From John:
Our last news
letter was written from Isafjørdur on the northwest coast of
Iceland where we were getting ready to cross Denmark Strait to
Greenland. This comes to you from the Bras d'Or Lakes, Cape
Breton, Nova Scotia. The intervening 2000 miles and seven
weeks have been intense, rewarding, and yes, stressful too.
Ammassalik, on the east coast of Greenland, 350 miles north of
Cape Farewell, and our goal for the trip to Greenland, was
still closed by pack ice when the three of us—Phyllis and I
were joined by Ted, a friend who we met in Greenland in 2000
where he was hiking—were ready to leave Iceland. Rather than
wasting the short Greenland cruising season waiting for the
ice to clear we decided to sail for Skjoldungen Island 150
miles south of Ammassalik, explore there and then go north if
the ice allowed.
The watch words on the 550 mile passage across Denmark Strait
were "save fuel" since there are no towns (or people for that
matter) for replenishment from Cape Farewell to Ammassalik. So
we sailed at every opportunity even though it meant a slower
trip and sailing to windward into fog and rain for the first
24 hours. However, the effort paid off as we arrived at Graah's Havn—a small harbour just north of Skjoldungen, where
the Danish naval officer, Willem Graah, wintered over in
1929/30 during his epic voyage of exploration in Greenlandic
skin boats along the coast—with almost full fuel tanks after
a four day passage.
A foray ashore at Graah's Havn, during which we found and
photographed the remains of what we believe to be Graah's
winter house, was interrupted by glacier ice flowing into the
narrow cove entrance threatening to trap us, perhaps long
enough to emulate Graah, spurring a quick return to the boat
and departure.
We spent the next week exploring the spectacular mountainous
coast in the Skjoldungen area including a circumnavigation of
that island through the 60 miles of channels that separate it
from the mainland; the only place that we have ever seen that
surpasses even Prins Christians Sund, near Cape Farewell, for
spectacular scenery: As little as half a mile wide with
mountains towering
6000' feet vertically from the fjords,
separated by huge glaciers. One glacier spilled from a hanging
valley several hundred feet seemingly right above our heads
and regularly disgorged many ton pieces of ice that crashed to
the foreshore, a mere quarter mile from Morgan's Cloud's
bow.
The pack ice starting to clear at Ammassalik spurred a move
north to Nansen Bukte, where the famous Norwegian explorer
landed in 1888 to start his historic transit of the Greenland
ice cap. Here we found a new harbour, not mentioned even in
the Danish sailing directions, where we spent a single night,
but not a quiet one since the presence of ice necessitated a
watch—like almost every night on this coast—and the
off-watch below was awoken by the buffeting of 30 to 40 knot katabatic gusts roaring off the ice cap, which in that area
comes right down to the sea—the reason Nansen chose to land
there.
The next day was decision time: Although the distance to
Ammassalik was only 100 miles, a satellite radar problem at
the ice center in Greenland meant that we were getting no ice
maps and that, coupled with a gale forecast to track up
Denmark Strait, dictated a return south to our favorite
hidey-hole on the east Greenland coast, Caroline Amalies Havn.
Once again we failed to reach Ammassalik and, ironically, the
ice chart that came in the next day showed that the approaches
were clear. However, the bright side was that we had extra
time and fuel to explore the remote and uninhabited east
coast, and after all, several hundred tourists visit the
Ammassalik area each day, so we can always join them someday
on a plane from Iceland!
We spent the next week slowly moving south exploring intricate
fjords and finding several new anchorages, although none were
very secure and all required an ice watch. Consequently we
were all tired when we reached the uncharted and ice free bowl
anchorage at Lindenow Fjord that we privately call "Morgan's
Cloud Havn" because, as far as we know, we were the first
yacht to use it during our first trip to east Greenland in
1997. Here we achieved a long held aim of climbing the 3000'
peak next to the anchorage, thanks to Ted's expertise in
mountain activities like crossing snow fields. Climbing
mountains is old hat to Ted, but to me the feeling of
achievement and euphoria as we reached the top and looked out
over Lindenow Fjord and west across the ice cap will always be
a highlight of our northern cruises. At the top we built a
cairn and left a note. Was it a first assent? Probably not,
it's not that hard, more a tough walk than a climb, but on the
other hand there was no cairn or other evidence of people—so
maybe, just maybe.
After a quick stop at
the Prins Christians Sund radio relay
station, with the attendant riotous party that has become a
tradition on our Greenland cruises, and a refueling stop at Nanortalik on the south west coast, we were positioned and
ready to take the only promising weather window in sight for
the passage to Labrador. This window necessitated leaving
Greenland in a full gale, but we were rewarded by fair winds
most of the way, arriving on the Labrador coast in just over
three days.
This year our exploration of the east
Greenland coast was aided by a significant
increase in water temperature and
accompanying decrease in glacier ice from
what we experienced in 2000 and 1997. Though
good for us, this climatic difference is
worrying from a global warming perspective.
Most of the glaciers we visited in 2000 have
retreated significantly in the intervening
three years. We also found large (one was
two miles long) tabular bergs—flat bergs
broken off ice shelves only produced in, as
far as we know, Antarctica and Ellesmere
Island. When we reported these sightings to
Ice Command Greenland they acknowledged they
had also seen them for the first time this
year and had no idea where they came from. A
sobering thought.
Since arriving in Labrador we have slowed down, spending
several days in each port while we wait for the prevailing
southwest winds, much of them gale force, to abate before
making a hop south on our way to Maine to lay the boat up for
some much needed maintenance after our four year northern
cruise.
For more shots of Greenland, visit our
Picture gallery.
