcass. When I got close to the top the wind became very strong indeed and I went the final 50 ft on hands and knees to keep my balance and to make sure than I was not going to be blown over the ridge. I lay on my belly and looked at the sea and rocks below. I could see neither the rookery nor the whale carcass; there was another ridge in between my position and the spot where I knew these two sights to be. Crawling further up the ridge and to the east to get the view I had hoped for was out of the question; the wind was far too strong since the depression that I was in acted as a funnel and the wind came barreling through at horrendous speed. I backed off until I was well below the top of the ridge and then followed another gully further to the west. I knew that I would be able to look across the island to the west side of Isla Coronado and expected to be able to see Bahia de los Angeles also. This turned out to be correct,but the interesting view that I got was of the second estuary on Coronado, which I had not found the the day before while on the water. This estuary was quite a bit smaller than the other one but that seemed to be the only difference. If I had not known that there was this smaller estuary I might have mistaken it for the other one, except for the fact that this one stretched to the north and the big one to the east.
Back at camp I noticed that I had left my water bottle at the ridge overlooking the south side of the island. I was contemplating retrieving it and had started walking along the shore with that in mind. All of the morning I had had to lean into the wind and I was doing so again now. The wind constantly changed direction and I was leaning sideways when suddenly there was an enormous gust of wind from behind which nearly flattened me; I stumbled forward a few steps before I regained my balance and decided that I could do without the bottle and returned to camp.
Cooking under these conditions was very difficult. There was very little firewood so I had to use the alcohol stoves which Martijn had originally built for our trip in the beginning of the year. They still worked very well but are so light that even when filled with alcohol they would fly away in this wind. I dug a hole in the gravel, close to the rocks and built a wind break around it with smaller rocks and pebbles. The stove fit into the hole and the pot stand which I had fashioned from two coat hangers fit nicely around it. The aluminum wind shield that I have been using for the last 25 years was of no use this time. Even in the wind break it kept flying away since it weighs virtually nothing. I needed about one half of a bottle of alcohol; I must have ignited the stove at least ten times and poured a lot of alcohol on top of it and around it before the pressure was sufficient to keep the flame burning. I heated Madras lentils and mixed them with mashed potatoes for a very tasty meal.
It was still only just after 4.00pm when I finished my dinner. I needed a better place to sleep and went off again in search of one. Although I did not have much hope of finding one this time, it was at the same time a sort of physical therapy to go on a search instead of just hanging around camp and getting frustrated with the weather. A little further to the north, actually just around the corner from the rock formation where I was camping, was a small cove with plenty of rocks and pebbles in between. I had previously considered a spot there but had decided against it because it was very small and not very level. This time, and because beggars can’t be choosers, I decided that with a little work this spot could be made into an acceptable sleeping place. It took me a while to more or less level the pebbles and when I tried it out, it seemed to be OK. I moved my groundsheets and other sleeping paraphernalia to this spot and was able to organize it, again with pebbles all around it to keep it from flying away. The sun had set by this time and after I had secured all the loose lying stuff at my original camp site I moved into my new sleeping quarters.
It appeared that the wind had diminished in strength somewhat and I was able to get into my bag without the commotion of the previous night. I was getting a little tired of the weather by now and I noticed clouds moving in very quickly. This worried me even more and I expected that this change of the weather could only be bad news. I needed to get off this island and back to Bahia de los Angeles before the weather turned really nasty.