{"id":12369,"date":"2017-09-01T19:47:18","date_gmt":"2017-09-01T23:47:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/gallivantinggrandma.com\/?p=12369"},"modified":"2017-11-27T19:01:15","modified_gmt":"2017-11-28T00:01:15","slug":"cruising-prince-christian-sound-greenland-westward","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/gallivantinggrandma.com\/?p=12369","title":{"rendered":"Cruising Prince Christian Sound Greenland – Westward"},"content":{"rendered":"

Friday – September 1, 2017<\/p>\n

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We set the clocks back another hour last night. \u00a0Since we\u2019re heading westbound, we\u2019re getting back those hours we lost when we began this journey. \u00a0We left Isafjordur, Iceland the day before yesterday and cruised down the body of water between Iceland and Greenland known as the Denmark Strait. \u00a0The seas were not as rough as Captain van der Wal predicted they might be. \u00a0Fortunately.<\/p>\n

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Passengers get up to the minute reports on current conditions on one of the channels of the television. \u00a0I was amazed to see depths of eight to over nine thousand feet. \u00a0This is the location of the world\u2019s highest underwater waterfall. \u00a0It\u2019s three times taller than the earth\u2019s highest waterfall and no-one can see it because it\u2019s underwater.<\/p>\n

The waters between Greenland and Canada are called \u201cIceberg Alley\u201d because the huge chunks of ice break off glaciers on the western coast of Greenland and float down the strait. \u00a0They seem to collect among the islands on the southern coast of greenland called Cape Farewell.<\/p>\n

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At six o\u2019clock this morning the fog horn announced the current visibility: dense fog. \u00a0I could barely see the water outside from our balcony. \u00a0The air temperature was 35 degrees Fahrenheit. \u00a0The sun was trying to come out and it brightened into a bright sunny day by eight o\u2019clock. \u00a0The ship barreled toward shore. \u00a0The Rotterdam is the fastest ship in Holland America\u2019s fleet and we guessed the captain was testing its limits.<\/p>\n

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The jagged peaks of Greenland came into view as we approached the narrow opening of Prince Christian Sound on the southeastern corner of this amazing country. \u00a0As we got closer, the coastline was littered with icebergs of all sizes and shapes. \u00a0We remembered that we could not cruise the entire length of the Sound a couple of weeks ago when we left Qaqartoq and sailed into Prince Christian Sound on our way to Iceland. \u00a0We went about three quarters of the way and had to turn around because the eastern end was blocked by ice.<\/p>\n

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The sun brightened and Captain van der Wal slowed the ship considerably. \u00a0Three very large icebergs sat impressively at the mouth of the sound. \u00a0We tried to guess the ship’s route. \u00a0We remembered they announced that two Danish \u201cIce Pilots\u201d stationed in Greenland came aboard to get us through the narrow sound. \u00a0I guess they were earning their salaries today.<\/p>\n

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The ship slowly crawled past the first iceberg then cut between the next two icebergs and slowed it\u2019s pace, giving us lots of time to take many photos of the floating ice. \u00a0The water looked very cold. \u00a0We were reminded that 90% of the iceberg’s mass was underwater. \u00a0So the ice pilots gave them a wide berth.<\/p>\n

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For the next several hours, the ship creeped along the narrowest part of the Prince Christian Sound. \u00a0The entire “Sund,” as it’s called in Danish, is incredibly beautiful and awe-inspiring. \u00a0There are not adequate words to describe the steep rocks, glaciers, jagged mountains, waterfalls, and icebergs.<\/p>\n

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The ship approached a large glacier and stopped. \u00a0Then, believe it or not, the Rotterdam did a 360 degree turn right in front of the glacier, between the narrow stone walls of the Sound. \u00a0It was incredible! \u00a0Captain Eric van der Wal was showing off!<\/p>\n

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Near the western approach to Prince Christian Sound is a tiny village of about a hundred people:<\/p>\n

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This was an unforgettable day!!!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Friday – September 1, 2017 We set the clocks back another hour last night. \u00a0Since we\u2019re heading westbound, we\u2019re getting back those hours we lost when we began this journey. \u00a0We left Isafjordur, Iceland the day before yesterday and cruised down the body of water between Iceland and Greenland known as the Denmark Strait. \u00a0The […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[31,38],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-12369","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-cruising","category-greenland"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/gallivantinggrandma.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12369","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/gallivantinggrandma.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/gallivantinggrandma.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gallivantinggrandma.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gallivantinggrandma.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=12369"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/gallivantinggrandma.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12369\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12374,"href":"https:\/\/gallivantinggrandma.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12369\/revisions\/12374"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/gallivantinggrandma.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=12369"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gallivantinggrandma.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=12369"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gallivantinggrandma.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=12369"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}