Disko 8: Cruising the bay to Ritenbenk

We need to be in Upernavik around August 2nd, which gives us about a week to cruise up there. Without need for rushing it, we intend to day-cruise this fantastic area from anchorage to anchorage.

We select the Eqi glacier as our first destination and motor against 10 knots towards it. About half way, Coro Coro is coming our way and I hail them on the radio. Turns out they also tried to get to the Eqi glacier but gave up due to ice. With that intel, we decide to turn around from what would have become a dead end. Instead we go for Ritenbenk, an abandoned fishing settlement with a supposedly nice anchorage.

We drop anchor and after a splendid dinner cooked by Richard, we take the dinghy ashore. I noticed 2 elderly people walking the ghost village and it seemed they were working on fishing equipment at the old wharf. I pack some Danish Krone - just in case. When we land, coincidentally we run into the couple and pick up a conversation in Swiss German, English and Greenlandic. We understand each other quickly and they lead us into a ruin where they are drying smoked Arctic Char. Obviously a work of passion. Small pieces of wood keep the fish fillets spread as they are aesthetically hanging of a wooden rod. I ask to buy some and a deal is made: we receive 2 Arctic Char and a half of the white kind, which I still need to identify what it actually is.

The couple also communicated in sign language the location of where Arctic Char can be fished. The plan for next morning is obvious: go and try to catch some.

Arctic Char is a type of Salmon that during the second half of August will ascend the rivers for depositing their eggs. When it rains, the fish gather around the river mouths and launch their up-stream attacks.Read more