{"id":57885,"date":"2026-04-09T05:12:21","date_gmt":"2026-04-09T05:12:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/57885\/"},"modified":"2026-04-09T05:12:21","modified_gmt":"2026-04-09T05:12:21","slug":"greenlands-last-ferry-fights-time-ice-and-change-on-fading-route","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/57885\/","title":{"rendered":"Greenland\u2019s last ferry fights time, ice and change on fading route"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

NUUK (Denmark), April 9 \u2014 It\u2019s Friday night and the port in Nuuk is a hive of activity. Passengers loaded down with heavy bags hurry aboard a rusty red and white ship \u2014 Greenland\u2019s last ferry.<\/p>\n

Among them are an ethnologist and a few Danish tourists, but most are Greenlanders from the 74 villages and settlements that dot the west coast, a thin strip of land squeezed between the ice sheet and the open sea just south of the Arctic Ocean.<\/p>\n

Linking Qaqortoq in the south to Ilulissat almost 1,000 kilometres (620 miles) north, the ferry was for a long time the only means of transport in Greenland, until air travel took over.<\/p>\n

With its old-fashioned charm and pervasive smell of linoleum, the vessel feels stuck in 1992, the year it was built.<\/p>\n

The engine rumbled, and a last kiss was blown toward the quay. On deck, a passenger watched as Nuuk faded into the distance, just a glimmer under the northern lights.<\/p>\n

Welcome aboard the Sarfaq Ittuk.<\/p>\n

Rural exodus\u00a0<\/p>\n

The ship\u2019s crew swiftly got down to work, the cook battling heavy seas to line up colourful hors d\u2019oeuvres.<\/p>\n

Passengers shuffled cards and rolled dice, laughter rising up around the formica tables in the cafe, the ferry\u2019s social hub.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe know each other. We\u2019re talking about family, friends, weddings,\u201d said Karen Rasmussen, 60.<\/p>\n

\"This <\/p>\n

This photograph shows sea ice forming around icebergs in Disko Bay, not far from Ilulissat, Greenland, on March 15, 2026. \u2014 AFP pic <\/p>\n

The ferry offers villagers a chance to reconnect with those who left for the capital Nuuk during the rural exodus of the 1980s.<\/p>\n

Karen looked out the porthole, her gaze absent. \u201cI\u2019m on morphine,\u201d she said, gingerly holding her broken arm to her chest.<\/p>\n

Next to her, 56-year-old Arne Steenholdt was just diagnosed with cancer \u201caround here\u201d, he said, pointing to his stomach.<\/p>\n

Both residents of remote communities, they were returning home from hospital in Nuuk, the only facility offering advanced care.<\/p>\n

In the evening, Steenholdt retired to his bunk, pulling the curtain to block out the light. Karen wasn\u2019t able to sleep a wink.<\/p>\n

Climate warming\u00a0<\/p>\n

The ferry crossed the Arctic Circle on Saturday.<\/p>\n

As waves crashed against the hull, a deckhand swept away the ice building up on deck. \u201cYou gotta take care of the old lady,\u201d he shouted, referring to the ferry.<\/p>\n

Normally ships only resume sailing at these latitudes in late April, when the coast is free from the pack ice that drifts in from neighbouring Canada.<\/p>\n

But in this exceptionally mild year, the Sarfaq Ittuk resumed its route in mid-February because the ice was \u201cvery late\u201d and formed only a thin layer, Captain Jens Peter Berthelsen said.<\/p>\n

Greenland\u2019s west coast registered its warmest January on record, with temperatures up to 11\u00b0C warmer than usual, according to the Danish Meteorological Institute.<\/p>\n

\"A <\/p>\n

A man looks out at the frozen sea from the aft deck of the Sarfaq Ittuk ferry in Disko Bay, not far from Ilulissat, Greenland, on March 15, 2026. \u2014 AFP pic <\/p>\n

Berthelsen kept his eyes fixed on the horizon. \u201cThe challenge is to detect the underwater icebergs.\u201d<\/p>\n

Global warming has made it more difficult to predict when the pack ice will return.<\/p>\n

\u201cTen or 15 years ago it was in September, and now it\u2019s only late December or January,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Rise of air travel\u00a0<\/p>\n

Mass was held in Greenlandic in the cafe on Sunday, glassware rattling from the ferry\u2019s vibrations. As it approached Ilulissat, it steered through the thin pack ice scraping against the hull.<\/p>\n

In the bay, the ice rippling in the ship\u2019s wake had something magical about it, but not for Ludvig Larsen. He was bored.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe helicopter was cancelled, so I had to take the boat,\u201d said the 60-year-old referee headed to Ilulissat for a football tournament.<\/p>\n

In recent years, he\u2019s started flying instead of taking the ferry, enabling him to reach Greenland\u2019s \u201ciceberg capital\u201d in just 25 minutes.<\/p>\n

Now he was spending the day at sea.<\/p>\n

\"This <\/p>\n

This photograph taken from the deck of the ferry Sarfaq Ittuk, shows, in the morning light, the village of Kangaamiut, Greenland, on March 14, 2026. \u2014 AFP pic <\/p>\n

On the west coast, climate change is causing more humidity and fog, leading to more flight cancellations.<\/p>\n

Greenland has gambled on air travel: Nuuk\u2019s international airport opened in 2024, and two others will follow this year in the south and north to better connect the island\u2019s 57,000 inhabitants and attract tourists.<\/p>\n

Due to a lack of sufficient funding, the government must choose between taking the Sarfaq Ittuk out of service in 2027, despite some 22,000 passengers a year, or investing in a high\u2011end tourist vessel.<\/p>\n

Asked if he was worried the ferry may stop running, Ludvig Larsen said he \u201cdidn\u2019t think about it\u201d.<\/p>\n

In the bay behind him, a wall of ice loomed out of the mist, before the small town of Ilulissat emerged from the white vastness: the end of the line.<\/p>\n

As passengers disembarked, a young girl ran into a friend\u2019s arms, sobbing. Children chased each other, laughing. Tourists snapped photographs of every falling snowflake.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, the new passengers hauled their luggage up the gangway.<\/p>\n

On deck, the captain and crew used heavy sledgehammers to break up the thick shell of ice covering the ferry.<\/p>\n

That evening, the Sarfaq Ittuk would head south again. \u2014 AFP\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"People <\/p>\n

People watch from the ground as their loved ones board the Sarfaq Ittuk ferry at the port of Nuuk, Greenland, on March 13, 2026. \u2014 AFP pic <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"NUUK (Denmark), April 9 \u2014 It\u2019s Friday night and the port in Nuuk is a hive of activity.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":57886,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[5],"tags":[3208,31970,57,11251,1515,31969],"class_list":["post-57885","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-greenland","tag-arctic-circle","tag-climate-warming","tag-greenland","tag-ilulissat","tag-nuuk","tag-sarfaq-ittuk"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@dk\/116373038360581026","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/57885","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=57885"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/57885\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/57886"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=57885"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=57885"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/dk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=57885"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}