Tuesday 10 June 2014

A Door is Closing

Well, wasn’t that a fine day yesterday?! And all was possible for the sole reason that we were able to sneak into Qaqortoq almost literally through the back door.
This door stood open all night and would do so for the next couple of days - that’s how it looked like. Last night’s ice chart, however, told a different story: The ice belt moved north rapidly and was consolidating in many spots.

In other words: The door was closing. There was only one decision our Captain Hårvik could take: if we didn’t want to get trapped inside the fjord labyrinths for an unknown amount of time we had to get out in the open.
Probably the most confusing part of this adventure was the fact that this race against was an invisible and intangible one - thick fog covered the sights, and so everybody had to take what happened at face value. Which they did - big kudos to all!
It takes a few hours until we know: Yes, we made it, the trap snapped shut behind us! So, we had to sacrifice our landing in Narsaq, a comparably small price to pay. And already there is a bonus for us: We will be arriving in Nuuk at 10:00 tomorrow morning, earning us four hours more in this really interesting Greenlandic city.

With this in mind, everybody is at peace and so the lectures are well attended, the afternoon scones are devoured with delight and we are simply having a good time.