Ikigait 59:59N 44:43W
Millybrown
Mark Hillmann
Thu 7 Aug 2008 16:31
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After two troubled nights we had a quiet night at
Ikigait, an anchorage in a bay with nothing but large icebergs out to sea.
We had come out of
Aagpilagtog and motored most of the way to Ikigait.
 For a second time we came past the highest
sea cliff in the world.
This time according to Lonely Planet.
Last time was according to the pilot book.
We must get a map in the morning and check.
This cliff falls into a fjord so perhaps not a proper sea cliff, but
it is big. We spent 50 minutes motoring past it.
We are in an area with lots of proper bergs,
20 in sight at present. In Scotland there are black rocks
that hide under water and in England ferries and big ships that
would run us down The bergs are all painted a bright white, or
sometimes bright blue. They keep still and do not seem
threatening. When there are a lot of small bits you sail in and out of
them and little bumps do not scratch the paint.
 This is where Eric the Red's son started a
settlement in 986. It is on a low headland with a good landing
place. The other Vikings all made their settlements up at the heads of
valleys, where there was better grazing. He made his here, where
boats called on arrival and departure. When the weather grew colder in the
15th century this was the last site known to be inhabited by
vikings.
The population now, both here and in the smaller
places are Inuit not Danish. Only at the radio station were there Danes
and faroese. |