66:02.52N 37:48.36W

Morning all,

It’s been a few days since Tracey’s blog, and needless to say those of us who were out on the hills that day slept rather well! 

One thing that I should point out for those of you at home, is that we are eating like kings (and queens)! Mike has done an incredible job of preparing the boat and everything needed for all of us, and even though we are on the fringe of the Arctic, we are keeping well ;-)

Just a few examples; we are eating freshly baked bread on a daily basis, we are treated to dishes such as HMS canard (onboard joke), freshly caught Arctic Char, beautiful lamb steaks from Mike’s local butcher…… and we still have a freezer of various steaks and fish to see us through to the end of our adventure without going anywhere near a single freeze-dried packet! 

Since our last climb, we’ve been on the move looking for some new objectives, but we have also had been at the mercy of the weather, which has given us a couple of gloomy & drizzly days. 

On Thursday morning (14th), we lifted the anchor at 10.10 from Gino’s pad, and made our way West approx 15 miles to Nordfjord, where we dropped anchor early evening at the head of a big shallow anchorage where thought we’d recalibrate the depth sensor to make sure it was accurate. Infact, we weren’t convinced the first time, so we had a second attempt to put our minds at ease. 

Having had Thursday resting our legs, the adventurers were keen to stretch their legs, even though the cloud level was low and the forecast not great. 

Mike, Tracey and Karl decided to hike North along the valley to see what would be revealed, and to their delight found an unexpected waterfall, which was a pleasant surprise. Their outing was approx 15km and they returned with smiles all round.

Jon and I speared off East to try and navigate a glacier valley and see if we could see over into the next valley where a dog sledging route was marked on the map. Unfortunately for us, we were not met by a nice waterfall, but a vertical rock face at the end of the glacier, which was not part of the plan, and did not fancy the climb (not least because it was up into the low cloud, and would not have given us any view at all!). So we returned back down the glacier and followed the stream back down the way we came until finally arriving at the beach where Olly kindly picked us up. Our day had covered approx 10 km and had taken 4 hours. 

All back onboard, with legs exercised we had a gourmet dinner, glass of wine and watched ‘Freebird. The movie & tribute tour of Lynard Skynard’.

Saturday was a different beast altogether. The weather was utterly crap, with rain and cold wind. Options of adventures ashore were pretty slim, so we decided to use the day to relocate further afield to an area approx 60 miles to the SW. Olly and I wrapped up nice and warm (apart from my leaking sailing boots) and started the miserable voyage. It’s was a long day of runny noses, cup a soups and cold fingers & toes, but we finally anchored up in Imila fjord at 18.20, which was a stunning anchorage, with dramatic peaks & ridges in every direction. On our approach, a number of possible mountain days were viewed and discussed for people to have a think about ready for the following day.

Again, a fantastic meal was served up, this time it was lamb steaks, followed by an awesome cake with custard, that Tracey had baked during the passage. We followed dinner with a game of Shit Head (if you don’t know it, you should google it and have a game, as it’s really good). 

Sunday morning (17th) we woke up to better weather than predicted, and a good view of the mountain objectives we had been looking at the evening before. On review of them, the approach was way bigger than we had initially imagined, so we changed to plan B. The idea was still to head further afield in search of big objectives (good mountain days), so we decided that the best of both worlds would be to hike up and over the head of Imila Fjord, where Umiak would pick us up and continue our search.

Tracey, Jon, Karl and I were dropped ashore after breakfast, to head off on a day hike following a dog sledging route 14km to the shore of Ikâsartivaq fjord where Mike & Olly were going to pick us up. 

Mike & Olly topped up the fuel and water onboard before raising the anchor and setting off out of the anchorage and making their way  to meet us.

It took us 5 hrs to cover the 14km route, which treated us to a glorious lake where to made a stop for a picnic lunch, and far reaching views to the ice cap to the north.

As we approached the end of the route we could see some sort of settlement / makeshift camp, which turned out to be Natural Habitat’s ‘Base Camp Greenland’ adventure base camp, where we met a group heading out for a sea kayaking day.

As regular as clockwork, Umiak appeared round the headland towards us no more than 10 mins after we had arrived on the shore, and Olly scooped us us in the dinghy, so we could all get back onboard to continue on our travels.

Leaving the fjord, we then ventured out into Sermilik fjord to try and reach the far northern end approx 20 miles away, with the dream of hitting the mountains.

Unfortunately, Greenland had other ideas for us, and we had to spend the whole evening watching Karl’s under-crackers drying on the guard wires, whilst crawling through icebergs and growlers at an average of about 2-3kts, which meant we need to find an alternative anchorage for the night somewhere on the eastern side of the fjord. After looking at a couple of options, we finally dropped anchor in a little inlet of Irnar Tip Kangettiva, where the stove was lit the very instant the anchor was dropped, and the sailing yacht quickly transforming into a cosy log cabin! 

The evening was spent devouring a spicy chilli con carne that Olly had knocked up, followed by a fruit salad + custard, and we watched ‘The Last Waltz’ a Martin Scorsese film dubbed the best rock movie ever made. 

Although there is less snow on the mountains, and we haven’t had our skis out (yet), Greenland is the most incredible place on earth, and we have been treated to some mind blowing scenery & views from every angle. Our feet are sore, and our muscles know that we have been busy adventuring this beautiful part of the world! 

And we still have one more week to go!!!