We’re In Illulisat Already

Ben, Illulisat, Greenland 19th September 2016. 00:15 UTC

We’re in Illulisat already.  The day after I wrote to you last we left Upernavik at about three in the afternoon.  We left in high spirits, we were all looking forward to the week ahead and the forecast was good.  Typically, the swell got up and we had a completely unforecast tailwind.  While this did mean we were going along at nine knots at times it also meant that Alison, The Mother and Frances all got seasick.  The Mother managed to do her watch but Alison and Frances weren’t feeling well enough to and so were quite miserably, although still cheerfully, lying in bed looking unwell.  As such The Mother, Dad, Colin and I covered as best we could.  Half way through her watch Frances managed to come up and I could go to bed after a mere six hours on watch.  Alison managed to come up for her next watch as well but they were both still feeling pretty rough.

The next night we had a lot of icebergs  in the dark and high winds, so we decided to have three people on watch, one on the helm, one at the front of the boat with a powerful torch and look out for ice and then one in the saloon at any one time warming up.  By the time I was on watch it was light again so we could dispense with the torch man and have two people on watch again.  A couple of hours later we tied up in Ilulissat.  The approach was littered with icebergs and we had to go close to the coast to get in.  The density of icebergs bizarrely is because of increased melting in the glaciers, they are not sea ice.  The glacier is melting faster so more bits are breaking off and clogging the surrounding area so the more icebergs the warmer it is, or rather vice versa.  After we arrived we walked up into town and found a nice cafe where we had lunch.  It was really very nice there.  It was a Chinese style place which served sea food and beef and so on.  The first eating out I’ve done in a long time.  After lunch we went walking on a route out of town to the glacier in a nearby fjord.  The walk was really nice and the view was spectacular. We are really lucky to have sailed into Ilulissat – The Mother and Alison described it as magical which is a bit flowery for me.

With the Passages over and a fresh crew this really feels like a holiday now.  Despite the high seas and sickies we’re all having fun and the rest is greatly appreciated.

Ben