Sea Days and Qaqortoq, Greenland
By TR Robertson
Day 12 and 13 of our trip. Day 8 and 9 at sea, were spent crossing the Labrador Sea headed to what we thought would be our first stop in Greenland. Sea days provide a chance to sleep in, take part in activities provided by the Entertainment staff, work-out, read, rest, hear presentations from guest lecturers and of course eat and drink. It was still foggy for most of the first sea day and getting colder.
After breakfast in the Terrace Café, I decided to venture to the ships workout gym to exercise a while, then continue reading the book I had brought along for the trip. I met Carolyn in the Insignia Lounge at 10:00 am to hear a guest lecturer, Dr. Roger Lederer, talk about Sea Birds of the Atlantic. Dr. Lederer is the Professor Emeritus of Biological Sciences at California State University, Chico. He has published 10 books and numerous papers on ecology, science education and ornithology. His presentation included a power point presentation of information and photos of the various sea birds we had seen and would be seeing during the rest of our cruise. He said there are over 321 species of sea birds around the world. We had taken a boat excursion in Newfoundland and Labrador where we saw a variety of the sea birds he spoke about.
We stayed in the Insignia Lounge after his presentation and heard from a representative from Oceania Cruises speaking about the variety of cruises available for future cruises and the opportunities being offered. Later that day an announcement came over the ship’s intercom announcing our first destination in Greenland was being dropped due to high swells in the harbor which would make using the tenders to load and go to the port extremely dangerous. This means we would miss Nuuk, the capital city of Greenland. Instead, we would continue to the tip of Greenland and visit the town of Qaqortoq, the fifth largest town in Greenland and one of the oldest settlements. As they say, you cannot control the weather and when traveling you must go with the flow. We ventured for afternoon tea and appetizers, met our trivia team for competition and enjoyed another Happy Hour. Later that evening we ate in one of the specialty restaurants on the ship, the Polo Grill, which also gave us a chance to dress up for dinner.
The second day at sea, as we sailed for Qaqortoq, we enjoyed another lecture from Dr. Lederer, this one detailing information about the world’s largest island, Greenland. The average temperature in Greenland is 40 degrees Fahrenheit and the total population is around 59,000 people with 29,000 sled dogs. The ice sheet that covers three fourths of the island is 5,000 feet deep. There have not been any active volcanoes in Greenland for over 50,000 years. The Inuit (Thule) peoples populated the island some 25,000 years ago. In the 13th century the Norse landed in Greenland, Leif Erickson being the first European to have reached Iceland. The primary languages spoken today are Greenlandic and Danish, as Greenland is part of the Kingdom of Denmark.
The remainder of the presentation showed pictures of the animals of Greenland such as walrus, seals, musk ox, artic fox and hare, Greenland wolf, polar bear and amazingly 15 butterfly and 47 moth species. Three seal species are on the island, Harp Seals, Ringed Seals and Hooded Seals that can reach 9 feet in length and over 900 pounds. Many varieties of Whales are around the island with belugas and narwals prevalent. There are few trees on Greenland but there are 583 species of plants.
Following Dr. Lederer’s presentation I stayed in the Lounge to hear a presentation by a guest lecturer on the cruise, Hall of Fame Broadcaster Vern Lundquist. The presentation was called “Terry Bradshaw and Tanya Harding, Too.” Lundquist began in radio in 1983 and has broadcast 20 different sports for a variety of networks. He was the CBS Sports broadcaster for NFL and college play-by-play for years as well as ice skating for three Winter Olympics with Scott Hamilton, including the famous Tanya Harding melt-down performance. Lundquist was also spoofed in a Saturday Night Live skit, which we got to see. This was an enjoyable hour of a sports legend talking about numerous games, stories, and personalities he has been involved with during his career.
The following day, Day 14 of our trip, Insignia pulled into the small harbor outside of Qaqortoq and as we ate breakfast, we could see small icebergs floating around the harbor. We would be tendering into the small town, just to walk around, as we had decided to not sign up for any of the tours offered. The weather forecast was for scattered showers. This part of Greenland has had settlements for over 4,300 years. The town was founded in 1774. The primary industry for the town is fish and shrimp processing, fur production and tanning and ship maintenance and repair. As we off-loaded the tender, we were greeted by an older gentleman who was beating on a leather drum and chanting. We could also see some of the motifs that were chiseled on rocks and stones by local and Scandinavian artists.
Carolyn and I had decided to wander around the small town, so we stopped in the Tourists Service & Souvenir Shop, the small fish market, a local grocery store, and wandered by the Qaqortoq Museum which used to be the local blacksmith shop. The town center also has an unusual fountain said to be the first and oldest built in Greenland. Stopping in a grocery store in different countries is an interesting thing to do to see what products are on the shelves, and for Qaqortoq what food items were offered in the small deli. It began to drizzle as we made our way to the Great Greenland Furhouse to see the products made from seal skin and musk ox fur. A variety of items were available, and they were a little pricey, but Carolyn did find something she liked. We wandered back to the tender for a short ride to the ship in time for Afternoon Tea followed by Happy Hour Team Trivia.
The ship sailed away, but not bound for Narsaq, Greenland, since that port had also been cancelled due to high swells in their harbor. Instead, we would be spending four days at sea as we headed to Reyjavik, Iceland, also featuring sailing through Prince Christian Sound to see several glaciers before we left Greenland.
The final article will cover some of the events on the ship during sea days and our visit to Reyjavik, Iceland.
