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Dean takes pictures with words
Log Date: July 18, 1998
Author: Dean Plager
Position: 66 56 N 53 40 W
Location: Sisimiut, previously called Holsteinsborg
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Today is a beautiful sunny day in Sisimiut. The locals are out strolling around, many are obviously families pushing babies in strollers. This is my third turn at being "journal boy."
As is the pattern when my turn comes, something with the computer doesn't work. I thought I'd give you a photo tour of Sisimiut, so I played tourist walking around with the digital zoom camera hanging around my neck. I got some nice pictures. I know because I can see them in the camera.
Unfortunately for you folks back home, you won't be able to see them, because again today the computer doesn't want to recognize the drive where the chip with the pictures gets inserted. And since it's too nice a day to be ruined trying to solve another technological meltdown with our equipment, I hope you'll be content with my written descriptions of this wonderful little town.
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We didn't get here last summer because we were so far behind in our schedule AND even in mid-August there was still ice on Baffin Island so we elected to attempt our crossing farther south at Nuuk. It was a disappointment for all of us, especially Elias, who lived in Sisimiut and had been touting it as the best town in Greenland. After being here for a couple of days, most of us would agree. It has a nice feel to it.
There are historic buildings in the harbor area, which give that area a very traditional look. The large apartment buildings are up over the hill. It has the usual two big stores, Burgsen and Pissiffick. We checked these out looking for Hob Knobs. The last report I heard was that they had been located.
The shipyard has a bigger supply of oak lumber than the one in Nuuk. For anyone interested in wooden boats, it's an incredible sight. Stacks of huge pieces of oak just lying there waiting to be used. There is one pile of planks about 2 cm thick, 1 meter wide and 6 meters long. That's the small stuff.
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The story we heard was that 200 years ago, Denmark lost a big naval battle, allegedly because their ships weren't strong enough. So they went out and planted all these oak trees, which are just now big enough to harvest.
(I'm going to shut down for a while now because after about 30 minutes what started as a fully charged battery is flashing the low battery light.)
I was hoping to be able to type this journal entry while listening for Herb, our weather guy. The low battery brought that to an end. since we are trying not to use our batteries any more than necessary right now. They are topped off for the first time. We're not sure what the problem was in Nuuk, but we could never get them fully charged.
This is good news, since they're very good gel cell batteries and we couldn't have replaced them with the same type here. Now it's a matter of putting up with the generator running when journaling and e-mail run them down and the wind generator isn't producing enough to keep up. Our current calculations are that it takes about one minute of charging for every three minutes of computer time.
There are no sled dogs in southern Greenland where we were. Above the Arctic Circle there are supposed to be only sled dogs. The reasons given have to do with safety and cross-breeding. This is the first time we've seen sled dogs. These are not pets. They are working animals, beasts of burden.
During the summer when there is no snow, they are either chained up or taken out and dumped off on an uninhabited island. When I say chained up, I mean it. They are behind metal fences or on steel chains. There are "dog pounds" around town where these dogs are staked out in otherwise empty fields. We have been cautioned about not walking across these fields. There are often repeated stories about someone being killed by these dogs. During the night they get into a wolflike chorus of eerie howls.
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Another thing that's different is the color of the boats. In southern Greenland nearly all the commercial boats have red hulls. Not so up here. We've seen blue and white. On the topic of boats, I'd like to comment on recreational boating etiquette. Here, it seems to be very acceptable to motor up to another boat and just bang into it without any thought of putting out fenders or fending off.
There is also a lot of fish hanging out to dry. They appear to be arctic char. They are cleaned, filleted so the bone is removed, and then hung out on wooden racks.
Question of the Day: Our Viking ship is made of overlapping wooden planks which are held together by wrought iron rivets. In order to make the SSB radio work, we attached two bronze grounding plates to the bottom of the hull. Dissimilar metals in salt water cause electrolysis where the less noble metal gives itself up to the other metal, because they act as a crude battery. In our case, it's the rivets which would be sacrificed to the grounding plates. It would not be good for these rivets to dissolve or even get weakened to the point where they weren't strong enough. When we put an electrical multimeter between the grounding strap connected to the grounding plates and nearby
rivets we get a measurable voltage and current. The voltage is 0.3 volts and the current appears to be something like 0.7 of a milliamp. Is this something we should be concerned about, and if so what should be done?
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