{"id":2269,"date":"2008-07-15T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2008-07-15T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/setsail.com\/?p=2269"},"modified":"2009-04-15T08:49:44","modified_gmt":"2009-04-15T13:49:44","slug":"s_logs-dashew-dashew525","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/setsail.com\/s_logs-dashew-dashew525\/","title":{"rendered":"Greenland Landfall – Just Like the Olden Days"},"content":{"rendered":"
A lee shore, low visibility, and conflicting info from Ice Command make for a difficult Greenland landfall.<\/div>\n

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You are owed an an apology. We did not mean to leave you hanging mid-passage. But as will unfold, circumstances have conspired against keeping the website current.<\/p>\n

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This passage towards the UK has seen a number of personal firsts. Above is another. In probably 300,000 miles of cruising, we have never had latitude and longitude at the same number – until now!<\/p>\n

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The trip has been easy so far, with moderate weather, and now the wind has gone nicely behind us, helping with propulsion. With clouds about, sunrises and sunsets have been spectacular.<\/p>\n

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The sunset prior to our projected landfall in the fjords north of Qaqortoq was especially nice.<\/p>\n

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Maintaining situational awareness is difficult in Greenland. The charts do not have detailed soundings in many of the areas we will be traveling, and the topography is complex in the extreme. To make matters worse, the names are in Greenlandic on the Danish charts, and they are a mouthful of unfamiliar combinations of the alphabet. We are also using Willy Ker’s excellent guide, as well as the British Arctic Pilot (which has its place names in Danish).<\/p>\n

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Here is our approach four hours from the fjord entrances, shown using Nobeltec Nav software with their new C-Map vector database of charts. There are two courses laid out in advance, depending on what we find with ice as we close with land. The open triangle to the right represents points Ice Command have given us for pack ice (to be avoided).<\/p>\n

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The low angle sun at sunrise and sunset is especially intense at these latitudes. So it is a relief when a layer of low cloud moves in to block the sun on our approach the coast.<\/p>\n

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Visibility is still at two miles, and we can see this big berg at ten miles on radar.<\/p>\n

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And at two miles in the haze. If you look closely to the left of the berg, you will see some offspring barely visible on the surface. These are difficult to pick up on radar if there is any sea clutter (as we have at present). It is this small stuff which causes us anxiety.<\/p>\n

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Enough stress, in fact, that the off watch is sleeping in the salon, next to the helm, so he or she is ready to assist with watch keeping if required.<\/p>\n

This situation reminds us of navigation in the olden days, before sat nav and GPS. We would sometimes go for days without a celestial line of position, and landfalls were often made under duress. Of course there was more challenge, but we like the new way better!<\/p>\n

The problem with low clouds in this part of the world is they sometimes lead to fog. Within half an our of sighting our first big berg, visibility is down to a few boat lengths, and the crew of Wind Horse<\/em> is not happy. We slow down, but are wary of closing in poor visibility with the an unfamiliar coast, in lots of bergs, and pack ice nearby.<\/p>\n

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It is early, just before 0800 local time, and we decide to backtrack to get some breathing room in which to reassess the situation. We also send out an e-mail to Ice Command to determine the density of ice we are likely to meet in either of the entry fjords.<\/p>\n

Here are the issues we are thinking about:<\/p>\n

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  • We can navigate with radar and sonar for obstructions, but this will not help if we encounter lines of bergs, bergy bits, and growlers.<\/li>\n
  • The wind is behind us, making landfall a lee shore.<\/li>\n
  • Breeze is down, but there is a swell, making it hard to see small ice with radar.<\/li>\n
  • The ice within the fjords is compacted fresh water, much harder than the sea ice of the southern pack, and more likely to cause problems on impact.<\/li>\n
  • Fog often thins out inland, but this depends to a degree on wind, and the wind at present is blowing into the fjords.<\/li>\n
  • The weather system we are in is forecast to continue for the next two or three days.<\/li>\n
  • Water temperature has fallen from mid 40s F (5\/7C) to barely above freezing as we approach the coast (probably a fog trigger).<\/li>\n
  • Our practice with ice in Labrador has helped with radar interpretation, but this will be of little help if the wind picks up, as the chop will mask the smaller targets (which are already being partially hidden).<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n

    We head slowly out to sea while we wait to hear from Ice Command. At 0915 local we get the first of several e-mails regarding fog, ice within the fjords, and which fjord to use. Where previous communications have been really helpful, the present watch stander seems peeved at our queries, and we are getting what seems like contradictory information.<\/p>\n

    The fog thins a bit, and hoping it is a trend for the future we reverse back towards the coast. Meanwhile, we are emailing back and forth with Ice Command. The ice information we are getting is now contradictory to yesterday’s. This may be language confusion, or it may mean that previous data on the two possible fjords in our path was erroneous.<\/p>\n

    Meanwhile, the visibility comes and goes, sometimes reduced to a boat length.<\/p>\n

    If we were 100% comfortable with the ice data, had better visibility, or we were more familiar with the conditions, we might be tempted to close with the fjords. But the risks are high enough with the odds in our favor. In this case there are just too many things that have to go right. There is no room for error closing with an unfamiliar, complex coastline in berg country.<\/p>\n

    We retrace our path offshore to get outside the continental shelf. Hopefully the fog will clear as we head north.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    A lee shore, low visibility, and conflicting info from Ice Command make for a difficult Greenland landfall.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2269","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-dashew-blog"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/setsail.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2269"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/setsail.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/setsail.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/setsail.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/setsail.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2269"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/setsail.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2269\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/setsail.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2269"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/setsail.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2269"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/setsail.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2269"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}