Sassivuk, Uunartoq, Nanatalik and Qarsitsiaat

We are anchored now in Qarsitsiaat. Here, a place having a name does not mean that there is a town or any facilities; it's a label on a chart. It is just all wild nature, which we love. We anchored here at 7:30 yesterday evening in flat water with absolutely no wind. Outside the temperature was hovering around 40°F, the water temperature was 41°F, and the temperature in the cabin was 56°F. The tiny space heater will keep the temperature in the low 60's, but we must run the generator to raise the temperature beyond that. When it gets to 70°F, Peter shuts off the generator. Because the cold seawater conducts the heat away from the boat, it can drop 10 degrees in less than 2 hours. We always have on at least 2 layers, inside or out, except when we are sleeping. Right now, I have on thermal underwear, jeans, a heavy sweater and a down jacket here in the saloon. The generator is running and it is 69°F, so I have taken off my beanie and scarf, but we leave our layers on to keep in as much body heat as possible because we can't maintain this room temperature without using all our diesel. 

Peter braved the cold after we anchored to paddle-board around the cove and discovered lakes behind moraines, but it was cloudy, damp and chilly, so the rest of us stayed inside. Perhaps if the dinghy were already in the water, we would have all gone exploring, but it is stowed on deck now. Mid-morning today, the wind picked up and is now 18-20 knots from the SSE and whitecaps are scurrying across the choppy water in this protected cove where it appears we are totally surrounded by rocky shore. While the temperature is 50°F, the wind is making it feel like 35°F. Before the wind became this strong, Enis and Shalako washed down the decks and the bimini so that during the next substantial rain, we can collect water in the tanks. Peter has been planning ahead for passage through Prins Christian Sund; Enis is working and Shalako is reading. Through the port windows, I can see clouds hovering around the pointy peaks of the mountains as sunlight dances across the rocks. 

Rugged mountains and low hills as seen from Mantra at Qarsitsiaat

I have not posted for a couple days either because we have been too busy enjoying the wildness of Greenland or I have been too chilled to summon the energy to write. So, this will be another long post as we go back in time to the morning of Monday, August 11. This was the most magical day of this entire trip. 

Exposed dikes in the metamorphic rock

Around 10 a.m., we set off in the dinghy to go to shore but first explored the cove where we were anchored and the icebergs and bergy bits floating there. Ice in the water is classified into sea ice, composed of salt water, and icebergs, which come from glaciers. Icebergs are further classified by size and by shape. Growlers, the smallest, are less than 1 meter high and less than 5 meters long. Next in size are bergy bits, which range in height from 1 to 5 meters and in length from 5 to 15 meters. Above this size are true icebergs, classified as small, medium, large and very large. (We have not seen any very large bergs.) The water was so clear and so calm that we could see the parts of the bergy bits and icebergs below the surface of the water. 

Small iceberg

On the way to beaching the dinghy, we slowed down to watch the noisy great black-backed gulls floating and flying by the boulders tumbled down from the mountain tops. The previous evening, Peter had found a trail, not much used, that possibly could have been here for over 1000 years. 

Greater black-backed gull landing on the water

Enis, Peter and Shalako setting off on our hike

River beauty willow herb or dwarf fireweed

Alpine lady's mantle

Dock and other biota

Discarded crab shell

Colorful fungi

Shalako

My boots sinking in moss

Stonecrop and dwarf birch

Discarded sea urchin shell

The yellowish-white stuff is fungi

Enis, Peter and Sherri hiking in the tundra

Looking up from the shore

There was low cloud cover when we started on our hike, but it lifted and sunlight filtered down on us. There is so much close-to-the-ground, colorful and intricately shaped life growing on the thin soil layer of the damp tundra. We are constantly amazed at the grandeur of the mountains and the biodiversity. In places, our boots sunk down in the abundance of moss, lichen and fungi. My gaze continually alternated from the minute detail by my feet and the vistas looking out toward the horizon. We found the discarded shells of sea urchins, mussels and crabs along the way, dropped by the sea gulls, and wondered why we didn't see mussel beds in the tidal water. 

