First Steps on Greenland's Shore - Qaqortoq

 After a fairly comfortable crossing of the North Atlantic toward Greenland, the captain advised that we might get some more motion as the winds changed direction once we turned past the southern tip on our way into Qaqortoq. He wasn't wrong. It did get bumpy, and the skies remained cloudy.

Some intrepid souls, unfortunately not including us, had actually managed to see the Northern Lights. We hold out hope that in the next couple of nights we will be able to get out there around 11 p.m. and see them for ourselves.

Qaqortoq is actually at the end of a fjord that protects it from the worst of the heavy waves, but the wind still caused a lot of choppy conditions. It did help that it was also raining lightly, although it seemed worse than it was because it was coming at us sideways.

We had booked an excursion to see the icebergs by Targa boat, and dutifully took our places in the Stardust Club to wait for our tour call to the tender boat. Around the time we were supposed to be heading out, we were informed that the boat tours, and there were quite a few departures of two different tours, had all been cancelled due to the wind. Bad news, but better than the alternative of not being able to land here at all, which was what we were actually expecting.

Since we were already wearing our multiple layers and waterproof jackets ready for the tour, we headed down to the tender platform with our friend Patty. We all wanted to be able to say we had set foot on Greenland before the weather got bad and the tender service was suspended all together. We had our own private boat - us, the tender staff and some benches they were taking over to the pier for people to use while waiting.

Qaqortoq is the second largest town in all of Greenland with a population of about 3,800 people. Nuuk, the capital, has 22,000 inhabitants and the whole of the island only has 58,000 people living there. As everyone now knows, Greenland is a part of Denmark, and although it has its own local parliament and elections, all national level administration and policies, like education and defense, fall under the Danish government.

 According to a police officer Larry was talking to, it had been lovely weather a couple of days previously....which didn't do us much good. Someone also said that winter would begin in October and our destination lecturer when he started today's lecture about the Canadian Maritimes said that today's forecast in Qaqortoq was for snow!!

proof that we were here!

Larry having a conversation with the
local police officer, who was from Denmark

As it was still raining and very windy, we didn't walk all that far. It is also very hilly in town and Patty's bad knees wouldn't let her go too long. So I left them to chat while I checked out a couple of the closer spots to get some photos.

The bright colours on the houses used to have some meaning - for medical facilities, schools, churches and police, at a time when there were no street names and numbers - but they aren't needed any more, so the colours are just to brighten up the place during the dreary days of fall and winter.

I found a spot to take a photo of the ship. You can
see how dreary the day is from all the lights

This statue is apparently of the godess of
the sea in Greenland lore

Larry and Patty standing in the shelter of a house
to keep out of the wind.

Yes, I was there, too!

We were getting cold and tired of being buffeted around by the wind, so we headed back about 45 minutes after arriving. After dropping our outerwear and changing shoes and socks, we met up again in the Bistro for hot chocolate and coffee.

I had some time to sketch, and also did some knitting at our ad hoc knitting group - a few of us who knit together on world cruises and segments when there is an instructor. This will be a shawl when it is finished.

We also had lunch at Beefbar - more on that in the food post. The captain delayed our departure as it was going to be rocking again last night, so we could get dinner service and the show over before the worst of it started.

Today we are en route to L'Anse aux Meadows. We will be reaching 'Iceberg Alley' in the late afternoon and expect to see some icebergs before we reach our stop. Fingers crossed the winds die down for us in the morning!