23 September

Following the spectacle of a rare clear sky overnight, this morning delivered a brief period of sunshine.  The skies have since become overcast resulting in a monochromatic landscape.  This is a moody view from the ship with the dark brown hills and vegetation spotted with large patches of snow and ice and light falling snow.

This afternoon we did a zodiac landing at Ittoqqortoormiit, the only settlement in the area of North East Greenland.  (Ick tarka toe met OR E tocka toe mead, is the best I can do, depending on the accent of the person speaking).  

Brightly coloured houses perched on the edge of a barren landscape.  Another mountain goat-worthy climb from me to the half way point of the school before I admitted defeat. The snow and the rain held up, but the wind was fierce when it appeared.  Thankfully some like-minded souls also haunted the launch area 30 minutes early than the planned return shuttle so we were given an early leave pass.  

The noisy excitement coming from the dog camp reminded me of our marvellous cold and wet dog sledding day in Alaska.  Or dog sledging, as my hairdresser recently repeatedly called it :)

Sad to hear that the Inuit experience many problems common to First Nations people including alchohol related disease and terrible suicide rates.  Suicide rates are 350-400 per 100,00 people.  In Germany the rate is 12.   Suicide rates spiked sharply in the early eighties and some associate this with the campaigns by Greenpeace and the like protesting and ultimately stopping the fur seal trade.  The difference between Canadian commercial sealing and Inuit traditional sustainable sealing was never articulated and the Inuits lost their livelihood.  

It's now 7.30pm and we have dined an hour early and commenced our departure early in an attempt to outrun the wild weather ahead.  Apparently there is a "window of opportunity" for us to return encountering 20 knot winds, rather than 40-50 knot.  My vast maritime experience tells me we ain't outrunning nothing.  That and the fact that I have returned to my cabin and found many items already flung to the floor.  Here we go again.  Xxx