Greenland is one of the most poorly charted areas on earth…are Nobletec’s C-Map vector charts up to the challenge? Plus, checking out Eqalugaarsuit, a tiny cove that was once home to Inuit and Norse settlers.
Having been denied the pleasures of city life, we decided to check out Eqalugaarsuit, a tiny cove, former home of Inuit and Norse, now deserted (the village having moved to another location). The entrance channel, which you can see in the background above…
…and radar photo here, is 100 feet (30m) wide, and carries a minimum depth of 20 feet (6m) at lower water.
It took two tries to get the boat perfectly centered in the basin, so that we had room to swing 360 degrees. You can see our back and forth maneuvering with red track on the radar (which is set at 1/8th mile so range rings are each 150 foot/45m radii).
We should comment on Nobeltec’s new C-Map vector chart database. This is probably one of the most poorly charted places left on the plant. The Danish charts are to an old datum, so have to be corrected for GPS positions. The C-Map charts have been very accurate so far. There are lots of blank spots, of course, but the land outline has been right on. In only one case have we been ashore on the chart plotter. A huge improvement over their previous Transas vector charts.
Walking ashore one sees mainly lichens…
…and ground cover, now bearing these berries. We are not sure if they are edible, but the birds like them (we have several bird poop stains on deck that are blue in color).
This anchorage has two inuk shuk beacons.
One on the inner range…
…and another on the headland which fronts the entrance channel.
Our powered dinghy is too heavy to drag ashore. So we use the rowing dink for the beach. At 114 pounds (52kg), it is easy to handle. Usually one of us wears boots and then switches to walking/hiking shoes.
We’re off this afternoon to check out our original Greenland goal, Qaqortoq.
Posted by Steve Dashew (August 4, 2008)
