Tuesday 20th August 2024
Nanortalik in Greenlandic means “place of bears”. Polar bears are occasional seen offshore on the flow ice, the waters also teem with seals and Humpback and Minke Whales. Ashore brightly painted houses cluster to a rocky peninsula.
Already at anchor as we woke this morning, light winds broken cloud and sun.
Tenders already well under way getting folk ashore as we breakfasted in the buffet.
Our shore excursion for a boat ride to get up close to icebergs not being until the afternoon allowed for a leisurely morning on the ship.
Plenty of time for trivia and to enjoy the spectacular scenery and the icebergs floating nearby, weather cool but sunny.
On with the cold weather gear, just in case, and down to catch a tender into town. At this time tenders into town not at all busy. But there being only one dock for tenders in the town it was causing a very long queue for returning passengers and a bit of a wait for those going ashore.
Checked about the pick up point for our boat ride, only a short walk to the pier. Booked ourselves in and got a group number. Whole thing a bit vague as to which boat we were allocated, not quite as expected when booking. Bit of a shambles really. Some folk were being kitted out in waterproofs for what was obviously going to be a cold wet ride on open boats, ribs, etc. Not at all suitable for us. Luckily there was just one nice little boat which we had noted amongst the collection of mixed boats taking people out. A little persuasion with the lone shore excursion rep got our group number changed to match the boat we needed, this happened to be just discharging the previous group of passengers.
So almost immediately (much sooner than our original group projected time) we boarded the “Nina” with about 10 others on a boat with a capacity of about 35, and we were very soon away on our trip.
A very nice little boat, two decks, lots of outside space for photo opportunities, a warm inside space to get out of any inclement weather, coffee available, a toilet and of course lots of space with so few passengers.
Just a short cruise down the estuary to the target iceberg, amazing colours, we circled several times up very close, lots of time to absorb the experience, fantastic. This berg apparently grounded, with about 60m of ice below the water and 10m above.
The onboard naturalist who was living and studying in the town saw but didn’t point out some passing seals but she did have a photo of two polar bears which had very recently wandered through the town, rare but not unusual.
The Captain also had a photo of the sea around the town which showed that, only a couple of weeks ago, the sea ice completely filled the estuary, this prevented any of the cruise ships due to visit.
Soon back in town to stroll back to the tender, the queue now pretty much cleared, and back to the ship.
Up to the buffet for a hotdog and then back to the cabin for a cup of tea.
The Captain came on with an announcement that due to hurricane Ernesto there would be a change of our itinerary. To delay our arrival in the affected area around Iceland that tomorrow we would sail through the Prince Christian Sound for the day and the call to Akureyri was cancelled, our call to Reykjavik rescheduled, all subject to more possible changes.
Sailaway about 6:30, time for some photos of icebergs dotted about the estuary, before getting to the theatre for tonights show, a second show by Chris Ritchie. This one songs by various artists, Johnny Cash, Tom Jones, etc. very good again, very versatile (and without the wig tonight!).
At last, a few minutes relaxation before bed.
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