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Upernavik Greenland Travel Notes Gail Ferris |
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I saw
my first motor boat since 3 or 4 days ago.
Nobody is rushing to go fishing down in Laksefjorden instead they are fishing
right over there in this passage. It is
very hot while I am reading inside my tent.
The cloudless
sky is plain blue and there is a light breeze. At
about Before
I went to sleep at Then
just a few minutes later the moon disappeared behind some clouds. Wow! How
amazing it was that I just happened to poke my head out of my tent to see the
moon just then. That
was my last view of the moon at my campsite.
This
was my first time to see the moon since I arrived in When I
returned home I learned from the Sky and Telescope website that there had
been a Lunar eclipse that evening. I got
lucky by waking just a couple hours later on August 7th Friday at I did
all my normal breakfast routine because from all those other paddling
experiences when I am trying to make miles I know that I will not be get on
the water for just a short paddle. I
inherently know that I will probably be on the water for many hours. The
only time that I am on the water for any short period is when I happen to be
paddling to a specific destination that is a short distance away. My
kayak is made for long distance and many hours of paddling. I never know when I shall be getting off
the water. I broke
camp, donned my drysuit. This
time, for a change from the usual in past days of launchings, the tide
happened to be fairly high. I was just
delighted. I was able to get my kayak
down the beach without much effort. I
tied my kayak off on some rocks so that it would stay around, so to speak,
but remain afloat while I loaded it. Loading
up a floating kayak is much easier because I can effortlessly tilt the kayak
on its side to position objects inside without having to fight to get objects
to rest at any angle inside the hull and then just stuff another drybag or
object. What I
do is put on my drysuit. Then I kneel
in the water and gently stuff the drybags inside through the loading
ports. As I am doing this I
automatically tilt my kayak as necessary toward me making it easier for me to
reach farther inside the hull for positioning my drybags well. I can
tell you that this trick of floating my kayak and then tilting it sure beats
trying to fight my kayak and ramming my bags inside without bruising the
inside or my arm or ribs in the process.
With my
kayak afloat I can just move and or tilt the kayak to the point where I can
reach deeply inside the hull to position the drybags, etc. I can
tell you, that unless I have a very nice rock platform to roll the loaded
kayak down on some soft, pool-noodle, rollers and that I have no other choice
that launching my fully loaded kayak from rock. The
worst thing to do is to drag a loaded kayak over any dry area for launching
because launching from dry land is really stressful on the hull. I felt
like I have to get on the water before that wind comes up so I loaded my
kayak up in a big hurry. Well
guess what! I imagined that I would load the rear then the bow but that I go
back and load anything extra into the rear and close that hatch. In my
huge rush I never thought about what I was doing. The light was dim. After I loaded my bow I hopped in the
cockpit closed my spray skirt and took off.
Hours later I found to my complete surprise I discovered as I was
dragging my kayak up the rocks in Upernavik in all my profound rush I
neglected to check my stern hatch. I was
anxious about getting on the water as early as possible in order to avoid the
wind that I knew would return some hours later. Below
is a photo I took in 1993 when I had to dodge the wind going back out of
Torssukatak. This
blurry photo is a scanned slide which is beyond fixing but you can see the
wind shadow in the foreground I am paddling in to avoid the riffled area
where the wind is blowing. |
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#137 |
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Luckily
the photo above is quite different than the photo below. I launched and
paddled with no problem and no wind down the length of Torssukatak. Below
is a photo I took when I reached the end of the passage looking back behind
me just to show you how Torssukatak passage looks when it is very calm during
these early hours of the day. After
all my previous more harrowing experiences in this area who would believe
that it can be sometimes in the early morning hours so quiet. You can see that there are no waves behind
me but there are some in the foreground are coming out from Sortehul. On the
left is on Nutarmiut island that point is called Qasingortoq and just behind
it are the numerous waterfalls. On
this point there is no place to land I can tell you from close inspection
even though this point might look like some sort of landing is possible,
forget that one! On the right
side is Singarnaq island and that too has no place to land, just slopes of
loose basalt scree or talus, which you can see in the photo above. |
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#138 |
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Leaving
at some time after What
was very special I did not realize quite at the time was that there happened
to be a full moon. Throughout
this passage Torssukatak I was behind the high islands so I never saw the
moon until I emerged from behind these high elevations happened as I just happened
to look off to my left shoulder opposite the low ground on Singarnaq island
where I caught sight of the moon. Wow!
