A slow start and we left Tillerilaaq at 9.45 and stopped in the natural channel just outside the town to fish. On this occasion we caught no fish. We left around 11am to start motoring toward our final town in Greenland. Tasiilaq is the largest town in the area with a population of nearly 2,000 people, it is the fastest growing town in Greenland and the only town in eastern Greenland with a growing population.
To get to Tasiilaq we had to leave the fjord network and enter the open sea. In the fjords we had regular sightings of the Minke Wales on leaving the fjords we came across a pod of Humpback Whales bubble fishing. We turned the engine off and started drifting so that we could watch them. The whales create a ring of air bubbles which captures fish inside, they then swim through the bubbles to eat the fish. No idea what fish they were eating but a lot of cod migrate to the area in the summer. We watched them for some time fairly close to the boat, then one large whale swam toward us passing right under the bow sprit. It was so close that it was hard to take photos! After the whales finished eating and swam away, we restarted the motor to continue the short distance Tasiilaq.
We anchored off the town as the pier was occupied by the local cargo boat. Tasiilaq is icebound from October to July and has no airport so all the supplies for the town have to be brought in during their short summer and stored.
Tasiilaq had a lot more to offer, we went ashore in the dinghy in the afternoon and walked around the town and had arranged to meet in the bar in town later. There are two supermarkets one is far smaller (both the same brand) a hardware store, a café and coffee shop, a tourist office, a taxi service, a museum and a few cars. There are tarmac roads within the town but no roads to the town. The outer residential areas were gravel roads.
The only bar in town was quite small and basic, the decor seemed to be pallet wood. It offered two beers Carlsberg or Heineken and soft drinks. Due to abuse of alcohol, they did not seem to sell sprits in Greenland. The bar filled up quickly with locals, the population was largely Innuit. We left the bar late to take the dinghy back to the boat, several trips required to get all 9 of us back on board.