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on the cake - mostly settlements to stay in where I could stay in an actual bed . The settlements are close enough to each other for it to be an excellent paddling holiday . The islands are a great shelter from the force of any weather systems out in Baffin Bay , and there are numerous opportunities for easy landing and camping . And there ’ s a great place in Upernavik that has all the kit for group paddling trips .
GPS GLITCHES
I ’ d had a couple of glitches last year with my GPS – where it just refused to find a satellite , and the folks back home thought I was in trouble when checking out the location map on my website , but I thought these wrinkles had been ironed out for this year . Not so , though – I seem to have an ongoing hate / hate relationship with tech . The GPS packed up about 200km into this expedition and didn ’ t work again for the remainder . Despite being a well-known , marinespecific , qajaq-mounted piece of kit , it did the same again . Satellites couldn ’ t be found . So I used a combination of Google Maps on my phone – which always gives you your real-time position and a tourist map that gives a better layout of possible landing sites and topography . I had as backup ‘ Russian Topo Maps ’ – a great app that you can plot courses on , and SIKU –
an indigenous-specific app for the Arctic that , as well as a map , has ice conditions and a bunch of other info . Of course , the problem on a qajaq is trying to operate a touch screen with constantly wet and cold fingers , but apart from that , the navigation was OK after that – even in thick fog in Melville .
One other potentially catastrophic issue I faced was my elbows packing in . Last year , I averaged about 30km paddling per day but had to push it farther this year because of the geographical issues – often long stretches of open water in between headlands of 40km plus . Another issue was that I had work commitments back in the UK , which I couldn ’ t rearrange . Both meant I ’ d have to double the qajaqing-per-day distance to at least 60km . Which very soon took its toll on my elbows – a sharp , tenniselbow-type pain that kicked in around 30km or so . By the time I got to Nussuaq ( a small settlement a day or two south of Kullorsuaq ), I wasn ’ t sure if I was going to be able to complete the expedition without a rest day every other day . I was using a Euro-style paddle and had never used a Greenlandic paddle but had heard they lessen the strain on joints – so in Nussuaq , I searched for a house with a couple of traditional qajaqs outside and knocked on the door .
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