Kokatat team member Justine Curgenven and Barry Shaw had mixed success on their attempt to be the first people to kayak around Tierra del Fuego at the tip of the world. La Isla Grande - the big island of Tierra del Fuego, lies at the very tip of South America. It has a rugged coastline of approximately 1,000 miles. The eastern part of the island belongs to Argentina and is mostly exposed and committing. The western part belongs to Chile and most of the paddling is in narrow and beautiful fjords with steep mountains on both sides. It¹s a notoriously windy part of the world, where bad weather moves in quickly. From the start, the expedition was thwarted by delays - the kayaks were a week late to arrive & the Chilean navy would not give them permission to start kayaking until the wind dropped. Once underway, Barry soon developed tendonitis in his right wrist. The pair rested for 4 days, and later for 3 weeks but it wasn't enough and they had to call off the expedition. Despite only kayaking for 8 days, Justine and Barry spent 7 weeks in Tierra del Fuego, made strong friendships and got to know the fascinating area. They paddled over 200 nautical miles from Punta Arenas, Chile to Rio Grande, Argentina, over a quarter of their planned distance. They encountered penguins, sealions, acrobatic dolphins and thousands of birds. They hope to return to Tierra del Fuego next Southern Summer.