Richard
Sat Aug 6 10:00:00 EDT 2011, Aasiaat,Greenland

The marine railway tracks leading down to the harbor in Aasiaat. Issuma is just visible, docked across the harbor.

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Richard
Sat Aug 6 0:00:00 EDT 2011, Aasiaat, Greenland

The shipyard in Aasiaat is quite busy, working on several fishing boats. The boats are brought ashore on the marine railway by driving them onto the cradles, then the cradles are winched up the railway tracks until the boat is high and dry. In the picture, they are preparing the first cradle to receive another boat.

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Richard
Fri Aug 5 6:03:10 EDT 2011, Aasiaat, Greenland

Kayak rolling practice in Aasiaat harbor. Issuma in background at dock.
Note how narrow the kayaks are.

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Richard
Thu Aug 4 0:00:00 EDT 2011, Aasiaat, Greenland

The red building is the Seamans House, where one can arrange for showers and wifi.

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Richard
Tue Aug 2 21:30:00 EDT 2011, Aasiaat, Greenland

In the approaches to Aasiaat (formerly Egedesminde), this whale seems to be welcoming us to Greenland.

It is great to finally be in Greenland! This is my fourth attempt (in three years), to sail to Greenland. I haven't mentioned all of the attempts before on the blog because I like to focus on what has happened, not on what might have been.

In 2009, I left Argentina singlehanding. In the north of Brazil, I got dengue fever (it comes from certain mosquitoes--there is no vaccine, no cure and no immunity--you either survive it or not) which made me too weak to sail for several weeks. After recovering, it was too late to get to Greenland for the summer, so I sailed back south instead.

In 2010, I singlehanded (except for a few hundred miles) from Argentina to New York, picked up crew, and we left Labrador for Greenland. About 50 miles out, two shrouds (wires holding the mast) broke and the mainmast came out of its step and was damaged (see blog entries of last summer). We sailed back to Cartwright Labrador for repairs, and then I didn't trust the rig enough to cross the Labrador Sea with it, so we sailed up Labrador and to Baffin Island, before sailing south again.

This year, almost a month ago we left Labrador for Greenland and got farther, but again had rigging problems (followed by engine problems) which caused us to go to Cartwright, Labrador for repairs.

We arrived late last night, and promptly celebrated :).

Comments [9]

Richard
Mon Aug 1 15:00:00 EDT 2011, Davis Strait

Today we crossed the Arctic Circle (red arrow in picture). While the Arctic Circle is quite an arbitrary line of latitude, above it, there is 24 hour daylight for at least some of the summer (the farther north, the more days of 24 hour daylight each summer). We're late in the year, so we are seeing sunrise about 0300, sunset about 2230 and light or twilight in between.

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Richard
Mon Aug 1 11:02:00 EDT 2011, Davis Strait

The view aloft, from the foredeck. The four-sided sail on the left is the fisherman. The sail with the orange triangle patch is the storm jib. Once I've set the storm jib, I usually leave it set as long as I'm sailing--there being no necessity to take it down once the winds get lighter.

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Richard
Sat Jul 30 19:02:00 EDT 2011, Davis Strait

The view in the pilothouse. To the left, Lin is studying the Greenland cruising guide, on the right, farther forward and much less visible, Jordan is playing his guitar.

Comments [3]

Richard
Sat Jul 30 11:02:00 EDT 2011, Davis Strait

A beautiful day sailing in the Davis Strait. We sailed in and out of fog banks, which can be seen ahead of the boat in the picture.

Davis Strait was named for John Davis, the English mariner of the 1500s. Davis Strait is north of the Labrador Sea, lying between Baffin Island and Greenland. Northwest of Davis Strait is Baffin Bay.

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Richard
Fri Jul 29 11:02:00 EDT 2011, Labrador Sea

We have been doing a lot of motoring in calm, foggy conditions. This is what we can typically see (pretty much nothing beyond 100m). The lights visible thru the window are, left to right, the VHF/AIS, radar and GPS.

Thanks for the comments. At sea, I generally do receive the comments, but can't reply in line.

As to the location of the engine oil cooler, it sits between the engine block and the engine oil filter.

As to what factors to consider when deciding where to land in Greenland, well, I'm still deciding :). I had indefinite plans of going first to Nuuk, and our course has been basically straight for Nuuk. Being the biggest city in Greenland, Nuuk is the obvious best choice for repairs and provisioning. At the moment, it looks like we will have moderate southerly winds for the next two days (we have no wind now), so, given what will be a good tailwind, and the expected boost we will have from the West Greenland Current, we may bypass Nuuk and make the first port someplace farther up the coast.

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