the explorers journal the global adventure issue - The Explorers Club

Oceans 8around the worldby kayakby Jon BowermasterIf there was a single moment that launched myquest to kayak around the world, one continent ata time over eight years, it came in 1999 during anexpedition to the Aleutian Islands, on a tiny rockoutcropping in the Bering Sea called Chuginadak.Four of us had come in a pair of six-meter-longkayaks to a region known as the Birthplace of theWinds. Constant fog, 2ºC water, and ripping windsthat reached 95 kilometers per hour had doggedus for weeks. It was the end of the trip, and we hadsuccessfully navigated among five snow-cappedvolcanoes and climbed to one 1,800-meter peak,and now, after 30 days at sea, we were waiting tobe picked up by fishing boat.As I sat on the black volcanic sand, strainingto hear the welcome putt-putt-putt of our boatthrough the fog, I tried to imagine what it had beenlike for the Aleuts, who populated these islandsthousands of years before and had been amongthe first to use sea kayaks—same frigid seas, samedense fog, same big winds, very different technology.Instead of Kevlar and Gore-Tex, the Aleutshad relied on whalebone and sealskin.As I watched the cold surf pound the shore, I realizedthat despite the differences in our craft, theAleuts and I had one thing in common: a great lovefor being on the sea, in small boats, wanderingfreely, reaching hidden coves and tiny beachesinaccessible to the rest of the world. I was cold,tired, and anxious to be back in civilization, yet allI could think as I sat on that beach was: where togo next.The answer came quickly: the coast of Vietnam.For me, it was a logical leap. A voyage therewould be completely different from the Aleutianexpedition, during which we had seen no oneand endured long days of cold but relatively shortpaddles in the frigid water. In Vietnam, we would14