Scenic Cruising Through the Prince Christian Sound

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Geo: 61.2428, -41.5253

Ahh. An extra hour of sleep this morning. We are cruising into the Prince Christian Sound which will take us from the North Atlantic to the Labrador Sea on the west coast of Greenland. It's a fjord that cuts between the southern tip of Greenland and islands south of Greenland. It is full of waterfalls, narrow waterways passing between tall mountains whose sheer cliffs rise thousands of feet from sea level to above the clouds, glaciers calving into the sea and icebergs floating along with our ship.

We are scheduled to enter the sound around 9am and we're told that there's lots of things to see while we cruise. It will take all day to go through. We're up at the Lido for breakfast looking for a seat but it's packed. There is someone at every table, especially the window tables. Often it's just one person, a place holder, allowing large groups of people to commandeer an entire section of seating, spreading out from one table in all directions, like a fungus. Our Chinese guests on board seem to have perfected this technique. We find a less desirable seat away from the windows and have our breakfast. Barbara is describing over the public address system the sites as we pass through the sound. She announces, "An iceberg at 2 o'clock." Now the entire ship lists 5 degrees starboard as passengers run from one side to the other, often leaving a partner behind to hold one spot while they try to establish new real estate rights on the opposite side.

This is entertainment for us, especially when the scouts return only to find their original claim has been taken over. I take a few pictures from the pool deck, we grab some Dutch pea soup that the crew is offering and we return to our stateroom to view our passage from our own balcony. This is much better. From inside our warm cabin we monitor the TV camera on the bow of the ship via the TV in our room with Barbara's commentary alerting us of upcoming sights. As a waterfall, glacier, whale or iceberg approaches our balcony, we can then leave the warmth of our room to see first hand, take pictures and then scurry back in to our little nest. Soon I perfect a better technique. Just turn up the heat and leave the door open. The heat's free! When we would get to a glacier or giant waterfall, the captain would rotate the ship 360 degrees so no matter what side of the ship your room was located on, you would be able to see the site. That worked perfectly for us. It also allowed me to finally catch up on my writing of the blog. I still need to download our cameras to get pictures but it's more important for me to write down our activities before I forget all the details. Remember, I'm old. This leisurely cruise all day long through the Prince Christian Sound allows us to really appreciate our upgrade to a balcony suite.

We leave a little early for dinner tonight so we can finish in time to see the show at 8pm. It's Scott Harris, a comedian from Canada. At dinner we dine with the couple from San Diego we met earlier and another couple. We finish early and get to the theater a half hour early. The comedian is OK but not the best we've seen. Afterward, we return to the stateroom and prepare for tomorrow. Qaqortoq, Greenland. We've enjoyed spending the last two days at sea aboard the Rotterdam.

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Comments

[Alan & Min]

I believe you have just permanently exposed your personal outlook on large gatherings of people with the fungus analogy.