Iceland to Greenland

It was 5.30am and we were scrambling out of bed for icebergs – not what you expected, but this was quite surreal – light was just penetrating the gloom of night and there was a large iceberg floating just near the ship. It is one of those moments you remember, when you see one of these huge creations – yes, the colours are amazing – blue to aqua at the base and almost transparent in parts. Considering there is 70% under water, their size is significant. We glided through Prince Christian Sound at the base of Greenland as dawn broke, and proceeded through the fjords seeing glaciers, and more icebergs, and small floating ice pieces. Fog descended again, and as I write this, the fog horn is sounding again. We saw a small weather research outpost, where a couple of hardy souls came out on their little boat to see us. It was freezing and glorious all at once, and most of the passengers were out to absorb as much as we could.

I wrote of the sounds of the ship a couple of posts ago. I did not know of the sound of the ice. We glided so silently as we entered patches of floating ice, and there was the gentle but persistent sound of cracking – the ice, was whispering to itself. It was very gentle and special. The fog is still there and the horn sounds, and reverberates in the silence of the fjord.

As we left Bergen, the sound of our horn, plus those of the responding ships, all reverberated in the hills surrounding the city, making a gentle responding echo. In the greater space of the fjord and water as we emerge from Prince Christian Sound, it is a different music of exit, quiet, but for our final calls of the fog.

There is another sea day of gentle swaying and rocking, hopefully.

More soon