We knew that the tidewater glaciers in Southern Greenland produce a lot of ice, but we were not prepared for the variety of shapes and sizes to be seen in the fjords.

We’ve got another brilliantly sunny day, so we are out cruising the channels, marveling at how much diversity the ice gods can bring into their aesthetic formulae.

We’d like to spend a day in Narsaq, which has a wonderful museum.

If you look carefully bottom center above, you can see the town. However, the ice appears to be a bit of an impediment to our goal.

By ducking around an island, into another channel, we find this relatively clear path. When we get to Narsaq the protected side of their tiny harbor is filled with small boats. We can lie on the outer pier, but this has us exposed to ice if the wind picks up from the south.

So we continue exploring.

One of the main reasons we are in Greenland is a photo John Harries has of his Morgan’s Cloud taken through the center of an iceberg. When we saw that image we both knew we just had to see this place, and maybe get a similar photo for ourselves. This is one of the most difficult photos to set up you can imagine. You need calm weather to be safe in the dinghy and hold the camera stable, the hole has to be of the correct size and located properly, and then the dinghy with photographer and target boat have to be aligned.

When we found this scenario we had to stop, launch the dinghy, and give it a whirl. Works for a holiday greeting card don’t you think?

To put the situation into perspective, here is a photo of our intrepid photographer returning in the dinghy.

Continuing on, still sightseeing.

You would think by now we’d be bored with all of this. But the ice sculptures still have us enthralled.

Then, off our stern quarter, Linda noticed this berg. Could it be used for "the photograph"?, we wondered.

We’re getting closer!

A word on ice and dinghies. You could argue that it is foolhardy to be anywhere near this ice in a small boat. If the berg capsizes, the boat could be flipped or crushed. However, there are some mitigating factors. One is the dinghy itself. It is highly stable, accelerates rapidly, so that if we need to get away quickly there is a good chance we will be successful (when taking photos we always try to have the bow pointed towards clear water).

Next, water temperature in these fjords is a surprisingly balmy 50F (10C). We wear our Mustang work suits, which provide both thermal protection and floatation. If we end up in the water, we’ve got maybe an hour before we are incapacitated. Finally, we make sure to wear polypropylene clothing (much warmer when wet than cotton).

And aside from the photographs, when in proximity to the ice in the dinghy the perspective changes. Up close and personal the experience becomes more intense. Addictive might be a better description.