From the city hall () in the main square of Punta Arenas, at 19:30 hours the runners with to some of the PATAGONIA EXPEDITION RACE members left the city in the van, with destination to Punta Dungenes, geographic landmark that marks the eastern entry to the mythical strait of Magellan, and the place where in the next hours the southern race of the world.
In the last meeting with the captains of the teams, the organization decided to suspend the firs track of kayak due to the bad weather conditions, especially because the hard wind.
At 6:05 today the race director Stjepan Pavicic started the third version of PATAGONIA EXPEDITION RACE from the PC1 Bahía Posesión (Check Point).
The racers took their mountain bikes under the firsts lights of the morning to start the 233 kilometres in the magellanic steppe. the most wild race of the world has began..
El equipo 1-BUFF de España toma el liderazgo en los primeros kilómetros de carrera, pero un error en la navegación los hace perder más de una hora. El equipo de Canadá, 2-ALBERTA ADVENTURE RACING , que seguía de cerca a los españoles sufre una falla en la rueda de una de las bicicletas, el problema es mayor, la llanta ha quedado casi inutilizable, pero con ingenio hacen una reparación provisoria. 10-FEED THE MACHINE/IBEX de USA, toma la primera posición.
9:00 am . The wind has increased, coming up to 40 km/hr, hitting the racers by their side and in front, under these conditions the advance is laborious. The team 10-FEED THE MACHINE/IBEX is leading, followed by 7-DAP ANTARTICA, 3-MAD CIENTISTS, 1-BUFF . About team 2-ALBERTA ADVENTURE RACING there has been no news.
19:30. 2-ALBERTA ADVENTURE RACING after missing the original route goes by an alternative road, much longer. In the original route the lasts teams; 7-DAP ANTARTICA and 3- MAD CIENTISTS go together walking by their bicycles due to the strong wind, they are requesting to delay the closing time of Check Point number 2 RIO RUBENS in order to avoid being out of ranking.
22:30. The organization decides to transport Canadian Team for the last 50 kilometres before Check Point 2 RIO RUBENS for security reasons.
La fuerza del viento ha seguido aumentando y en la estación meteorológica más cercana al área las rachas de viento ya han alcanzado los 120 Km/Hr. Los equipos 7-DAP ANTARTICA y 3-MAD SCIENTISTS, se mantienen unidos para seguir avanzando y completar el tramo que ya fue acortado.
At 23:16. Starts the trekking trail, from Check Point (CP) 2 Rio Rubens, 1- BUFF followed by 10-Feed The Machine.
At 00:52 hrs 2-Alberta Adventure Racing, starts trekking from PC2 Río Rubens . However, even though they travelled 190 km of the cycling route that they chose, they are penalized 10 additional hours considering the distance that they still had ahead of them, in order to arrive at the point where the other teams ended this segment.
02:25 hrs. 7- DAP ANTARTICA completes the mountain biking section, and five minutes later so does 3-MAD SCIENTISTS. Both teams are exhausted by the great effort that they put in, to make progress against the strong winds. As for other teams, they have been transported by the race organizers to PC2 Río Rubens.
The racers have ahead of them 63 km of a mellow, but still demanding, trekking route. This first section consists of various infrequently used cattle tracks, first through Magellanic forests, and then to the next PC (Control Point) there is a rough but well marked vehicle track, suitable only for travel in a 4WD with a good and experienced driver. Along this section there are a few outbuildings of ranches, but no place where the racers can purchases any supplies.
They will also start to see their first peat bogs, which are composed of a very dense plant layer saturated with water, which grows above decomposing organic matter. Moving through it is slow, because your feet sink deeply into the spongy surface. For this reason, the ranchers have had to make tracks out of sticks, placing sticks and logs together in a parallel fashion, directly above the peat bog and muddy zones.
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Throughout the morning of the 13th, there have been strong winds which threaten the possibilty of being able to paddle in Obstruction Sound. Forecast winds are between 15 to 20 knots, with gusts to 25 knots, conditions which are the limiting conditions for paddling as defined by the race organization.
12:48 hrs. 2-Alberta Adventure Racing llega al PC3 Seno Obstrucción, 5 minutos más tarde lo hace 1-BUFF.
15:00 hrs, la organización desde el catamarán nos informan que los equipos 1-BUFF y 2-Alberta Adventure Racing se encuentran a la espera de mejores condiciones meteorológicas para iniciar el segundo tramo de kayak programado. Sin embargo, una situación sinóptica inestable, pasando a nueva acción frontal, ha obligado a la organización a optar por el cierre de la etapa, no estaban dadas las condiciones para lograr una travesía segura, estimada de 7 a 9 horas.
Debemos mencionar que las condiciones meteorológicas de los últimos días han sido especialmente malas, aún considerando la latitud y la fama de la Patagonia austral.
16:30 hrs. El catamarán transporta a los equipos 2-Alberta Adventure Racing y 1-BUFF hasta el final de Seno Obstrucción, para iniciar el trayecto del Paso de Indios. Las condiciones meteorológicas hacen imposible la navegación en Kayak, y de acuerdo a los últimos informes, estas continuarán empeorando.
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