Disco Bay, Greenland

Big ice and a packed harbor in Disco Bay.

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Disco Bay is about big ice. The terminus of the Jacobshavn glacier is on the West Coast of the bay, and it produces more bergs than any other glacier in the Northern Hemisphere. This is just one example of the hundreds we saw in the 30 miles we traveled today. This is the birthplace of the icebergs which hug the coast of Labrador and Newfoundland (and which sank the Titanic).

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If that hole were at sea level we might be able to get a photo of Wind Horse through it.

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You can see our course in the red line on the radar, and the mass of ice around us. And this in the open, southern part of Disco Bay.

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The bergs often form lines, probably marshaled by current.

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Without a frame of reference it is hard to get a feel for size. This view is of a berg which is half a mile off.

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The mouth of the Jacobshavn fjord has a shallow moraine (several hundred feet deep) which holds back the bergs, until the pressure of ice from the glacier bumps them free.

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The ice near Ilulissat is more spread out today. We are headed to the second indentation to the right of the cursor.

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This harbor holds the record for tightness quotient for Wind Horse. Note the ice in the middle of the moored boats.

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There must be 400 boats in a space the size of a large parking lot.

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We are rafted seven boats out. Hopefully the weather will remain benign as the lines holding the inner boats of the raft are pretty skinny.


Posted by Steve Dashew  (July 26, 2008)



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