July 26 – Ilulissat

Morning finds us docked 240 km north in the “metropolis” of Ilulissat, a fishing town of 5000 people and 6000 dogs. (Sadly, the dog population is out-of-date since climate change has hampered the fishing trade and they can't afford to feed all the dogs.)

For our first excursion we hiked through town and then onward to the Ilulissat ice fjord. This glacier calves more icebergs than any other outside Antarctica.

In the afternoon we headed out to explore the base of the fjord in Zodiacs, getting a closer look at the icebergs and also collecting some 30,000 year old ice to take back to the ship to have with scotch for after dinner drinks.

After dinner brought more bad news that the captain and chief engineer would still not sign off that the engine repairs were satisfactory to tackle the ice on the Canadian side. The crew were going to be working through the night to try to get it sorted by morning, but in the meantime we were stuck in port at Ilulissat for another night. The passengers, mostly retired seniors, had had enough and a long, angry Q&A session ensued. When it finally let out well past 11 o'clock, we went up on deck to make another attempt at midnight sun. Sadly, the harbor at Ilulissat is surrounded by high rock ridges so while the Sun was probably up at midnight, we couldn't see it.

And I never did get that scotch.