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Desafio Lippi Cruce Corcovado
After a first visit for stand up paddling to Chile’s biggest Island, Chiloe, I had left unsatisfied with a dream unaccomplished: crossing the channel between the Island and the continent. The charms of that Island and its people had always attracted me very much and since then I had in mind to come back and do a major crossing over there. The main access, the Chacao Channel, is in fact very narrow and not much of a challenge except for its strong currents, so I started looking after harder stuff at the South of the Island: the Corcovado Gulf seemed to be the perfect Challenge. About 50 kilometers of highly feared waters with rough climate and strong currents.
Quellón, on the shore of the Corcovado Gulf, is literally at the very end of the road. Its most emblematic attraction is called “Hito Cero”, which represent the very end of the 21000 kms Pan-American Highway between Anchorage, Alaska and the Chilean Patagonia. It is also the most Southern village of Chiloé, a region famous for its legends and difficult weather.
The indigenous Huillinche Indians that inhabited the Island before the arrival of the Spaniards, were reputed to be great seaman. Responsible of the conquest of the Strait of Magellan for the new-born Chilean nation in the 19th century, it is believed that the Huillinches had arrived to Chiloe crossing the sea on tree trunks. No wonder that the islanders were pretty excited by my project of crossing the Corcovado Gulf on an SUP.
Reading the local newspaper I realized there was a lot of fuzz about my project on the Island: “…Crossing the feared Corcovado Gulf, where hundreds of seamen have perished, with the only help of a board and paddle seemed insane…” was what the islanders were reading with their coffee at breakfast.
But surprisingly I could feel many islanders were honored by my interest for their Island and its waters, and all were asking “Why here? Why the Corcovado?”…question I was not really prepared for,… but the Islanders were always expecting my answers with pride. There were definitely many reasons that attracted me: the high concentration of Blue Whales in the area, the personal need for a big challenge, the unsatisfied dream to rally Chiloé and the continent, to defy the mythical gulf and Chiloe’s sea legends, etc… but nothing very precise. Just thought this Gulf was attractive enough to be crossed.
Also I knew that with an accurate weather forecast and a good tide table, I could find a window of fair conditions to cross the Gulf.
At the end the crossing was more or less as I expected, sometimes greatly enjoyable, sometimes though and difficult, and sometimes requiring mental assistance to maintain an exhausted body in movement.
The main issue maybe was dehydration. I had left too prepared for the cold conditions, but when the sun came up, there were several unclouded hours and the heat started to make me sweat a lot. Under my own pressure to advance as much as possible early in the morning, I did not react soon enough to take off my booties and jacket, started to sweat a lot and consumed my first hydropack in the first third of the crossing. I had only one hydropack left then. But at that stage the worst sign of dehydration also showed up: I could feel very early that my right leg was about to give me a cramp…way too early for that.
Dehydration, lack of sleep, whatever…there was no place for cramp at that stage. So I slowed down and tried to mentally isolate my right leg muscles to cool them off and relax them. Also started to regularly take a dive into the cold water to stop sweating and control the dehydration. The second third was indeed though…
When the shape of the Corcovado Volcano finally started to grow in front of me I got re-motivated and full of energy. In fact for a short while I had wind in favor which made it quite fun to ride the swells in the middle of the gulf. That was really a big highlight of the whole adventure, surfing swells in the middle of the Corcovado in Patagonia on my 14’0 Naish glide, really unique.
That regain of enthusiasm and energy was very necessary for the very last bit as suddenly the wind turned cross-offshore and a strong current also went against me. I had to put it all for a while to be able to reach a protected part of the shore and avoid arriving in a too exposed area. Really did not want to get rolled by waves after more than 10 hours paddling. At the very end a couple of blue whales came to congratulate my effort and welcome my presence. Next to them and the 2300 metres high volvano, I felt a bit insignificant, but surely privileged to live such a great experience.
The Crossing in numbers:
14 ft, length of the Naish Glide board
9 inches, width of the paddle
49 kilometers paddle, without considering the superficial movement of currents.
