Today we had had quite the adventure, first we kayaked from Titirangi Bay to Titi Island, seen here, this took us 2 hours 7.8 km

A little desolate place

The only place to go ashore was this nice little beach, in the distance the two Chetwode Islands

Nothing much to see though there should be plenty of life

We were just glad to be able to stretch our legs

We decided it was a good idea (it wasn’t!) to kayak to the little island on the left in the distance (Te Kakaho Island) next

The weather was still looking great, a bit of a head wind but that should be a tail wind on the way back

See those few tiny black dots just to the right of the rightmost island in the distance? I thought they were the gennakers of some yachts

Te Kakaho Island with another welcome beach to be able to stretch our legs, it took us 1:20 hours and it was 6.7 km from Titi Island

This is on the westernmost point of Te Kakaho Island

As is this

By now we should have looong realised the wind had changed…

…into a strong cold southerly and we still had to go all the way back to the mainland which is another 16 km! It took us 2:20 hours to kayak back to Titi Island where we arrived around 19:10. After a 5 min rest we continued towards Titirangi Bay (still 7.8 km away). By now the wind had become so strong that 45 minutes later we had still only done 3 km of that and it was 20:00 and almost dark (sunset was at 19:45)! We realised we would not make it back to the campsite and so we turned to the left, to try to make it to Alligator head where we landed on some rocks at 20:15.

A map of today’s trip. The colour is a measure of speed: the more orange the faster, the more blue the slower. We started at the bottom (Titirangi Bay), then to Titi Island, next to Te Kakaho island, around it, back to Titi Island and back towards Titirangi Bay but ending up at Alligator Head (on a few rocks). In the dark. In the cold. In a strong southerly. Contemplating what do to next. Long story short: I set of my Personal Locator Beacon (PLB) and after receiving my signal Search and Rescue (SAR) sent a rescue helicopter from Nelson but the chopper had to return halfway because of the bad weather. Another helicopter from Wellington couldn’t even take off. SAR next located the nearest farm on a map, called the people living there who luckily were still awake (it was late in the evening by then) and asked them to find us and bring us to safety. Which they did! They were about to give up after a long search but then finally found us and brought us back to the campsite! Thanks guys and what a great investment the PLB is!