Day 2,023 of Traveling the World | Prince Christian Sound, Greenland | August 13, 2023

Jan and Mike

A slow, lazy day of sailing through Prince Christian Sound (Prins Christians Sund, in Danish) was a highlight of our cruise voyage – “slow” necessary in order to avoid icebergs! They were everywhere and a wonder to behold. There also were fjords off the main passageway, glaciers, rocky mountains topped with snow, and cold, subarctic temperatures. It was very unusual, and seeing the dramatic landscape somewhat thrilling. The sides of the sound are steep rock cut by glaciers in the last Ice Age. Photos cannot quite capture the magnificence of slowly drifting through the sound, where, actually, there is no sound – the silence and grandeur are profound.

There were no stops, of course, as rocks loomed upward on both sides of the ship. We saw no people or animals as we traversed the sound – except for a few birds. Our route was from to east, so we traveled from the Labrador Sea to the Irminger Sea (which separates Greenland from Iceland). It isn’t a place name that rolls off your tongue/memory as much as “the North Atlantic,” which of course is where both seas are located.

Snow at the top – small icebergs at the bottom.
For 3-4 hours, this was the view from both sides of the ship.
Off of the sound were fjords, every so often, like this one.
The head of a glacier, one of six glaciers in the sound. The water was littered with chunks of ice.
This photo is from the back of the ship, so you can see where the ship had just been.
A cascade of snow down the mountain.
A fair-sized iceberg. As icebergs melt, they take on fantastic shapes.
The head of a second glacier.
Some of the previous photos were taken between the mountains shown in the center of the photo.
Toward the end of the sound, the open ocean came into view.
This was the tallest iceberg we saw.
As we crossed the Irminger Sea from Greenland to Iceland, the evening stretched on forever. This sunset photo was taken from our cabin window – can you believe it? – at 11:00 pm!!!

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