At sea, Taatsi Berthelsen finds the peace he doesn't always have in his head.

One November day in 2023, Taatsi Berthelsen heard a sentence that made something fall into place inside him:

- I think you have ADHD.

The words came from one of his good friends, who worked in the area and who herself had an ADHD diagnosis.

- I was a bit shocked at first. But when I thought about it, I could see that it probably fit, says Taatsi Berthelsen.

That time, a little over two years ago, was one of the busiest periods in Taatsi Berthelsen's life. In addition to running the tourism company Greenland Explorer and the travel agency Explore Greenland, he also had a laundromat in Nuuk and was in the process of opening a restaurant in the city.

- I worked from seven in the morning until 11 p.m. at night, he says.

Although it was a fantastic time in many ways, Taatsi Berthelsen struggled to regulate himself and his body's need to relax from time to time.

This resulted in some days when he could hardly get out of bed.

- Then I just lay there like a dead man, he says.

To test her theory that it was ADHD that occasionally made Taatsi Berthelsen's legs tense, his friend offered him one of her own ADHD pills. It was yellow, he remembers.

He saved it for the afternoon of the next day, when he had finished several important meetings.

Because imagine if his friend was wrong and he didn't have ADHD and went completely manic from the medication, Taatsi Berthelsen thought.

After the last business meeting of the day, he went home to his apartment and took the pill. A few hours passed before anything happened.

And what happened wasn't terrible – quite the opposite.

- I was sitting on the couch. Without music, without television, without my mobile phone. I just relaxed, he says.

- And I was blabbering like hell.

For the first time, Taatsi Berthelsen's head was at peace.

- I'll never forget that feeling.

Would rather sail than go to school

Taatsiannguaq Berthelsen – or Taatsi, as everyone calls him – always knew he was different.

He was born in Nuuk on December 18, 1987. When he was two, his parents divorced, and he moved with his older brother and mother to Uummannaq – his mother’s hometown.

Here, the winter months were often spent hunting on the sea ice. While it was nothing for his brother, Taatsi Berthelsen loved every second – he always ran eagerly alongside the dog sled, he recalls.

- Life couldn’t get much better, he recalls.

Taatsi Berthelsen's little sister was born in Uummannaq. The family later moved back to Nuuk, and that was the end of going out to sea. The family didn't have a boat – and the then 7-year-old Taatsi Berthelsen was green with envy of all those who had one.

- I just wanted to go sailing, he says.

He often daydreamed about buying his own boat and becoming an independent fisherman or trapper.

- It was probably mostly the idea of ​​being out at sea that attracted me. Fishing and trapping was what people did out there back then, he says.

Despite their divorce, Taatsi Berthelsen's parents have always been extremely supportive, he says. But they wanted him to get an education.

However, their middle boy couldn't imagine a worse prison than high school.

- I was completely tired of school – I skipped a lot and went to work down at the shipyard instead, he says.

When Taatsi Berthelsen was around 16 years old and proclaimed that he saw no reason to get an education – that he could just become a fisherman – his parents showed him another way.

First he went sailing with the School Ship Danmark, and then – at his parents’ urging – he started at Royal Arctic Line as a ship’s mechanic’s apprentice.

It was a three-year course, where he was part of the engine crew, who went around down in the engine room and repaired and maintained the ship.

It was hard, Taatsi Berthelsen remembers. Every day, his arms were covered in oil – and his whole head was completely black.

But the work also took him where he most wanted to be: the sea.

The tourism adventure began with an old ferry

With Royal Arctic Line's red and white cargo ships, he sailed around the entire Greenland coast. From Qaanaaq to Northeast Greenland.

- But I got so tired of being dirty all the time.

Taatsi Berthelsen had conjured up the idea that it was up in the wheelhouse that he should go if he wanted to continue sailing without tiring himself to death in the engine room.

After a few years in Denmark at the Marstal Navigation School, he became a mate.

- It was a good job, he remembers.

One of the benefits of being out at sea for many weeks at a time was that he also had long periods at home.

