Voyage of the Vikings Redux - Cruising Prince Christian Sound

Cruise Day 10

Monday, July 31, 2023

Today we are cruising Prince Christian Sound, one of the most beautiful and pristine places Val and I have ever visited.  When we were here in 2016, the weather was sunny with clear skies and mild temperatures (at least mild for the area, but it was still on the cold side). When we got up this morning at 6:30 AM as we were entering the sound, it was very foggy and we couldn’t really see anything so we went back to bed.

We left Nanotarlik (marked on the left), sailed along the south coast of Greenland, and then turned north into the sound.  The only inhabited area is the small village of Aappilattorq with a population of 100.  There is also a weather station at the eastern end of the sound, but it all automated now and no one is there full time anymore.

By 8:30 the fog had started to lift, and the fog soon faded away.  Although we have a great viewing spot from our balcony, we can only see what is on our side of the ship, so by 9:00 we were up on the Lido Deck where we could see both sides and what was behind us.  It was quite cold, so we bundled up in our warmest clothes along with hats and gloves which allowed us to stay pretty comfortable.

Val grabbed a chair and a small table and found a great spot to make her headquarters for the day.  I wish I had done the same. I spent most of my time wandering around, but I did wish I had a spot to come back to and sit down.  Later in the day, as some of the people left, I was able to claim my own chair and move it next to Val.  Her little table worked very well as we were able to set drinks and food for lunch on it.

There is no way to describe all of this other than to say, if you ever get the chance, this is one of the best things you could ever do, it is an amazing journey through an amazing area. It is remote, immense and desolate. Despite the fact that we have already been through the Prince Christian Sound twice (once on our way east and once on our way back west on our previous cruise), it was still a wonder to us and we, once again, took (too) many pictures. Our photos are without perspective so it's hard to show how huge the icebergs and mountains really are. Here is a sampling of our cruise through Prince Christian Sound.  Since we were on the back of the ship, all of our pictures were taken of what was behind us or to the side of us.

It was still foggy, but at least we could see what was around us.

The only inhabited area in Prince Christian Sound, the very small village of Aappilattorq.

 

 

The last thing we thought we would see would be another cruise ship in the Prince Christian Sound.  Not only that, the ship was the Phoenix Reisen ship Amera which, until 2019, had been the Holland America ship Prinsendam.  The Prinsendam was a favorite among Holland America cruisers so this was a real treat to see it.

   

Several times during the day, I went up to the bow of the ship to see what was ahead and the last time I went I could see that we were almost out of the sound as there were large icebergs ahead, which meant we were getting close to open seas.  We went back to our room and spent the rest of the journey through the sound on our balcony, although I did go out to the bow again to get some pictures of the larger icebergs.  We had wondered if we would be as excited about this journey as we were before since we had already seen it, but it was just as beautiful and interesting as the first time.  One thing we did notice was there seemed to be fewer icebergs and the glaciers seem to have a little less ice, but it was still a wondrous place.  If I sound a little carried away, it’s because I (we) think Prince Christian Sound is one of the most wonderful places on earth.  The next set of pictures was taken from our balcony and the front of the ship, although I did go back to rear of the ship to take a couple of pictures as we left the Prince Christian Sound.

Icebergs and open seas ahead, we are approaching the end of Prince Christian Sound.

Val and I take a selfie of our refection in our cabin window while we were out on our balcony.

Without any reference point it's hard to see just how big some of these icebergs are.  This one is really huge, much bigger than our ship.

As we finally made it out to open seas, the captain came on and made a sad announcement.  He said we were slowing down as there was a Greenland Coast Guard helicopter heading to the ship to evacuate one of our fellow passengers who had a serious medical issue and had to be taken to a hospital.  This has happened before on a cruise, and it is always very sobering; we had been enjoying this wonderful day on our great cruise, and there was someone fighting for their life who would remember this cruise for a completely different reason; as I said, very sobering.  We couldn’t see the evacuation (and didn’t want to anyway), but we did see the helicopter arriving.  There is no place for the helicopter to land on the ship so they lowered a basket to bring the patient up to the helicopter, a very tricky operation.

Val and I had a late afternoon snack in the Neptune Lounge and then we relaxed for the rest of the day.  I downloaded all of our pictures, updated the blog and then backed everything up so I got caught up on all my chores. 😊

This evening we are back in the fog, although it is more of an overcast, but quite dreary compared to our day in the Prince Christian Sound, but this weather is not surprising considering how far north we are.

Tonight is a dressy night for dinner, so we had to start getting ready a little earlier than usual.  We had a nice dinner and a little luck in the casino, so it was a good night, but we went to bed early as the clocks will be set back again and we'll lose another hour of sleep.