Almost all of the photos we have shown you before of Greenland were shot in wonderful sunlight. As such, they look like they have been helped along in Photoshop (which is not the case). The following were taken in less than optimal light, including the photo above with low clouds, unusual in our Greenland experience. If you compare these to earlier Greenland photos you see why this place has us enthralled.

We are in Qaqortoq, a busy, tight harbor on the southwest corner of Greenland, and our original goal. The concept was to spend our allotted time in this part of the country, exploring the Norse ruins and many channels in detail. Weather and ice precluded this option and after three weeks of adrenaline-filled cruising to the north we were curious what we would find in the "softer" south.

Tight berthing was expected (as you can see above with Wind Horse nestled between a massive fishing trawler and ice-capable police patrol boat).

Getting on, across, and off the inner fishing trawler was interesting, especially when the tide was high. Check out the expression on the guy standing on the dock as Linda clambers off. Go granny, go!

The by now familiar modern Danish architecture is prevalent.

But there is enough of the traditionally styled structures to lend charm to the area.

We particularly liked this church, sitting by a small stream, surrounded with yellow wildflowers. If only we had sun to bring out the colors.

One of the items on our list was to top off our fuel tanks with clean, low cost Greenland fuel.

We were concerned with getting fuel to the boat, but the fuel dock has its own truck and they are used to dragging the hose across rafted vessels (they later put four tons of fuel into the patrol boat rafted outside of us).

The fueling crew were typical of the folks we met in Greenland, easy going, almost always with a smile on their faces.

There is a large (by Greenland standards) supermarket in town, with excellent produce. As this was our last stop with supplies before heading to the British Isles, we stocked up.

We had been told to expect astronomical costs for food. If you exclude the smoked salmon, the groceries above came to about US$80. This is maybe a third higher than what we would expect at home. The smoked salmon, fresh and delicious, was half the cost of the States (and locally grown).

Being rafted with a group of professional seamen has its advantages.

One is local knowledge. The captains of the fish boat and patrol boat both marked our charts. In the case of the patrol boat, we photographed their tracks. As much of these were in areas where the charts have no detail, we are grateful for this info.

Rafting with the big guys has its challenges. One is the disparity in the height of cleats.

We lead the dock lines through snatch blocks to keep the lower end from pulling against our life lines.

Or, through these eye bolts (which are also used for tying down the dinghies).

We have nothing aft big enough for the police boat’s lines, so we created a lashing through their spliced eye.

Fenders need to be large and robust for this type of work. What we left in California with would have never gotten the job done. Good thing we have a large forepeak (now very full) for storage!

Whenever we are tied to a dock, or rafted, we set our lines up so we can control them from the boat. Bow and stern lines are run from the boat to a cleat or piling, and returned to the boat. Spring lines are usually done with a loop on the end, long enough so we can reach the knot to untie it when we want to depart.