The first ship of the year is a bittersweet affair. On the one hand, the shelves are bare and everyone is running out of … everything! Yeast becomes a prized and expensive commodity, especially with the confirmations and kaffemiks during the month of May. So the announcement that RAL was going to bust through the ice to get to the harbour was a welcome one.
But, during a winter when we had good ice – not a given these days, as a result of climate change – the prospect of a ship breaking a channel through the ice and making problems for hunters and anyone travelling on the sea ice… well, it didn’t go down well.
In this photos you can see the local hunters racing with children from the children’s home to beat the ship back to Uummannaq.
Meanwhile, in Uummannaq, they were dynamiting the ice in the harbour to allow the ship to dock.
The smaller ship in the photo above is ours. But it needs the big bugger to break a channel through the ice. There are four teams on the ice, a few hunters moving gear, and possibly another two teams on the wrong side of the ship! You can see the ice and water breaking in front of the ship.
I guess experiences like this are why I just have to smile when some readers struggle to believe the things I write about in my books can happen. Sure, I add some drama to my fiction, but then I remember days like these, and I just have to smile. 😉
Chris
I love this post 🙂 It is a different world in Greenland that is impossible to imagine unless you’ve been there
Yep, I’m with you there! 🙂