The Cruising Club of America just published a new book that follows the routes of the Vikings across the treacherous waters of the North Atlantic hundreds of years ago, written by club members who have recently cruised there themselves.
The book is the CCA Essential Passage Guide to the Viking Route, and it includes the Faroes, Iceland, Greenland, Newfoundland, and Labrador. It’s edited by William Strassberg, MD, who has cruised the Viking route himself, with the help of other club members who have also cruised all or part of it.
The guide is unique in that it covers the specific route the Vikings took from their homeland all the way to North America. It notes that Danish, Swedish and Norwegian explorers used unrivaled boat-building, navigational and seamanship skills to travel across the North Atlantic more than 400 years ago. The Vikings actually made their way to North American 500 years before Columbus arrived in the Caribbean.
“The Vikings knew that a battle with the ice was one they could never win, and the same remains true to this day,” write Douglas Bruce and William Fitt, co-chairs of the CCA’s Guide Committee. “The average cruising boat is not designed to withstand a collision with even a modest-sized piece of ice, and is certainly not designed to be trapped in the pack ice to be found in the northern areas covered by the guide.”
The CCA says that navigating the Viking route through ice and cold water requires a different skill set than most captains acquire by cruising in warmer climates. The book addresses those skills with chapters on passage planning, ice navigation, cold water safety, weather routing, and specialized gear.
The 227-page paperback book is for sale for $64.95 at Amazon and Landfall Navigation.
