Arctic #10

Arctic #10
Yesterday (Friday) was a bit of a disappointment. We were supposed to stop in Maniitsoq which is a medium sized village on the west coast of Greenland. Unfortunately the swells were very high so too dangerous for transferring to the zodiacs even though we would have had a dry landing on a jetty. We headed north to the next village. On the way we crossed the Arctic Circle and have certificates to prove it. Actually, it's just a line. The Arctic refers to all the area north of the treeline which is just below Churchill.
Forgot to tell you about how people got wood here in the old days -- driftwood which came all the way from Siberia and which took 3 to 5 years to travel that distance. A lot of it would have got ground up in the ice floes but some survived. It would come down the east coast of Greenland then around the corner at the bottom -- that's the normal current pattern.
We have the "honor" of being on the windiest cruise this ship has ever done. I don't think it's been under 25 km/hr anywhere. Even the locals said this is unusual for this time of year. Too bad for us but that's what you can expect in the north. Our captain also compared our crossing of Davis Strait to doing the Drake Passage to Antarctica. That can be wild but we were lucky that year and had calm seas.
So we arrived in the port of Sisimiut by late afternoon instead of the next day as planned. It meant a very nice quiet nite tied up to a dock. This section of the dock is brand new and we are the first big ship to tie up to it. We had some local singers come on board in the evening.
This morning we had a walking tour of the town. There are 5,600 inhabitants and is 320 km north of Nuuk. The site of this town has been inhabited for 4500 years -- started with the Saqqaq culture followed by the Dorset then the Thule. Their descendents (Inuit) form the majority of the population here. The rest are mostly Danes. Fishing is the principal industry -- shrimp as many of the other fish like cod have declined. There aren't many cars as the road system is limited so lots of taxis and a bus system. There is one area which is like a slum -- big apartment buildings where the Inuit were placed when their smaller communities were closed down with the usual problems of alcohol, etc. The rest is bright and clean. The buildings are painted a variety of colors with some sort of theme. Eg. the medical buildings, doctor's house, dentist's house are yellow. They have a kayak club (make them here -- not at all like ours!), a cross country ski club with an Arcitc marathon which is 100 or 200 km long and you sleep in tents, two downhill areas (a bunny one in town for the kids and a big one which is up the valley) and dog sledding. There are 3000 dogs in town and all are Greenland dogs. They look like huskies but are a separate breed. Saw some pups -- so cute! and how they keep them. They are tied up in the open with no shelter. They never come inside so their coats are very thick. In fact, they don't like being inside. In the summer they just lie around and "hibernate". They eat very little. Some people keep them on small rocky islands so they can be free from the chains. They get fed about three times a week. In the winter of course it is very different. Sisimiut is an ice free port despite being so far north -- because of the ocean currents.
I felt like if I had to live here I could. Nice feel to the town. We had a "tasting" set up by the local Inuits. I have now eaten dried caribou, dried white fish, seal meat soup (delicious) and whale and seal blubber. These two were also good surprisingly (raw-- think sushi).
The weather still is being rather mean. Our local guide says that the weather's been bad for two weeks. He's been wanting to get out hunting but can't. The wind was very strong with gusts that were blowing one of our passengers over almost. She is very small with thin legs and foot drop so had to hang on to someone.
When we left after lunch, we got back out onto the ocean proper with winds of up to 70 km/hr so I took another pill and had a lovely sleep. By suppertime we were in a fiord so nice and calm. Much appreciated at dinner time.I was like many -- we didn't get nauseated but our heads felt weird and I know that trying to stay upright would result in the nausea.
The fiord is beautiful with jagged peaks right beside the ship. Fresh snow on top. No pictures but Karla will send me some. She and her friend will be able to take them tomorrow on their way out. They, along with 19 others are carrying on to Halifax. We disembark in the morning. The new set of passengers arrives on the plane we leave on. They head out to sea in the afternoon.
So we fly out of Kangerlussuaq which is an international airport but not much else. Was built during the war by the Americans. We fly to Copenhagen and arrive there at 8:30 tomorrow night. With the time change we figure about 3 hours of flying. At the moment we are 5 hours ahead of BC time.