Friday 13th morning dawns with very heavy frost – no sign
of the icing level being 1500ft – it’s on the ruddy deck.
went over to the airport office at 0700 to sit it out. Rain turns to snow argh!
But by 0900 the frost and snow had gone indeed one could see blue sky down the Fjord with shafts of sunlight. Looking good for the escape plan – get up on top. We’ve got enough oxygen but – d’ya know you can pump millions of cubic feet of oxygen into Syd and he is still not saturated – low readings on the oxymeter – have to keep close eye on him. Either that or the Americans have sold us duff oxygen. Me? I’m high as a kite on the oxymeter.
We set off – full power climb to 9000 then 11000 then 13000 then 15000 – we eventually ended up at 19000. The cloud was complete cover but thin if you know what I mean. Mind you at -35 degrees we didnt have to rely too much on the deicing.
About two thirds of the way across the icecap the sun came out and it was a scenic tour down into Kulusuuk.
As we get nearer Kulusuuk it is much clearer
For the first time this trip including all the hours of training on the new aircraft I get a greaser out of the landing – I’ve said elsewhere how different it seems
Kulusuuk can only really be described in pictures so here goes [more to follow when Ive got a moment]
Comparisons are invidious but Kulusuuk could put you in mind of a moon base. The guy in the tower – a young man – was on secondment for 3 months from Denmark. There is a hotel there – I suppose full of more ‘right on’ backpackers who crowded Kangerlussuaq. There’s about 2 permanents (or 3 month secondments) In the bay there is some mining ship which is cleaning up stuff – didnt quite get the story – but I gather the US left something like a million barrels of oil after WW2. The helicopter in the photo is an Air Greenland link to a bigger settlement 50 miles away. They come to Kulusuuk to get the twice weekly flight to Iceland but they’d spent two nights in the departure lounge (see photo) because the last one was cancelled.
We set off relatively promptish for Reykjavik in clear sunshine. Flew around some icebergs before climbing to 15000 and getting a good tailwind to Iceland for the first time in the journey.
The international departures gate!