As part of our unscheduled return to the UK Andy and I spent a few days getting Destiny ready for the haul out. We had UK weather ‘windy with lots of rain’ for this process. Late afternoon on 30 October we went over to the ship yard in the harbour. The raft of dories, fishing boats and a large fishing vessel where swung out from the harbour wall while Destiny slid in-between. Destiny has 4 lifting eyes built into her structure, so using these with long slings and shackles the yard easily lifted Destiny (23 tonnes) up and out onto a cradle using their dockside crane which lifts up to 35 tonnes. The whole process of lifting and chocking took 1.5 hours with sleet and snow in minus temperatures but the yard guys were excellent; like all the Greenlanders we have met, they are very calm and methodical in all aspects of their life.

We were given shore power, a key to a toilet and with our Refleks diesel stove the boat was very comfortable for living onboard while we spent the next 2 days working long days and nights to ready everything, drain down and winterise all systems, taking photos or making reminder notes as appropriate for reversing the processes on our return next March. Brent and Arne were kind enough to let us use some space in their heated storage room for the water-maker panel and a few provisions. And even ran us to the airport!