A Winter Boat Place

Sometimes – well more than sometimes – Greenlandic beaurocracy knocks me flat. Systems aren’t really systematic. Public servants often don’t really serve the public. And, more often than not, well-intentioned regulation falls completely out of step with physical resources, competencies, and realities.

Last fall we had a fine example. We had bought in to a small fishing boat with a couple of friends and had enjoyed pottering about the fjords for the weekends over the summer. Come fall, it was time to apply for a winter boat place – a spot on land to store the boat to avoid ice damage and the winter storms. We found, completed, and returned the application to the Council, along with a small and reasonable fee. In return we received notification of exactly where we were permitted to store our boat over the winter, along with a notice we could affix to the boat, should any inspections be undertaken.

Here is a copy of the map that accompanied our permit, showing our allocated place.

There appeared to be one small problem. Our winter boat place, as shown in the annotated map, was in the water. There was no mention of this apparent contradiction in the text of the documentation. Bewildered and at a loss as to what we should do next, we consulted friends, and considered what we should write in reply to the Council. After a couple of days of mulling this over, my husband had an epiphany. Driving down to the harbour he stopped where he could get a good overview of the layout to compare with the map provided. What he found, as suspected, was that the layout of the harbour had been altered since collection of the Google Maps image used to show our boat place in the permit document. The current layout was such that indeed our assigned boat place was now actually on land. The permitting officer at the Council had not thought this pertinent to mention.