Sismuit Harbor and the Iceberg Playground

We'd been in the Davis Straight for about ten days. The halfway point of the Lee cruise was coming up. There was a science party change over scheduled in Sismuit, a small fishing village up the coast from Nuuk. I was a little disappointed to find out that the Knorr wouldn't actually dock but scientists would take a life raft, known as the Zodiac. 

Sismuit, Greenland

As we pulled into Sismuit, the weather was typically Greenlandic with grey overcast skies. We passed through an ominous fjord and the village soon appeared in the mist. I could see it was even smaller than Nuuk and felt my disappointment abate a bit. 

Paul C, the third mate who is writing a book about Greenlandic history, pointed out a brand new bridge that had been built since their last visit. With the Greenlandic ice sheet melting, many Danish and other Western mining companies were pouring money into developing the sporadic local infrastructure. 

Crew prepping

Launching the Zodiac

The crew on duty busied themselves with craning the Zodiac off the Knorr and helping departing scientists lower themselves into it. Some of the off-duty crew started putting their fishing rods together. Most of the crew members aren't sailors first, but at heart, fishermen who happen to sail. 

Flying fish?

The harbor waters proved very generous. The fishing only lasted about 20 minutes, but this was enough time to catch several dozen fish. No sooner would they get their hooks under water before the rod would jerk with the weight of a 18-inch cod. Since the ship deck sits many meters above the water level, the quickest way to reel them in was to fling them over the rail.

The chief engineer and the bosun tackled cleaning the fast growing pile of fish flopping around on deck. Bobbie, the head steward, just shook her head and laughed at the prospect of cooking nothing but cod for the next few days. 

Science party exchange

The Zodiac zipped back from shore and we welcomed the new scientists on board. As they got settled, we prepared to head out towards the Davis Straight again. Though it was tough to be so close to land without going ashore, I was excited for this next portion of the cruise.

 We'd head north to complete another transect between Greenland and Canada and icebergs were common sightings. Just a few days after leaving Sismuit, I ran into Ruth (another SIO grad student, who coincidentally was on the Lee Cruise) in the mess deck getting some tea. She looked positively frozen over but had a huge grin on her face. She encouraged me to step outside. I ran to grab my camera and was still pulling on my layers as I opened the door outside to the frigid air.

Marscapone

Iguana

Wedding cake in the distance

As I scanned the seas around us, I saw they were sprinkled with icebergs beginning a few hundred meters off the ship and continuing until the horizon. They were all different shapes, sizes and colors. Ice cream cones and sandstone arches. Ice cubes for your tumbler or a chunk of wedding cake. Unlike the gigantic ice sheet off  coastal Baffin Island, these icebergs weren't Mother Nature flexing her muscles. They were a playful invitation to stay for a while. 

Nearly the entire science party was outside with their photography equipment. Field scientists, being a pretty self-selecting group in general, can almost universally be disarmed by conversations about nature photography, backpacking or rock climbing.

Everyone had the same struck look on their face, especially the grad students who had never been on an Arctic Cruise before. I tried to calm down enough to let the sight really sink in and lodge in my memory.

For all the work it had taken to get to get here and how hard the journey had been, I felt grateful to be on the ship in that spot, on that day.