We sailed overnight and awoke once again to bright skies. After the morning stretch session and breakfast, we had some time before out group would leave for the town of Illulisat, population about 4,600 and 220 miles north of the Arctic Circle, the third largest city in Greenland after Nuuk and Sisimiut. We took the Zodiacs to a dock landing in town, near the ubiquitous port of containers and cranes and large construction company buildings. After a short bus ride, we got off at the UNESCO World Heritage site which includes miles of boardwalk over the tundra and the stunning Icefjord Center. The boardwalk went about 1.5 miles to hike out to a cliff, over terrain that in other places we have hiked on, but since this town gets a lot of tourism, they protected the terrain with a boardwalk. At the cliff, we learned that during times of no food, this is where elderly people were told to jump or might have to be pushed, to their deaths. If the elderly dying was not enough to protect the community during starvation times, sometimes the youngest babies were also sent to their deaths own the cliff. Life was hard here.
In the distance from the cliff we saw the largest icebergs we have seen on this trip. Anne told us at breakfast that because of the Gulf Stream, iceberg would break off the gigantic the world’s most active glacier, Sermeq Kujalleq, float north, and then follow the Gulf Stream over to Canada, and this is likely how the huge iceberg which sank the Titanic reached the area off Newfoundland where the Titanic was sunk. It is not hard to believe, because the icebergs were 15-20 stories tall, so big that we could not even see the glacier behind them. As we walked back, we saw a boat, incredibly tiny next to the glacier, which gave some perspective to its size. The Icefjord Center was a large angular building swooping a bit like an iceberg, with steps that could take you to the top of the roof for an incredible view. Inside, there was a short film about how the process goes from precipitation to snowflakes to crystallization to precipitation to glacial formation to icebergs. A unique feature was how they presented some artifacts and explanatory materials. Each was encased in a clear resin shaped like a small iceberg, and instead of multi-lingual signage, there was a large multi-lingual book off to the side nearby which explained each item. There were also displayed ice core samples from the current time to 160,000 BCE.
After a ride back to the ship, we had a very quick lunch and prepared to board the small local boats which would take us into the ice field. There were only seven guests on our boat, with a captain named Nik, who drove us through the ice fields and through a maze of enormous icebergs. Somehow I had neglected to charge my phone before we left, so I had to really look and remember, and of course Barney took photos. It reminded me of how much phones and cameras can get in the way of really seeing. It was quite cold, like being in a refrigerator, and breathtaking, coming up close to the giant icebergs we had seen from the coast a few hours before. They were every shape and size: smooth and glossy like soft meringue, sharp and pointed like new mountains, tabular as we had seen so often in Antarctica, dimpled as if it had recently rained, finely grained like powdered sugar, or with giant lines on them which looked lie ski trails. One of the largest icebergs we saw had three “waterfall” of snow coming off the side into the waters with such force that they came far out from the wall of ice. We crunched through the ice, often quite a bit of it, in the distance we saw a seal, and there were many birds flying over the boat. There was a small calving incident but not near us, though it made me think how if a large piece came off one of the huge icebergs it would definitely swamp the boat and yet somehow the captain knew it was safe to go there. Nevertheless we all arrived back safely, hardly able to describe what we saw. It was certainly something I will never forget.
This evening featured a Filipino gourmet dinner, with many excellent dishes to try, my favorites being the chicken adobo and the flan. This was followed by a performance by the crew, which was really fun, and we managed to get a lot of folks clapping. There were several karaoke pieces, some dance and singing pieces with moves that reminded me so much of the students who practice in Lower Sproul Plaza, a lovely traditional dance featuring the Filipina staff, a funny multi-song routine by the bar staff who call themselves the Cocktail Shakers, and then a band from among the crew set up. They played a variety of pieces, and Reuben started dancing, then John, then Barney and I joined in, and pretty soon about 25 people were dancing in the Lounge. They played “YNCA” which really got people up and dancing, and then naturalist Anne sang “It’s Raining Men” and “I Will Survive” which were real hits. Finally the band played some head banging music, and the captain had come down in casual clothes, and he and Reuben and one of the other naturalists started bouncing off each other which was kind of wild. After the last song and so much dancing we were all pretty tired and sweaty, so we went out onto the ack of deck 6 and watched the amazing late evening light and sat by the fire pit. What an evening. This will be over far too soon.
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