Traversing the coast of Greenland is not for the faint of heart. It can be lovely, of course, as we have seen. It is nice if conditions are just right, but they often are not. You want the wind behind for comfort and to reduce sea-clutter on the radar. It should be clear, but then fog is often present in the summer, so you try to pick light fog, which allows some visibility. Hopefully winds are light, and certainly not more than 20 knots, again because of visibility (white caps are hard to distinguish from small ice).

So, here we are, heading south with a light northerly breeze, in fog which allows visibility of 1000 feet (300m) to a quarter of a mile. Not too bad. Besides, if we don’t go now, we could be pinned down here for an extended period of strong northwesterlies, to be followed by strong southerlies. And there are a variety of anchorages into which we can duck if conditions become too negative.

We are also inside the heated great room on Wind Horse, with excellent sight lines forward to the water close in to the bow.

With isolated bergs we maintain a minimum of one mile separation (preferably more) on the current and wind track of the berg. As the wind blows up/down the coast, and the current runs parallel too, this keeps the debris from the bergs off the line of our course.

The radar is set to leave a track relative to our own course on each target. That is the line of dots behind the targets. Our assumption is that any debris will be along this line, which in the northerly breeze is downwind of the berg. Note that we have two guard zones set: One close in at a mile and a second at three miles.

Over the past month, with ice experiments in Labrador and here in Greenland, we have established two sets of radar tuning parameters. One is for use in smooth water and the other when there is sea-clutter. This includes adjustments on gain, pulse length, echo stretch, echo averaging, sea and rain clutter, and interference rejection.

Keep in mind that this is a top-end radar, with a two meter open array antenna, and 12kW of power. We have invested in this unit precisely because of conditions like these. The operating parameters of your radar, and how much faith you put into it, has to be based on real world testing and experience.

We find that having the radar set to two mile range works best for small target detection. Every five to ten minutes we will increase range in steps up to 12 miles, checking ahead of our course, before dropping back to two miles.

The square just ahead of the center of the screen is the zoom box. This is magnified by a factor of three. There are two small targets in the box…

…Which show up like this in the upper right hand corner of the monitor. This is an aid in identifying weak targets.

The bigger bergs and the small pieces with vertical edges show up well. But the rounder chunks do not reflect radar energy efficiently. Look carefully to the left of the center of the screen above. Amongst the sea clutter you will see an orange dot. It is abeam of us and there is a red triangle with a line projecting down from it on the target. This target is 1/8 of a mile off.

We try and ID the smaller targets, to establish what the radar can and cannot see. We were unhappy to learn that this rather large chunk of ice was so hard to pick out

This is a much smaller piece, later in the evening, with the wind and waves now moderated. It did show up on radar.

We will occasionally turn on target trails (set to relative) to help show images. But with so much sea clutter, trails cannot be relied upon as much as when it is calmer – especially with smaller pieces.

Now comes the "fun" part. During the early morning hours visibility was playing games with us. Reasonable one minute, down to a few hundred feet (60m) the next. At the same time we began to run into concentrations of icebergs, bergy bits,and growlers, as you can see above. We varied our speed from ten knots down to six, depending on fog and ice density. The hardest part was maintaining our visual concentration. Semi-darkness combined with fog, while searching for ice, and not being certain how far we could really see, created substantial stress.

Once we began to put plotter marks (triangles) on the target locations we could look behind us to see a pattern establishing itself, and perhaps project this pattern ahead.

The radar here is set to 48 miles. Note that all the previously targeted bergs, and those around us now, are close to shore. Twelve miles offshore there are no targets. Putting marks on bergs preserves them in the radar database. Otherwise, they are lost within a few miles of passing. This also helps to ID bergs when the targets are just beginning to show up at long range ahead (when the targets sometimes come and go until we are close enough for a steady target return).

By the time we realized that moving offshore would get us out of the dense berg population, the fog had begun to lift. Note the small piece of ice at the left hand margin of the photo, through the lines off the boom.

The sun is higher now. The larger berg, centered in the photo, is two miles off. Not long after this the fog had evaporated, wind and sea were calm, and we enjoyed the final eight hours of this passage.

Not having had this much "fun" since cruising in the South Pacific with a sextant, we went through what we had learned:

• Have the biggest, most powerful radar, with the largest antenna possible for good ice detection in adverse conditions.

• Metal construction, with a double bottom and watertight bulkheads adds to security (the two other yachts we’ve met have both been metal). We would not want to do this in a production fiberglass yacht – although some do.
• Good sightlines from the watchstanding position are essential, as is protection from the elements for the watchstander.
• Keep a radar watch for ice patterns. Changing course may get you out of the dense area.
• Shoot for as close to perfect environmental conditions (for maximum visibility) as practical. You almost never get it all, but it helps to try.
• Adjust speed to ice detection range and risk factors.
• Stay focused and alert (during this period one of us was looking forward 100% of the time). As you become tired and lose concentration, bring another watchkeeper on duty.
• Practice with radar and visual ice detection under controlled conditions, to learn what equipment and senses are capable of detecting.

While Wind Horse is particularly well suited to this sort of cruising, you can still cruise here with less optimized yachts. This requires more time so you have more flexibility with weather, shorter hops along the coast, and using the many inner leads which keep you out of the ice and weather. In our case, the cruising season is compressed because of the distances we are covering. Wind Horse allows us to make longer hops, and be somewhat less finicky about weather. And, in the event of a collision, we do have those watertight bulkheads, double bottom, and heavy metal construction.

Cape Desolation, looking a lot like Mexico’s Sea of Cortez in the sunlight. However, water temperature…

…and the presence of the odd iceberg are clues that this is probably a different environment.

There are two choice by which we can regain the land – Bredefjord, which is 10-20 percent blocked with bergs, or the adjacent Skovefjord, which is relatively clear. After last night we go for the easy approach. However, there is still enough ice to keep us on our toes.

Our anchorage goal is at the end of Sildefjord, the sight of a tenth century Norse farm.

We’re not sure if this navigation beacon is an Inuit "inuk chuk" or a Norse marker, but it works either way to guide us to the correct headland.

Using the inuk chuk and sonar to work our way in (there are no soundings on the chart) we find a lovely, spacious anchorage (lots of room to swing). One can easily imagine the previous inhabitants returning from a voyage.

And there is one modern inhabitant of this fjord with whom we can share the beauty. We trade some fresh-ground Starbucks coffee and Trader Joe’s organic sugar for a lovely Arctic char. He was very happy!

Typical of this part of Greenland, most of the old Norse farms are now used to raise sheep.

We’re going to rest up for a few days, and then begin to explore.