86km sea kayaking trip

Leslie and I just finished a 4 day, 86km sea kayaking trip with John Caldeira and Nuper. We started in our village (which must, of course, go nameless on this blog) and paddled east, visiting two other volunteers along the way, and then turned around and headed back. The wind in Fiji blows almost constantly from the southeast, so we started the voyage going directly into the wind. We had to get up very early during those first days since the strong winds generally start at around 9am. Despite getting up as early as 4:30am we still found ourselves battling 25knot winds for several hours at a time. Day two was the hardest part of the trip by far. We covered 25km, paddling directly upwind for 10 hours straight. We had to tie ropes between the kayaks to prevent ourselves from being separated. We struggled with all our might to make even the slowest progress upwind. Our boats were constantly being filled with water by the massive waves. The way back, on the other hand, was a breeze. The wind did most of the work for us. We spent a good part of the trip back relaxing in the boats, letting the wind move us to the west. We got to practice a kayaking technique called surfing where you paddle hard to stay between wave troughs and then ride the force of the wave forward. It is a good way to go fast in a kayak without using too much energy. Day three was probably the most fun I've ever had in Fiji. Considering the difficulty of the trip I think we all did an amazing job.