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Published: July 31st 2018
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Greenland
Our crossing the Labrador Sea was interesting to say the least. We were heading into a force 8 gale and the ship was rocking side to side and up and down, often at the same time. We are on deck three and even this low on the ship it was really rocking. By morning the wind had died down a bit and the swells were smaller but still we knew we were at sea. The show tonight was a group named The Emperors of Soul and the were very good. They did Jackie Wilson, Aretha, Michael Jackson and other hits. They each had good voices and danced well.
Later they were interviewed by the cruise director and we found out that there were from England and one from Australia. You would never know from their performance. They sounded straight from Motown.
We arrived at our first port in Greenland, Paamiut. We sat offshore for a few hours while the Captain monitored the seas. The tender ride in from our anchorage would be an hour. The seas were still rough and we would not go ashore even if the tenders were lowered
but the Captain wisely decided that we would move on to the next port. We did miss seeing the only sandy beach in Greenland and tasting suaasat, a traditional dish made with onions, potatoes and seal or reindeer meat. Neither was worth two hours on a tender.
Our final port in Greenland on this leg was Qaqortoq (qua’ kor tok). This charming and colorful village has around 3,000 inhabitants and dates back to the Vikings but the current town was founded in 1775 by Danish and Norwegian colonists. European style colorful building meld with traditional Inuit cultural. A highlight for me was discovering the “Stone and Man” sites and finding the different designs chiseled into the cliffs by local artists.
As we wandered along the cliffs we spied two little girls posing for pictures. They typified the town’s cultural duality. If we only have one port in Greenland, I’m glad it’s this one.
The next day we cruised Prince Christian sound. It is still cold outside be we were able to enjoy the passing scene in the comfort of our cabin. As we entered the sound there were Icebergs hugging the
shore. At the western entrance the geology was mainly sandstone changing to mainly granite at the eastern end. Some rock formations reminded me of the desert southwest, pink and brown and shaped like a mesa. Then would come the craggy alp like peaks and tumbling waterfalls. We had to skirt some flows of bergie bits and proceed very slowly.
The only plant that grows here is lichen. There are no trees. None. So there are no animals, There are a few fish and some birds but that is it for the wildlife. And still there is a small village of only a handful of people living there and fishing for a living.
In the evening we headed for open sea again on our way to Iceland.
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