Our Plans Change!

An expedition in remote areas of the world has one essential component … flexibility. That came in to play this afternoon.

Our community visit to Maniitsoq this afternoon has been canceled. So has tomorrow’s call on Nuuk, the capital of Greenland. There is a front moving in that is going to make it quite unpleasant to stick around this part of Greenland.

Make the crossing to Baffin now, you say? No can do. In fact, we’ll likely have to scrap southern Baffin altogether. The problem with that part of the itinerary is ice. Yes, the ship can operate in 3/10ths to 4/10ths ice. But there is too much of it in the area that we are supposed to explore in a few days’ time. The ice chart Christian, our Expedition Leader, shared with us at the briefing this afternoon shows 7/10ths to 9/10ths coverage.

Another reason we have to stick around Greenland and wait for the front to blow out is fuel. There are only two places around here where we can top off Ultramarine’s tanks — Nuuk and Sisimiut. While we are OK fuel-wise, the top-off is needed to finish out Quark’s Arctic Canada season.

So, what’s the plan? We’re going to head north along the Greenland coast to Eqip Sermia up in the Disko Bay Area. We hiked at Eqip Sermia in 2013, so we’re familiar with where we are going. From the image we’ve been shown, however, a different route is planned this time.

Yup … flexibility is definitely the name of the game.Read more