Greenland: Skoldungen And The Missing Houses

After spending two peaceful nights at Amitsuarssuq (Caroline Amalies Havn), catching up on our sleep and exploring the area on foot and by dinghy. We moved the short distance to Skoldungen, an anchorage that had been recommended by a friend who thought we would enjoy the island and the abandoned settlement.

The giant mosquitoes that had been harassing us at Amitsuarssuq (Caroline Amalies Havn) came along for the ride and we ended up having to change course briefly and motor into the wind to get our unwelcome guests to leave. Once their numbers dropped to a determined few, we continued, stopping occasionally to photograph the impressive icebergs that had blown into the sound.

Our cruising guide and pilot gave different coordinates for an anchorage on Skoldungen, about 1 ½ miles apart. When we didn't see any sign of a settlement as we motored past the cruising guide's waypoint, we continued on to the pilot's, which took us to a spectacular mountainous anchorage. There was still no sign of houses but we decided to stop and explore anyway, even though we had to share the anchorage with an iceberg. A rare ivory gull circled Snow Dragon as we dropped anchor, a refreshing sight after the distinct lack of wildlife in Amitsuarssuq (Caroline Amalies Havn).

Since the island has a reputation of being frequented by polar bears, we added a parachute flare to our standard kit of rifle and mini flares before heading to shore. We decided to walk up the valley, taking in the complex vegetation growing amongst the rocks and the warblers that would sit on a rock close to us then disappear before we could take a photo. The walking was easy but we could tell that we were in active polar bear country and the scattered snow further up the valley would make it nearly impossible to spot a one. We had already come across old tracks, which was enough to confirm our suspicion. After admiring a clear blue lake, we turned around and continued to enjoy the views from Snow Dragon's pilothouse.

Though the resident iceberg showed no sign of paying a visit to Snow Dragon while we slept, Krystina set an alarm and did several checks throughout the night just incase. Even with an incoming tide the iceberg kept to the other side of the bay.

The next day we went in search of the abandoned settlement and headed back to our cruising guide's waypoint. This time the houses were easy to spot and we realized they had been blocked from view by a row if icebergs when we had initially gone past. The icebergs had since moved on, making the anchorage accessible. After taking the time to find a protected anchor spot amongst the above and below water rocks and run a stern line to shore to keep Snow Dragon from swinging into them, we went to shore to check out the former settlement. The old dock was covered in rusting red and black jet fuel barrels, and we did a double take as on first glance it looked like a large group of people in foul weather gear waiting to be picked up by a tour boat. Many of the barrels, though in bad shape were still full. The rust and not knowing who they belonged to helped us resist the temptation to open them and put the fuel in our diesel tanks.

Many of the wooden houses were still standing but were in various states of decay from being abandoned in 1960. We looked in from the doorways as the floor boards were not safe to walk on. The village was built in the 1930s and over 100 people were moved there to fish before later being resettled elsewhere in Greenland.

As we walked back around the lake there was a loud sound and a sudden flash of movement in front of us. Startled, it took us a moment to realize we had surprised a nesting eider and her numerous adolescent chicks that had been well camouflaged amongst the rock. We felt awful that we had disturbed the nest as we watched the eider search for her chicks that had flown out of the nest in separate directions but glad it was an otherwise uneventful encounter with Greenlandic wildlife.