Six nights we were anchored in Grydevig enjoying stunning weather all the time we were there. It was a thoroughly sociable time with Alchemy anchored a few hundred metres away. The days were spent fending off icebergs, swatting mosquitos, climbing on the granite hills, towing and tethering Houdini. All the time we were keeping an eye on the developing ice situation.
When we had first made our landfall we had to choose an anchorage in the narrow belt of coast that had shaken itself free of ice in late July. That meant choosing Grydevig which was in the middle of a 15 mile stretch of ice free coast. To the north lay a coast beset by ice stretching hundreds of miles towards towards Tasilak. To the the south lay the icy coast from Lindenau Fjord all the way to Cape Farewell. The six days we spent at anchor saw us straining all of our digital sinews to keep up to date with the developing conditions. We needed to spot the opportunity to sneak south and cross through the drifting polar ice to enter Prins Christian Sund but we could only do that once the ice had become much less dense.
Our man in Mallorca was kept up late into the night processing the radar satellite images and trying to match them with the Danish ice charts. The helicopter ice patrol sent us pictures of the ice when they managed to fly. Each time we saw them we shook our heads and said, "maybe the day after tomorrow?"
As each day passed the ice conditions improved. The coast to the north cleared rapidly but a plug of stubborn sea ice to our south kept us at anchor. Even that though was gradually improving. On Wednesday it had been 6/10 ice, on Thursday 3-5/10 on Friday 2-4/10 and then on Saturday 1-3/10.
Thus on Sunday, in the very early morning, we retrieved the cobweb of lines that had kept us safe and pulled up the anchor. Tentatively we crept out into the main fjord with Alchemy hot on our heels.
We left the sunshine behind us in the fjord and ventured back into the grey, drizzly Denmark Strait. It was dull, raining and overcast but, mercifully, there was no fog so it was easy to pick our way through the mine fields of icebergs and growlers. We motored offshore to the region we had spent the night adrift on our approach a week earlier.
A gentle, low swell rolled us as we threaded our way south and at first we had thought the ice charts inaccurate and exaggerated as there was no polar ice. We passed the misty, cold Lindenau fjord to starboard and then closed the coast to the south.
There we sighted the obstacle. A jumble of bergs rearing out of a sea of ice stretching far away the south. Our spirits dipped as we contemplated having to outflank the drifting pack by plunging south and being forced to round the ferocious Cape Farewell far out to sea. That would have been a long and tedious excursion.
Keeping the pack to starboard we sailed south and gradually the pack thinned. Eventually we grasped the opportunity and steered to starboard to try and find our way through. With Tim at the bow we zigzagged our way south west now sensing Prins Christian Sund, the crux of our voyage, was almost within our grasp.
With Alchemy close astern we wove our way south and westward. Occasionally one of the smaller bergy bits could not be avoided and would hit the hull with a thud. Most of the time though we were able to avoid any contact. We crept towards the shore and with every mile the ice density eased. Finally Tim, soaked by rain, sighted the radio aerials of the Weather Station with only a few icy obstacles in our way. We were on the cusp of victory.
The polished granite ramparts of the entrance loomed to starboard and passed easily by. We were through the polar pack and within the Sound. We had finally bade farewell to The Denmark Strait and had avoided being forced to round Cape Farewell. Smiles of relief all round.
We called up Alchemy and signalled our intention to stay over at the Weather Station and suck some wifi. Sadly they had airline connections to make so headed west down the sound and into the heart of Greenland. Our enchanting cruise in company with Alchemy had sadly come to an end.