Red Island, Scoresby Sund, Greenland. Day 47. 14th August 2013.

From Scoresby Sund we sailed through the much smaller Fønfjord.  Next morning we were at Røde Ø or Red Island, at the intersection of Fønfjord and Rødefjord, out in the zodiacs, puttering around amongst the ice. These images start before dawn, at around 5am.

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You will notice here the diagonal lines etched into the large iceberg at the right.  This indicates the berg has turned over in the water and is now sitting at a different angle.  It’s not advisable to get close to an iceberg in a zodiac.  Two thirds of the berg is below the water.  The top slowly melts and it becomes unstable so it turns over, suddenly and without warning.

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This is still from the zodiac and must be looking at a glacier on the western side of Fønfjord , near Red Island.  I have no idea of the name of the glacier (or even whether it has one).

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This is later, at 9:30am and must be from the ship, probably steaming up Rødefjord.

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Now at noon, it is time for the “polar plunge”, where people elect to take a dip in the somewhat chilly arctic waters.  This is Bonnie Yap, a photographer from Kuala Lumpur.

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What made this particularly different is that she never learnt to swim but she wanted to have an experience beyond the bounds of her normal reality.

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For a few long moments the spectators were starting to get quite concerned.

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Then the zodiac turned up and all was well.  There was also a sauna waiting for her below deck..

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