Beneath The Fog

There were clouds in the sky as we motored south towards Nanortalik but no trace of the fog that had concealed the area a week prior when we made our way north. Giving us a very different picture of the landscape. The only similarity was the head wind that seemed to have conveniently turned with our direction. While we were motoring through a narrow passage, a humpback whale came right up beside us. It was feeding in the shallow water, only showing a small part of its body as it surfaced to breath. We have seen very few marine mammals in Greenland and this was an exciting encounter.

Humpback Whale Swimming Beside Snow Dragon

The tight channels at Sardloq where we had watched the seals being skinned were even more impressive now that we could clearly see the granite rock beside us. It was tempting to stop and spend more time at the community. Especially when a few of the residents came out and waved but we knew the fog's absence was only temporary.

As we neared Sydproven we could see that bergs still dominated the entrance to Zakarias Havn and had possibly grown in number. There was also a large iceberg, grounded in front of the village. At Akuliaruseq which consists of a couple of houses and a church, we looked at an inviting bay that we had bypassed on the way up due to a resident iceberg. The iceberg had relocated but the bay was open to swell and looked less appealing in the fading light.

With wisps of fog moving in we decided to push on to Unatoq, where we knew we could find a good anchorage. With the above average visibility, we chose to anchor at Igpik (60' 30N 45' 19W), behind the spit on the north side of the island. Which we had previously avoided because of thick fog and large icebergs. The sun was setting as we dropped the anchor, bringing out the color in the pebbles on the spit and the blue of the iceberg towering behind. Once we were firmly anchored the wind increased dislodging a local powerboat that had been at anchor up wind of us, luckily the crew was on board and realized what was happening. When they were only a boat length away, they quickly started their engine and motored away from us waving cheerfully.

Sunset At Igpik

The whiteout that followed the next morning inspired hibernation. By noon the shore was beginning to make an occasional ghostly appearance. Frances had wanted to paint one of the icebergs sitting near us but that to was cloaked in white. Eventually the fog cleared and after Frances finished her painting we went to shore to take in the view from a small hill. By the time we got to the top, the fog was beginning to drift back in. Making the setting seem surreal with Snow Dragon anchored off the white sand beach, bergs in the background and mist floating gradually closer.

For more photos please click on  Unatoq2 Album.