Leg 4: Nuuk to Disko Bay

Our interest in Nuuk evaporated rather quickly after getting showers and groceries, so we left the next day. The wind was out of the north and forecast to increase to 30 knots so we went up the inner route to Angmagssivik Fjord and anchored in a perfectly protected cove on the side of the fjord.  (lat 64deg, 49.1min N, 52 deg 08.5 min W) I was a little hesitant to take the inside passage at first because the chart was very sketchy.  In places there was only a single row of soundings to indicate the route through a maze of islands and rocks where the bottom was not charted.  The route was in fact well marked with red triangles on poles and we made good progress except for a couple of stretches of open water.   The next day, the coast was fogged in and we were unable to see the markers so we went offshore with the intentions of sailing over night to our next stop at Evighedsfjord. We anticipated 15 knots of headwind decreasing in a few hours to 5 knots.  Instead it increased to 17 knots and continued through the night.   It made for good sailing but the waves were very large for such a moderate wind which reinforced my theory that the cold air is noticeably denser here so it has more power to create waves or other mischief. 

We sailed and motored 23 miles inland on the fjord to Taateraat where the channel divides.  Marina, Barry and I went ashore to climb on the glacier.  Barry and I wanted to try to get to the icecap, but at 2100 feet we were stopped by an icefall and lacking the time to find a route around it or the gear to get through it, we returned to the boat.  Marina had gone back to the boat earlier and came to pick us up. The dingy was caked with mud and Marina told her story of getting back to the dingy after her walk and finding it more than a hundred yards from the water sitting in the soft glacial mud.  She took off her hiking boots and dragged the dinghy to a creek flowing across the mudflat and hopped in to ride the riffle back to the ocean. Cold muddy feet explained the tracks in the dingy.   

 The next morning Captain Ice (Marina) guided the boat up to the terminus of another glacier to watch it calving. Jan and I got some good photos from the dingy and we got to see a large chunk of ice calve off and send some big waves toward us.  We made a hasty retreat to a safer distance and waited for more action but of course nothing happened.

We picked up a rusty steel mooring in the tiny harbor of Kangaamiut for the next night.  We asked several people if it was OK to hang on it and they all said yes.  In the morning we noticed that three fishing boats that we displaced were rafted on the next mooring.  It appeared to be an example of the Inuit way of communal living where the traveler is welcomed and everything is shared despite any inconvenience. 

Kangaamiut was our first real contact with a Greenland town.  Multicolored  houses were perched on the side of the hill  connected by wooden stairways, one store, no cars and lots of boats.  One staircase led up over the top of the hill to a valley with a soccer field, a cemetery and a pond that the local boys were swimming in.  After shopping for some food, Marina and I took a swim in the pond as well.  It felt great to wash off the salt and sweat in the cold water, even if the aesthetics of the pond 's surroundings were hampered by broken pieces of soccer goals, old junk and cast off clothes.

 The forecast was for a low to pass through bringing 25 knot southerly winds.  We were tired of motoring and tired of headwinds so we left the next morning heading into the light rain with favorable but shifty winds.  Unfortunately the front passed quickly and by midnight we were under power again with 115 miles left to go to get to Asiaat.  I began to see why the early explorers made such slow passages in these waters, and gained a lot of respect for their patience.