Crossing the Davis Strait

Saturday and Sunday August 30-31:

There is a phenomenon known as “middle pack ice”, which is sea ice that sets up in the middle of the Davis Strait and is attached to Baffin Island. The breakup of this ice is unpredictable, so navigating to Qik, where we must cross the border into Canada, is also unpredictable. We were lucky that the ice broke up early, which gave us an extra day (Saturday) to explore the fjords on the western side of Disko Island before crossing over to Canada. 

We awoke to a cold, rainy and windy morning, with fresh snow on the upper parts of the surrounding fjord sides. We had hoped to kayak but it was just too wet. Some intrepid souls went for short hikes on the tundra but most of us stayed aboard and admired seabirds while staying warm and dry. After lunch we headed out across the Davis Strait. The skies cleared but the wind picked up, creating 7-10 foot seas.  It was quite a contrast to several days in sheltered bays and fjords. 

Overnight the wind died down again and Sunday dawned sunny and calm, but a bit colder. This made a great difference both inside and outside the ship. We have learned that you can tell the wind state by the way fulmars fly and how many passengers and staff are up and about. 

Fulmars are sea birds in the same family as albatross. When it is windy, they use the wind speed gradient (wind is slower at the water surface and faster above it) to glide without flapping. This mode of flying is extremely efficient. Once the wind calms, the fulmars have to work much harder, flapping to generate enough momentum to then glide. 

We spent Sunday morning searching for birds and sea mammals from the ship. We saw several species of sea birds, a bearded seal and a group of about 20 harp seals (harp seals frequently swim on their backs). 

The Canadian side of Davis Strait is much more barren than the colorful tundra we left behind on the Greenland side. We cleared customs at Qik (Qitiqtarjuaq).  Qik is located on a small island off the larger Baffin Island. It serves as a gateway to several local national parks and has about 600 inhabitants. The village was established in the 1950s although there is evidence of human habitation for millennia. The village is completely cutoff by ice in the winter, and only one supply barge comes in the summer each year. Subsistence hunting of polar bear, caribou, narwhal and seal are essential; seal is the only source of vitamin C for most of the year. 

We were welcomed to the village and watched several local demonstrations, including throat singing and Inuit Highkicking.  The throat singing developed as a competitive amusement for women while the men were out hunting; the goal is to make your singing partner laugh! We also visited the local museum. It was fascinating to hear the local Inuit dialect and to observe its written form on signage around the village. The symbols of the language are phonetic and were developed by missionaries to enable the reading of the Bible— but nothing else! 

Pictured:  Throat singing duet (dressed in traditional sealskin robes and boots), dovekies (also known as little auks), bearded seal (swimming upside down so you see his whiskers), northern fulmar and his reflection in the shifting light patterns on the water, sign in the Qik museum.

Icebergs and basalt

 Friday August 29

We awoke this morning to the sight of icebergs all around us, in Disko Bay. The light of the sunrise bathed the eastern flanks of the icebergs with a lovely rosy color. We also watched (and listened) as an iceberg cracked in front of the ship and started gently rolling over. The icebergs drift down the bay from the Illulisit glacier (which we will visit on our return trip in two weeks). There was some concern that the fog from last night would prevent our going ashore. While  polar bears are not expected on Disko Island, it is bear habitat, and in the words of our expedition leader “fog makes it hard to see creamy furry things”.  However, while there were low clouds there was no fog, so we were able to go ashore in the south end of Disko Island for a 3 mile hike across the tundra to a series of waterfalls. 

Autumn has arrived here, and the various lichen, berry bushes and other low growing plants show vibrant colors that complement the basalt pillars and cliffs of the island. 

Disko Island is as far north as Norse settlements extended in the 1000-1500 AD period. The Norse hunted further north in the summer, particularly for walrus ivory which was highly valued. The rise of elephant ivory availability in the 15th centuries contributed to the demise of the Norse settlements in Greenland. 

Disko Bay was unusually calm today, which allowed us to go for zodiac cruises in the afternoon, weaving around icebergs and admiring impressive basalt cliffs. While cooking lava creates the basalt columns, disruptions to the cooling can cause the columns to become misaligned. The result is a swirling pattern of columns and exposed hexagonal bases, in various colors depending on the iron content of the rock or the black algae on its surface. 

Often there is a staged approach to activities, but this afternoon all 14 zodiacs went out at one time, enabling all the guests to experience the geology at the same time. Tonight after dinner we continued to cruise through the icebergs, and were rewarded with a harp seal resting on one (until it got spooked and dove back into the water).

