Back to the capital Nuuk - The Ilen - Mysterious locking gate

A Greenland Story Blog
Jamie Young
Fri 26 Jul 2019 12:28

                                                                                                                NUUK 65:06:43N 053:42:44W

 

Back to Nuuk again, for the familiarity of the place and people met on our previous visit here we were all happy to see the place again. We have been really busy, in the best way, filming with some amazing people. The recurring theme has been the welcoming, friendly and fun nature of people met in Greenland so far.

 

We docked along the same pier with another 6 yachts who joined us over our stay there. French, German, Dutch, Scottish, Canadian... and Irish! Queuing for a Danish pastry in the Seaman’s House some lilting Irish accents began drifting across the canteen as the Ilen crew trickled in. After finishing off the mornings tasks we move across the harbour and came alongside the Ilen to get the grand tour from Paddy Barry. It is immaculately restored. Just brilliant that by chance the Killary Flyer and the Ilen happened to cross over in Nuuk for half a day! Quite special having the two Irish boats together in Greenland.

 

Another revelation was Greenlandic beer, our friend Mikisoq show us the good stuff. It turns out that the subarctic climate in the South allows barley, wheat and potatoes to be grown. This arable acreage is increasing year on year with melting ice as the climate warms.

 

Apart from that, mysteriously we kept being locked out of the dock whenever we left for a couple of hours. A mild inconvenience but the mystery was revealed when a nice (not very nice...) Danish man was spotted locking the gate. He was not very accommodating when Menno asked could he open the gate to let us in, a stern NO! You have to laugh.

 

We then left for the small village of Maniitsoq where we had some contacts lined up for filming