Europe 2016: At Sea and Cruising Prins Christian Sund

Monday 29^th and Tuesday 30^th August 2016

Monday – At Sea

Today is a relaxing one. The clock has gone back another hour overnight, so we got a bit of a sleep in this morning. Activities today are mainly lectures on Greenland, the ports we will be visiting and a presentation on deep marine life.

All were very interesting and filled in 3 hours of the day.

A special lunch for those doing the complete voyage around the Baltic and on to New York was held in the main dining room with an Indonesian themed menu. It was Americanised Indonesian food, but it was pleasant and helped fill in more of the day.

Tomorrow looks like it will be a very interesting day as we enter Prins Christian Sund, the longest fjord in Greenland, to take a shortcut to get to the other side without going around the bottom of Greenland. We have been told to expect spectacular scenery.

Tuesday - Scenic Cruising of Prins Christian Sund

Approaching the Greenland Coast at around 7 am, we entered into a thick fog. The fog horn was sounding at regular intervals and we we uncertain as to whether we would get to see much of the transit through Prins Christian Sund, which we are looking forward to. By 8am, we reached the entrance to Prins Christian Sund, the fog has cleared, and we can see a few small icebergs.

Unlike Iceland, which is geologically one of the newest land masses on earth, and is still growing, Greenland is one of the oldest land masses on earth. Early in it’s development, before the continents shifted and broke up, Greenland was once located at the equator. It is the World’s largest island (as Australia is classified as a continent).

Rather than go around the Southern Coast of Greenland the Zuiderdam is taking us through a complex of channels that separate a number of islands from the mainland on Greenland’s Southern Coast.

The main channel is Prins Christian Sound, a fjord 58 km long, at the end of which we make a few turns I get into another main channels Torqsukattak to take us into the ocean on the western side of Greenland.

The scenery is well beyond expectations and is one of the highlights of this voyage.

On the mainland of Greenland is the World’s largest glacier, the Great Greenland glacier that occupies 81% of the land area of Greenland. It reaches the coastline at 6 points along the Prins Christian Sund, with each of the outlet glaciers amazing on their own .

At the entrance to the channel is a weather station that is manned all year round by 5 people.

First outlet glacier

Second outlet glacier

Third outlet glacier

Fourth Outlet Glacier

The sides of the sound are sheer, steep with the highest peak reaching 1700m, and it is narrow. We are the only ship we see on the complete passage with the exception of a Danish Navy patrol boat which is tiny in comparison to our size.

The narrowest part of the channel is slightly wider than Zuiderdam’s length. It is hard to visualise that you could get any closer to the sides or to the glaciers and the pilot does a remarkable job ensuring that we get as close to the glaciers as possible.

There is one isolated settlement along our course, Aappilattoq, located in a little flat area on the shoreline with a natural harbour. Behind the village are two soaring peaks that are 905 metres high. The village has only 130 inhabitants and a small fish processing facility from which they make a living. A number of them jump into their small boats and rush out to great the ship, circling us and waving.

There are no roads connecting towns in Greenland, so access to villages is either by water or air. This village has a helicopter pad where they can receive helicopter visits, but water is the main access when possible. Power is generated using a diesel generator, and they have mobile phone towers and satellite dishes keeping them in touch with the outside world. Solid waste is incinerated.

Once out of Prins Christian Sound and into Torqsukattak, the scenery changes to soaring pinnacles either side of the ship, with jagged tops. It is incredible scenery and impossible to capture on camera. One of our Canadian travel mates commented that the scenery here was better than Alaska.