Shiretoko Peninsula
As usual, I am playing catchup with events. Unfortunately there are breakages to report, but I'll leave those for the end. Let's start with something more uplifting: an adventure within an adventure, the Shiretoko Peninsula.
Hokkaido
Bears!
It is now several days since I made it round the remote wilderness of the Shiretoko peninsula. The headland is famous throughout Japan for its beauty and its wildlife, which includes bears. A major peninsula can always be a challenge, but this one had me particularly concerned, because – frankly – I’m scared of apex predators that might consider me to be their dinner.
I enjoyed fine weather for the rounding. Shiretoko is indeed spectacular, and the sailing also had some joyful moments when the wind blew and the board punched the current like an in-form fighter. I saw two bears wandering the shoreline, beachcombing much the way that any of us might. More pulse-raising were the encounters on land. At my overnight camp, shortly after landing, I was about to go looking for water. I checked over an old wall to decide which way to go, and saw a large brown bear about 15 metres away and closing. I ducked back out of sight, fished out the bear spray from my pocket, and then re-revealed myself, and firmly told the bear to clear out, which it did. This animal was a heavyweight, much bigger than me, but it spooked easily, like a cow, or the family labradoodle.
In the morning I met another bear at close range while loading the board with my back turned. Again I told it to clear out, and it did, which is fortunate, because my bear spray was already packed in my bag.
The video (below) is of the first bear I met. It was a hot day and the bear took to the water, presumably to cool off. As I was paddling rather than sailing (i.e. slow and not manoeuvrable) I was extra cautious and kept a good distance away. I've tried to stabilise the wobbly footage:
More Shiretoko Pictures
A few more pictures of this spectacular peninsula.
Start of the wilderness end of the Shiretoko peninsula (east side)
The sun shone!
On the west side, my first bear sighting
The bear took a swim to cool off, then went beachcombing
Although wild and high, the shoreline is quite accessible
A big rock provided shelter for my camp spot. This is the north side
The bears I met at camp approached from the south side of the rock (my visibility of this beach was restricted)
I kept a fire in overnight, and set up a tripwire system with bear bells for early warning of visitors
I suspect that the fire was the more effective safety measure
It was a magical night, though not exactly restful!
Grateful for morning
It took a while for the sun to reach this side
Plentiful sources of water
Pre departure selfie. A few moments later another bear would appear.
Great views again once on the water
Waterfalls (and if you look closely, more nets...)
Paddling for the last 12(?) km
A break in the shade of a steep cliff
A detour into a cave
A picture of arriving back at civilisation (credit Captain Pablo)
Sail, mast, and paddle breakages :(
The paddle got broken (not sure how, a helicopter was mentioned, but something less dramatic is more probable) at Nemuro town. The sail and mast got broken at Shari when an gust of wind hurled the gear against a fence. The Sea of Okhotsk has become the Sea of Attrition.
An interesting bit of irony is that all the recent strife with breakages have occurred since I exited the Pacific Ocean proper. The paddle, mast and sail breakages have all happened on the Sea of Okhotsk, which is a relatively sheltered subdivision of the Pacific Ocean, and in theory should have been gentler on the equipment. The dividing line between the seas is shown on this annotated Google Earth screenshot.
However unfortunate these incidents may have been, ultimately they are both errors of judgement on my part. Sincere thanks to Loftsails and Unifiber, including their importer in Japan, for responding to the situation and sending gear my way. The delivery has coincided witha a long bank holiday weekend but hopefully it will soon arrive. Likewise, thankyou to Starboard and Starboard Japan for sending a replacement paddle. That was essential for rounding of Shiretoko.
Recent days
All is well. I have support at the moment because Yumiko decided to come and find me. We lost our sail-tent home so we bought a normal tent instead. A pause gives time for some other activities: such as a bit of sightseeing, and writing an article for (German) Surf Magazin, who are supporting this journey by running the occasional feature. Big thanks to them. The support is much appreciated.
Also, I had some board repairing to do (the rogue gust also did some quite significant damage to the nose of the board). And, finally, I got round to this website (log) update.
Yesterday afternoon/evening was calm, so I paddled a few miles. It felt good to be moving in the right direction again. Fingers crossed the sail arrives before too long to add some real distance.
All's well, despite me not saying much or moving far of late!