Umanalik Island Anchorage 60:37N 46:01W
Millybrown
Mark Hillmann
Mon 11 Aug 2008 17:51
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The banks of mist, draped over the
hills when we set out from Uunartoq, thickened into fog and we motored
or motor sailed all day. The chart plotter threaded us through a maze of
islands, briefly out round a headland, out at sea, then back up the
fjords. It was all a smooth sea and about 200m visibility.
 We soon stopped at Alluitsup Paa, a small
commercial and fishing harbour and went ashore. There were more of these
colourful houses being built. Helgur wants to build his own so we went in
and looked.
There was a builder who turned
out to be Polish and had worked all over Europe. He was putting
timber frame houses for a Danish company, two were complete and 10 more were to
finish in the next three months.
We went back to his lodgings and were given
coffee and home made bread. Helgur and Sigrit talked to him in
Russian and I occasionally made comments in German, as he spoke that more
happily than English.
When touring Greenland we have needed: Greenlandic,
Danish, Estonian, French, Faroese, Russian, Norwegian
and Polish. Fortunately most people do talk English as a third
language.
We tried to stop at the tiny village of Tardloq,
but the quay did not look suitable, so we motored on.
As dark was approaching we had done
enough and found a gap in the islands which looked good (on the chart)
to stop in. We anchored 200m from islands on three sides and
could just see them. It felt peaceful and off the channel in case of
icebergs.
 In the morning the weather had cleared and 13
bergs were in sight: They were not little ones. Our choice of bay
had been right, it was clear of them. That is a boat in front of one to
show the size.
 As we set off the fisherman selected a spinner
rather than feathers. We stopped the engine and sailed after a while and
he decided a smaller spinner would be better. It was, and until we had
enough fish the spinner was put back in and
within a few minutes another fish came out. They were all small
cod. This is the second time supper has
been caught with little effort.
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