July 29

A second day at sea – very relaxing.  I am continuing the bridge lessons.  After getting me into it, Norm seems to have given up!  Oh well, we will be on the ship for 6 months, maybe he will take it up again.

While I was just finishing this morning’s lesson, the Captain of the ship made an announcement that due to the extreme fog we have experienced in the last 40 hours, he was unable to maintain the speed needed to get us to the port of Nuuk in Greenland tomorrow.  So we are going instead to the second port, Paamiut, tomorrow, then to Nuuk on Friday.  And, due to icy conditions in the sea around Qaqortoq, we will not be going to that port at all, but will have another sea day on Saturday.  So we won’t be having Kaffemik with a local family after all.  We will just have to see and learn as much as we can in our shore time the next two days.

I did have my hair cut yesterday and love the way the Ukrainian hairdresser did it.  No worries, Marie, I will be back!  I will try to post a photo when I get fast wifi.  Looks like that might be Iceland on Tuesday.

In the meantime, for those interested in the Labrador Sea, it is covered in ice between December and June, and this being July, there will still be plenty of ice as we venture further north.  It is one of the few regions where the deep ocean exchanges gases such as oxygen and carbon dioxide directly with the atmosphere, so it can be thought of as a lung in the earth system.  This would have implications if global warming indeed switch off the convection system, some people think as early as 2030.  Marine ecosystems would be severely impacted.

Stay tuned for our experiences in Greenland and hopefully some photos.