Blue Skies, Sunshine, and Ice Sculptures

Saturday, 7 September 2013 (Part II)
Aboard M/V Sea Spirit — Sehested Fjord, Greenland
Position @ 1030: 63°03’ North / 41°54’ West

When Alex announced that lunch was being pushed back an hour to 1:00p, we knew he had something good in store for us.  We weren’t disappointed when he went on to tell us to put on our wet gear in preparation for a zodiac cruise in Sehested Fjord.

The water was so calm that we considered just wearing our trail hikers instead of our gumboots.  But then we remembered something — when you’re sitting still on a zodiac that has icy water beneath it, your feet tend to get really cold.  So, two layers of socks and gumboots were still the appropriate foot attire.  Likewise, rainpants were good for windproofing our legs when the zodiac was in motion.

Off we go with Nicola at the helm!

What can I say about blue skies, calm conditions, sunshine, and fantastic ice sculptures floating in a fjord overlooked by steep, jagged mountains?  A lot.  But they would all be words.  So, how about a PhotoLog instead — after all, that old adage about a picture being worth a thousand words holds even truer in a place like Greenland where experiences tend to be bigger than life.

I love how the shape of the ice sometimes mimics the terrain behind it.
I have to wonder if this has anything to do with the erosive power
of the winds that come off the land.

This was our first opportunity to photograph the starboard side of
the ship and see our cabin from the outside.

In addition to the zodiac cruise, there was one other activity offered in Sehested Fjord — a charging walk.  These walks are designed to get as high as possible; as quickly as possible.  It wasn’t the terrain or the elevation gain that scared us off from the hike.  Rather, it was the pace.  After all, we’re here to enjoy whatever we do in Greenland; huffing and puffing our way up a steep incline doesn’t fall into that category.  But fear not.  We have the photos the chargers shared for the voyage DVD to see at least some of what they saw without doing the hike ourselves.

We saw the small berg in the foreground break apart on our cruise,
so we could well be in the zodiac pictured here.

The iceberg behind the ship rolled over and disintegrated while we were cruising.
This is why our zodiac drivers have limits on how close they can drive us to icebergs.

We returned to the ship around 12:45p, just in time to drop off our gear in the cabin and go to lunch.  With the weather so fantastic, there was no question that we would be eating at the grill on deck 5 aft to enjoy the scenery as the Sea Spirit weighed anchor to sail out of Sehested Fjord.