Traversing the Northwest Passage
1 - 27 September 2025

17 September 2025: Day 17

Cruise Day 10: Greenland

Introduction

After a fairly rough crossing of Baffin Bay we arrived off the west coast of Greenland, at a place the expedition crew named as Sukassat, east of Upernavik. Here we boarded the Zodiacs and motored around the coastline, looking at stunning outcrops of columnar-jointed basalt lava, some of the best I have seen after the Giants Causeway in Ireland. We also stopped at a sheltered bay to examine the tundra and the remains of an early Inuit turf house - rectangular this time. The beach was strewn with plastic debris that had washed ashore, but also hundreds of shotgun cartridges where the locals had been hunting birds, mostly geese. We then sailed across the sound to the location of a small waterfall with abundant plants. High up we saw an eagle's nest, now abandoned for the Summer.

After lunch we were still moored in the sheltered bay and as the weather was fine it was decided it was time for the "Polar Plunge" - a leap into the freezing water of the Arctic. Brrr...!

Chart showing our progress across to Greenland