Route Map   Weather Map   Daily Journal         Q & A   Special Reports   Education Section           The Game Click here to send the Viking adventurers your questions		The catch of the day Date: August 3, 1998 Author: John Gardner Lat/Lon: 66 deg 44.29 min N, 53 deg 35.98 min W Location: At anchor at Igdluligssuaq Course: 240 mag Speed: 1.5 knots Weather: Cloudy & chilly Sightings: Whales, seals, arctic terns Click on the pictures below to view enlargements. What a great weekend!! Friday, we cleaned and restocked the boat in preparation for departure. Meanwhile, the wind and rain kicked up. With the wind on our nose, making a start looked unlikely. We were all feeling "brought down" by this latest setback when Elias, our Greenland friend and former crewmate, showed up with parting gifts of scotch and beer. Because we hadn't yet heard the formal weather report - and still held out hope of making the crossing - we abstained from indulging in our newfound wealth. Moments later, the report came in. Low pressure in the Davis Strait had shifted and was moving our way. We weren't going anywhere till at least Tuesday. Well, not to Canada anyway.     Hodding - with my birthday cake - offers me my choice of burnt, raw or chewy     At midnight, following a rousing game of Kapaka and after finishing off our "treats for the boys," five of us accompanied Elias to his home in Sisimiut. After showers and wine, we went dancing at the discotheque till 4 AM. The next day, we returned to the boat and gave the other crew members their turn at civilization. With only five of us aboard, we were able to sprawl out, eat elaborate meals (which included large portions of bread obtained in town to satisfy one of our biggest cravings) and sleep in peace. Sunday. Everyone is back on the boat, doing projects or reading. The weather is still wet. Monday. Today, we rewatered the boat - and returned to the water a little critter that had found his way into one of our jugs. We are rowing to some islands at the mouth of the fjord, bringing us closer to open water in the hope of a departure tomorrow. We are anxious for Snorri to be a sailing ship once again - we've had enough of Snorri as floating camper. Today, we row. Six oars - 40 minutes on, 20 minutes off. Six hours later, we dropped anchor and ran lines to shore. Nearby, we saw what we took to be a group of brightly clothed tourists. In fact, they were local hunters sharing their catch of freshly caught minke whale. (The minke whale is not an endangered species, unlike the humpback we saw on today's row.)   What we first thought to be a tour group turned out to be local hunters sharing their catch   The local Inuit hunters make good use of the whales they catch and share it among themselves, instead of just slaughtering the animals for profit. After we finished our anchoring, we went over to take a look . The hunters had all gone, but the carcass was still warm and there was plenty of meat and blubber to feed us. So we helped ourselves. The catch turned out to be this minke whale - plenty of good meat and blubber (still warm!) to supplement our diet for days to come   Doug, contemplating tomorrow's meals, selects his cuts It made us feel like we were in the right place at the right time, which is good because, when we returned to the boat, we found out that the latest weather report has upgraded the Davis Strait area to storm conditions for Friday. It looks as if we will be doing local sailing and exploring for the rest of the week. So be it and so long. Top of page