Friday, 20 September
Aboard M/V Sea Spirit — In the Denmark Strait
Stats posted @ 0845
Position: 70°29’ North / 21°58’ West
Distance traveled: 1570.3 NM since Reykjavík
temperature: 37F / 3C
Quote from the Daily Program:
“… but it may be that it’s the old story all over again, that the sow thinks
its own piglets are prettier than everyone else’s, because the Scoresbysund
colony is my own child, and its birth cost me a lot of pain for several years. …”
— Ejnar Mikkelsen —
My emotions are mixed. I’m sad to be leaving the grandiosity that is Greenland behind. On the other hand, we have adventures to look forward to in another new-to-us land. That helps!
The captain has promised us a calm crossing. It will give us time to decompress from this portion of our extended vacation adventures; and allow us time to prepare — mentally and physically — for the next part. But that’s still 400 NM (460 miles/740 km) away.
In the meantime … let’s look back at our last landing in Greenland.
115 NM (132 miles/213 km) overnight brings us to Ittoqqortoormiit,
our only settlement visit and our last morning in Greenland.
Ittoqqortoormiit, with a population of 450+, is a hunting community located near the mouth of Scoresbysund. The name means ‘people who live in big houses’. That’s not a reference to the houses in which the locals live now, but rather to the big digs the priest and the governor shared back in the day. The founding dates back to 1925, when the Danish explorer Ejnar Mikkelsen came here with the encouragement of his government. He arrived with 80 Inuit settlers to establish a colony 250 miles (400 km) south of what was the last known Inuit settlement in northeast Greenland. It is one of the youngest towns Greenland; and one of two that carries the distinction of being the most isolated. Today, we had a chance to visit it.
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This was a wet landing for us. With the muddy roads, the light snow and drizzle, having muck boots on was a good thing anyway. We were ashore by 8:45a, and after getting our bearings from the expedition staff at the landing site, we struck out on our own for a meandering walk around town.
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Although there is religious freedom in Greenland, the Danish National Evangelical
Church is the established religion.
The church was built in 1928 at the request of the settlers.
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Unable to find a short cut from the area we were exploring back to the weather station and the dogs, we missed out on that part of the landing. No worries; we saw plenty of Greenlandic dogs on the first leg of our adventure. And thanks to the shared photos, we even got a second-hand look at the launching of the weather balloon.
Gary Rolfe is an expedition dog musher who lives in Ittoqqortoormiit. In his blog, he writes about the weather station. Turns out that Greenlandic hunters, as well as Danish and Norwegian trappers, made contributions to the WWII Allied front. They were trained as wireless operators, transmitting weather reports, and also patrolled the coastal areas for Nazi activity. You can read more about it in the link above. (Weather station photos from Dave Riordan.)
A collection of photographs of the residents of Ittoqqortoormiit
can be found inside the weather station.
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tHE TwicE-a-day weather balloon LAUNCH collects data to predict weather in Europe.
With time on our hands, we stepped into the supermarket/department store in town to look around. Yes, the goods were expensive; but the shelves looked to be well-stocked with everything one might need to live in such a remote area. I even managed to find a pair of reading glasses to replace the ones I mangled a few days ago!
Our final stop was at the small museum. And small it was. There wasn’t much in the way of exhibits, but it did afford an interesting ‘contrast’ photo-op.
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Even in a remote part of Greenland, an i-Device comes in handy … and not just for communication.
In this instance, Heidi is using it to display her beading pattern.
My one souvenir from Greenland — a mouse pad.
When you’re living in a motorhome, you purchase things you know you will use.
All aboard was at noon, and 30 minutes later, the Sea Spirit had her bow turned to the Denmark Strait. Dining on deck 5 aft, we watched as the Greenland coast slowly began to dim on the horizon.
Spending a quiet afternoon in the cabin, we started packing and organizing our bags. When we came aboard Sea Spirit at the end of August, we had to unpack once. That was it until disembarkation. When we start our self-drive around Iceland in a few days, we’ll be moving around quite a bit more. That will mean getting in and out of our bags more frequently. A different strategy will be required so as to easily find what we need, when we need it.
At 5:00p, we joined Laurie in the Oceanus Lounge for his talk about the Greenland mummies. Yes, we’d heard it before; but we wanted to listen to the story of the Mummies of Qilaqitsoq (post here) one more time.
On the menu tonight was a special dish. On the previous leg, the expedition team had picked up salmon from Paamiut. It was fresh; it was tasty. And the purchase supported the local economy. From Ittoqqortoormiit, the team picked up something as well — 90 pounds (40 kg) of musk ox, which the chef prepared as a ragout for dinner. It was fresh; it was tasty. And the purchase supported the local economy. A win-win all around.
This hunter was at the visitor center, offering those who wished a tasting
of morsels of musk ox; we had more of it for dinner tonight.
[Note the yellow parka he’s wearing; Quark donates some of the jackets for the locals to wear. Several of our fellow-passengers left their parkas behind in Ittoqqortoormiit today;
alas, we will be needing these jackets in Iceland, so ours are going back with us.]
As forecasted, we are traveling with following seas tonight. That’s a good thing … no wild seas anticipated for this crossing.
