Author Justin Fornal swimming Murchison Sound along the coastline of Qaanaaq, Greenland
Cold Water Plunge
When attempting to swim from Canada to Greenland, the sharks might be the least of your problems
A wave of dread washes over me. In a few moments, our small plane will disappear into a wall of clouds over Greenland’s Disko Island and I know if we enter the towering mist we will not come out the other side. My daughter had seen this moment coming. I remember my eleven-year-old’s voice as clear as day. “Dad, promise me you won’t crash into a mountain.” We are now only seconds away from doing just that.
And to think the day had started so well.
A few hours earlier, I was soaring over western Greenland with my pal Wes Archer in his Cirrus SR-22 G2 plane. We were finally on the adventure we had been planning since the day we met on a caving expedition a few years back. When Wes heard I wanted to attempt the first continuous swim from Canada to Greenland across the Nares Strait, he made me an offer: He’d fly me, but we’d have to use
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