What an experience was that because there it was, the full moon just hanging
above the horizon with another hour before it would become invisible to me. The
full moon was there hanging over the island, Singarnaq Angnertussoq and the
terrain was low enough for me to have this glimpse at After
this moment I never saw the moon again! |
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#139 |
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Below
is a map of my route showing the topographic dip where I happened to catch a
glimpse of the moon.
One major reason why I like to paddle in this region is because of its
dynamic landscapes with mountains and cliffs just soaring directly up from
where I sit in my kayak. |
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#140 |
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I have
never been on the west side of Singarnaq island but a hunter did show me
where there are places to land in that area. Below
is an aerial photo of the south and west sides of Singarnaq island where
there is much lower terrain that is probably has some landing sites. However from my experience of paddling I
find that I have to go there to be sure that landing sites are possible. Another
question about choosing a landing site is whether good water is available. I
see that there is a lake in the photo which is a good sign for water. The
area where I paddled through was past the island with the long narrow island
on the right and past the island and over to the other side far to the left
corner of the photo. On this
crossing I choose a fairly straight line across this opening. |
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#141 |
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Without
any sweat I made it out to the start of Sortehul and started that crossing. |
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#142 |
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My next
image just shows the light just as I am emerging past the north side of Singarnaq
island at Qavdlunat point. I was
disappointed because as you can see there is no moon. However
here my paddling was in that early morning quietude. The water was satiny
smooth but to me it would be only just at this time that the water would
still be quiet. I
thought that I had gotten really very lucky, no wind. For how long, I would be this lucky? I could not know. Conditions
change and in anticipation I have to apply some visualization, learning and
experience about what is probably going to happen. Just
from experience I knew that while I cross this opening I will probably
encounter some broadside wind. |
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#143 |
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In this
photo I enjoyed this soft early morning light. This was at about Below I
am looking at the entrance to Sortehul, an unmistakable landmark. You can
just see on this basalt rock rising straight out of
the sea a light colored area this is one of the areas on this opening are
where auks, gulls and guillemots nest. In my
kayak the water is calm because I am still within what works out to be the wind
shadow of Torssukatak passage. This is
why you see that there are just a few swells coming at me. I was just out of its wind shadow even
though I was relatively close to Umanaq island which is a couple miles to my
left in this photo. At
Umanaq island, the seas changed because the airflow switched from running
left right which is happening in this photo.
Then as
I paddled more to the center of this passage the air flow there had changed
to coming out past this central cliff in the center of this photo, called Sortehul,
toward me. With
that change in air circulation near Umanaq island I was going to encounter
some very nasty waves as I passed north from the shelter in this photo. Actually
as I was passing by that island over to the far left in this photo I was very
surprised to find that the island gave me no shelter from the waves. |
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#144 |
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Below
is a brighter photo I took when crossing in 1993 on a sunny summer day, you
can see the waves coming toward me broadside and you can visualize what a
wind funnel Sortehul is. |
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#145 |
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Below
is a scan of a topographic detailed map that I had to assemble and add labels
to. This is my crossing route showing
the wind relative to the area. |
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#146 |
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During
my crossing in front of Sortehul between Umanaq, Umanap sagdlia and Ikermio
islands I encountered some really frightening semi breaking and breaking
waves. I
looked at Ikermio but from my view I did not realize that there actually is
sanctuary on the northwest side should I have needed it. I was
tested by the wind and waves for longer than I wished until I passed Tina
island where the waves dissipated. Hours
later when I pulled into Upernavik I discovered that in my rush to launch I
had never closed my rear deck port. Wow!
How incredible, this very serious oversight.
