2023 Greenland Expedition - Day 3 Heading North

We woke this morning to see the coast of Iceland off to the starboard side. We should be in Greenland tomorrow morning.

Greenland is the world’s largest island. Geographically part of North America, it is an autonomous territory of Denmark and identifies culturally and historically as European. It’s been associated with Norway/Denmark since 986 AD. On a flat map like the one below, it appears disproportionately large.. But it is, indeed, big: three times the size of Texas. Seventy-five percent of Greenland is covered by a permanent icefield, the largest icefield outside of Antarctica. 

Greenland has a population of only 56,600 and is the least densely population region in the world. By comparison Texas, a third of the size, has over 29 million inhabitants - or over 500 times as many people. The residents are scattered in small settlements along the coast. Most are in south or west Greenland. The east coast, where we are headed, is even more sparsely populated.

Fun history fact: you may recall August 2019 news stories about Trump suggesting the US buy Greenland from Denmark. This prompted the premier to state that, “Greenland is not for sale and cannot be sold.” Turns out that this was not an original idea. The United States has had geopolitical interest in Greenland since the end of World War II, as a military, resource and mineral base. But even before that, in 1867 US Secretary of State Seward worked with Robert J Walker (my great-great-great-great uncle) to investigate the possibility of buying Greenland - perhaps as a package deal with Iceland. Congressional opposition ended this scheme.

Today was a day of briefings and orientation: ship overview, Zodiac instructions, wildlife viewing, Citizen Science program, collected our muck boots, photography introduction, training for kayaking (which we’ve decided to skip - you have to be fit and a good swimmer, willing to forego a landing that day, and have no control over what day you kayak. We’d rather do the landings. It seems like there was a program every hour or so. Only a couple were mandatory (AECO and tender boat instructions, and kayaking, if you wanted to try that.)

AECO (pronounced A-ECO) is the Association for Arctic Expedition Cruise Operators. Formed in 2003, its mission is to promote and ensure responsible, environmentally friendly and safe tourism. Members comply with several sets of guidelines: operators, visitors, wildlife protection, biosecurity and site-specific rules.

Expedition staff will be armed in areas where there may be polar bears. If one is sighted, we have to follow instructions to immediately return to the landing area and return to the ship. The expedition leader was no-nonsense about this: “Don’t make me use my polar bear voice.”  Of course, we pretty much all desperately want to see a polar bear. That’s why we’re going there, right? But they want us to safely take photos from the ship. 

We learned our itinerary has changed from what was first planned - for the better! We were scheduled to spend the majority of the trip in the Scoresbysund Fjord system, as shown in the map above.

Initial planned route:

However, due to narwhals and beluga whales breeding in the area, we’ll only spend four days there. Some sections (in red) are totally off limits, while others (the orange regions) will be restricted to quiet cruising at 5 knots, or 5.75 mph. The goal is to minimize noise and other impacts of human interference.

Hurtigruten accordingly applied for a permit to continue our expedition north to Northeast Greenland National Park (NGNP). I’ll write more about NGNP later. For now, I’ll just note that it’s the largest land-based national park in the world, and the least visited. It’s incredibly remote. In an average year, more people summit Mount Everest (800) than visit this park (500). (I found that difficult to believe, but Google confirmed.) Needless to say, we’re pretty happy with this deviation. 

So - our new route:

Back to today. We continued north past the top of Iceland to a little above the Arctic Circle (66.33 degrees N), where currents push nutrients and fish to the surface. So many whales! Humpback, fin, blue, etc. The captain cut the engines and we drifted in the quiet. A naturalist on the bow called out spottings, while those of us outside went from side to side watching for spouts, breaches and tail-smacking flukings.

The reason for the whale convocation is the confluence of ocean currents and sea depth that occurs in the region between Iceland and Greenland. Nutrients are pushed to the surface as the currents hit the shallower seas around Iceland, creating a rich feeding area for the whales.. 

By late afternoon, we could see sea ice. After dinner, maybe 9 PM, Greg spotted a fleeting “fog bow”. By the time I joined him on the port side, it was gone. 

Our ability to cruise and land in Greenland will be dependent upon wind, swell, and ice. Tomorrow morning we’ll be heading west as we curve into the Scoresbysund Fjord system and cruise slowly to our planned landing site. The forecast is favorable: 8 degrees Celsius (46.5 degrees F) with a very light wind. So far, so good!