Irish yacht Danú of Galway is due home this evening, September 1st, after a highly successful trip to the world’s largest and deepest fjord system, Scoresby Sound in east Greenland.
The group of independent adventurers on board the 13m (43ft) steel ketch led by University of Galway scientist and mountaineer Peter Owens had set off in late June on a scientific and mountaineering expedition.
The yacht is due into Parkmore pier outside Kinvara at about 7 pm this evening, where it will be given a warm welcome by family and friends.
The Danú of Galway crew tested the extent of microplastics in northern waters, and also collected information on new anchorages which can be added to sailing guides.
Irish adventurers Paddy Griffin, Peter Owens and Richard Darley of Danú, are returning from Greenland
Owens and crew members Paddy Griffin, both from Kinvara, Co Galway, and English sailor Richard Darley, experienced challenging weather during their passage north to Iceland from Kilrush, Co Clare.
Heavy Atlantic waves smashed one of the yacht’s windows en route, and they had to effect temporary repairs.
The crew had to fix Danú’s engine in Husavik on Iceland’s north coast, and then spent time analysing daily ice charts sent from England to plan their passage further north.
Paul Murphy from Carran, Co Clare and Dublin mountaineer Sean Marnane joined the crew in Iceland.
“We took a chance and left for Turner island on the eastern coast of Greenland, which was very wild and remote,”Owens told Afloat several weeks ago, speaking from Iceland en route home.
“From there we headed for the settlement of Ittoqqortoormiit, formerly known as Scoresbysund or Sound, where we got a rifle in case we needed it for polar bears,”Owens said.
“Every day it was never above five degrees Celsius, though it didn’t snow, and when we sailed into Scoresby Sound there was fog and we saw what looked like a bank of cloud ahead of us - but in fact it was pack ice,” Owens said.
Icelanders had told him several weeks before that it was one of their most unsettled summers in 30 years.
The crew waited several days in Jameson Land, an eastern Greenland peninsula, for the ice to clear before venturing into Scoresby Sound.
They spent the next few weeks in this area, visiting a series of remote anchorages and surveying each one around Milne land and Renland.
Sea and fresh water samples were taken daily for assessment of microplastics, in a research link up with Trinity College, Dublin’s Centre for the Environment.
Owens and Sean Marnane, who are both experienced mountaineers, climbed in three different areas , adding a new 10 pitch route above the Skillebugt fjord anchorage on the south coast of Renland.
Danú then circumnavigated Milne Land, a large island within the fjord system. Owens and Marnane, who had the use of kayaks to gain access to the mountain routes, ascended to the summit of Hermelintop.
The 1172m-high peak ,which offers a panoramic view of the confluence of three ice choked fjord systems, involved ascending a spectacular and enormous gully which “went on for miles and terminated not far from the main summit”, Owens said.
The yacht was in its last bit of concentrated ice as it sailed around Milne Land. The ice was “constantly cracking, forming changing and emitting big, loud bangs”, he said.
“The pure expanse of the whole place was wonderful, and we could spend a lifetime exploring this region but given the time we had, we are happy with the outcomes,” Owens said.
The crew “worked very well through the highs and lows of Arctic travel”, Owens said.
“We did see other boats occasionally, but if you found yourself in trouble, there was nobody physically living there to help and no emergency services,”he said.
Owens is a mountaineer sailor with many years’ experience. He and his wife Vera Quinlan and two children Lilian and Ruairí spent 14 months sailing, climbing and hiking around the Atlantic several years ago.
The Scoresby Sound expedition aimed to be self-sufficient in the Arctic, with a strict policy of “leave no trace” on the environment,
The expedition was sponsored by the Gino Watkins Arctic Club awards,along with an Ocean Cruising Club challenge grant and support from Mountaineering Ireland.
