Colliding with the ice can damage the hull or the rudder and in the middle of the Atlantic, the crew is far away from any assistance.
"It was very stressful in the night, we had sharp lookouts."
Ahlander is a hardy sailor, but he still says this voyage tested him the most.
"I have sailed big sailing vessels to China and back, but this is tougher, because you cannot have any breaking waves coming over your side."
The crew of a replica Viking ship that has sailed from Norway to Lake Erie says it might have to cancel the rest of its voyage because of an estimated $400,000 USD in unexpected expenses.
Crew members on board the Draken Harald Hårfagre told CBC News they recently found out they will have to pay a licensed pilot $400 USD per hour to board the vessel and navigate it through the international waters along the Canada-U.S. border, in compliance with the U.S. Coast Guard's pilotage regulations.
Norwegian replica of Viking ship arrives in Eastern Ontario
Viking replica ship stops in Quebec after crossing Atlantic
"We are devastated, of course we want to continue," said Sarah Blank, a crew member on board the vessel, which bills itself as the "world's largest" Viking ship built in modern times.
The Draken Harald Hårfagre left Norway on April 24 with a crew of 32 volunteer sailors, reaching St. Anthony, N.L., before sailing down the St. Lawrence River to reach Brockville, Ont. in late June. The ship is currently in Fairport Harbor, Ohio.
Blank told CBC News the crew was under the impression before the journey that the ship would not be subject to pilotage, since its less than 35 metres in length, which is the threshold for pilotage in Canadian waters.
But Robert Lemire, the head of the Great Lakes Pilotage Authority in Cornwall, Ont., said the rules changed once the ship entered American waters on the south side of Cornwall.
Trouble started in international waters
When it comes to pilotage regulations, the U.S. Coast Guard classifies the waters west of Cornwall, including the entire Great Lakes region — with the exception of the Welland Canal — as "international waters" because it "touches sides of both countries," Lemire said.
"As such, the Norwegian ship is required under American laws to avail themselves of a licensed pilot in all international and American waters of the Great Lakes," he said.
'We don't have the budget to continue.'
Pilotage laws were originally established to make sure foreign commercial ships safely navigate waterways — which can be narrow, and contain islands or shoals — "to protect public interest, public infrastructure and the crew on board," Lemire said.
But the crew argues it's not a commercial vessel.
Draken Harald Hårfagre
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Sons of Norway started a fundraise to help us cover the pilot fees in the Great Lakes. We have choosen their initiative to be the official one, and we are so grateful and overwhelmed over all the people wanting to help us to be able to sail and visit the port of the Great Lakes! Thank you! Help us sail again!
originally posted by: SentientCentenarian
Wonderful! I love tall ships and any replicas; what a wonderful experience to be able to sail them! I can hear the ropes creaking from here.
At San Diego's Maritime Museum, they just completed a replica of the 1540s 'San Salvador'; it was first put into the water just weeks ago-
Archaeologists have unearthed a stone hearth that was used for iron-working, hundreds of miles away from the only other known Viking site in North America.
PHOTOGRAPH BY ROBERT CLARK, NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC
By Mark Strauss
PUBLISHED MARCH 31, 2016
POINT ROSEE, CANADAIt’s a two-mile trudge through forested, swampy ground to reach Point Rosee, a narrow, windswept peninsula stretching from southern Newfoundland into the Gulf of St. Lawrence. Last June, a team of archaeologists was drawn to this remote part of Canada by a modern-day treasure map: satellite imagery revealing ground features that could be evidence of past human activity.
The treasure they discovered here—a stone hearth used for working iron—could rewrite the early history of North America