Sled Dogs

We have a day off and are trekking for the Kangerlua Glacier. Walking through town we pass through a long rocky valley that is essentially a large dog kennel during the summer months. It is unsettling and disturbing. Here the "working" dogs are kept until the winter. It is a very eerie sound when a thousand dos start howling at the same time. When they howl you can feel their pain. I have learned that hundreds of animal protection organizations in more than 58 countries have started campaigns to help the sled dogs of Greenland which are being neglected and abused. I took the time to sign several online petitions and made a donation to the effort. http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/GreenlandSledDogs/

Illulissat

Heading for Illulissat we have been weaving in and out of the big icebergs like a kick off re turner dogging tacklers as he tries to break for daylight, eyes focused on the opposing teams endzone. We are 3 miles from the entrance and all I can see is a solid white wall from horizon to horizon. The radar screen reflects the challenge ahead. I back her down as we approach the ice wall between us and our destination. the next three miles will take us three hours. It is a tedious process of finding a path through the ice maze

Disko Bay

Disko Bay is amazing. We arrive in the bay in the fog at 0430. I have been weaving in and of house size icebergs seen only on radar for the past two hours. As the fog lifts I can see the Goliath iceberg I am rounding giving it a 100 yard berth, I make my turn towards the island we will anchor.
We make our approach into the entrance of the island in dead fog. I see the water on the depth gauge go shallow fast and I bring the boat to a stop. In this case enough to put us in an area of rock pinnacles. No way out but by brail, I station Lisa on the starboard side and Gordon (our Chef) on Port Side. The water is so clear that you can see the rock heads. The posts are my feelers, and eyes for the next 30 minutes they tell me right or left , using the thruster and the engine we slither out of the potential danger. We will later discover an error in our GPS Datum and the Chart Datum for the area that shows us on our electronic charts about 100 yards off.
We anchor the yacht in the most amazing setting. We are completely alone. Not a man made sound to be heard. The silence is deafening. Looking out through the entrance to our anchorage you see a steady parade of the gigantic ice structures that we came this far to see. We are at Latitude 69 N. At this Latitude it is day light nearly 24 hours a day.
We go ashore and explore an abandoned fishing village. We see the tilting racks that were once used to dry cod, we walk through an abandoned school house, and hike to the top of the hill to over look Disko Bay.. The sight is spectacular. The bay is covered by the newly calved very large icebergs. Seeing this sight I can put into perspective what I navigated through in the fog using only radar.
We are headed for Illuisat the only harbor in Disko Bay. The greatest tourist attraction in all of Greenland is the jaw-dropping Ilulissat Kangerlua (Ilulissat Icefjord), a berg-packed bay fed by the 3mi wide and 3608ft thick glacier Sermeq Kujalleq. The glacier flows an average of 82ft daily and it is the world's most prolific outside Antarctica.

Inuit

As we tie up we rig our lines and fenders against the very industrial pier to accommodate the 20 foot tidal swing. We eagerly head out to explore Greenland's "largest" city. The roads do not go further the five miles fro the center of town. It takes us about 30 minutes to go from one side of town to the other. In the winter Dog Sleds are the preferred mode of transportation. Now in the Summer months the dogs are basically tied to rocks and fed dried cod for the summer months. It's a sad sight for a dog lover like my self. But I am told that these are "working: dogs are not pets and that is different.
Their are two groups the indigenous Inuit Indians and the Dutch professionals that are their working in various businesses. The Inuit (Eskimo like) have a very weathered look to them. These are a people that live off the land. They need very little to get by. Their primary source of income is from hunting and fishing. They hunt seals from their boats with rifles. A seals head pops up and you here a rifle shot. The seals skins are sold and the meat is eaten. http://www.wbur.org/special/dispatches/greenland/inuit/

Land Fall Greenland

The heaters on board are now earning their keep. The warmth and comfort of the heated pilot house are very nice as we near our first landfall in Nuuk Greenland.
The water temperature is about 5 c (convert). PFD's (Personal Flotation Devises) with harnesses are mandatory now any time you leave the safety of the Pilot House. We know and respect that falling into this cold water would be gravely bad. We know that falling overboard at night their would be about a zero percent chance of being recovered and surviving.
As we approach Nuuk Greenland the fog begins to lift and unveil the rocky snow caped mountainous landscape. It really is an amazing sight. A sight that only about three private yachts a year see. The outlying coast is dotted with rocks and precise navigation is critical. We line up on the outer marks and head in.
When we arrive in Nuuk we proceed to the main commercial fishing pier. We have a reservation arranged by our agent in Greenland - Blue water. I turn the boat in the tight basin and settle in behind the mammoth Russian fish killing machine. These large fishing vessels drag three ton shovels across the bottom of the ocean, essentially plowing the bottom, and picking up every thing in their paths. They are destroying the echo-system on the bottom of the ocean and contributing to the extinction of many species in this area. The same thing happened in St Johns Newfoundland and the result was shutting down the entire Cod industry in a desperate effort to reverse the damage.

Departing St Johns

We depart St Johns Newfoundland bound for Nuuk Greenland. Our original plans to cruise the Prins Christian sound are scuttled by ice. We have learned from Illiusat Control that Air reconnaissance and ground reports show the are completely iced in. This alters our cruise plans significantly, we will now sail approximately 700 miles further north towards 70 N to the Disco Bay area.
Departing St Johns we are armed with the Canadian Ice Reports. These are maps that show the number of large icebergs in a certain lat/long grid. The data is collected by satellite images, air reconnaissance and compulsory ship reporting. We plot a course swinging wide of the densely ice populated areas. Even with the ice data at hand we must be very diligent in our watch keeping. The further north and east we go the more danger their is of ice. The icebergs that show up on the Ice Reports are no the primary concern, these are the size of large houses. These are picked up clearly on radar and also cause a noticeable drop in the water temperature as you close on them. The real danger is the ice that is the size of Volkswagens Bugs.. If we hit one of these doing 9 or 10 knots we will be scrambling for our Ice Immersion Suites and Life Rafts as they will most likely rip a hole in the hull. To be safe when in near any ice threat we slow way down, with the option of heaving to in dark. I would much rather arrive one day latter than take a cold, deadly swim.
The further we go the further we get away from the well worn path of man the more wild life we see. It is common to see whales every few hours, this is a treat. No matter how many you see, you do not get spoiled. It's automatic to stop the boat and admire their massiveness and respect their space. The show lasts until you see their tail go into a "terminal dive" this is the classic photo shot of the wails tail as he waves good bye.

Photo Shoot

First a photo shoot with Onne van der Wal then bound for Newfoundland and Greenland. Onne is one of the top yachting photographers www.vanderwal.com. As we powered down the New York City's East River through Hells Gates past the UN, under the Brooklyn Bridge we are on time for our rendezvous at the Statue of Liberty. We make contact with the helicopter arriving from Newport Rhode Island on VHF Ch 9. We time the approach and hoist the spinnaker for the classic shots of the yacht sailing by the timeless landmark of New York Harbor. The first time I sailed past this I was 18 years old delivering a 35 sail boat from the West End of Lake Erie to the Chesapeake Bay. It was very special then and it is very special now