Greenland was mindblowing - overwhelming & exhausting at times. Some moments - First sight of Greenland, from Davis Strait. A vastness of 6000 ft thunderously jagged peaks receding 60 miles away to our left, and 60 miles to our right, white with snow & glaciers, lit up by the sun under the blue skies. Anchored on the north side of an island 10 km offshore, facing 10 miles of unbroken glacier frontage on the sea, this glacier receding far far inland to the icecap between jagged peaks dominating the skyline. First thing we did on landing at Greenland. Anchored opposite an abandoned Eskimo summer camp, rowed to it, to the sandy beach at its foot littered with stranded bergs, stripped down and leaped into the sea. We have arrived! Finding fragments of a polar bear skeleton, long long dead, on a barren stony island. Taking arctic char, eating it raw by a fire by a clear Arctic lake, or cooked - divine. Exploring a US WW2 military airfield & base on a vast open slope ...
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Trip from Iceland home went well. Mostly easy. Many whales. We came to Inishkea North off Mayo, Ireland, & promptly went skinny dipping. Caught horse mackerel for supper. Brian the gregarious hermit of the island wasn't home so I left a note at his door. The next day we sailed to Inishturk North - to the island's only pub: Guinness (obligatory) and lamb for supper. The next morning Darby took the ferry to meet his wife, go about their travels together before he returns to Ontario to resume family life and work. Diego & I came in to Clifden, tidied up Teddy, and are now at my home slowly recuperating. Tomorrow Diego buses out to Galway to meet Spanish friends,and in a week he returns to his home in Cartagena. it was a splendid trip. I sought total wilderness in Greenland & found it - awesome, superlative. Darby, Hue & Josh took lots of pictures. Later I'll get the pick from them, sort thru them, and this winter hopefully do some fundraiser slide shows f...
Haere Ra* from Josh
*Goodbye in Te Reo Maori After 55 days aboard Teddy I left Dr Nick and crew, flying to Boston, MA for my next sailing venture. Very bittersweet leaving such an amazing yacht and people. This trip has been mammoth in terms of reigniting my passion for polar regions, and learnt a heap about (at times unorthodox) sailing, and life in general. My log book is full of superlatives and expletives in equal measure. Difficult to count how many days were the F****** best! I'll struggle to crystallize my thoughts into decent words, so for now I'll just give you photos. Thanks heaps to Hue, Darren and Diego for being such fun crewmates, and great chefs. Nick, thank you so much for this opportunity, and everything that came along with it. I'LL BE BACK.
We got to Grindavik, SW Iceland yesterday. Took 4 days from Tassilaq. No drama. It was very cold as we crossed the East Greenland current the first night. Motored half the time. Saw a sperm whale asleep as we sailed past. Passed many shoals of pink shrimp,the seas red with them. No storis (Danish term for the vast ice fields flowing SW off the East Greenland coast from the polar basin). Just a lot of individual bergs scattered around. The storis is rapidly becoming a casualty of anthropogenic global warming. Josh left this afternoon to catch his flight out of Keflavik International to Boston to begin the next phase of his global tour, a sail from Woods Hole to Cape Breton. Today is a national holiday - nearly everything is closed. Tomorrow we top up with food, diesel & water, then we head off from here straight for Ireland. Around 750 NM - should take 7-8 days. May stop in at Inishkea North to visit my old friend, Brian Sweeney, who lives there,the solitary resident of the is...
Kangerdlussaaq fjord, Greenland
Just hiked to the top of a mountain overlooking the fjord at Kangerdlussaaq...
Goodbye to Josh
After such an epic adventure so far, it was sad to say goodbye to Josh as he left the boat today to catch a flight to the next adventure. Until pizza in Canada... farewell and fair winds!
Abandoned post on remote island
Not sure what this was, maybe a research or weather station? Situated on the southern tip of a small island, Nordre Aputateq.
Bluie East 2
We stumbled upon an abandoned US army airfield and weather station from WW2 near Ikateq. It was one of many bases with the code name Bluie. This one, Bluie East 2 (BE2) never played an important role because of close mountains and strong winds down the fjord. It was mainly used for search and rescue operations. It was abandoned in 1947, leaving behind most of the equipment and thousands of oil drums.
Living off the land in Greenland
Greenland has paid the tab for some of our meals... Nick shot a couple of duck, we have caught fish, gathered mussels and even found a bottle of maple syrup at an abandoned Inuit settlement!