Aasiaat - 68° 42' 29" N 52° 52' 31"

By Kate and Sean - July 28, 2024

Under the midnight sun, we continued wiggling through the Inner Lead Route and arrived at Aasiaat.

In dead calm conditions, we motored north. It no longer gets fully dark.

The icebergs are getting bigger

Still following the markers of the Inner Route

Our friends on SV Thor had arrived before us so we were able to raft up to them - a floating pontoon rather than the fixed sheet piles of the wharf!

Stuck in the middle - Thor to the left of us, Night Owl to the right..

Aasiaat is Greenland's fifth largest town with a population of a whopping 3,000. It is a very pretty town at the southern end of the famous Disko Bay. This is the last 'large' settlement we will visit in Greenland before making the jump across Baffin Bay to Canada.

At the moment, the ice conditions do not allow us to go so we will explore this lovely place while we wait for the ice conditions to improve.

We suspect it is not quite as idyllic in the winter

Chimney Art! The rubbish here is incinerated.

Sled dogs are used in the communities north of Sisimuit

Arctic Cottongrass and more quaint, coloured houses...

A couple of days of rain were very welcome to give us the excuse to simply laze around the boat and not do much in particular. We did get out and about and explore the town. The museum, although tiny, was very interesting with exhibits of hunting kayaks with all the tools and waterproof clothing. It is quite remarkable the skill of the hunters to catch whales and seals from these tiny craft. I guess when it your survival is at stake, you learn to be effective!

Traditional kayak at the Aasiaat Museum

It's a rugged and wild landscape

We hiked on the hills behind the town. Very rugged and barren. There is no permafrost here because there simply isn't enough topsoil, it is all rock. We found Arctic Willow, Partridge Foot, Arctic Poppy and Arctic Cottongrass. (Thanks to Stan Williams for the identification) All very small plants clinging to tiny patches of soil within the cracks of the rocks. We could see the huge icebergs out in the bay but too hard to photograph.

The houses here also cling to the rocks, bolted down to resist the winter storms. The services run in pipes overground. The cost of burying them would be significant. There are a lot of kids - and bikes and very sturdy prams (strollers) with big wheels to negotiate the snow. We have decided that walkers for the elderly are government issued as they are all the same and, again, with larger than normal wheels.