Nuk (Nuuk?) Greenland

First, let me say that St. Anthony’s, Newfoundland was as truly a welcoming harbor of refuge as we could have hoped for.  Thank you to all who helped us enjoy our stay and get squared away.  Having said that, waiting eight days for weather systems, all the while anchored-out, was an ongoing test of coping skills as well as tolerance levels that none of us wanted or particularly enjoyed. It’s nice to know we can do it though. Needless to say, when the window opened, we took it.  After 5 days at sea we arrived here in Nuk, Greenland safe and sound late yesterday afternoon with a southerly at our heels.  The weather window we were watching held as promised for the first three days and the crossing from Newfoundland to Greenland was as straightforward as hoped for; winds light & variable and seas benign.  As expected, during the final evening the wind started to fill in from the SSE. Very quickly the seas built and winds punched in 25-30 kts.  For the whole crossing we were pleasantly surprised as to the general lack of icebergs but as we closed in on Greenland we started to pick them up on radar more and more. During the day it’s usually no problem as even the smaller pieces, the growlers can be spotted. Nighttime was were our concerns lay as even radar has its limits.  Filed under Everything Always Works Out For The Best, our deep concerns about these small growlers hidden in the darkness were alleviated by the fact that we’re now far enough north that we’ve all but 24 hours of light.

The main harbor of Nuk is primarily a commercial harbor and you basically tie up wherever you can find an opening.  We currently lay alongside a work barge, which lays alongside a 100’ Greenlandian (?) wooden fishing trawler, which itself lays alongside an 80’ Norwegian steel trawler which is tied to a steel bulkhead.  Just now a 65’ French steel ketch tied up outside of us. Our hope to hop to the fuel dock this afternoon is going to take the unbridled cooperation of four different nations.

A Couple of Very Unexpected Low Points: Our brand new, budget-busting, $14,000, Sea Recovery, Aqua Whisper, watermaker crapped out after less than 30 hours of use. Basically it started to divert all newly made fresh water overboard and not into the tank.  What water we were making was going right back into the ocean. Clinton found a work-around and although we are making water I’m not real happy… to put it mildly. The guys who installed it, Ocean Options, have been great about helping us diagnose the problem (control panel?) but the product’s reliability is deeply concerning.  The cost of the unit was a brutal hit to the trip’s budget and the fact that we’re heading for an area not known for it’s ample marinas is very unsettling.

Also; last year I bought the upgrade package of for our Nobeltec electronic chart system. As expected we now need to buy a “key” to unlock their World Folio of charts on the system. These charts include Greenland, The Arctic, as well as Alaska. That’s fine. We called Nobeltec to purchase the key and it’s my understanding that in order to access the World Folio we now have to buy their newest upgrade as the one we bought last year in no longer valid.  We have all the paper charts aboard that we need but in order to access them on the computer I now have to buy yet another upgrade… again.