Our first stop to Nanortalik, Greenland was cancelled due to ice and more ice. We have two very experienced Danish ice pilots sailing with us and one ice consultant, in addition to our captain who is also a qualified ice pilot. It was clear that Nanortalik was not accessible.
So, the plan is to go further south to stay clear of the ice. We are also switching the order of our two other Greenland ports to take advantage of the best conditions.
It was a very rough night - lots of shaking and rolling, things around the cabin falling, no damage, just noisy.
By morning, the seas have calmed somewhat but we are still shaking. The captain gave us an update on the weather, and despite the delay caused by our diversion, we still expect to make Paamiut on Sunday.
Paamiut, Greenland
We arrived right on time to our anchorage position on Sunday, ready to go to Paamiut. The first tender had only a dozen people anxious to explore this new port for many, including us. It was very cold and windy with the temperature around freezing. We were happy to have our goofy rabbit hats, gloves, and 5 or 6 layers of clothing on.
It was a quiet morning, with only a few locals walking about. With a population of around 1,500, the small town is easy to find your way around. It is a lot like Qaqortoq and Nanortalik, with brightly colored houses, one main church, simple cemetery with white crosses, hilly streets, snow-dotted mountains all around, and roads that abruptly end before turning into rocky tundra that goes on forever.
We walked through various neighborhoods in search of a few geocaches. The most interesting was also the hardest to get to. At the top of one of those peaks behind a row of houses sat an unusual rock. It looked just like many other large rocks deposited by glaciers in the past. But if you hit this rock with a small stone or a hammer, it plays musical notes. I can’t imagine how anyone discovered this phenomenon. We worked hard to climb the hill, so we were happy to have found it and retrieve the container that was underneath. We both banged away with small stones in our hands, making our own music.
Steve also made it up to the top of the Watchtower, a wooden lookout on a hill overlooking the harbor. It’s uphill to the beginning of the 100-step staircase at the bottom of the tower and then another two flights to the top. A surprising number of our guests made the climb.
Qaqortoq, Greenland
Our second Greenland stop is Qaqortoq, with twice the number of residents as Paamiut, making it the largest town in Southern Greenland. We have enjoyed visiting here many times in the past, as it is a regular stop on Holland America’s Voyage of the Vikings.
Our favorite memory is of our 6-mile hike around the lake that sits behind the town. That hike or some part of it is now offered as a shore excursion. We never thought about it in the past, but there is the danger of encountering polar bears along those trails, especially at the far end of the lake. We heard there is now an armed escort with the excursion. So, we are not planning to repeat the experience on our own.
We’ve walked extensively through the town, observing the contrast between the more upscale Danish homes on the right side of town and the colorful apartment complexes of the Inuit natives on the left. There is notable artwork in town in the form of cliff carvings, part of the “Stone and Man” project, several of them right in front of the tender pier.
We were thinking we would stay on board today, but the weather moderated significantly from yesterday and we decided to take a short but steep hike to the end of the road.
As we headed to the right from the tender pier, we noticed lots of new and improved buildings. The road winds up by way of either pavement or steep staircases, passing the largest houses in the town, with expansive views over everything. The road ends at a small utility building and then you can head up further among the rocks and tundra. We remembered the many cairns built by fellow adventurers and we added our rocks to one as we climbed a few hundred feet higher.
You can get to what looks like the top where the wilderness continues as far as you can see. It’s all quite spectacular and humbling to consider how large this country is. From our vantage point we could see a field of icebergs in the distance that we will likely pass on our way out tonight.
A few hours later as we left Qaqortoq, mother nature put on a spectacular show. We saw dozens, perhaps hundreds of icebergs large and small right from our windows. With no wind and calm seas, they presented no threat, just jaw dropping beauty.
We have one sea day tomorrow before making our way to some of our favorite destinations in Atlantic Canada, starting with the small friendly town of St. Anthony in Newfoundland. The waters next to St Anthony are known as “iceberg alley” so we are hoping the show will continue.
We’re down to our last 11 days. Hard to believe it has been 4 months on board.
Fondly,
Wendy and Steve
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