We held our open boat near the capital of Greenland today. I say "near" since we were at anchor. There was a cruise ship in town, which needed the dock space, so we ferried people out on one of our boats instead. I was boat crew for a few hours, while Phil (outboard mechanic) drove. At times there was a bit of swell, making it a small adventure for people getting on and off the ship. Most of the kids seemed to enjoy the experience, and many Greenlanders are used to being out in boats so took it in stride. Overall, it was a great open boat day, with a constant stream of people waiting at the dock for pick up.

Nuuk is a proper modern city. It's got a Thai restaurant (and an Mexican one), a civic center, a museum, government and office buildings, public transportation and even housing projects. In fact, one percent of the entire Greenland population lives on one block here ("blok P"). Nuuk is also home to Santa's mailbox - a big red thing full of hopeful letters, visible from the ship.

Saturday, the crew got ashore for some bowling and walking around the town. Tomorrow we'll finish provisioning and meet with government officials, then head out to continue the science work.

- Andrew

Just after leaving Narsaq, Jason (scientist) went by helicopter about 25 miles west of the town to Sermilik Isbrae glacier, and brought back this photo. You can see the vegetation line 800 feet (245m) above sea level where the glacier was a century and a half ago. (Look for the dark green stuff in the upper right corner of the image.) Lichen and other vegetation are moving into the newly exposed territory, but much more slowly than the ice is receding.

Measurements of the glacier's height show that it thinned 395 feet (120m) between 1985 and 2000¹ - the largest documented thinning of any Greenland glacier. It used to also have a floating tongue extending down the fjord, but has now retreated back into shallow water where its front rests on the fjord bottom, right at the edge of the ice cap.

With our help, Jason set up an automatic camera that will take a picture of the glacier's front every four hours (during daylight). He will use these images to track how fast the ice is flowing down the glacier from the ice cap, into the sea.

The changes to this glacier were already documented before our visit, but are yet another sign that the Greenland ice sheet is in danger. If you want to help put the breaks on global warming, and you live in the U.S. (the world's worst global warming polluter), sign up to the Thin Ice Contest for ways you can take action.

- Andrew