Course Correction

Last night all the elevators homed in on the lower promenade deck, deck three. They do that when the ship lists more than 5 degrees. Then Captain Paul Adams came on the PA system. We were watching the film “Wicked,” and it is strange for me to say that this, but the announcement was a welcome interruption. (This would have been a better film if an additional 20% of its final length ended up on the cutting room floor or available only in a special Blu-ray collectors’ edition.)

We had been heading around the southern tip of Greenland, out of the range of projected ice when sometime after 9 PM but still in full daylight the bridge saw ice ahead. The ship slowed and made a rapid turn, healing over by more than 5 degrees. The captain explained this in his announcement. Then I went back to being bored by ‘Wicked.”

After the film I looked at my Garmin app tracking the ship’s progress and found that we not only turned south but then turned east and were heading on a bearing for the Azores. It was a restless evening with a lot of pitching and shuttering. When I woke up at 4 and checked the app we were still heading away from Greenland.

Sometime after the 5 AM sunrise, I felt the ship turn and the app showed we were heading back toward Paamiut. During the Captain Paul’s noon announcement, he outlined what had happened and invited us to the World Stage in an hour for a briefing with maps.

The captain showed us a picture of the sea, full of white caps, and asked us if we could pick out the ice growlers (small ice bergs) from the waves. It wasn’t easy. This is why we Changed Course.

He brought up the maps showing where the ice was on the app and then showing us where it actually was. They spotted ice ahead and turned south. Toward the South they saw more ice ahead and turned east. The captain is a registered ice pilot. On board he had a Danish, Greenland, and a HAL ice pilot to consult with. They had a busy night.

***Ice in lighter blue to the East and to the South. The red is the plotted course, the white is the course we ended up taking.***

We continued to sail south southeast until there was enough light to be able to spot icebergs and then headed back toward Greenland toward the North Northwest.

***At the bottom right, just off screen, is where we changed course at daylight, back toward Greenland.***

During the night, the bridge clocked wind speeds of 90 knots. The captain took a picture of the wind readout at 83.6 knot. The wave height at one point was 7 meters, just short of 23 feet. In other words, the captain said it was like sailing through a force 2 hurricane.

Right now it looks like we will be able to get into our second port, squeezing in north of the ice, marked in green

And what about tomorrow? The Ice looks good for sailing into Paamiut, but the seas could be rough. It’s a tender port and they will decide tomorrow on whether it is safe to land. Right now it looks good, but at his briefing tonight the Cruise Director, Daniel, said that if we do tender in it will not be a comfortable ride and suggested that it would be a perfectly good option to take pictures from the ship with a long lens. For the next day, it looks like we can get into Qaqortok just north of the ice, outlined in green. We’ll see.

The outer decks are all closed so when Captain Paul announced an ice sheet to the starboard, I was not able to go out to take its picture, but did get a shot through water streaked windows.

Tonight, they canceled the scheduled show with the World Stage song and dance company, too rough for dancing. But one of the joys of a long cruise is everyone has been on long enough to know each other’s talents and to improvise. The classical pianist, whose recital included Phillip Glass, Fredrick Chopin and Alberto Ginastera, invited one of the World Stage Company singers who was grounded from her stage tonight onto the classical stage for a little show music, including Broadway, West End and Puccini with some Lenon and McCartney thrown in.

The two dance bands were billed as jamming together but they played consecutive sets. I think the reason is one of the bands usually plays in the Crow’s Nest, which is as high and forward in the ship as you can get. I don’t think it wise to tempt dancing there, I could barely stand. A few couples were dancing on deck 5 midships but the dance floor cleared when one of the dancers looked up and saw an iceberg. Everyone, at least everyone who had not been on the Antarctic portion of the cruise, went to the window to look.

We all help each other, sharing stocks of ginger, seasick meds, or just offering a hand or elbow when one of us stumbles. Personally, I am not feeling at all seasick, but my sea legs are not as steady as they used to be and sometimes, I need that friendly hand.