In Aasiaat the local people were quite interested in a yacht like us
coming into the port. The rest of the boats were a mixture of fishing
boats and little dinghies with outboard motors so us and the yacht next
to us caught people’s attention.
I actually made friends with a young couple, 16yr old girl Kurlungua and
19yr old boy Aatam (I think those were the spellings) who were very
interested in our boat. Kurlungua’s family owned the fishing boat
opposite which caught shrimp to be immediately shipped out in huge
containers to places like Scotland. They took me to their house and her
whole family was very welcoming. The houses in Aasiaat – in fact Nuuk as
well – were very bright and colourful which were brought in when the
Danish settlers came to Greenland.
with my friends in Aventura’s cockpit
We went to the local museum and found out some interesting facts. The
Inuit traditionally had two forms of shelter: in winter a peat and stone
house which included a few families and in summer each family had their
own seal skin tent. The Inuit invented the Annoraaq (anorak!) and the
kayak which are made of this completely waterproof sealskin which the
hunters would use.
traditional Inuit kayak
Throughout the village you could see the sledge dogs; we think of our
huskies when you think of the cold, but really, these sled dogs look
about three quarters wolf and quarter dog they have such a wild look
about them. These dogs are chained up and are fed fish.
sledge dog eating Arctic char a local fish
The only minor problem was the language barrier, my new friends knew a
few words of English from school, but I knew absolutely nothing. It just
gives you a wider view of how reliant we are that we can understand each
other…
Suddenly when that’s taken away from us, we’re kinda left like a fish
out of water.
