Hildur‘s Greenland expedition going well
We just got word from Captain Heimir on the Greenland expedition of Hildur. They have after less than 48 hours sailing reached Scoresbysund on the east coast of Greenland.
Scoresbysund is called Kangertittivaq in Greenlandic and is the longest fjord in the world stretching some 350 km from the Greenland Sea. On the way and in Scoresbysund the crew has spotted icebergs, whales and waves of all sizes and some of the crew are not feeling very well after some pretty rough seas. The sailing went pretty well none the less, usually with good wind for the sails, although on the middle of the way there was a calm that had to be motored through and last night until this morning there were some northern winds slowing them down.
When they got into the southern part of the fjord they sailed close to two magnificent icebergs, raised their sails and headed for Ittoqqortoormiit one of the northernmost settlements on the eastern shore of Greenland. It is a small settlement with a population of less than 500 and the area is known for its wildlife which includes polar bears, seals and muskoxen. It was founded in 1925 by the polar explorer Ejnar Mikkelsen and 80 inuit settlers who lived mostly of hunting in the area. Now tourism is a growing trade in the area even if it is only reachable by helicopter and boat. Hopefully we will soon get more news from the expedition but this is all for now.
Hildur arriving in Húsavík earlier this summer.
East coast of Greenland. Scoresbysund is the fjord closest to the bottom of this picture.
Icebergs around Greenland.
Ittoqqortoormiit.
Muskoxen in defensive formation.
All pictures excluding picture of Hildur which belongs to North Sailing and the picture of Ittoqqortoormiit, taken by Hannes Grobe, used under Creative Commons CC-BY-SA-2.5 and only made smaller to fit on the website, belong to the public domain.
