June 7 - How to Be a Viking, Part 2

The researchers at the Viking Ship Museum have built several Viking ship replicas, using the tools the Vikings might have used. They wove the sails and treated them with wax and whatever else the Vikings used. Theey made the ropes and forged the bolts. You can see some of these ships in the harbor. And you can see some of them sailing around in the fjord. 

These are not party boats where you drink a lot and do the Macarena. They are serious boats, without any modern machinery. They are rowed by tourists. Ooh, ooh! I want to do that!!

It was fun! We were given instructions on how to put the oars into the water, how to row (keeping pace with the "stroke", the rower in seat #1), and so forth. 

I was sitting in seat #2, right behind the stroke. I thought the stroke might be a problem because he was a young boy about 12, but he turned out to be a good rower and I followed his pace and started to enjoy the synchronicity of rowing together as a team. Off course that wasn't going to last. I started crashing my oar into the oar behind me because her timng was way off. Sometimes the oar from seat #4 would also be all the way forward when my oar was supposed to be all the way back. Neither the woman in 3  nor the woman in 4 had a clue how rowing is supposed to work. They couldn't get the concept that everybody has to row together, following the along with the rhythm set by the stroke. Tehy were just marching to the beats of their own drummers. I found it very frustrating. Finally I just decided I was going to row to the rhythm set by stroke and if I crashed into oars 3 or 4 because they were out of synch, then it was their problem. If we had been in a real crew shell instead of an almost-real Viking boat, my fellow crew members would have found that not keeping time with the other rowers can have dire (and wet) consequences. How hard is it to keep your oar parallel to the one right in front of you?  

Despite this issue, I loved the experience. The boat moved nicely through the water and the oars worked well even though the oarlocks were just ropes and the seats did not slide back and forth like those in a rowing shell. I thought it was so neat to be able to see how a Viking boat worked and how efficient and well-designed it was. 

We rowed out of the marina area and once we got some distance from the shore we brought the oars back on board and raised the sail. 

It was fairly windy so we really got going. Our "captain" told us the boat could go 10 to 12 knots. After a while he had us turn the boat around and we sailed back to the harbor.

It occurs to me that an adventure like this would probably not be possible in the US. At the very least, a would-be Viking would have to sign a three-page waiver. The Coast Guard would likely be involved. The boat would have to have running lights and a dinghy for emergencies and there would be warning signs all over the place:

Watch out for splinters. 

If you are allergic to pine resin stay away from this boat. 

Ditto for wool. 

Beware of the boom. 

Life vest may malfunction. 

And so on.