In the aftenoon we left Glacier Lodge Eqi by boat. It is quite tricky to board people because of the steep rocky coast and the waves caused by calving ice from the Eqip Sermia glacier.

We had to wait on a safe spot far above water level for the boat to unboard 1st. Then we could go descend to the boat and board, but as soon as I was on board (I think maybe two other people behind me got on too, suddenly the captain warned the not boarded people to ascend the rocks again and the boat was steered backwards from the coast, because of some incoming waves…

That this was not a joke, is proven by the short description beneath of the unboarding of the Paul-Emile Victor expedition:

The 25 members of the expedition spent six days unloading the ship with the assistance of 15 Greenlanders. First, they had to build two jetties. The work was difficult because ice from the calving glacier a few kilometres away created such large waves that one of the boats capsized and one of the tracked vehicles sank.

Then we had a last view on the Glacier Lodge Eqi high above us on the rocky shore…

…and on the magnificent Eqip Sermia Glacier.

The boat now sailed westwards towards the Ataa Sund.

Making photo’s was great fun and the weather was still phantastic…

The boat moved along through the frozen waters, through the siku seqummakoq (broken ice), which is frazil ice calved from icebergs that are already floating in water…

In a previous blog I already wrote about the many different names for sea ice but I learned a bit more about this phenomenon and one of the reasons why there are so many names is because in Greenland, north versus south versus east all have their own words for the same things. This explains the known fact of a thousand words for ice and snow.

Here are some words used for big ice:

• Sikuaq: a new layer of thin sea ice.
• Siku: sea ice.
• Ukiup sikua: winter ice (literally translates to: “the winter’s ice”, like a possesive).
• Sikorsuit (always plural): winter ice from the Arctic Ocean.
• Iluliaq (singular): iceberg (and the name of the beer brewery in Ilulissat)
• Ilulissat (plural): icebergs
• Sermeq: glacier (Like in Sermeq Kujalleq (the south glacier) or in the possessive form in Eqip Sermia, meaning Eqi’s glacier).
• Sermersuaq: Greenland ice sheet.

Many thanks for these lessons in language about ice go to Sarah from @polarphile and at www.greenland-expeditions.com , who said, I quote: Greenlandic is the coolest language

The boat now sailed passed the north glacier…

It is quite impressive to see these large chunks of ice that calved of a glacier and the small boat being steered between them…

We now entered the Ataa Sund between the Greenland man land and Arve Prinsens Ejland and the boat sailed south. This whole area is also excellent whale spotting ground. It is the oxygen rich melting ice of the icebergs from the Kangia icefjord that created one of the most nutritious environments in the world, attracting large amounts of fish and sea mammals like whales.

And then I saw my first whales in Greenland and I made this abonimable video. The sun was behind me and it shone on my phone’s display, making it quite impossible to see what I was filming. This resulted in this movie:

Did you notice the whales spraying water at the left bottom corner?

The sky had gradually been turning grey and darker, the more south we sailed…

But although grey and dark, the landscape didn’t get anything less beautiful. Instead it became way more mysterious…

…and unreal…

We passed several fishingboats and strangely shaped icebergs…

Seaguls were trying to steal some of the days catch…

The icebergs really dwarved the ships…

After the hunt for prey some seaguls went for a rest on top of floating icebergs…

The views got nothing short of sublime…

Next we reached the mouth of the Kangia fjord near Ilulissat…

But before we reached the town, I could see far away Disko Island and on top of the mountains rising over a thousand meters above the sea level, was the large glacier covering two third of the island. The summits of Disko Island dissappared in low hanging, mist like clouds…

The island looked so impressive that it drew me towards it…at least in my mind…

Then early in the evening at about 18.00 hrs. the boat sailed into the harbor of Ilulissat…

High above on top of the rocks, Hotel Arctic and my hotelroom overlooked the harbor.

Outside of Hotel Arctic are even some iglo like hotel rooms.

After unboarding, I returned to Hotel Arctic and received the same room as before. I went for diner and afterwards a beer in the hotel bar and then I took a shower. Before going to bed I enjoyed another hor viewing the Kangia icefjord…