Sailing through the Prince Christian Sound
We had another extra hour overnight and I was wide awake at 5am. Not long after that I opened the curtains and couldn’t believe what I saw…
An iceberg! Not a “bergy bit” or a “growler” but a real, proper e-nor-mous iceberg! During the night we had arrived in Greenland and the view was amazing.
We’d felt fairly optimistic as we’d returned after dinner last evening, because the sea was rather calmer than in the last few days and the sky was beautiful, Maybe…maybe….it would be a fine morning? We could hope. So, opening the curtains to not only a fine day but to see an iceberg floating past, well…
We were already in the Sound by the time we were up and out on our verandah half an hour later. We’d ordered a room service breakfast for 7am and here we were, wishing we’d ticked 6am on that form!
It was chilly outside, cold even, and we wrapped up warm to sit out and watch as we sailed through the most magnificent landscape.
Within the next ten or fifteen minutes we sailed past several glaciers and bits of ice were floating here and there the whole time.
We knew that one of our on board speakers was going to begin a commentary as we sailed through, so we settled in for the next hour or two, camera in hand.
I couldn’t believe the colour and the size of these icebergs though, nor the fact that we seemed to be sailing ever so close to them!
The light was improving all the time - it was still really early, probably not 6am yet - and we just couldn’t believe our luck.
The water was still and we were moving through it so gently, there was hardly any movement.
The reflection in the water below was spectacular!
We were sailing very slowly because we were approaching the Kangerluk glacier at the head of the fjord of the same name. As we approached it, we noted another glacier to the side, right off our verandah. As we watched it pass, we heard an immense roar…
There, high up on the side of the glacier, an avalanche was happening right there in front of us.
Meanwhile, the Captain was turning the ship on a sixpence so that everyone could get a great view of this tidewater glacier, so called because it continues under the water in the same way as an iceberg does. Still mostly in shadow, the bright blue of the compressed ice was hard to capture, but as we turned, the sun was beginning to rise high enough in the sky to light up a small corner of it.
We continued to make progress through the sound, turning through a series of fjords around a network of islands. At times, the Captain manoeuvred the ship as if it were a small motor vessel, for it seems to turn so easily, without any undue bother. He had already commented that this class of ship makes it so much easier to get really close to the glacier - we’d been less than half a mile away from it without so much as a ripple in the water.
I was still intrigued by the icebergs, big and small. I understand why some are blue, but there is something rather cute about this little bit floating in the water; such an extraordinary colour.
I found myself wondering where it had come from, how far it had floated and, most intriguing of all, how old is it? Both of us went quiet as we just watched, took pictures and wondered…
A little further on, we were alerted to a glacial valley that we were approaching, where we’d be able to see how the valley had been carved out.
Sure enough, as we turned the corner, there it was.
Reminders of geography lessons long ago and talk of moraines and such like!
The views everywhere were magnificent. I couldn’t stop taking photos.
I was curious too, about the colour of the water. I noticed a line where the water around the base of the glacier in the photograph above met the larger body of fjord water and wondered about that.
Splendor continued to sail smoothly on, barely leaving a wake.
She seems the perfect ship to sail in these precious, unspoiled waters and nimble enough to manage a few fairly tight turns.
A little bit of quiet sailing, then, until I spotted something surprising.
Wait a minute….can you see something there?
At the foot of the mountain, by the water’s edge?
Can you imagine living in Aappilattoq? It’s the only settlement in Prince Christian Sound.
From here, it was a smooth and beautiful ride out to the open sea, via the Torsukattak Fjord.
What a fabulous introduction to Greenland we’d had! We have four days here, heading for the capital Nuuk in the morning and we are simply keeping everything crossed for clear weather. Sunshine might be a stretch too far ;-)