Taatsi Berthelsen had finally got a dinghy ready, and spent most of his vacation sailing out and catching cod for Royal Greenland.

- I loved the sea, and I still had a dream of becoming self-employed. The only question was what to do, he says.

He had many ideas. Everything from a clothing store to a taxi business.

One day one of his friends asked if he would help with sailing with tourists. Taatsi Berthelsen accepted the offer.

- I just drove hard when I was home. I was out sailing almost every day – and I became more and more happy with that lifestyle; fishing for myself and sailing with tourists, he says.

For him, there were now two paths he could take if he was going to try to make a living from being self-employed: he could become a full-time fisherman or a full-time tourist operator.

The choice was made for him in 2019, when an old ferry was put up for sale. It was called ‘Kisaq’.

He took the owner down to the cutter quay in Nuuk to look at it, and soon after, his friend called – the same friend that Taatsi Berthelsen sailed with tourists for when he had time off.

The friend had heard that Taatsi Berthelsen was interested in buying Kisaq, and asked if they should buy it together.

- That's where Greenland Explorer started.

COVID-19 and fried pork

Starting out as an independent tour operator was tough. The couple signed the purchase of Kisaq on March 1, 2020.

In addition to being Taatsi Berthelsen's last day at Royal Arctic Line after just over 14 years with the company, it was 16 days before the first person in Greenland was infected with coronavirus.

In the weeks and months that followed, the country and the rest of the world shut down.

- My dream was to sail with foreign tourists, but I had to sail with locals instead. It was also great fun, but it wasn't exactly what I had in mind, says Taatsi Berthelsen.

He wanted to go on longer trips and expeditions with the tourists. Away from Nuuk and up to Disko Bay and further north – or to South Greenland.

But while COVID-19 had shut down all travel and tourism, Taatsi Berthelsen had to make do with small trips near Nuuk.

Even during the start-up period, they offered, among other things, 'roast pork with parsley sauce' boat trips around Sermitsiaq several times a week, he says.

- It was terrible! I'm still badly affected by it. I don't feel like eating roast pork, he says and laughs out loud.

COVID-19 didn't last forever, however. The world and the country opened up – and then tourism started up again.

In the winter of 2022, they had their first boat trips in the Maniitsoq area with tourists who wanted to ski. In 2023, Greenland Explorer also began sailing on longer expeditions during the summer period.

- From there, we went full throttle on tourism.

Not dreaming of millions and billions

The day after Taatsi Berthelsen took his friend's ADHD pill back in November 2023, he called the doctor and said that he wanted to be examined.

- I've been on the waiting list ever since, he says.

He notices the ADHD most on busy days. It can be difficult to see which task he should start with and where he should finish.

It's not unusual for his day to end up with all sorts of other things than what he had actually planned.

- When I get home, I sometimes ask myself: what the hell just happened?

Taatsi Berthelsen laughs a little as he tells the story – but it’s not funny. Until he can be cleared up one day, he has chosen to take matters into his own hands and buy the medicine himself on the black market.

- And you can’t. It’s drugs, he says.

But does the medicine work for you?

- Yes, absolutely.

When Taatsi Berthelsen, now 38, tries to imagine where his life will end up, he can’t.

- I don’t know, he replies.

He no longer runs a restaurant and laundry like he did a few years ago. He’s still busy, but after all, he only has to concentrate on running his tourism businesses.

At least almost. Because in the periods when he is not sailing so much, he also drives a bus for Greenland Excursions and sails with tourists for Nuuk Water Taxi.

- I am not built for office work, he explains and smiles.

However, he tries to take the weekends off as much as possible.

Taatsi Berthelsen does not dream of millions and billions - but of a safe and good life, where there is time to sail and be with friends and family.

- Sometimes I wonder why the hell I didn't just stay as a mate in Royal Arctic Line, he says.

It was a good job and it was stable – but he would probably have been bored to death if he had to do the same thing for 30 years, is the conclusion.

He often wonders if his inability to focus on one thing for long periods of time might have something to do with his ADHD.

- It sure does, he says.