Monday, October 5, 2009

Nanortalik, Greenland--Another Port Bites the Dust!

Nanortalik is Greenland’s southernmost town and is known for its picturesque fjords and steep mountainsides. The name means “the place of polar bears” which refers to the bears that occasionally pass by the town in summer with the field ice from the Arctic Ocean. The population is about 2200 made up of the town of Nanortalik, 5 settlements, and a number of sheep holding stations. It is also known for Prince Christian Sound, a stunning narrow fjord which we went through on our last transatlantic cruise. Unfortunately, this ship is too big to go through it.

We were awakened by the Captain’s voice coming through the intercoms throughout the ship. Oh no…that’s never a good thing! Sure enough, he tells us an iceberg is sitting in the spot where we normally anchor. You can see it here in relation to the town.


Captain says he is going to try to remain in one spot with the engines and put the tenders out to see what the conditions are like. They always look like kids playing with toys. Each tender holds 100 people…hard to believe by looking at them…and more in an emergency.



As we are sitting there, another iceberg goes by very close to the ship.



We pretty much already know what the captain is going to say when he comes back on! Yup…too many bergs around and it is getting quite choppy which is dangerous for the tenders. So…goodbye Nanortalik! I feel sorry for the people in the town as we are the last cruise ship going through before winter and they had quite a few activities planned for us.



The captain does appease the passengers by taking a short run through one of the fjords. I think Prince Christian Sound has ruined us for other fjords. It is a pretty run, but nothing compared to that trip! You can see it is getting pretty windy…




And so, we are heading to St. John’s! This is the fourth port we have missed on this cruise…let’s hope we get into St. John’s...

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