Sea Kayaking in Fjords of Chile

Sea Kayaking in Fjords of Chile


The storm seemed to roar out of nowhere. Suddenly bigger and bigger waves were crashing over the deck of my kayak, which bounced crazily only inches above the ocean. I tried desperately to keep the squirrelly boat stirred into the wind. Behind me my friend and guide Juanfe Zuazo was yelling something I couldn't make out.

"Move water, move water," he was saying, meaning make long, slow strokes to keep the boat balanced in the sea.

Water, unfortunately, was moving me by this point. We were six people in four boats, five days into a kayak trip through the fjords of Patagonian Chile. We were trying to slip through a dawn weather window and flee our camp that morning before a forecast gale blew in from the Pacific. We didn't get very far before the window slammed shut.

The two big, stable double kayaks couldn't paddle against the wind and found themselves involuntarily spun around, being forced back toward the inlet where we had camped.

Juanfe, in a small single kayak like my own, pulled up beside my boat.

"We have to go back," he shouted.

I paddled the kayak into a turn, got broadsided by a wave. The boat flipped over. I pulled myself out and was surprised that I could touch the bottom.

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