In this part of the world we always try to have two alternate anchorages which can be reached in daylight, if the primary choice does not make the grade. But when we’re city bound, we usually do not use this practice.

After working our way into Nanotorolik, the prospect of a somewhat exposed dock, weather that was obviously making up, and a less-than-advertised charm factor had us studying the charts.

Willy Ker’s guide offered two options which we could reach by mid-afternoon. So off we went. Option one turned out to be less than totally secure and extremely tight. We did not have daylight for another bad choice so we laid out a course through the Prince Christian Channels to take us to a totally protected and bombproof fjord, with a narrow but deep entrance.

Lighting, if anything, had deteriorated from the morning. Yet the visual impact was beyond description.

And these photos do not begin to do justice to what we saw.

Think "Lord of the Rings" on the big screen, with CGI imagery, and then crank up the wow factor.

As the day progressed the breeze began to pick up. Inside it was, course, lovely. But standing outside with camera required multiple layers of protection (water temperature was in the mid-30 degree F range/just above 0 C).

Many of the channels are 1000 to 2000 feet (300 to 600m) deep, and surrounding mountains 3000 to 6000 feet (900 to 1800m) in height.

Occasionally we’d get a bit of sunlight, which helped to illuminate these waterfalls.

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Ice density in most of the channels was light.

But as it began to turn dark, we came into an area with tidewater glaciers. There were thick areas of ice through which we had to pick our way. No big deal, except the wind was now blowing 20+ knots and fading light was making it hard to see the smaller pieces.

Add in bands of concentrated brash and growlers from wind and current, and you can see why we were too busy to take photos.

In fact, for the first time in Greenland we hit ice (on three occasions – but sustained no damage other than to our nerves).

The photo above was taken once we regained our equilibrium and cleared the ice. You can see how dark it is outside. Whitecaps are barely discernible. Small ice even less visible.

Our entrance into the Tasiussaq Fjord was totally under IFR (Instrument Flight Rules for you non-pilots). Sonar and radar did their jobs, and we were very pleased when they found the alluvial fan at the head of the fjord into which our ROCNA anchor could descend.