10 hrs 43 minutes
5 knots, maximum speed during the crossing
2 hidropacks of 2 litres
2 apples, 1 banana, 2 cereal bars, many nuts, almonds and date fruits consumed during the crossing
10 stops in total, either for resting, either for jumping into the cold water for a better control of dehydration
2 survival fireworks, 1 SPOT satellite device and 1 survival whistle
2 to 14 knots of wind, mainly southwesterly
5 hours of sleep the previous night
2600 kms of driving in 4 days.[/MEDIA]
After a first visit for stand up paddling to Chile’s biggest Island, Chiloe, I had left unsatisfied with a dream unaccomplished: crossing the channel between the Island and the continent. The charms of that Island and its people had always attracted me very much and since then I had in mind to come back and do a major crossing over there. The main access, the Chacao Channel, is in fact very narrow and not much of a challenge except for its strong currents, so I started looking after harder stuff at the South of the Island: the Corcovado Gulf seemed to be the perfect Challenge. About 50 kilometers of highly feared waters with rough climate and strong currents.
Quellón, on the shore of the Corcovado Gulf, is literally at the very end of the road. Its most emblematic attraction is called “Hito Cero”, which represent the very end of the 21000 kms Pan-American Highway between Anchorage, Alaska and the Chilean Patagonia. It is also the most Southern village of Chiloé, a region famous for its legends and difficult weather.
The indigenous Huillinche Indians that inhabited the Island before the arrival of the Spaniards, were reputed to be great seaman. Responsible of the conquest of the Strait of Magellan for the new-born Chilean nation in the 19th century, it is believed that the Huillinches had arrived to Chiloe crossing the sea on tree trunks. No wonder that the islanders were pretty excited by my project of crossing the Corcovado Gulf on an SUP.
Reading the local newspaper I realized there was a lot of fuzz about my project on the Island: “…Crossing the feared Corcovado Gulf, where hundreds of seamen have perished, with the only help of a board and paddle seemed insane…” was what the islanders were reading with their coffee at breakfast.
But surprisingly I could feel many islanders were honored by my interest for their Island and its waters, and all were asking “Why here? Why the Corcovado?”…question I was not really prepared for,… but the Islanders were always expecting my answers with pride. There were definitely many reasons that attracted me: the high concentration of Blue Whales in the area, the personal need for a big challenge, the unsatisfied dream to rally Chiloé and the continent, to defy the mythical gulf and Chiloe’s sea legends, etc… but nothing very precise. Just thought this Gulf was attractive enough to be crossed.
Also I knew that with an accurate weather forecast and a good tide table, I could find a window of fair conditions to cross the Gulf.
At the end the crossing was more or less as I expected, sometimes greatly enjoyable, sometimes though and difficult, and sometimes requiring mental assistance to maintain an exhausted body in movement.
The main issue maybe was dehydration. I had left too prepared for the cold conditions, but when the sun came up, there were several unclouded hours and the heat started to make me sweat a lot. Under my own pressure to advance as much as possible early in the morning, I did not react soon enough to take off my booties and jacket, started to sweat a lot and consumed my first hydropack in the first third of the crossing. I had only one hydropack left then. But at that stage the worst sign of dehydration also showed up: I could feel very early that my right leg was about to give me a cramp…way too early for that.
Dehydration, lack of sleep, whatever…there was no place for cramp at that stage. So I slowed down and tried to mentally isolate my right leg muscles to cool them off and relax them. Also started to regularly take a dive into the cold water to stop sweating and control the dehydration. The second third was indeed though…
When the shape of the Corcovado Volcano finally started to grow in front of me I got re-motivated and full of energy. In fact for a short while I had wind in favor which made it quite fun to ride the swells in the middle of the gulf. That was really a big highlight of the whole adventure, surfing swells in the middle of the Corcovado in Patagonia on my 14’0 Naish glide, really unique.
That regain of enthusiasm and energy was very necessary for the very last bit as suddenly the wind turned cross-offshore and a strong current also went against me. I had to put it all for a while to be able to reach a protected part of the shore and avoid arriving in a too exposed area. Really did not want to get rolled by waves after more than 10 hours paddling. At the very end a couple of blue whales came to congratulate my effort and welcome my presence. Next to them and the 2300 metres high volvano, I felt a bit insignificant, but surely privileged to live such a great experience.
The Crossing in numbers:
14 ft, length of the Naish Glide board
9 inches, width of the paddle
49 kilometers paddle, without considering the superficial movement of currents.
10 hrs 43 minutes
5 knots, maximum speed during the crossing
2 hidropacks of 2 litres
2 apples, 1 banana, 2 cereal bars, many nuts, almonds and date fruits consumed during the crossing
10 stops in total, either for resting, either for jumping into the cold water for a better control of dehydration
2 survival fireworks, 1 SPOT satellite device and 1 survival whistle
2 to 14 knots of wind, mainly southwesterly
5 hours of sleep the previous night
2600 kms of driving in 4 days.[/MEDIA]