Nanortalik, Greenland - Part Two

Monday, September 9th, 2024

Part Two

After returning to the ship and having our lunch we had some down time before the next event - traversing the Prin Christian Sund (fjord). One of the speakers on board was going to be providing commentary in the Explorer’s Lounge - deck 7, forward. We headed out there around 2:15 ish (commentary wasn’t due to start until 3:30 ish.) There wasn’t a seat to be had. People were camped out for the day - many of them older than me with their walkers and canes - I’m not judging. 

As we left the harbor of Nanortalik, this iceberg said goodbye to us - Ed thought it looked like a fancy, high end speedboat - I said some sort of new Tesla vehicle - someone else saw a sphinx. Our fun new game - describe what you see!

Anyway, we knew that seeing the fjord from the port side was the best and fortunately our stateroom is on the port side - so we spent most of the day in our room and on our balcony. Dressed in hat, gloves, layers, etc. -well Betsy remained that way most of the day - Ed preferred to watch from the inside, where it was warmer. He occasionally ventured out onto the deck. Depending on the direction of the ship, the wind was howling!

We did attempt to go up to Deck 7 and 8 at one point - this was outside and there were lots of people but it was so ridiculously cold and windy we went back to the room and actually enjoyed that the best.

As you enter the fjord, there is a little town called Aappilattoq - about 85-95 people live there. Now it’s only accessible by boat. It’s a small fishing village - charming to look at from the ship but I can’t imagine living there - talk about off the grid. Someone had their sheets hanging on a clothesline and blowing in the breeze!

We continued to pass icebergs, and one of our favorite games is deciding what the iceberg resembles - the one below: a shoe?? Of course from another angle it suddenly looks like something else.  

But the main attraction of this fjord was the massive rock cliffs the glaciers, waterfalls, and the beautiful color of the water. Occasional boats would pass by us - maybe 2 or 3 - the one pictured appeared to be a commercial fishing boat out of Nuuk, the capital of Iceland.

Traversing this fjord lasted until around 6:30 PM - we then went for a drink and into dinner around 7:30 PM. After that a show by the ships company - a tribute to ABBA - always fun music. Then… time to see if the northern lights would be visible.

We were told that the captain would be turning off the lights on deck 9 around 10:15-10:30 - so back to our room to redress in our warm clothes and jackets and hats, scarves, and gloves and we went up to deck 9 to join about 250 of our closest friends - cameras in tow. 

And YES, we did see them!  They were mainly visible with the use of your camera - I guess there are times when you can see them with the naked eye - but this wasn’t one of them. But you could start to see what looked like a cloudy area and when you took the picture the colors became visible.

We probably spent about 30 minutes up there snapping many pictures - it was pretty cool for us having never experienced them. And it seemed like as soon as they had started, they dissipated, which was good so we could head to bed. I ended up sharing some of my pictures with two ladies who could not get their cell phone cameras to work properly - think they did not have a good camera in theirs.

All in all, this was a great day and people we spoke with agreed it was one of the best days so far on the ship. Icebergs, Fjords, Glaciers, Waterfalls, and Northern Lights.  The only thing missing was a Polar Bear.

Full day at sea tomorrow,

Betsy