Greenland Extremes

Sam’s Log – 23 July 2025:

Greenland is a land of extremes.  Just today, it is just barely noon, and I have gone through several examples of Greenland’s ability to go from one extreme to another.

I volunteered this morning to go into the town of Sisimiut and do some grocery shopping with Skipper Scott, and his best friend Jon. Jon has just joined the crew in Nuuk, Greenland’s capital and largest city.  The weather is clear, the wind which is typically blowing at least 20 knots was calm, and it was warm.  Unusually warm for being north of the Arctic Circle.  We boarded Sarah Sarah’s dingy and motored over to a dinghy dock next to some large buildings that we thought were the local supermarket on the main waterfront road.  There was a very small and unoccupied dock that we tied up to ignoring the large sign at the head of the dock ramp, that we were not able to read as it was in Greenlandic language.  But then discovered another sign down low on the small dock labeled ‘tourists only’ and only a few seconds of discussion about whether or not we could use the dock was quickly justified as we truly are tourists of this fine country. 

Jumping off the dinghy we very soon realized that our information about the location of the Grocery store was not accurate and that much to our dismay it would be an hour before anything in town opened up including the market.  We nominated not to return to Sarah Sarah and thought we would start walking along the waterfront road and exploring the town.   

First extreme note: It was warm in Greenland, something that prior to this was not experienced by the Sarah Sarah crew, as it is usually blowing and cool if not leaning into downright cold. So, on this warm morning we were overdressed and soon got downright sweaty as we walked.

Second extreme note: Last night we anchored in the bay, launched the dinghy, and the entire crew motored into a small harbor basin to try to get dinner in town. We soon discovered that nothing remains open past 5pm and that there are bonafide huge amounts of mosquitoes in town.  Not a few random individuals but swarms that prefer to like nothing else than to fly around your head and into any crevice or opening possible (more on this later). 

This morning, refusing to learn from the previous evening’s adventures with El ‘mosquito swarms, we continued walking.  Along the way picking up all the small buzzing devils that had been thwarted the night before from extracting their due supply of fresh tourist blood i.e. ours!  By the time we reached the small boat basin just a short walk away, each of the three of us was using our hats to flag away the tiny buggers and regretted the decision to not just spend the hour before town opened up on Sarah Sarah safely out in the bay. 

Third extreme note:  It is incredibly hard to just kill time in Greenland, yes there is lots to see, and beauty at every angle of view, but this morning it is buffered by the heat, sweat (now that we were walking), and bugs everywhere.  Technically extreme note three is directly connected to extreme note two but then again this is my story, and I will tell it as I wish.

A nice 15-minute walk to the local boatyard, I always like killing time by looking at boats. But that visit was pushed to end quickly by extreme stage 2 and 3 and those damn Mosquitos. 

So, we continued walking, stopping for a pleasant few minutes visiting a local craft and artisan store, and even bought a couple of things. We then continued walking up the hill picking up our patiently waiting swarms immediately just outside of the craft shop, heading towards the market that wouldn’t open for another half hour.  Climbing a small hill, we passed a small historical museum and didn’t even bother to stop.  None of us could imagine doing anything but moving as quickly as we could batting the small devils away by waving our hands and hats to fan them away. 

Fourth extreme note:  I expected that we would feel more remote and far away from population centers but surprising enough, Greenland again surprises and runs the extreme from feeling truly like you stepped off the edge of the earth into true wilderness and then you round a small island and find a city, out in the middle of Greenland’s ‘nowhere’.  These towns are well maintained, some even have ferry service, many have cars that run on roads that I can’t imagine are longer than a couple of miles, and hordes of small outboard boats that zoom by at full speed well past midnight in the perpetual light of the land of the midnight sun this time of the year. Kids playing on small boats in harbors running their outboards at full speed well into the wee hours, it’s amazing how vital this all feels and looks. 

Now time for a classic Greenlandic discovery, one that I hadn’t had the pleasure of experiencing before in all my years.  Some of these darn Mosquitoes are quite inventive, as I snorted one of the buggers that had flown into my nose. I can truthfully say that there is nothing quite as satisfying as closing off a nostril and expelling a cave exploring mosquito out of your nose once you get over the gag response when you discover that it had started down the ol’wind pipe. 

We continued walking and after turning the corner into the part of town that housed the market we saw people coming out of its doors well before the stated 10 am opening time so we ducked inside, hot, sweaty, over clothed for the warm day and started with our shopping, finally free of the insect plague. 

Shopping completed we opted to hire a taxi for a quick trip back to our tiny ‘tourist’s only’ dock and boarded the dinghy for the return to Sarah Sarah, boxes of groceries stacked on the floorboards. 

After stowing our purchases we started the engine, picked up the anchor and headed once again on our way, ever north. 

Fifth extreme note:  I just came down from the flying bridge of Sarah Sarah, all bundled up as the wind is now back to the usual 24-30 knots, air temperature is 44 degrees but with the wind chill added none of us believe the thermometer is accurate as it basically feels like it is about 20 degrees and very windy.  This is classic Greenland, hot, cold, buggy or not, more villages than I expected to see, beautiful in its rocky ruggedness, incredible in every facet of its extremes.  I am so very happy to be able to view this amazing country and experience its radical extremes.  And to all those spelunking Mosquito’s, I for one hope that I don’t have the pleasure of experiencing any more of these tiny insect flying adventures into my body i.e. nose!