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Friday 18 August 2017

Maniitsoq

Maniitsoq 




The passage to Maniitsoq went quickly. Tim and Sally took their seasickness tablets and were, at least in the early part of the voyage, rendered comatose. They needn't have worried as the seas never rose and the motion was never challenging. The bimini and spray hood kept the worst of the rain out of the cockpit but, at these latitudes in the Davis Strait, full foul weather kit was called on for anyone venturing into the cockpit.

One of the reasons we have sailed three times to the Arctic and once to the Antarctic is that Sally and I discovered early on (2005) the Weasel Suit. Made of thick thinsulate and wind proof Pertex these one piece dive under suits are, for us, the 'file and forget' cold weather essential. It has to be said that they look deeply unflattering and make trips to the heads a nightmare but, once on, we are almost impervious to the cold.

For this trip we had a mixture of stoats and weasels in that Tim had the fleece equivalent but appeared equally content to sit it out in the cockpit on the coolest and wettest days. The off-white overalls seem, as we gain northings, to be now less prominent. No doubt when we reach Aasiaat they will see action once more.

Certainly stoats and weasels made a big difference to this trip on deck as did the 5 KWatt diesel heater, built in dehumidifier, heated towel rails and electric blanket below deck. Someone once said, "Any fool can be uncomfortable!"

We slipped into the protected harbour of Maniitsoq and passed, as we did so, the longest bridge in Greenland. It might be the only bridge in Greenland. Anyway this diminutive structure joined the Royal Arctic cargo dock with the rest of the town. The town itself appeared to be perched precariously on glacier polished rock and where building had been impossible dynamite had done the trick.

We tied up on the long, and somewhat flimsy, pontoon and paid up for this at the frostily managed Maniitsoq Hotel. They appeared happy to take our money but that was about all they were happy about.

Nevertheless, warm welcome or not, it's lovely to sit in our warm and dry deck saloon and watch the comings and goings in the harbour. Better still the grumpy hotel has a commanding view of the harbour and today Shimshal was at its centre.

There appears to be an abundance of supermarkets here but not much in the way of decent cafes with or without internet so, IF we have fine weather tomorrow, we will move on as we are apparently on the verge of a scenic wonderland. We plan to take some detours down fjords and explore Hamborgerland before wending our way north to Sisimiut. We have 9 days to complete the remaining 276 miles of this voyage to Aasiaat so we are not in a rush.