In the past few weeks, we have had several items in Cruising Compass on high latitude sailing, including a survey a few weeks ago that revealed that a lot of readers harbor dreams of high attitude sailing and quite a few have already done so.
Among the correspondence we’ve had on the topic is an email from regular contributor Dick Stevenson, who recommended that we bring to your attention the Cruising Club of America’s guide to crossing the Atlantic by the Viking Route.
The 282-page tome was first published in 2023. Called the CCA Essential Passage Guide to the Viking Route, the book covers sailing in the waters from Northern Europe to Labrador on Canada’s East Coast. It is hard to image now but this route and the islands along the way were first visited by Danes and Vikings of Scandinavia from the eighth century onward.
Sailing in open, lapstrake, double-ended vessels with banks of oars and square sails, these intrepid explorers weathered wild North Atlantic weather and navigated without compasses or other navigational devices we would recognize. But they did it and found their way across the ocean hundreds of years before Columbus.
The guide was edited for the CCA by veteran cruiser William Strassberg, MD who is intimately familiar with high latitude sailing in the. Atlantic. He was aided by Dick Stevenson who sailed the route with his wife Ginger. And, Englishman Bob Shepton also contributed, based on his many voyages to Iceland and Greenland.
When asked to comment on why a new guide to the Viking Route was needed, Shepton replied: …because this guide is different; it does not follow the pattern of a general Pilot. It stands alone and is perhaps unique in that it pursues a different course—literally. It follows a specific route across the Arctic…in-depth, but not complex or complicated, and therefore suitable both for those who have not been to the Arctic before, and also for those who have, as there is much included that would be useful additional information…. This really is a valuable additional resource for Arctic sailors of whatever vintage, and I strongly recommend it.
For those of us who are fascinated by the north, the CCA guide will make fun reading and can be a source of vicarious cruising. For those of us who are seriously contemplating sailing to Labrador, Greenland, Iceland and Northern Scotland, the book is essential reader.
Read more and order the book here.
