Finally! On the last night we see the Aurora Borealis!
Saturday,
September 16th. Sisimiut,
Greenland
We were up early again as we only have the morning to spend in Sisimiut. For the first time on this voyage, we were tied up at a dock and were able to just walk off the ship onto a gangway. We had an organized tour of the town with a 20-year-old native Greenlander, who was born in a small village, then grew up in Sisimiut, was educated in Copenhagen and has returned home. He says he prefers living in this small town over the very the busy big city. This is a very pretty, picturesque town of 5600 inhabitants. He showed us the museum (closed on Saturdays-today), the schools, some of the shops and we ended at a local hotel where they had a Taste of Greenland. They gave us some pumpernickel bread with samples of lumpfish roe, dried cod, dried caplin, Greenlandic shrimp, snow crab, muskox, smoked whale meat and a muskox soup. I didn’t care for the dried fish bits but liked the muskox and smoked whale meat. Then John and I walked up to the church for a good view of the harbour before walking back down the hill to the ship. When we got back, we watched a man give a kayak rolling demonstration before lunch. We had lunch with Dylan White (he’s the guy who sat and talked to me on day one when I couldn’t talk) and had the chance to ask him about his 56-day rowing trip across the Atlantic from Morocco to Barbados with 16 guys. What an adventure. There is a book written about the trip by a writer who was on the trip, called The Little Ship of Fools, that I think I will try to find. After lunch we did the charter flight check-in and had a disembarkation briefing. Then I watched a movie of John Huston’s called No One Left Behind about the Inuit Co-ops in northern Quebec. They started the co-ops because the HBC was treating them so badly. Then we had our last dinner together while we began the transit into the long fjord leading towards the airport. A couple came up and said, “We started with you and we’re going to finish with you.” With that a couple from England had dinner with us. We rushed through dinner in order to get out on the deck and see the spectacular views as we sailed into the very long fjord that leads to Kangerlussuaq and the airport. After watching for a bit, I rushed back to the room to pack up my case and put it in the hall for a ten pm pickup. Later we sat in the Nautilus lounge and had a bit of wine with Ken, the doctor from Montreal, and the three people that Bruce spent some time socializing with, Louis, Cheri and Tom who were all listening to the expedition team band the Frosted Stromatilites (named after the ancient fossil life that we saw on our first landing). Then off to bed early in anticipation of an early morning. At 11 Bruce came into the room and woke us up by announcing that the Aurora Borealis (the Northern Lights) were out! This is something we’d been hoping to see since the beginning. Scott came on and announced it over the PA and everyone dressed and charged or stumbled up to the 8th deck. There they were… a luminescent green shimmer in the night sky. Absolutely amazing and mesmerizing. We spent about an hour on deck on a mild, windless night watching and trying to photograph them. Really a welcome sight and a wonderful sendoff on our last night aboard the Ocean Endeavour. Then back to bed well after midnight to get some sleep.
What a fitting end to a voyage that started in Vancouver, Joe, and took you up the Pacific coast to Alaska and then through the North West Passage and finally finishing up in Greenland. Remarkable, and something so few people can say they have experienced. Thanks for giving us a glimpse of what it was like. And thanks especially for your dedicated reporting that made the people and the environment come alive each day. Nicely done!
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