Myggbukta - "Moskito Bay"

Day 10 19.09.2015

A day in the name of Expedition.

As it is the nature of Expeditions, you never know how the plans work out. So the plan for today was to get to Myggbukta and do a landing but when, if at all, was unpredictable.

We were happy to learn after breakfast that there will be a landing after all. The musk oxen were a bit shy today and did only show themselves to our photographer, but the weather was nice and we could form an extraordinary large umbrella of safety posts. That made it possible for everyone to have quite a hike and for those not so been on walking the house was open. Our expedition team member and former Sirius Dogsled Patrol soldier Erik was there and could tell some stories.

During our landing a little red airplane suddenly appeared, flew a descending turn around MV Fram and had a low swipe over the area with our guests, just to disappear as quickly as it came. Afterwards it turned out, that it just had picked up four members of the Sirius Patrol to fly them to Mestersvig for a training.

Afterwards we had some more changes of plans and ended up steaming towards north. Maybe we will make it through the ice and do a landing, maybe we will have to turn and head east to Svalbard...who knows.

What a sea day!

Day 9 18.09.2015

A wonderful sea day!

Finally we hit the first drift ice. Those brave people staying outside in the now remarkably colder air were soon rewarded with wildlife. After many pictures of the birds were taken, the king of the arctic himself showed up. We saw a polar bear on the ice eating a fresh seal.

As if that was not enough, a much more seldom sight came in our range: a whole group of killer whales! They were not for too long around us, but long enough for some worthwhile pictures and memories.

We experienced both fog and beautiful sunshine. The sea was calm so it was easy to sit in the lecture halls and listen to our lecturers telling about polar bears, northern lights, kayaking and the history of Greenland.

In the evening, during sunset we ended the day with a crew show in the bar.

What a killer whale!

Having a good lunch.

A Finwhale

The northern fulmar likes to glide in the air close to the water.

Hekla Havn

Day 8 17.09.2015

First order of the day was a new landing. Today we visited Hekla Havn, which served several purposes. It is a sheltered bay on the south side of Denmark Ø and was named by Carl Ryder’s 1891 – 92 expedition for the expedition ship Hekla. The expedition wintered at this place.

We could also find remains of several Inuit camps and a company called Nordisk Mineselskab build a spacious house in 1967 that still is in good use.

During the landing we also made use of the expedition technology onboard and used our small rescue craft to collect sounding data around the landing site to get more accurate seacharts. This area is so far off, that there is no such reliable maps yet.

In the evening we were passing the little settlement Ittoqqortoormiit again and even had a pit stop there to give away some Diesel we got too much in Iceland and picked up some Gasoline for our tender boats.

We would at this point use the chance and send a big “Thank You” to Ittoqqortoormiit!

See the tent ring from early greenlandic cultures.

Erik could give us a little introduction into the history of the place.

Eva is watching out.

The world's largest fjord...

Day 7 16.09.2015

This Wednesday was a day in the name of exploration. We headed into the magnificent Scoresby Sund fjord system, the biggest of the world. MV Fram has never been in here before, so every landing and all the cruising is new, not only for the guests.

Our first landing took place at Sydkapp, or Suuninnguaa in Greenlandic. It was fairly steep terrain, but climbing it was worth the effort for seeing the very last and hardest of the flowering plants. Again, the weather was beautiful. The light setting in the morning hours was stunning and later during the landing the sun made us feel comfortably warm.

The rest of the day we spent cruising in the largest fjord system on earth, even under full engines it will take us a while to reach the end of it.

In the night we still had no wind, 4°C, clear skies and you guess it: Northern lights to watch.

Adventurer Erik Jørgensen is watching out for our guests