Questions about Sailing in Greenland

Which Charts (2005)

Question: What charts do you recommend for cruising Greenland? We have C-map charts but they have insufficient coverage.

Answer: By far the best charts for Greenland are the Danish ones. Don't get US or British Admiralty charts; they are not anywhere near as good as the Danish charts. I believe that Blue Water Charts in the USA can get Danish charts, see www.bluewaterweb.com. But if you are in Norway you will probably get them faster and less expensively by going direct to the Danish chart office or a distributor. See www.kms.dk and www.schultz.dk/Home/Virksomheder/Soekort/English.aspx  for a list of agents.

Crew Changes (2005)

Question: What is your experience with changing crew in Greenland?  Should we plan to go to the large airport at Kangerlussuaq (Sondre Stromfjord) to pick up new crew?

Answer: We have changed crews in Greenland at Nuuk and Sisimiut. I have never been into Kangerlussuaq (Sondre Stromfjord), but it does not sound like a problem, according to the RCC Greenland Guide, other than needing to time the tide. However, I don't think you need to do the 200-mile round trip from the ocean up the fjord to pick up crew. All the communities of any size at all are served by regular and fairly reliable air service either by helicopter—Greenland Air is the only airline in the world to run regular scheduled air service by helicopter—or STOL aircraft.

When I changed crew at Sisimiut in 1995 it went without a hitch and that was by helicopter; since then the Greenland government has built several more STOL airstrips, so it is even easier. Your crew may have to overnight at Kangerlussuaq, but that is not a problem, and I think it would be a lot less boring than the 100-mile motor transit of the fjord at the beginning and/or end of a cruise. Due to the high pressure system generated by the ice cap, the weather in summer is generally pretty reasonable for flying so I don't think long delays are likely to be a big problem, although it could happen, I guess. The only caution is that your crew needs to book all of this well ahead of time and the cost will make their hair curl.

The Lonely Planet Guide has a good section on getting to and from Greenland, although I think that they are unnecessarily pessimistic about reliability, at least in summer.
 

Literature and Sailing Singlehanded on the East Coast (2005)

Question: I am planning to take my boat from North Donegal to the east coast of Greenland. I was planning to make landfall in the area of Kap Dan. My boat is a 38 foot Rival (fiberglass) and I was planning the out bound trip single handed. Could you suggest any literature on the east coast?

Answer: The best information on Greenland is the RCC Pilotage Foundation Guide to Faroe, Iceland and Greenland by Ker. See www.imray.com. You will also want the BA Arctic Sailing Directions and Danish charts. We also recommend a forward scan depth sounder if you plan to visit any out-of-the-way anchorages. You will want some way to receive ice charts and although they are theoretically available over weatherfax we have had much better results using an Iridium phone.

I would strongly advise against making a single-handed passage to the east coast of Greenland. It is, in my opinion, just too hostile a place for single-handed sailing. The risk of bad weather, constant cold and the ice that can threaten without warning, can exhaust a single-hander. In fact, although Phyllis and I normally sail double-handed, we always take a third hand on trips to East Greenland.

Finally, and this is a standard piece of advice we always give, if this is your first voyage to ice encumbered waters, we would recommend making your landfall on the west coast of Greenland and then making your way to the east coast once you are comfortable with the surroundings. The Cape Dan area is one of the iciest in the high latitudes and can make a dangerous landfall. (Tilman lost Sea Breeze near there.) That also brings to mind that you may find the book below interesting. It is a compendium of his passages to the high latitudes:

H. W. Tilman: Eight Sailing/Mountain-Exploration Books

Having said all that, we have met several single handers in Greenland who have made it work. It all depends on how tough and experienced you are and how suitable your boat is.

Circumnavigating (2004)

Question: I am wondering if you know whether anyone has circumnavigated Greenland in a sailboat. Do you think it's possible? My guess is that global warming has changed things up there and it may be possible.

Answer: As far as I know, Greenland has never been circumnavigated in any vessel. If memory serves, the Russians tried it a few years ago with their huge nuclear powered ice breaker—the one that regularly takes people to the North Pole—as a tourist trip. They got stuck in the ice and it took the combined efforts of two Canadian icebreakers to get them out. Even with global warming, the polar pack is a hostile place. In the summer of 2002 we penetrated just six miles past the main pack edge at 80.5N, just north of Nordaustlandet, Svalbard, and that is about as far as I would want to go into the main pack, and then only in a flat calm and with a good forecast.

You can generally get quite far north in a yacht on the west coast of Greenland. We reached Uummannaq Fjord, just north of Disko Island at 71N in 1995 without seeing any pack at all, and yachts have got as far as Thule in good years. However, the east coast is a very different proposition. A few yachts have reached Scoresby Sund at about 68N, but even that is hard to do.

Getting Money and Shopping (2004)

Question: How easy is it to get money and do shopping in Greenland?

Answer: ATM machines in larger towns will give you Danish kroner on your card. Provisions are surprisingly good in the larger towns, although fresh vegetables are hard to get.

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