Well we had our meeting with an Inspector from the Greenlandic Police, who is on secondment from Denmark for a few years and has previously worked for the Danish Immigration Service, so he knew his stuff and was sympathetic to the difficulties of interpretation. Anyway, the matter is resolved. We still have to leave Greenland for a period of time (a minimum of 90 days). The fact that we had already taken immediate action on getting the initial response from Danish Immigration was to our benefit. We re-visited the ship yard yesterday and they are still good to take Destiny out and look after her for us. We have flights booked for 2 November to the UK. Expecting a few days of warmer, windy weather we spent yesterday removing the sails (while they were dry and it was calm). Currently blowing 20-30 knots! Let�'s hope the Weather Gods are kind for the lift out on Monday and the flight home on the 2nd.

So some general information (probably more interest to cruisers). Greenland is independent, however, Denmark still administer the Immigration from Copenhagen. UK citizens do not require a visa to visit Greenland you are permitted only to stay for a maximum of 90 days in 180 days counting backwards. So in doing the calculations, the Police worked backwards 90 days from when we first came to Greenland. However, we came from Iceland. Here is the little known caveat: Denmark wants it all her own way; Greenland is not part of Europe, not part of Schengen but days that you spend in any Scandic country (both Schengen & European!) are counted against you. Therefore, any time spent in Iceland say; a key location for a lot of boats starting their Greenland cruise and where many were delayed for several weeks this year due to the ice (or any other Scandic country �- Norway, Faroes, Denmark, Finland, Sweden) is taken from the 90 days you then have available to stay in Greenland. The re is no legal way to extend this say if you wish to over-winter with your boat in Greenland; the boat may be here but not the crew, unless you are Scandinavian. Force Majeure is not a reason as the ice comes every year. So there it is, if you winter your boat here you could change the crew every 90 days possibly; the penalty for getting caught is 3 to 5 years ban from entry to any Danish dependency, plus the cost of being expelled from Greenland etc.

Picture: Dave putting up the Greenlandic courtesy flag