Scoresbysund, East Greenland
Saturday 3 September – Ittoqqortoormiit:
70.4856° N, 21.9629° W (MAP LINK)
Air temperature: -2°C to +10°C
It was wonderful to see Greenland’s high snow-capped mountain ranges appearing to starboard (right) as we sailed closer and closer to this enormous continent.
We turned into Scoresbysund at around noon, and hugging the northern shore line, made our way to Ittoqqortoormiit, a small town of 300 people. Having dropped the anchor, and cleared customs for Greenland, we were soon in the zodiacs and landing on the shore.
This was my 2nd time in this town, and it was fun to be back 10 years later. This is colourful place – all buildings are painted in primary colours ranging from blues to rusty browns, reds, and green. As with all these small polar hamlets, the buildings have to withstand massive changes in temperatures and very harsh snowy conditions.
The sun was shining, and the temperature was very pleasant for walking around in my light fleece over a warm underlayer. My first stop was the church – small and very well kept with a gorgeous small wooden boat hanging from the ceiling. It’s a small version of the “Scoresby” named after the explorer who found the sound.
A young woman was spinning qiviut yarn – this is an amazingly warm wool that comes from muskox, and is one of the world’s finest and warmest wools, definitely prized in cold climates. We chatted for a while and she told us that they had been visited by about 15 ships over the summer – as a result, she had no stock available. I was amazed to hear that so many ships and people had been here.
From the church I meandered uphill, accompanied by Alastair, one of the senior people at Ponant and a delightful Scotsman. Along the way we stopped to take photos of the glorious view across the fjord, and of houses, a traditional sled that is used during winter and of course, dogs lying in the sun. These dogs are working dogs and not to be approached – although they seemed happy to come closer to us. The sled dogs that are kept out of town near the river, were absolutely not to be approached.
The town has grown significantly in 10 years with many more houses built further up the hill. Children were playing in the playground, four women were sitting on a trampoline watching us as we wandered by. It was a calm and peaceful place.
Once back on the Charcot, a group of seven locals, five young and two elders sang and danced for us. Three of the dances were from the five teens, the first to a polka, taking many of us by surprise, while the older man did a traditional drumming song. The wired world has definitely intruded here – let’s hope that not all traditions will be lost.
Sunday 4 September 2022 – RØde Ø (Red Island):
70.650° N 27.933° W (MAP LINK)
Air temperature: 3°C to 12°C
Scoresbysund is one of the largest fjord systems in the world. Deep into its western end, and closer to the Greenland Ice Cap, is Red Island – because of its location close to the Ice Cap, it is filled with icebergs. This is where we’re we sailed to overnight.
Since we were now experiencing sunsets and sunrises, I’d been checking my Aurora Forecast app, just in case. It seemed promising, so I laid out warm clothes, checked my camera settings and had my small travel tripod attached to my camera with the wider lens.
I’d set my alarm for 1:15am – checked outside my balcony (port side) – nothing exciting happening, so I rolled over and was asleep in moments. At 1:30am the Captain announced that an Aurora was visible to port and starboard! OK!
Downstairs and out to the port side, there it was – gentle clouds moving around, and once I managed to get the settings right, I was able to see and photograph my first Aurora Borealis from Greenland. And the bonus was that I could do this from my own balcony when I went back to my cabin.
We arrived in the Red Island area during breakfast, and I was soon in the bow of a Zodiac and out amongst the icebergs. What a joy! White, blue, black (yes a bit like the colours of my eye) and all shapes and sizes, from little bergy bits to ginormous bergs.
Some looked like the prow of a very large ship; there were towers, triangles, rounded, mixtures of cylinders and rectangles, and others too hard to describe. Light bounced off the surfaces – dimples, striations, smooth, rough, jagged, rounded. Describing icebergs requires a feast of adjectives.
Because most of the people on my Zodiac were wanting to walk up a very large hill, we dropped them on the shore and welcomed on another nine people. I now had the pleasure of another hour of cruising amongst some of the same and other new icebergs.
With the sun beating down on them, we could hear the cracks and rumbles as they melted, some splitting apart in areas we couldn’t see, while others calved small chunks of ice, with water spilling out into the ocean around us. There was apparently one rather big calve well away from us.
We weren’t sure of the depth of water here, but it was likely that the very large bergs were “grounded” on the floor of the ocean. As they melt from below, they’ll roll around presenting new surfaces to the air and elements, and over time, will become small enough to float away.
We stayed in the area for the remainder of the day, moving a little closer to a different landing site for those that wanted to walk during the afternoon.
At around 5pm, it was time for the Captain to find a safe path through the icebergs and back to the main channel. Although the Charcot is an icebreaker, it is not a “match” for a large iceberg – their size and density can do serious damage. The helicopter was sent out ahead to confirm our path, and we slowly wended our way eastward.
The Aurora forecast remained promising, and at 12:30am, we were again woken with those welcome words: “there’s an Aurora visible on the starboard side”. So with gear on, out I went to the helideck this time – since it has no roof we have good visibility of the sky. But we do have to contend with the wind, and travelling at 17 knots creates significant buffeting with a decent wind chill of around minus 5oC. But it was worth it! And after 30 minutes it was time to go back to bed.
When I woke this morning, we were out of Scoresbysund and well on our way to Reykjavik in Iceland. Our journey is nearly at its end.