5 Tips for sailing greenland
Let’s first get possibly the obvious, but also most asked topic out of the way: Yes, you can cruise Greenland in a fiberglass boat. Take precaution, but don’t let it stop you. Greenland is an enchanting land full of self-made adventures and guaranteed remote anchorages. We encourage all adventurous sailors to point north for an unforgettable summer sailing destination. So, what tips do we most usually recommend?
Eye-ball navigation
Some challenges of sailing Greenland waters are the lack of good charts and the addition of navigating ice. For the ice, most can be seen with good visibility and are easy to avoid as ice doesn’t move fast. When approaching a field of ice, it’s best to slow down and keep a keen eye to avoid the largest, most dangerous bits. Some very small bits will be unavoidable at times, but go slow and ignore the painful sounds they make on the hull. It may sound horrific with thoughts of the Titanic going through your head, but in reality they usually don’t even leave a mark. Navigating when sea’s are the most calm helps to see the ice as well. The most strenuous condition is when white-caps form and begin to blend with the tips of the bergy-bits.
As for charts, the most common routes were decently charted via Navionics. However, we did explore a few fjords which were un-charted, thus we used our estimation of the surrounding land to extrapolate the depth below, plus keeping a close eye on the depth sounder. This is a good time to pull-up any underwater appendages!
Off-line satellite images
Probably our top-tip for finding anchorages and land-exploration. Find an app which you can download and save, off-line, the satellite images including various altitude (layers) AND from different data sources. You will find sometimes Google’s imagery vs Apple’s vs Bing’s can be taken in different seasons and give you a different picture. This was especially helpful to find river and stream exits into fjords where there is likely a good and shallow anchoring possibility. These images were also handy for choosing ideal hiking route!
Google-Fi or local sim card
Near the villages you will find decent cellular data reception. We use Google Fi which worked well in Greenland. It is also possible to purchase a local simcard at the market. For instance the local Brugseni in Nanortalic had not only sim cards, but all the Greenlandic and imported European foods you could ask for! We did have an Iridium Go which served well when anchored far out from cell phone service. However, it did have it’s moments when we didn’t have a clear view of the southern sky.
Clothing and Bugs
What’s the saying, “There isn’t bad weather, just bad clothing.” Yes, we couldn’t agree more! Spend the extra buck on good quality clothing, including foulies. This also includes good warm footgear with wool or sythetic socks. We found keeping our feet warm and dry a real challenge, but that was also due to our heater outlet being up high in the boat, so the floor was never warm. This was unexpected for us, but we found a ton of gnats and mosquitos when we were on land. The local stores sell bug nets for your head, highly recommend picking some up. We had to abort several land adventures due to the torment of these critters!
Radar is your friend
Not a necessity, but if you have it, absolutely use it. Luckily the big icebergs and growlers really reflect well on radar. And, they don’t move fast, so it’s easy to track and avoid, especially in the fog. Oh, yeah, fog is pretty common along the coast and shouldn’t come to a surprise. If you do navigate past a big iceberg, it is recommended to pass on the upwind side as the smaller bits will break-off and drift downwind.
Thank you for reading! If you have any questions about sailing and cruising Greenland, just drop ask! I’m happy to answer any questions or setup a cool Greenland adventure with us at Outer Passage.
Darren Seltzer