I hope I never make such a foolish assumption just because I was in a
hurry because this was the worst mistake I have ever made. From
what I know of myself and the simple human error factor oversights of this
type do happen when I am in a hurry loose track of what I am doing and
indulge in, making a very foolish assumption that all is just fine. Same thing as flying a
air plane you cannot just pull over and check the oil after you have taken
off. Always double check all equipment
before launching. When traveling
don’t waste time being nervous about being nervous and don’t rush preparation
and make any assumptions! |
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When I
reached the north side on Sandersons Hope I thought about maybe I ought to
stop and camp but I changed my mind and headed north for Upernavik. Below
is a photo taken from Sortehul showing the pyramid peak with snow the top of
Sandersons Hope on the left side of this photo. During
this moment in 1993 I can tell you that I gawked at that iceberg from my
kayak because it just seemed so huge and the background so dramatic. |
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#147 |
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Here is
an aerial view of this crossing on a bright sunny mid day. |
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#148 |
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Here is
a topo map of the terrain. |
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#149 |
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This is
a photo I took in 2003 just at the point on the edge of Sortehul area. The rest of the rocks either way offer no
landings. |
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#150 |
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This
photo I took as we were flying into Upernavik, it shows a very interesting
area that I could never see from my kayak.
I was quite surprised to see this topography from the air, all this
time I just assumed this western coastline of Sandersons was nothing but
sheer rock cliffs. If you
look you will see that there is a stratum of depositional granite layers
going one way and another the opposite way on the left edge. From that side the horizontal layers extend
past the middle of the photo and have been glaciated to create the valley you
see starting on the left upper corner and ending in the right corner. |
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#151 |
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Paddling
along this coastline of the west shoreline I came across this ramp enlarged
in the photo below. From my
cockpit and from this aerial view I could see that ramp only in a dire
emergency could this ramp be used. At
high tide landing upon this ramp in any sort of seas or nasty weather would
be really a trick. Looking
at this ramp closely even if I could land on this ramp there is no place to
camp up above. One
afternoon I did think about coming in to this beach until I looked closely at
it with my binoculars. When I saw all
those rounded rocks along the shore I realized that the waves come crashing
into this coastline. Whew!
Am I glad in 1993 that I just kept going even though I was feeling tired at
the time. A few miles later around the
corner I did find a much better campsite with flowing water and shelter. This
year I also camped in this same site my first day out on this trip because I
knew it was a nice place with good running water. |
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#152 |
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Those
slabs were gigantic and on a hot summer day in 1993 I experienced a severe
downdraft while next to these cliffs.
I was just paddling along and I noticed this strange riffle on the
water just ahead of me. Just the
moment I felt the strong down draft I immediately stopped and tied my paddle
to my bow line. I tied
my paddle to the polyester bow line so that even if the wind successfully ripped
the paddle from my hands, the paddle would stay with my kayak. I
looked up and above me where some gulls were flying completely unaffected by
these down drafts. They were flying just close enough to these rocks that
they were out of the downdraft zone. Those
gulls showed me the very local nature and physics of this type of downdraft. I
hunkered down over my deck to maintain balance and continued paddling until I
got out of the draft area. I very
carefully resorted to tucking myself as close as possible to these rocks. I was
literally scrabbling along the rocks nearly touching them with my paddle
blade hoping to get out of the range of this blast from above. I
survived! But it sure taught me something about paddling on hot summer
afternoons past high mountains. |
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From my
cockpit I photographed this dramatic view it is one of those hard to believe
I am seeing this from my kayak views and one of the major reasons why I like
to paddle in Upernavik. Now I
was on my way back to Upernavik I thought that this time I am not is a huge
rush to make mileage as it is only a few miles back to Upernavik or an area
where I can camp should I tire. I
decided that I must spend time studying these rocks and found some wonderful
examples of rounded granite cliffs in the photo below. |
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#153 |
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I
photographed some wonderful examples of rounded granite cliffs in the photo
below. Who
would believe that you can be sitting in your kayak just here? |
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#154 |
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I found
this waterfall and some rounded granite just at the water’s edge a rather
interesting place that I have not seen anything like this anywhere else. This year because there was so little water
available anywhere I was especially delighted with this unique falls. Just
think, you could land your kayak on that rounded slab below, get out and
gather some water right there. All you
have to have is a good sense of timing and skill at getting out before you
tip over and quickly before the next wave grabs you and takes you out again
while you are partially out of your cockpit or to be sitting on your back
deck. I
thought about that and just kept paddling on by. |
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#155 |
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Next I
rounded the corner of Sandersons and below is an
aerial view which gives you an overall view for that moment in my kayak. Beyond the point you can just see sheer the
basalt wall. When I
have paddled in this area I paddle along the opposite side of this passage
where there are places to come in for a landing. The
point below has eddies off it that show up as whirlpools filled with seaweed. This
photo below was taken from the air in 2008 and while we were on the air
approach. |
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#156 |
