Iron Bark's Greenland Photo Album

For ages now, I have been intending to post a series of photos that we took while we were in Greenland. At last I've done so and here it is. I hope you enjoy it.

IRON BARK’S GREENLAND PHOTO ALBUM

Dinghy full of food

Stocking up with food

Iron Bark at anchor in Fortune Bay, Disko Island

Qeqertarsuaq (Godhavn), Disko Island

The Vaigat is stunning with icebergs

More icebergs in the Vaigat

Oqaitsoq anchorage in the Vaigat

Orpik anchorage

A successful morning picking bilberries and mushrooms and fishing for Arctic char

Tasiussaq anchorage

Nutârmiut SE anchorage

Akuliaruseq anchorage

S Nako Anchorage

Winter Cove

Winter Cove

Trevor caching fuel

Grease ice in the mornings

Winter Cove, before we finally tied all fours

Winter Cove from due north in October

Trevor took on the unenviable task of doing the washing

We surrounded the bunk with closed-cell foam and put a blanket against the deckhead: it stayed snug and dry all winter

Winter had come

From due north of Winter Cove

Looking down from ‘North Col’

Drying the laundry, midwinter

A little Arctic fox, ‘Foxy’, adopted us

Foxy and Annie

The snow piled round the boat

Celebrating the Solstice

The Sun returns

Noon in early February

To keep the boat warmer, Trevor made lintels and frames for the windows and then shovelled masses of snow over everything

We ended up with a strange-looking igloo

Iron Bark in early spring

Skiing in the spring

A frozen landscape to travel over

Trevor against the bright, blue sky – we had days and days of weather like this

By late spring, Iron Bark was completely buried in the snow

From the stern

Foxy pays a visit

The ice hummocked up around us

Annie and Iron Bark in the early morning

Trevor had to hike up to Loon Lake, where he kept a water hole partially open, to do the washing and to fetch our water

Iron Bark was pulled down into the ice by her rudder and bobstay fitting. Had she sunk much lower, we would have had to break them free

Looking down towards the Kangeq Peninsula from the south end of Nako Island

Iron Bark amid our ski tracks

Foxy was finding her coat was too thick in the spring sunshine

Annie after skiing at –25°C

Trevor ditto

With spring coming, we bent the sails back on

Ready to go

A lake, high up in the hills, broke its ice dam and water came rushing down our valley

Trevor in the spring

Travelling in the warm sunshine

On 7th June, we climbed a nearby hill to look at the ice melting around the boat

Trevor was kept busy, clearing the lines, which kept getting trapped under the moving ice

On 8th June, the ice started moving out and by late afternoon we were floating free once again

Lisa now floated serenely astern where that morning, Foxy had come for her breakfast

We went sailing again, to visit the Upernaviks Isstrøm, a glacier that comes down to the sea

We discovered that the icecap had receded 3 or 4 miles from where it was shown on the chart

Some of it was exceedingly grubby, with the ground-up rocks that it had carried down from the mountains

We sailed on uncharted waters, weaving among the ice, the bergs and ‘new’ islands Eventually we came to a dead end and could go no further

Exploring near our ‘home’ base – a nice little anchorage we called Capelin Cove. Note the rushing stream at right bottom

This one we called Slag Heap Bay – for obvious reasons

Uluâ anchorage – our last stop before heading south once more