From the ice of Illulissat we were to run back south, negotiating the sea bergs, to Assiaat once again then out of Disko Bay. Before we escaped, a little accident with a rock brought 28 tons of boat to a violent stop while an inattentive skipper fussed with positioning fenders on deck. We weren’t able to examine the damage until much later in Europe, finding a split open keel requiring substantial metal work to fix. No water got into the main hull and we view this as dividends on a strong alloy boat.
South Again
South we fled alternately through inner leads and outer coastal passages, ultimately doubling back past the apartments of Nuuk, and toward the southern coast.
The sea ice cleared, leaving nude again the waterways winding through the severe Greenlandic rock.
The cold environment will claim man’s manifestations, but it is a slow death.
A day south of Nuuk, at Qeqertarsuatsiaat fishing village we couldn’t find a suitable anchorage…
…so retreated to nearby Irkens Havn, a teardrop shaped basin 150 meters or so from rock to rock.
Fiskernæs, in Danish, like all the minor Greenlandic villages has been losing population over the decades, although a mine for sapphire and rubies was established nearby in 2015.
Further south, yet more rock, the mountainous coast is shaped by ancient glaciers and smoothed by interminable winds.
Arsuk lies on the feet of the towering Kuunnaat mountain, some scraps of snow still clinging to its upper slopes.
