August 25 Kangerlussuaq, Greenland

 This morning we were up before the sun for a huge breakfast with the rest of the expedition group before hopping on a bus back to the airport to fly to Greenland. Kangerlussuaq, our destination, is an interesting ‘settlement’ on the west coast of Greenland. It is an old airport built by here dutring the US occupation in 1941 . It has the longest road in Greenland - almost 50Km. Once a US base, it is now Greenland’s only international airport - but not for long. A new one is being built at Nuuk. 

The Kangerlussuaq airport

We had been in Kangerlussuaq in 2022 at the end of our Greenland expedition and then we were taken inland along a massive glacier. This time we were loaded into a bus to travel straight down to the seaport where we were met with zodiacs which would ferry us out to our ship, the Sylvia Earle. Just a little about the name of this ship. It was named for Dr Sylvia Earle a marine biologist, oceanographer, and explorer. She has been a National Geographic Explorer at Large since 1998 and was the first female chief scientist of the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. Among other recognitions she was named by Time Magazine as its first Hero for the Planet in 1998.  Her explorations and work marry well with the Aurora Expeditions' ethos hence the naming of this ship! However …..before climbing into the zodiacs we were togged up with life jackets and boots – it can get wet in the rubber duckies!

Once on board we fluffed around checking out our home for the next 4 weeks then it was off to the lounge to be ticked off – with a glass of bubbles in hand!  We weighed anchor and headed for open water out of the Kangerlussuaq Fjord (Greenlandic language Kangerlussuaq means ‘the long fjord’) - and we were away on our voyage. 

Our ship in the distance, our home for the next 4 weeks

From on board we watched as supplies were loaded onto the ship

Setting 'sail' is lways an exciting time – except for the safety briefings and the usual housekeeping guff which was pretty familiar to us as this was our 7th expedition with Aurora Expeditions.  (Our first expedition back in 2018 took us through the wild places of the Scottish Islands. Absolutely wonderful and highly recommended). But back to the present …  once we had struggled out of our life vests it was time for the welcome cocktails to meet the Expedition team and then dinner. What a line-up we had, including a few familiar faces from previous voyages! We were just 77 passengers from 9 different countries being looked after by 98 crew and 18 Expedition team (ET) members from 12 different countries.  With a line up like that we were bound to be spoilt and we were. I’ll tell you a little about the people who turned out to be my favourites amongst the expedition team.  

Expedition Leader, Ashley Perrin 

Firstly, our Expedition Leader (EL) Ashley Perrin who had only days before arrived after sailing her own yacht from Hawaii – her face was still salt- and sun-raw from her ocean voyage. She has extremely impressive credentials: she’s a fellow of the Royal Geographical Society and has over 130,000 miles sailing as a skipper on vessels small and large, and she was appointed as the first-ever woman Boating Officer in Antarctica by the British Antarctic Survey. On top of being a first-rate sailor and Captain, oceanographer and geographer, she is a mountaineer. A totally no-nonsense woman who made me feel safe and excited all in one moment.  

We were fortunate to have on board 3 of the 5 founders of the Polar Citizen Science Collective an international organisation which works to meet the needs of the polar science community by engaging travellers in data collection projects while travelling in the polar regions. Whoopee!  Firstly, Dr Alex Cowan, a Scot, who is a knowledgeable geologist and naturalist (I tried to pick his brains many times). Secondly, Dr Annette Bombosch, a biologist whose passion is whales but also the phyto- and zooplankton that supports those huge marine mammals. We collected a lot of data with her including undertaking cloud surveys for NASA. But more of that later.  And thirdly, the other founder of the PCSC on board was Lauren Farmer. We were fortunate to have these people as they are all very knowledgeable and expedition leaders in their own right.

Also on board was a favourite from our 2022-23 Antarctic expedition, historian Nina Gallo. She is possibly the most engaging storyteller I have ever encountered – a passionate historian who almost daily gave a brief update about Knud Rasmussen (a son of Greenland) who was the first European to cross the Northwest Passage via dogsled. Knud was accompanied by two Inuit people, Mrs. Arnalulunguak & Mr. Meetek. He was an explorer and ethnographer. His is a big story but I will return to the ‘Knud’ story later.

Knud Rasmussen (left) with Mrs. Arnalulunguak & Mr. Meetek, 1924 

A treasured member of the team was Dr Robert Headland, a very experienced polar explorer and historian: his passion is historical geography in the polar regions. He is a senior associate of the Scott Polar Research Institute at the University of Cambridge: a fellow of the Royal Geographical Society: a member of the Institute for Historical Research, University of London: and an author.  

In addition to the excellent E-Team and historians, something that set this expedition apart for me, was that also travelling with us were two Inuit cultural ambassadors from the Inuit regions we would be visiting: Geela Qaggasig and Eli Qaqqasiq-Taqtu. And also travelling with us is a Professor of  Archaeology specialising in the Arctic region and in collaboration with the indigenous people of the region (her husband also a renowned archaeologist was travelling with her so we got two for one!). What more could you ask for in an expedition team? We were in for an amazing voyage.  

We set sail as dusk descended sliding silently through the fjord, a journey of around 20 nautical miles.

We were pretty exhausted by the end of that first evening and again fell into bed buzzing with excitement, but bone-weary as our ship quietly navigated further north into the Arctic Circle to Sisimuit.