Cruise Day 8
Saturday, July 29, 2023
Today we are in Paamiut, Greenland which is the first of three ports we’ll visit in Greenland on this trip. This will be our first visit to Paamiut so it will be a new experience for us. As are almost all the towns in Greenland, Paamiut is quite small with a population of only 1,300.
Today we are tendering in, so after a late breakfast we decided to head into town. I may have already mentioned this, but one of the perks of having a Neptune Suite is priority tendering which makes it very easy. We made our way down to the tendering platform and were met by one of the Neptune Lounge concierges who led us to a waiting area where other suite guests were waiting for the next tender. It was soon ready to load and we were the first ones to board, very easy.
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| We arrive in Paamiut, Greenland. We had to anchor away from the town and tender in. |
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| A tender waits for its turn to dock at the ship's tender platform. |
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| There are two tender platforms at the ship. One tender can be unloading while the other is loading. |
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| Two tenders cross as they shuttle passengers to shore and back to the ship. |
When we were leaving the ship, a couple who had already been ashore and were returning told us that the bugs were terrible and they were right. They said they were mosquitos, but I think they were small flies, and they were swarming. We had brought bug nets to wear over our faces and Val immediately got hers out and put it on, but since it restricts your vision a bit, I kept mine off. It was lucky we had brought our bug nets with us as there was someone selling them onshore, but they had already run out. They didn’t seem to be biting, but they certainly were annoying.
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| The tender dock in Paamiut |
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| Another tender coming in, the ship is beyond the iceberg and to the left behind the rocky point. |
We walked around the town for a bit and while the homes and building were painted in the bright colors that we had seen on our first visit to Greenland, Paamiut wasn’t quite as picturesque as it was a bit more industrial. That said, it was still very interesting, and we enjoyed ourselves. We went into one of the few stores and found that it was like a small department store. There was everything from electronics to appliances on the ground floor and clothing in the upstairs area. Val and I found they were selling some music CDs and we wanted to find one with local, hopefully traditional music, but there was a language barrier and we’re not quite sure what we bought, but we’ll see when we get home.
We wandered around a bit more, taking lots of pictures and then decided to head back to the ship as there really wasn’t much more to do so two hours ashore was enough for us. There was a long line waiting at the tender dock, but as we approached it, we noticed another tender making its way up the little inlet to another dock. We stopped and waited to see if he was going to dock and when someone shouted over to him and asked if he would be taking on passengers, he said he would if he could find a way to tie off. He was able to do that, and we quickly got on and avoided the long line, our lucky day!
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| You can see the tender docked at the regular tender dock on the upper right side of the picture. In the middle of the picture, you can see a tender trying to make its way up this narrow channel to dock where the small white boat in the foreground is docked. |
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| Almost there. |
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| They did it, they were able to dock and get tied off! We had to wait for the people arriving to get off and then we boarded and headed back to the ship. |
We made it back to the ship and immediately went to lunch as we were getting hungry. After lunch we relaxed for a while and also spent some time out on deck enjoying the beautiful scenery.
Around five in the afternoon, the captain made an announcement that everyone was back on board, and we would be leaving early. Val and I bundled up and went out on the rear Lido deck for the sail away. It was a beautiful sail away form Paamuit with even a few icebergs to make things interesting. We finally made it out to the open sea, and Val and I headed in to get ready for dinner.
Dinner was good as usual, but just as we were finishing up, we, along with others, noticed a large iceberg through the window and everyone rushed over to look. We left and made our way to the open deck, but unfortunately, we didn’t have our cameras with us as it was scenic with the evening sun shining off the iceberg, but Val did take some pictures with her cell phone. While Val went to the casino, I rushed back to the room and went out on the balcony and took some pictures, but I had missed the most dramatic moment.
I joined Val in the casino and afterwards when returning to our room there was a very nice sunset. It was around 10:30 PM, but we are pretty far north so we have a late sunset and early sunrise. Tomorrow we will be in Nanortalik, our next stop in Greenland and our last until our return towards the end of the cruise.
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