Our 3 ½ day, 368 mile passage got an indefinite extension when we abandoned our attempt to get into Tasiilaq (Ammassalik) due dense broken sea ice. Yes, Snow Dragon could have continued pushing the sheets of ice out of the way, weaving between the gaps in the ice and occasionally breaking the odd piece when necessary. But after a few hours of doing this and still 12 ½ miles from the entrance of Tasiilaq Harbour with no clear lead in sight. The question quickly became why take the risk if we were unlikely to find open water in the fjord and were already in 6/10 ice? Even the seals watching us from their reclining positions on the ice, not bothered by all the noise we were making, seemed to be thinking that we were wasting our energy and should just pull up an ice flow and take a nap. Krystina called coastal radio on the VHF to enquire about the local ice conditions around the harbour but was only given a wind forecast.
Napping until the ice cleared wasn't an option but we did have two viable ones to consider. Continue to Ikerasassuaq (Prins Christian Sund) over 300 miles south which the ice charts showed as being accessible. Or detour north to Ittoqqortoormiit (Scoresbysund) where our friends on Fredoya had successfully been able to get in. Though it was tempting to go and see our friends, the idea of an added over 800 miles in ice filled water wasn't appealing as we still would have had to retrace our way south.
As we turned around we called IMRAMA, the French sailboat that was behind us and told them the ice was too thick and we were changing course to head south. They unfortunately were running out of time and deiced to return to Iceland without setting foot on Greenland. We wished them a good crossing and watched them enjoying being surrounded by ice before heading our separate ways.
Usually being forced to extend a passage by a considerable amount of time would not be welcome news but this passage was exceptional. We didn't know if we would be at sea for another 2 days or 5 but it didn't matter, we were well rested and enjoying the magic that Greenland had to offer from the water. The weather had been kind to us, making the sailing and ice navigation easy with the exception of the occasional round of hide and seek with icebergs in the fog. While the wildlife had already exceeded our expectation. The 20 fin whales and calves that we saw feeding before we entered the ice on our approach to Tasiilaq was just one of the special moments that made us realize that continuing might be even more special than stopping. Our only complaint being that it was too beautiful to sleep!
Posted by satellite email, photos will be added when we next have internet access.
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