Voyage of the Vikings Redux – Prince Christian Sound

Cruise Day 28

Friday, August 18, 2023

Today we are making our return trip through Prince Chrisitan Sound, this time going east to west.  I didn’t sleep very well last night due to my cough and some general discomfort due to my cold so I was glad we wouldn’t be entering the sound until around noon.

We woke up to gray skies and fog but hoped it would clear by the time we entered the Sound.  We had a leisurely morning and after breakfast in the Neptune Lounge we relaxed in the room until we arrived at the entrance to Prince Christian Sound.

It was still overcast, but the fog had lifted by the time we started our journey through the Sound.  It has been barely three weeks since we went through here going east, but there seems to be fewer icebergs at the entrance.  It looked lighter ahead so we hoped that would mean clearing skies.  Because of the colder weather, we decided to spend the day on our balcony instead of out on the rear Lido Deck.  We would be a little more sheltered from the wind and we could also duck inside to warm up.  We are on the starboard side of the ship, and we think this is the best side to view the Sound from anyway.  Once again, we took many pictures and I'll, once again, share our journey through the sound with you.

Our journey going west going through Prince Christian Sound will be the same as going east except we will be ending up in the town of Qaqartoq in Greenland.

We are approaching the East Coast of Greenland and the entrance to Prince Christian Sound.

We're nearing the entrance to the Sound.

Entering Prince Christian Sound

As we entered the Sound, I stepped inside and took this picture out our cabin window.  This is where I sit and write this blog, not a bad view, I feel very lucky.

As you can see, Val and I aren't very good at taking selfies.

As we sailed into the Sound, we noticed a sailboat ahead of us.  It was an ocean going sailboat, but it looked so small compared to the icebergs.

A little bit closer look, we would sail with them for quite a while.

Looking back at the entrance to Prince Christian Sound.

  

This is looking into the Sound where we are headed.

As you can tell from our many pictures, we find the icebergs, large and small, fascinating.

I did make one foray to the front of the ship as the captain detoured up an inlet to get a better view of the glacier (you can see the red line leaving the main channel on the map).  He got surprisingly close, and I wanted to get some pictures, but it wasn’t really necessary as he rotated the ship all the way around twice so everyone would get a view.  We were surprised he was first of all, able to get this close, and then secondly, have room to rotate the ship all way around.  We were glad he did as the views were spectacular.

This was taken from the front of the ship.  It turns out I didn't need to go all the way to the front as the captain made two full rotations of the ship so everyone got a good view.

This and the following pictures were all taken in the inlet.

We couldn't figure out what caused this circle.  The only thing I could think of was that this was a melted iceberg that still had some of it below the surface; who knows if that's right.

After spending close to an hour in the inlet, we returned to the main channel and continued our westward passage through the Sound.

 

We also stopped in front of the small village of Aappilattorq (the only inhabitants in the Sound) and spent quite a bit of time at that spot.  It was around five and small boats were starting to come back to the village.  I don’t know whether they had been fishing or whatever, but they were quite friendly (or just curious) and spent a lot of time circling around the ship.

We had a gathering of boats around the ship.  They seemed as curious about us as we were of them.  The yellow boat circled the ship at high speed again and again and seemed to be having a great time.

 

As we sailed beyond the village we saw another section of it.

When we saw all the boats returning we wondered where they docked and as we sailed beyond the village, we saw this protected inlet the boats were using to get to the dock behind the village.

We exited the Prince Christian Sound just after six, but it was still very scenic as we made our way past the islands and outcroppings.  It had been another glorious day going through the Prince Christian Sound, I don’t think we will ever tire of it. It remains the most beautiful and pristine place we have ever experienced.

 

It had been a long day out in the cold weather, so we decided we had seen enough and headed inside to get warm and relax until dinner.  We did our usual routine and then returned to the room and called it a night.  We will be back in Greenland tomorrow.