Patagonian Expedition Race
East Wind Is Out Of The Race
Anne-Marie Dunhill / 19.02.2016
The Japanese team East Wind had passed YogaSlackers during the night on the first trekking stage of 76km. Their progression was impressive and they were able to extend their lead by several hours. The team arrived at CP7 located at Rio Primero at 08:10 where their bike boxes were waiting. They left the transition area at 09:22 and began making their way towards Puerto Natales, riding along a gravel road with a large lake, the Largo Pinto, to their left.
Snowed capped peaks were visible in the distance and dark menacing clouds confirmed the weather report that Stjepan had communicated to us earlier in the day. In a meeting with the Army this morning, they discussed the bad weather forecasted for the next two days with high winds predicted as well as snow. The Army indicated that there was a potential window of time of about two hours in which kayaking could be possible.Racers were informed during the briefing that a dark zone would be enforced between 21:00 and 06:00 on both kayak sections.
Due to their masterful management of the trekking section it appeared that East Wind would be the only team to make it to Estancia Perales in time to take advantage of the weather window and escape the impending dark zone. Part of their 9 person strong film crew dashed into Puerto Natales to purchase hiking boots to manage in the predicted snow as they only had trail running shoes as footwear.
When we saw the Japanese team on road leading to Puerto Natales at 13:07, they were in good spirits, smiling and forming a single line for the photos as they biked past. We continued on to CP7 at Rio Primero and were able to catch both YogaSlackers and GODZone. YogaSlackers arrived at 16:20 and left at 16:54 and GODZone arrived at 18:36 and left at 19:18.
Arriving back in Puerto Natales to CP8 in a local school, after shooting pictures of both of those teams along the road, we were informed that East Wind was out of the race. Masato Tanaka had taken a bad fall on his bike, 17km to CP9 in Estancia Perales.
According to staff member Camila Perez, “Masato tried to call SOS but he couldn’t understand the Spanish so he sent a message to his wife Sue in Japan. Sue sent an e-mail that Trish sent to me and I called the ambulance and activated the insurance. Stjepan and Anthony went out to him and he is in the hospital in Puerto Natales where they are checking his injuries.” Camila showed me on her phone the messages exchanged with Trish; the time was 17:58.
The other three team members were in CP8. Their faces as they prepared food spoke of the extreme disappointment of being out of the race after having reached the second place podium in 2012 and 2013 and pushing so strongly until the unfortunate accident with the first place podium the coveted prize.
Speaking to the race director at 23:47, Stjepan spoke of his sadness at the outcome for this team which has such a strong history with PER. He said that the accident happened when they were going downhill, only 300m from a good road. He relayed the information that Masato Tanaka is now out of the hospital and in CP8 with the rest of his team.
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