Deen spent her day productively going to a cooking demo then a hands on cooking class. She'll be an expert on the HAL cook book by the time we're home. In the afternoon we went to a lecture about the 3 upcoming ports and I'll share some of that info as we hit the ports.
Friday evening was very busy. Drinks with our small gang in the Crows Nest, dinner in the MDR, then a Roll Call gathering at 9pm in the Lido Bar area. I then went to my first ever on board movie, the US version of The Girl with The Dragon Tattoo. Good flick.
Saturday morning a promising start as we approached Greenland and scenic
cruising in Prins Christian Sund. We sat in the Crows Nest(no Happy Hour involved this time) and Deen spotted an iceberg off in the distance. All we needed were whales jumping over the icebergs and we'd be happy.
In the morning we also went to an Explorer series talk entitled "Women Pirates-Hellions of the Sea Lanes". Very interesting and who knew? He covered 5 of them as they lived short but merry lives.
Our lunch was a special one for Mariners ie people who have cruised on HAL before. A cruise like this draws many repeat cruisers so there are lots of Mariners on board (about 90%). We were all anxiously awaiting word from the Captain that we would be able to enter Prins Christian Sund for a few hours of scenic cruising. The local authorities send in a helicopter to ensure it is safe for ships to enter as ice can often be an issue . Just after noon he was given the all clear and away we went.
The pictures below will speak for themselves. The views were magnificent and cameras don't really capture it. We had a clear day although a strong cold wind but many of us soldiered on outside for the best shots. Prins Christian Sund is a marine channel located right on the southern tip of Greenland and is considered to be one of the most beautiful cruise experiences. We can' t disagree with that!
We passed a village on the main land side of the channel . As we passed the Captain blew the horn and 3 boats came out to greet us. Everyone was waving and it was a very cool moment.
The passage took just over 4 hours and I have lots more pictures to show when we get home. I hope these pictures capture some of the majesty of the place.
A relatively quiet evening followed: Happy Hour with the regulars, dinner in the MDR, then a magician comedian in the Showroom. We head now to the western edge of Greenland to visit Qaqortoq on Sunday. Very small and isolated community. We also changed our clocks back an hour on Friday night so we are now 2 hours ahead of Eastern Time.
Great pictures - so cool that you are in Greenland and that you have crossed the Artic circle! Just imagine how few people in the history of the world have done that. BTW I saved Jessie's vomit soaked belly-button bandaid from our Costa Rica trip as our data point in the motion-sickness cure debate - I suggest you stick with actual medicine :-)
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