When we returned to the beach, the tide was ebbing, and the guys discovered live mussels in a few inches of water and began collected them. The problem was that they had nothing to put them in. We all dinghied back to the boat, and Shalako and Enis waited half an hour for the tide to recede further and then returned to get enough for dinner. The men have turned into hunter-gatherers!

Peter,  Enis and Shalako gathering mussels

Meanwhile, Peter got the boat ready to move, which now includes turning on the heating around the rudder bearings about an hour in advance of weighing anchor so that the wheel will turn. Many things on the boat, such as the hose fittings, no longer work well because the cold temperature has caused metal and plastic and rubber to shrink ever so slightly and produce leaks or other problems. It is a learning experience. 

The anchor was weighed after lunch, just after 2 p.m., and we meandered through fjords and narrow passages. With light wind since August 9 through earlier today, Enis has been able to fly the drone and get impressive footage of the environment in which we are cruising and hiking. 

The drone coming in for a landing on top the pilot house

As we left our anchorage, more and more icebergs appeared. I used one of our books to learn how to identify them by shape. We see hundreds of them every day.

Leaving the cove

Dry dock, wedge, eroded pinnacle, dome and pinnacle icebergs

Domed and pinnace icebergs

Peter steering us close to icebergs

Small, deeply eroded iceberg

Enis, Peter and Shalako flying the drone

More icebergs ahead

Going through a narrow passage

Drone photo of Mantra going through a narrow passage

Icebergs by the town of Aluitsup Paa

Approaching anchorage by Uunartoq Island

We dropped anchor on the west side of Uunartoq Island at 9:30 p.m. with daylight disorienting us to the time as usual. The abundant of mussels had been cleaned and Enis fixed them with garlic and wine and served them over pasta. (I made myself two quesadillas.) The guys had so much fun eating them.

Photo op before they chowed down

All meals should be this much fun

We decided to take the dinghy to the island (which Peter had scouted on the paddle board while Enis cooked) and visit the hot springs after dinner even though it was cold outside. At least there was no wind. There is a clear path as wide as off-road vehicle tracks which we followed to reach the well-known hot springs. During the Norse era in Greenland, the settlers constructed bathtubs with boulders to create a medieval spa. Legends from this period tell how the island's warm waters cured the sick, relieved their pain and helped them regain their health. When the Norse settlers disappeared, the ancestors of present-day Greenlanders used the springs, and Qerrortuut Inuit ruins from the late 18th and early 19th century can still be found on the island.

Mantra from the dinghy

Shalako and Enis ready to walk out to the hot springs

As we shucked our clothes in the hut, the moon was rising in the east as the muted colors of the sunset still lit the western sky. By ourselves, we soaked in the springs, which are more accurately described as warm rather than hot, for about an hour. Course sand covers the bottom, and we moved around to find other warm spots in which to dig our hands and rest our bottoms when we had sucked the heat from one area.

Peter, Enis and Shalako in the hot springs

Moonrise

As we enjoyed the silence, we occasionally were delighted by shooting stars of the Perseids meteor shower. In the north, I noticed some odd-shaped vertical clouds. Suddenly, I realized they were not clouds but the Northern Lights. We had not expected to see the aurora borealis! Then we began seeing more in the northwestern sky, but they were a ghostly white with just a tinge of green. Shalako remembered reading that a camera captures the colors more vividly than the naked eye, so I emerged from the water, wrapped a thick towel around myself, and braved the cold to take pictures. He was right. All the whitish light became a neon green in the form of low arches and drapery. Wow! A day with fantastic hiking, navigation past hundreds of icebergs, glaciers high in the mountains glinting with sunlight, a quiet anchorage, freshly harvested mussels for dinner, a hot springs, shooting stars and the Northern Lights! Life couldn't get any better.

Northern Lights at 1 a.m. with sunlight still visible in the west

Northern Lights with bergy bits and icebergs in the water

We finally got to bed and to contented sleep at 2 a.m. The next morning (Tuesday, August 12), after all of us, even Peter, had slept late, we enjoyed a leisurely morning and then pulled up the anchor at 1:30 p.m. and began motoring through flat water with less than 2 knots of wind. To avoid the open Labrador Sea, we wiggled through an inland passage behind rocky islands. Most of the time, the water was like glass. The mountains became more rugged than rounded, with spires stabbing into the sky. 