Pictured: sunrise on an iceberg, fall colors at the waterfalls, harp seal, basalt tapestry, iceberg field 

Northern lights, Sissimiut and sled dogs

 Thursday August 28

Our day started very early. Our expedition leader woke us at about 1:45am to inform us that the northern lights were worth seeing. So we and many of our traveling companions threw coats on over pajamas and headed out onto the observation deck. The display was magical. It was our first time seeing the northern lights and it was well worth getting out of bed to watch the continually changing display of light and colors. After about a hour, we returned to our cabins to get a few more hour of sleep before the start of the scheduled activities.

We docked at Sissimiut about noon. Sissimiut is the second largest town in Greenland (5600 inhabitants). After lunch we went for a hike on the Arctic Circle Trail, which winds for 140 km to the next town. We only did 8km of it. It was good to be out and hiking. We started at the edge of the town. On our way out of town we walked through Dog Town— yes, a whole area filled with dog pens and dog houses for the sled dogs that are still a vital part of this culture and community. People are no longer allowed to have the working dogs in their homes and they must be restrained (usually on a long chain) once they are a year old.  This is largely to protect the dogs from one another.  Visitors are also not permitted to approach or touch the adult (working) dogs. On the other hand, puppies are allowed to roam freely, though they stay close to mom. If a puppy approaches you, it’s okay to pet them, as it assists with their socialization.  It was clear that the people of the town take great care of their dogs. Our hike was delayed as we all ooh’d and aaah’d over the little fur balls. 

The Greenland sled dog is a specific breed and is believed to be the oldest sled dog species (perhaps 4000 years old). There is a serious effort to keep the breed pure. No dog that has been below the Arctic Circle may be brought into the community, and breeding is carefully regulated to maintain diversity as well as purity in the blood line. The dogs we saw had a wide variety of appearance, reinforcing that effort at diversity. There are currently 1000-1200 sled dogs, down from about 3000 in the recent past. While sledding is still an important winter transportation mode, it is threatened by snow mobiles. 

The hike itself was over a mix of dirt roads and paths through the tundra. The clouds settled in so the lovely view from the top became, in the words of our young local guide, “the promised land— I promise you that it is there”. 

Pictured: northern lights, Greenland sled dog puppy with mom, Katharine with a potential stowaway, an adult dog on their house 

The Greenland adventure begins

Monday - Wednesday August 25-27

Getting to the west coast of Greenland required a few days of travel. We flew from JFK to Reykjavik overnight on August 25, arriving on the 26th. As with other flights to Western Europe, the combination of a short flight time and several changes of time zone makes it hard to feel rested when you land. 

Our solution to this European travel dilemma has always been to try to stay active and awake until an early bedtime in the new time zone. We stayed in a hotel built right next to the original (now domestic only) airport in Reykjavik; in fact the control tower is connected to one wing of the hotel!  We walked down to the seashore and then up through a cemetery to a woodland park. We saw some interesting birds in both environments, and the four mile walk helped us pass the time before an early dinner.  

On Wednesday morning we were due to fly to Nuuk, the capital of Greenland. Greenland has many air strips built for US bases during and after WWII. Nuuk itself has only had an international airport for about 18 months, and yesterday afternoon the Danish authorities declared that the security folks at the airport needed retraining. The word went out about 5pm local time that the airport was closed to international flights effective immediately.

This had many effects on the logistics for our trip! 

The easiest change was to reroute our charter flight from Reykjavik to land at the Kangerlussuaq airstrip instead. This airstrip is about 80 miles inland, at the end of a fjord, and slightly north of Nuuk. It was built in WWII and is considered the best airstrip in Greenland.  We took about an hour’s bus tour to experience the tundra and the landscape, including seeing some of a local musk ox herd.  The Kangerlussuaq fjord does not offer a deep harbor so the ship anchored out in mid-fjord. Our luggage was shipped from the airstrip to the ship by barge. We got to take our fist zodiac rides of the trip to get out to the ship. Adventure travel indeed! 

Our ship had completed its previous trip in Nuuk, with passengers expecting to fly out to Reykjavik early this morning. Instead, the ship had to travel (at full speed and a lot of unexpected fuel consumption) to get to Kangerlussauq by mid-day today. The passengers took our charter plane back to Reykjavik, several hours later than originally planned. The provisions for our trip also had to be rerouted. 

The most amazing story concerned passengers for our trip who had decided to fly directly to Nuuk rather than flying to Reykjavik and taking the charter. Their flight from Newark got as far as the Davis Strait when one of them noticed on the monitor that the plane was turning around.  The captain came on the speaker to say “I have been informed that the Nuuk airport is closed and I have been instructed to return to Newark. I’ve now told you everything I know about it.”   So at 6pm they were back in Newark scrambling to get a new flight to Reykjavik to catch up with us.

All in all it was an amazing recovery all around and we were all happy to be on the ship and underway. 

Pictured: Goldcrest on Reykjavik, Greenland ice sheet seen from our plane, Greenland ice sheet peeking out behind the landscape of Kangerlussauq, and part of a musk ox herd.