Voyage of the Sea Stallion
The reconstructed Viking ship Havhingsten, or Sea Stallion from Glendalough, has reached Kirkwall in the Orkney Islands. The ship was towed most of the way across the North Sea from Norway.
The Sea Stallion is a reproduction of a 30 meter long Viking warship from Roskilde, Denmark. A team of 65 men and women is sailing the ship to Dublin. The project has a research goal of understanding how the Vikings accomplished their voyages. So far the project seems to be providing an additional lesson in how difficult sailing the North Sea really was: the weather has not been cooperating, and several crew members have been treated for hypothermia. Going on from Orkney, the Sea Stallion will have only a small support ship, so they will have to be more self reliant.
The voyage can be followed on several websites with journal entries, expert commentary, maps and videos, including the Havhingsten site and the BBC Viking Voyage site.