August 2005     Author: Gry Bastholm hen I boarded Little Swan in Egå, Denmark at the end of May I was an absolute beginner regarding sailing. Three days before I had just finished my studies as a biologist at the University of Copenhagen. Now I have been with Little Swan to Norway, the Faros and Iceland and Toni’s patience and friendly guidance has made it three wonderful months. After 6 tough days at sea (especially for me) from Reykjavik in Iceland the east coast of Greenland appeared ahead. We were greeted by the curious seals and beautiful icebergs. As we entered Prins Christians Sund the sun broke through the clouds and it felt like a rebirth! Prins Christian Sund is stunning with it’s up to 1600 m high mountains, glaciers go all the  way to the water surface and calve ice into the sound. I envied the guys a bit seeing icebergs for the first time. Whilst in Greenland the guys have suffered because of the parasitic arctic frog which has taken shelter in their stomachs. You never see this amphibian - in fact according to science there shouldn’t be any amphibians in the Arctic - but never the less we hear it frequently when it let its groans shake the poor sailors. Some how the vegetarian onboard never caught this disease so maybe it has got to do with the diet??? Nanortalik, south Greenland was the first place for us to put our feet on the ground and get in contact with the locals. The last thing happened without any effort as Ammatillinguaq (a young girl) introduced herself and jumped on board. Soon after came the rest of the kids of Nanortalik!!! The boys jumped from the quay and Little Swan into the 6 º C cold water. Brrrrr. Thanks to the kids of Nanortalik for a wonderful day. We made our way up the west coast to Qaqortoq, Cap Desolation, Qerqertarsuatsiaq, Nuuk, Maniitsoq, Sisimiut, Kangaatsiaq, Aasiaat, Ilulissat, Qerqertarsuaq and Kronprinsens Ejland. We enjoyed the beautifully water sculptured icebergs. Some of them have got a light blue stripe. This originates from melted ice on the surface which goes into cracks and freezes again. The icebergs in southern Greenland come all the way from the east coast and have rounded Kap Farvel. After Cap Desolation we didn’t see many until we reached Ilulissat. The Greenlanders like colours and are not afraid of painting their houses in new colour combinations. A carpet of bright coloured buildings runs up the mountains in between grass patches, surrounded by sea with white floating bergs. It is a long way from the south of Greenland to Disko Bay, about 1200 km. We have not been able to see every fjord or mountain in the short time available to us. During day time we only saw one or two icebergs and no growlers. We decided to sail through the night to cover extra distance. As the short night began we checked on the radar and did spot a few icebergs which we easily avoided. Luckily we did not hit any growlers; the consequences would be like hitting a floating rock and sink the boat. It was a tense few hours and we’d rather not do it again. It was also my birthday which we celebrated with a bottle of Champaign. Our visit to Sisimiut is also worth mentioning. Even though it was a Sunday afternoon we heard loud music from the bar. We had a look inside and found the place very interesting. A one man band was playing Greenlandic pop and everybody was singing along. Especially the grannies fascinated us. They kept dancing for hours and of courses the handsome sailors of Little Swan were invited to the dance floor. The reason for this good mood in Sisimiut on an ordinary Sunday was that the beers were half price and we decided to join the party. The Greenlandic people are very cheerful and kind to foreigners. It didn’t take long until we were chatting with the locals. But not many speak English so to be Danish makes things much easier as Danish is taught at school. Most people work as fishermen (shrimp, halibut, cod, crab and clamp). Lars alias Captain Longbones left Little Swan as planned to go back to Denmark from Aasiaat. This has meant that I have got the job as jump-ashore-tie-boat-in-harbour-crew. CL had an advantage by his size which I’m doing my best to find a way to compensate for - by no means an easy task! It almost went wrong in Ilulissat. I was standing at the bow ready for my jump. It was about two meters from the bow sprit to the ground so I had to go on the out side of it. Now I was ready! I was holding onto the bow sprit with both arms and lowered my body - BUT Little Swan kept on moving; the corner of the quay disappeared under my feet and I only had the smelly water from the shrimp factory beneath me. SHIT! At this stage I promised to start doing push ups every morning, but it didn’t help me much at this moment when I was hanging there too weak to do anything. I had to shout to Toni that he better reverse (he had not seen what I was doing up there). We had a good laugh afterwards. One of the high lights has been Ilulissat Icefjord in the lovely Disko Bay.We left Aasiaat in the morning and entered the ice area south of Ilulissat. The glacier at the end of the icefjord (30 km long) produces the same amount of ice pr. day as New York + surroundings use in water pr. year.The icebergs are enormous. We had sunshine as we went through the ice area to get to the harbour of Ilulissat. In Ilulissat you can walk to the mouth of the icefjord and watch where the icebergs enter Disko Bay.