Six months ago I set out on the most unusual and the wettest journey of my life
By Nathan Williams
BBC Timewatch
I was on board a replica http://www.wvwnews.net/story.php?id=1165.
The aim of the voyage was to test the http://www.wvwnews.net/story.php?id=344 and gain an insight into how the Vikings would have fared when making the same journey.
One of the first lessons was just how dependent we were on the weather.
With two days of strong winds in the right direction, we had managed to sail over 250 miles (400km) in one stretch.
But once we reached Norway, the situation changed. For 10 days we were stuck on land with the wind blowing in the wrong direction or not at all. A Viking ship is very poor at tacking (sailing into the wind by zigzagging).
Using the oars is possible for short distances but getting all the way to Scotland would take hundreds of hours of continuous rowing.
So the only option was to wait for the wind to change.
At first it was a welcome relief after 48 hours in an open boat in the rain. But boredom soon turned out to be the biggest hazard.
Faced with the same adverse winds, the Vikings would have faced an additional problem and I wonder if this could be at least part of the explanation for the Viking reputation for rape and pillage.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/7171577.stm