Among Ice Giants

The SKIRR Adventures expedition brings together adventurers from around the world to explore the planet’s hidden corners under sail. On the inaugural voyage, 49 sailors took part across the five legs, witnessing the raw beauty, exhilarating sailing and untouched wildlife of one of the most remote areas in the world. 

The third leg took the expedition crew to Tasiilaq, the largest town on the East Coast of Greenland, set inside a fjord that is often full of ice. On this occasion, there was so much ice that it denied the yachts access to land, but offered some of the most incredible seascapes with huge majestic icebergs and impressive ice packs. 

‘The conditions were harsh,’ recalls Skipper Bob Beggs. ‘We did get close to the coast of Greenland, where we could see mountains and glaciers but the ice proved to be too thick. It would be another week before the ice dispersed.’

‘I can never get enough of seeing sea ice,’ says Toni Wilson, from London, who completed all five legs of the SKIRR expedition this year. ‘There is so much beauty in the colours and shapes that the wind and sea makes it into – it’s really sculptural. The icebergs have a scale to them that is really unimaginable until you see them.’

Back in Reykjavik for crew changeover, the fourth leg of the adventure commenced. Having waited out several heavy weather systems, a fortunate window of opportunity emerged for the boats to get clearance to head to Scoresby Sund – a 1,005 nautical mile route crossing the Arctic Circle.

‘The reports were that the ice was going to be scarce so we were able to push through and get to Scorseby Sund which was relatively ice free,’ explains Beggs. During the very early hours of August 4th, the two SKIRR Adventures yachts crossed into the Arctic Circle, a line of latitude around the Earth, at approximately 66°30′ N.

The land was completely barren, there is nothing green about Greenland at all

‘As we got to the entrance of the sound, the fog cleared and there was blue sky all around us. We could see the whole of Scoresby Sund and the villages around its perimeter,’ recalls Greg Glover, a farmer in his day job who also joined for the entire expedition. ‘The land was completely barren, there is nothing green about Greenland at all. We could see up to the mountains where there were glaciers and there were icebergs floating just off the shore of these little villages.’