Glaciers and jagged peaks

Bare rock face showing glacial erosion

Perfect triangular mountain

Glaciers

Glacier-sculpted valley

Spires rising above glaciers

As we motored along, I washed five loads of clothes since there was sunshine and a slight breeze. Both were totally ineffective in removing any moisture from the fibers. 

Laundry on the lines in a beautiful place

It became too chilly on deck for me by mid-afternoon, so I had to retreat below. The guys chose a spot close to Nanortalik and dropped the anchor at 7 p.m. Nanortalik is a small town with about 1,300 inhabitants, and its buildings sport exactly the same colors in the same intensity and value--red, blue, yellow and green--as other Greenland towns. The name means "the place where polar bears pass" but at this time of year there are none of these large carnivores around, and the ones that are seen in the winter live and hunt on the sea ice outside of town.

Nanortalik from our anchoring spot

Art work on the side of a building

This area was part of the Norse Eastern Settlement. The current town was founded in 1797 as a trading post with Qaqortoq and is the eleventh largest town in Greenland. The economy is based on crab-fishing, hunting for hooded seals and small-boat fishing. Increasingly, tourism has contributed, as we saw the next morning when another enormous, 3,000 passenger cruise ship was anchored in deeper water, with its tenders ferrying people to the town. Without this one-day, unnatural-seeming influx of tourists, the town might have seemed charming, and any quaint quality disappeared with the swarms of people and the vendors selling locally made crafts and boat owners offering day excursions to hot springs and up the 70 km long Tasermiut Fjord. 

A cruising social app which Enis has downloaded gave information on where to find the two grocery stores (a block away from each other) and a laundromat, which we desperately needed to dry all our clean but wet clothes. We also needed to re-supply with provisions as we had run out of many things. 

Shalako and Enis pretending they were doing the laundry

We took the dinghy to shore and oriented ourselves to the layout of the town. Peter walked to the police station to get our clearance out of Greenland. Even though we are not leaving Greenland yet, this is the last place we will visit where our passports can be stamped. With our four bags of laundry, Enis, Shalako and I found the laundromat, where a sweet woman whom we could only communicate with by using gestures, helped us spin the clothes and then dry all of them at the same time in a huge machine. Enis and I left Shalako there and went to bright blue painted store, Brugseni, the larger of the two groceries, where we were able to find almost everything we needed. Peter met us there as we were in the long check-out line. Tourists from the cruise ships all make a beeline for the groceries in the towns where they stop to procure potato chips and soda, which apparently are not readily available on board. Wearing too many clothes for comfort in the heated, crowded store, Peter went outside. I called him when we were done; luckily, he was by the dinghy, so he was able to putter over to the main dock only two blocks from the store, and we had so much that we had to use a store cart to get it all to the gangway.

Peter and Enis ferried the food back to Mantra while I walked up the small hill to the laundromat. Neither Enis nor Shalako have international phone service; only Peter and I are able to use our phones to text or call unless there is Internet service. Shalako had been sitting for a while, patiently waiting. The nice woman had even folded most of the clothes, and everything was ready to go. In all, the cost was 20 krones, or about $3 U.S. We gave her a tip of 40 krones, because she was so helpful and because we would have never been able, literally, to dry our laundry on the boat, so we were extra grateful.

Because of the inundation of tourists (which is not to disparage them; all we talked with were very friendly), we chose not to spend time a tourists in the town. Instead, we had lunch and pulled up anchor, departing at 4:30 in the afternoon. Continuing mostly on an inland route, we enjoyed the calm water, the many floating icebergs, the glacier formed walls, the towering mountains around the fjords and the peace. In some places, the water was like smooth glass.

Mountains reflected in the mirror-like surface of the water

Mantra gliding through the water

Now the day has passed and fog has settled in around us. The wind has been blowing from between 20 and 30 knots all day, and we chose not to leave this anchorage or go to shore. Peter has refurbished a bilge pump and checked for links today. Off and on, I have written this post. We all took an afternoon break to play a game of Hearts and then do our somewhat-daily stretching exercises. It's nearly 9:30 p.m. and Enis is preparing dinner tonight. At home, Shalako is used to eating meals at set times, so our erratic schedule is an adjustment for him.

Peter, Shalako and Enis playing cards