Letter from Tierra Del Fuego

Yesterday, Friday, Biff and I stopped our Tierra del Fuego Sea Kayak Expedition.

For the past 11 days we were weatherbound in Caleta Falsa, a small bay at the far South Eastern tip of Tierra del Fuego. We made countless break out attempts, but had to return every time back into the shelter of the bay due to the dangerous sea state we encountered every time we stuck our nose out of the shelter of Caleta Falsa.

Despite receiving favorable weather forecasts indicating possible paddling days, after rounding Cape San Diego, we only experienced NW winds (headwinds) between 20 and 60 Miles/hr.(measured with our anenometer).

Nautical guides and information obtained prior to the trip indicated winds on the East Coast of Tierra del Fuego would be West or South West, which would have resulted in offshore and beam winds, suitable for paddling. However the winds we were encountering in the past 11 days were not only strong headwinds, but also created 15 to 20 foot breaking waves on this very exposed coast, making paddling Northwards difficult to dangerous from our point of view.

Because non-paddling days outnumbered paddling days by almost 7 to 1 in the past almost 2 weeks, it became apparent that

• We would not be able to complete the trip in a reasonable amount of time


• We would soon run out of food due to the increased number of days spent on land


• Our safety margin was dwindling, due to increasing numbers of separately small issues that as a whole, resulted in significant safety concerns. These included a broken paddle, dwindling fuel, water and food supplies, lack of weather forecasts (due to low sat phone battery) etc.


• In addition to the above safety issues, we learned from the Prefectura Naval (Argentinian Coast Guard) that they would not be able to rescue us (by either land or sea) at the highly inaccessible Caleta Falsa, should the need arise to activate our EPIRBs.


• Landings were too sparse and far apart to accommodate the fast-changing weather


• Due to the 39ft tidal range, the difficulty and time needed to get onto the water (dragging kayaks and gear for 1/2 Mile) often exceeded the windows of calm weather (we tried this several times but were always forced to turn around).

After jointly arriving at the decision to end the trip, we were extremely fortunate to be visited at Caleta Falsa by two (extremely rich) Irish fly fishermen in a privately charted helicopter. After discussions with the pilot we were able to come to terms for a ride to the closest road (100 Miles away) with most of our gear. Our beloved kayaks, unfortunately, were left behind.

From our experience, we now believe that for the best chance of making a successful circumnavigation of Tierra del Fuego, that the attempt should be made in a clockwise direction. This said, no one has ever clockwise paddled from Ushuaia to Punta Arenas and the difficulty of doing this against the prevailing winds and against the local knowledge should not be underestimated.

We would like to thank all of you for the unconditional support we received in the past months. We will contact all of you in the upcoming weeks (we fly back to NYC this coming Wed).

This was the trip of our lifetime, just a little different than we imagined, but still worth every minute and paddle stroke ...

Marcus, Biff

January 30th, 2010. Rio Grande, Tierra del Fuego, Argentina