Cape Farewell Greenland Voyage 2007

A foggy, at times rainy, day, that served largely as one of rest and respite, but one punctuated by a precarious navigation through a field thick of ice-chunks as big as double-decker busses, some-and close enough to a massive glacier’s face to see it even through thick fog.  Here, like nowhere so far on this trip, you could feel Greenland’s loss of ice.  I’ll be careful here not to imply that this is (necessarily) a volume of ice loss accelerated by global warming, but rather simply an enormous amount of ice that gives a rather startling impression of just how massive these glaciers are, how much ice they hold, and how much they dump into the sea.

By the way, we’re settled now in Barclay Bugt.  Which translates to Barclay Bay.  The last recorded voyage into the bays along this coast (according to the ship’s pilot, a guide-ish book of sorts that breaks down a bunch of info from past voyages to various areas) was 50 years back (of course, our pilot is a bit outdated as well, having been published in 1981).

Representative quote of the day:
“It’s always Christmas in the arctic.”  –Liam, with wintry wonder.