2019.6.28
When we checked into the hotel, the front desk asked if we wanted to join the evening boat tour to see the icebergs. After checking the schedule, we found that tonight was the best option, so we decided to join on the spot. After dinner, around 9 PM, we gathered at the city’s visitor center. By nearly 10 PM, about thirty tourists had assembled, and the captain came over to invite us to board the boat.
From the visitor center, it was a short downhill walk of about 500 meters to the pier. Our boat was not very big and looked like a converted fishing vessel. At 10:10 PM, we left the port. Shortly after departure, we passed by our hotel, Hotel Icefiord. Hard to imagine, right? It was 10 PM, yet the sky was still bright.
The boat sailed southward, slowly heading toward the mouth of the glacial fjord. The floating ice on the water gradually turned into massive icebergs. The actual glacier calving site was still 50 kilometers further inside the fjord, and even in the coming days, I would only see a small part of it. Ships are not allowed inside the fjord itself. Icebergs break off from the glacier and slowly drift toward the sea, typically taking one and a half to two years to reach the fjord’s exit and enter Disko Bay. Since the fjord’s exit is relatively narrow, large icebergs sometimes get jammed together, blocking the ones behind them. This makes the fjord very crowded with icebergs. These gigantic ice masses collide and squeeze together, and a small human boat would be instantly crushed.
The glacier near Ilulissat is called Sermeq Kujalleq, which moves at a speed of up to 20 meters per day—much faster than other glaciers in Greenland. A fast-moving glacier also means a larger amount of ice breaks off. Sermeq Kujalleq is the largest glacier outside of Antarctica in terms of the total volume of icebergs calved each year. Some of the larger icebergs are one to two kilometers long. After exiting the fjord, they continue drifting out of Disko Bay. Pushed by ocean currents, most of them move northward, circle Baffin Bay, and then head south along the Canadian coast. Some even drift as far as the Bermuda Islands. It is speculated that the iceberg that sank the Titanic originated from here.
The ranger on board introduced us to the history of Ilulissat and knowledge about glaciers. I previously didn’t know that icebergs could flip over, but it makes sense. As they melt and are eroded by seawater, their volume decreases unevenly. Once they reach a critical point, these massive structures can suddenly flip within minutes. The ranger said that since these icebergs float in the fjord and Disko Bay for up to two years, most of them flip at some point. That must be a spectacular sight, but unfortunately, we didn’t witness it.
As midnight approached, the sun sank lower, casting a warm glow over the sky and icebergs. Standing on the deck felt increasingly cold, so we took turns going inside the cabin to warm up. The cabin was spacious enough to seat about twenty people comfortably.
We returned to the port at 12:30 AM and arrived back at the hotel around 1 AM. Looking out from the window of our room, we saw the sun hovering just above the horizon. Ilulissat is located 350 kilometers north of the Arctic Circle. At this time of year, in late June, it is the period of the midnight sun. The sun would soon rise again and would not set below the horizon until late July.
