Humpbacks on the Move

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We left Sisimuit last evening after dinner and headed out in to a beautiful evening sunset..It lasted from 2200 until it finally struggled under the horizon at 0015 The weather was fair and the fog held off for a few hours. We dodged a few radar echoes in the twilight before we entered Disko Bugt this morning. On the way in to town 60nm inside the bay we met these two guys cruising around. The GPS on the Drone went a bit wonky and it decided home was in another direction until we got her turned around. This was nearly the last shot from that drone..

Size Matters!

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We passed our 2 friends swimming in the 1.5c water and sidled up to this fellow. The size is incredible.We were only about 500m from the Berg and you can see from our Size how big it was. The height was around 50m high so with a rule of 1 to 7 it is about 350m deep but due to shape and size our experts on board believe it was about 150 -200m under the water. But it would have made a nice harbour. but for the fact they do roll over periodically.

Sisimuit

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Yesterday found us in Sisimiut for much of the day, second largest city in Greenland, pop. 3800. Primarily a fishing town, we beheld a relatively small factory ship unloading 5,000 tons of pandalus borealis shrimp after a 15 day trip. The other major fishing enterprise is apparently for turbot, some of which we had for a delicious onboard dinner. We are told that the shrimp processing plant here serves the many small shrimping boats and annually peels 10 million kilos of shrimp.

Down the Kangerlussauq Fjord

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An early start on board today. 0130 Anchor up. But it was still daylight…We headed back out to sea with 5 knots of current underneath us. The trip down the Fjord was quick. At one point the current was 8 knots and the boat speed 8 knots for 16 Knots over the ground.. The scenery was even more beautiful than on arrival as it was lit by the morning sun. You can see the incredible rock formations as different layers have been pushed and folded over each other add the shear majesty and the Ice and waterfalls…. We had a little traffic at the entrance..2 boats. and after negotiating the current and the shoals we headed out into..The Fog.. On with the horn. We have now reached Sisimuit a small town at 69n and 58w Seems like a nice place. So time to Explore..At least to check out the local supermarket..But it is warm.

Kangerlussauq Glacial Effluent

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This is NOT discharge from Rosehearty..But Effluvial discharge from a huge Glacier…..

After anchoring at 0200 in broad daylight..Sun went down at 0000 and came up again at 0300..But light all night. We spent a quiet night at Anchor. The current up this fjord runs on and off the mud flats that are the detrius of the Glacier about 6km away. So the effluent that is in the water is considerable, leaving the Engineers worrying about water consumption. We can make 20 tons of water a day …but not here. You can not make water out of Mud.. The weather here today is outstanding 16c. Yet we are North of the Arctic Circle and the Guys and Gals are in T shirts and bare feet..That does not happen often.. As mentioned yesterday the Lower reaches of this Fjord are incredibly beautiful. Dramatic and Wild. Looking forward to the return trip down tomorrow.

Entry to Kangerlussauq Fjord

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Having been in Fog all day..As we approached the entrance to the fjord we burst out in to fantastic scenery. about 1 mile out!! The entrance was tight and it was beneficial to have the range, leading markers visible in addition to our Radars and Navigation Sytsem. The swirling currents around made the entrance a challenge for the 3 watchkeepers to keep rosehearty on the track. Currents were up to 4 knots in all the wrong places..

We were also distracted by this scenery.

Entry to Kangerlussauq Fjord

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Having been in Fog all day..As we approached the entrance to the fjord we burst out in to fantastic scenery. about 1 mile out!! The entrance was tight and it was beneficial to have the range, leading markers visible in addition to our Radars and Navigation Sytsem. The swirling currents around made the entrance a challenge for the 3 watchkeepers to keep rosehearty on the track. Currents were up to 4 knots in all the wrong places..

We were also distracted by this scenery.

Hamborger Land!

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65.00n 52.30w Air Temp 4c sea Temp 3c FOG!

After such a stunning day yesterday in Nuuk where the visibility was 15nm+ we are back to our usual 100m visibility. We left the dock at 0700 and after 3 minutes we saw nothing all the way out. Not even the Ice Growlers that passed a few hundred meters away as we Zig-zagged our way out to sea. We are headed North up the coast a few Hundred miles and then up a Fjord 80nm to where we will spend a day or 2 before retracing our route to the sea.This is area is called Kangerlussaq. From that point it is a 24 hour run to Disko Island and our next port Ilulisat.. As you can see most of the names here are unpronounceable ..Take Paarnaqussuit Qaavat for instance..One place that we are passing that you can see from the chart, is very well known and it must be where the famous dish originated from..We believe if we could see it, there would be Golden Arches and Flame Broiled smoke everywhere. you can even Drive through..

Nuuk

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Nuuk 65.10n 51.28w Temp 6c Water temp 6c

So the sun did set..2315 But it did not get dark. After our zero visibility trip in to the Fjord and dodging Ice floes..(imaginary ? as we never really saw them) We awoke to a cool day but with no fog. Overnight we were joined by that “other” sailboat Hetairos a similar sized but green sailboat cruising Greenland coast and the Danish Navy (the Grey ship)..The ship that cut us off in the pass (Red) is also seen here, it is the inside Royal Arctic Line vessel and it must have been on a schedule. He said he always new where we were..As did we with him but 150m for a 150m ship at 15 knots in the fog we felt was a bit tight…. The Town is very interesting due to its complete lack of vegetation. Cute but sparse. The new buildings are clearly from Danish Bureaucracy and designed by committee, not attracitve. The old town on the other side of the peninsula is delightful. Although hard to know why they built on the unprotected side of the peninsula. As you can see this is a working port. A lot of activity all the time. It is hard to know what the locals do when there is 23 hours of darkness in the winter but the people are very friendly. Stopping to talk to the “stranieri” as we walk around.

Arrival in Nuuk

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Nuuk 64.10n 51.43n 2200 coldddd 6c and Fog.

We arrived this evening in Nuuk. Interesting except we can not see it. The arrival however was..We arrived all the way to the dock in 200m visibility… However here we are. We had planned some great ariel shots on arrival but we ended up dodging Growlers, and the odd Iceberg on the way in. Then to complicate matters a container ship with clearly more mass (size) and experience than us charged past 150m away at 15 knots intent in getting in the harbour first..all while the ship in our berth came out.. However very happy to be here.. a very easy trip North but for the fog..So no more whingeing..So we are sandwiched between a few trawlers of 100m long.. on a working dock (said container ship!) ready to go to bed…but for the 5m tide rise and fall that keeps the watches running all night..And the only photo we got today was this of the crew looking for icebergs..or so they said..

Out of the Fog

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19 07 2016 300nm S of Nuuk 60.00n 052.08w Sunset 2230 Full Moonrise 2215

We continue to make great progress North. Gliding along at around 14 knots on a smooth sea. The last 24 hours we were in fog as seems to be our SOP with about 1/4mile visibility. However the seas were and are flat and the winds as they are, behind us. So all good. We, around 1800 Local boat time, suddenly burst out of the fog into brilliant sunshine. Thank you Ian and Hugo! Temperature went from 9c to 15c in a matter of minutes. We expect to arrive tomorrow in Nuuk for our refuel and re-provision stop before moving on Northwards to Kangerlussaq on Saturday.