We woke up to dense fog in Nanortalik, our second stop on the west coast of Greenland and only about half the size of Qaqortoq. It was the kind of fog that made everything soaking wet without rain. It was also pretty chilly (36 F, 2 C). Again, we had to be transported to shore with a tender. This time that service was pretty slow because of the fog. They had to make sure not to run into each other, or to an ice berg, of which there were several in the harbor. There was a wait of more than an hour to go ashore. By then the fog had started to lift and it became sunny and warmer and very pleasant for our time on shore. This time I wandered into the outskirts of town.
When I had left most of the cruise crowd behind, I ran into a woman walking along the shore. She asked: “Are you from the cruise ship?” and I answered “Isn’t everybody?” to which she responded “Well, I’m not!” She was a visiting nurse from Denmark, Greenland’s “mother country”. I had an interesting conversation with her about health care. She had just helped evacuate one of the residents by helicopter. (Helicopters come and go all day in both towns). Nanortalik has a hospital with ten beds. Overflow patients or more complex problems go to the larger facility in Qaqortoq. Specialized treatments are flown to Greenland’s capital, Nuuk, and on rare occasions to Denmark. Helicopters are the only ambulances in Greenland. There are no roads and most towns have no airport, only helipads.
We just left Nanortalik for St John’s, Newfoundland, Canada. The new world! So far, the ocean has been rather placid, except for our first day on the North Sea. The captain announced that it may get a little rougher tomorrow, with rain, a stiff breeze, and seas up to eight feet. The ship is really putting on the after burners now, cruising at 21 knots. Occasionally we see icebergs drifting by.
Photographs © 2016 P.J. Gardner. All rights reserved.