“We’re well-fed, happy and dry”, says Ingeborg, clearly annoyed. It’s 12:45 Danish time and the phone call from Greenland has come through just on time. The crew had hoped to sail from Polar Oil harbour a few hours later, but the weather wouldn’t behave. “It’s blowing 10.11m/s in here and even more out on the open water on the way to Nuuk. And as the icing on the cake, there’s thick, thick fog. We won’t be going anywhere today”, confirms Ingeborg.
The journey to Nuuk can be done under sail in ca. 10 hours and the skipper is 100% focused on the weather service. “It looks like the wind will die down during the night, so right now we plan to leave at 05:30 (09:30 Danish time) on Friday morning, so we’ll hopefully arrive to Nuuk sometime Friday evening.
It was even windier yesterday and they had been promised the wind would die down during the night. “Actually, skipper Ole, Sissel and I woke up ca. 1am last night, because we could feel that the wind had changed. It’s funny how sensitive you can become when you’re so dependent on the weather. But sadly it still wasn’t enough – and then the fog came…”.
The crew don’t have many days left on their voyage and they’ve had to start getting creative with their meals, “We have two loaves of rye bread, but we want to keep them for when we sail. So lunch will be soup with something to bulk it up: lentils, pasta or some grains. Breakfast is porridge with raisins and nuts. And with jam or prune compote it’s actually quite good. I don’t know what we’ll be having tonight, as it’s the other team who are making dinner”.
And then they wait. Play cards and read books. Some will go for a walk on the fells – but the skipper will stay put and keep a sharp eye on the weather forecast.