Now the one thing that has amazed me so far is how smooth our journey has been. We had a little bit of wave action on Thursday night before we docked in Nuuk, but that has been it. At times, it has felt like we are sailing on glass. Not a ripple in the water. And yes, we are hugging the coastline and bopping in and out of fiords, but I fully expected there to be some rocking but … nada.
And Saturday morning was no different. Still calm seas albeit rather foggy.
Around 7:00 a.m., the captain woke the ship up with his announcement that we had docked in Manitsoq, yet another little village on the trip to Ilulissat. We dropped off some more passengers, did not appear to take anyone on and then were off moving slowly away from the handful of colourful houses dotting the town, which were shrouded in early morning fog.
After breakfast (which is starting to get a tad old … yoghurt, boiled egg, bun, meat and cheese, OJ and water), I took a walk around the ferry and then watched from my cabin as we made our way through yet another fjord and past mountains that are becoming increasingly bigger as we sail north.
I wandered around the boat a bit and before I knew it was 11:00 a.m. and we were anchoring offshore in Kangamiut. Because the channel was so narrow, the boat could not make it to the dock so the crew lowered a boat into the water to ferry some passengers to shore and to pick up some new folks. By just after 11:15 we were off again to Sisimiut.
Now for most of the day we sailed north in pretty grey skies and a fair amount of fog. At some point, we crossed the arctic circle, but being a local ferry there was no announcement, but based on the map It appeared we crossed around 4 in the afternoon.
As the day progressed, the skies finally started to clear and by the time we pulled into Sisimiut, the most northern town in Greenland to be free of ice year round, we were in full on brilliant sunshine. Once we docked around 6:45 p.m. most of us took advantage of the 2 hours in port to walk around the little town.
I headed in the direction of town and noticed a sign pointing to local artisans. I made a quick stop and apparently my detour was followed because within a few minutes a group behind me also came into the shop. The artist showed me a number of his carvings made out of reindeer bone, whale bone and …. ACK. Narwhal. Broke my heart, but it is not for me to criticize the Inuit way of life.
Anyway, I found a small souvenir I liked made out of reindeer bone and headed back outside and up the street past some amazing rock art as well as number of houses with dog sleds in the front yard and a large statue I could not for the life of me figure out.
I then doubled back and went back down hill towards the church and old town. There were some interesting buildings as well as a humongous whale bone at the entrance to the old town as well as an equally large anchor.
I ended up in the local hotel looking at more Inuit art and found the most amazing carving of the back of a whale with its tail in the air and seated on the back of the whale are carvings of a narwhal, a seal, a polar bear and a walrus. It was the best carving I had seen and decided I would regret not buying it so …. Hopefully it will make it back in one piece.
By now it was after 8 and not wanted to be left in Sisimiut, headed back to the ship. Once the ship pulled away from the dock, I headed to bed, but at 1:30 I woke up and took a look outside to see the most beautiful site. A partially set sun framing gorgeous snow capped mountains. I threw on my coat and went outside for less than a minute and captured some gorgeous photos.
