By our second full day in Prins Christian Sund it was finally calm enough for us to go ashore and the attractive valley at Igdlorssuit Havn with its accessible glacier and picturesque mountains was the ideal place for our first hike in Greenland. We set off in the late afternoon with the sun shinning and were quickly peeling off our jackets and sweaters to accommodate the unexpected warmth. It was lovely walking, the ground was fairly even, the stream was easy to cross and there was plenty of vegetation to look at. Gerd picked handfuls of crowberries, insisting that they tasted better than those in Norway. Our attention was filled by the rich copper colored granite wall that towered above us, its face eroded with ridges and lines that gave it a captivating feel. Along the way we took a break and sat down on a large flat rock that had been warmed by the sun, providing a comfortable spot for us to take in our surroundings before continuing up the valley.
We easily made the transition from the moraine to the valley glacier and walked up the ice until we got a good look at the larger crevasses. Medial moraines snaked down the ice, decorating it with perched boulders and gravel, leaving large strips of clean ice in between. At one point Gerd took off his boots and was walking on the ice barefoot but put them back on claiming that his warm feet was making the ice slippery. Since we did not bring a safety rope and were not planning an extensive hike wes stayed on the mainly unbroken part of the glacier.
Before turning around Krystina realized that she had lost her favorite hat and thought that she must have left it on the beach with her rubber boots. We searched the beach but did not find the hat so we retraced our hike until just before the glacier. After searching for an hour and a half with no luck, we made our way back to the dinghy.
When we returned, we realized the rock we had tied our dinghy's painter to was well under water, beyond reach with rubber boots. Normally going for another hike while we waited for the tide to go down would have been the most reasonable option but we were less than half an hour away from our midnight check-in with coastal radio. All vessels in Greenland are required to check in with coastal radio at designated times as a matter of safety. If we missed our check in they would send a helicopter looking for us. Not wanting a resscue mission to ensue beacause of a little water between our dinghy and us, we decided to wade out and retrieve it.
Gerd made the first attempt, borrowing Krystina's rubber boots to make walking on the hard rocks easier. He tried tugging on the painter to pull the dinghy towards the beach but the stern anchor would not budge so he returned to shore before he got too cold to function fully. It was decided that the only way we were going to be able to get back to the boat in time to call coastal radio was for one of us to swim out to the dinghy, get in and untie the painter form the dinghy before pulling the stern anchor and rowing to shore. Frances was the most qualified to get into the dinghy form the water. Since Krystina had enough extra layers to loan her in case we ended up having to wait for the tide, she decided to keep all of her clothes on for the extra warmth except for her sweater and gortex jacket. She was able to get into the dinghy and detach the painter without any problem before retrieving Gerd and Krystina. We made it back to Snow Dragon with time to make hot chocolate before checking in on the VHF.
That night we did not have to keep an ice watch but still had to get up early to retreive the painter at low tide. Gerd and Krystina volunteered for the task and found the line still secured to the rock where we had tied it when we had gone ashore. The beautiful clear morning helped to make the 6:30am mission more attractive but both were happy to get back to sleep as soon as it was accomplished.
Frances woke up to a much less appealing task, our wabasto furnace was putting out black smoke. She recently changed out the burner head with one that had been serviced in Norway but was clearly not properly adjusted and they had put on the wrong size nozzel so it was using too much fuel. Luckily the problem with the other burner head turned out to be a fuse so it was still fully functional. Once she re-switched the units and cleaned out all of the soot, the furnace began working properly.
For more photos please click on Igdlorssuit Havn Album.
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