Borsuk: London to Montreal Page 4

Although the previous stops were great, the three days in Greenland were tremendous. The original itinerary implied that two days would be spent "at sea" with perhaps some off shore views of the coast, but the Captain had much more exotic plans. The ship made a whole day transit of Prins Christian Sud, a fjord that cuts across the bottom of the island. This was a narrow passage--with occasional wide areas surrounded by unnamed mountains and 4000 foot waterfalls--followed by a visit to Dinko Bay located at 70 degrees North, well above the Arctic Circle. Note that the red line on the chart on the right above indicates the actual route taken. A more detailed map with the Christian Sud transit route in blue appears below.

Enjoy these picture, and remember to hover your mouse pointer over each for captions and comments.

Click on each thumbnail picture for a somewhat larger picture. Send me an e-mail if you'd like the much higher resolution original file of any of these pictures.


The Sud is quite narrow with icebergs (even in late August) and rocks. I wouldn't have been too concerned except for the Greenland pilots running out on the bridge wings and taking pictures with their disposable camera.	This is the southernmost extent of the Greenland icecap which covers the entire interior of the largest island on Earth.	Glacial ice is blue due to Rayleigh scattering (d4/lambda4) as air bubbles don't exist in the compressed ice.

Despite my cold, I had to run out and have my picture taken by a seal.	A small fishing village is the only evidence of human life in the entire transit.	A number of the townsfolk came out to watch our 35,000 ton ship sail by. They just stood there with their hands in their pockets. We will never know what they were thinking. We were thinking, "Where's the Costco?"

Quite a view from my cabin (they call it, "suite") the morning we arrived at Disko. I ran to the closest open area and saw a huge iceberg going by. (Note this picture is wide angle.)	No lifeguide on duty.	This is as deep as we could get into the bay as the pack ice became quite thick. Disko is the source of much of the North Atlantic icebergs.

The weather was't very clear, but we certainly got a sense of where we were.	Icebergs take many shapes, rotate in place, and break up. This particularly nice one was observed from the, huh, Observation Lounge, which is most forward on the top deck immediately above the Navigation Bridge.	Leaving Disko as the weather cleared up, of course.

2% of the entire population of Greenland lives in the two white apartment buildings in Nuuk.	The tourist information said that the folks in Nuuk sit in their houses and watch the icebergs float by. I guess when they are not riding their bikes in the balmy 8 degrees Celcius: the average high summer temperature.	The main street in Nuuk, the capital of Greenland.
		GREENLAND Pictures 1 - 6: Christian Sud transit Pictures 7 - 12: Dinko Bay Pictures 13 - 20: Nuuk
The Nuuk museum had the mummies that had been preserved in the ice for 400 years.	Did Mr. Spock come from Greenland?

Nuuk Bay was actually quite lovely as we sailed away.	Oddly enough, the information sheet on Nuuk said that the "all weather harbour" was one of the best in Greenland. Remember, this is late August when the icebergs aren't too big.	A couple of whales spouted as we left Nuuk.


Planned route.	Actual route.