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A 32-metre long oak ship built using ancient Norse methods has sailed across the Atlantic and up the St. Lawrence River to Brockville, Ont. to demonstrate that Viking explorers may have travelled farther into North America than previously thought.
The Draken Harald Hårfagre set sail from Haugesund, Norway on April 24 with a crew of 32 volunteer sailors working in four-hour shifts.
Because a Viking long ship has no "below deck," 16 sailors at a time sleep under a tent below the 260 square metre red sail when not setting rigging, cleaning, preparing food, or manning the 25 pairs of oars.
Crossing the Atlantic
The Draken Harald is called the world's largest Viking ship, complete with a carved dragon figurehead at the prow and elaborate ornamentation throughout. It crossed from Norway to Reykjavik, Iceland in late April, then to Qaqortoq, Greenland, reaching St. Anthony, N.L. in June.
"You can't imagine the cold sometimes," Ahlander said of the Atlantic crossing. "It's so cold to be out when it's 2 degrees and a gale and 0 degrees in the water."
"It's very, very hard and challenging. Even if you try to imagine how it is, the reality is worse," he said.
When asked how they coped with the cold, Ahlander's answer was simple.
"We didn't cope, we were frozen."
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On one of the first legs of the journey to Iceland, he considered leaving some of the crew there, but he said they became stronger as the voyage continued.
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Watch out for growlers
Icebergs are a constant worry for ships crossing the Atlantic at this time of year, but it was the smaller ice chunks, known as growlers that worried the crew of the Harald Hårfagre.
"It's pieces of ice floating very near to the surface, you can't see them on the radar," he said.
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.
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"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 