Sam (the owner of the Yrsa), several members of Norstead, and a few members of other VA LH groups in the Midwest are planning on setting sail in the Yrsa down the Missouri River from St. Joseph to St. Charles, Missouri over the period of July 5th thru July 16th.
The trip will be approximately 425 miles along the river from river mile marker 450.4 at the French Bottom boat ramp in St. Joseph to river mile marker 27.5 at the Blanchette Landing boat ramp in St. Charles, MO.
Sam is also arranging media attention as the whole purpose of the trip is to further expand the public's awareness of our re-enactment time period and hopefully Norstead in the process.
We are going to complete this trip in as Viking period a fashion as we can. This includes clothing and kit and equipment used during "public" hours or what we deem as times when we are likely to be seen/photographed by the public or media.
In addition Sam is attempting to find a sponsor that will help with the costs of this endeaver in return for being named as the sponsor each time I am talking to the public and media. If this happens he will also be able to get a nice banner type flag made up for them to fly from the mast with the sponsor's name or logo on it. We of course would like to get a sponsor that is "scandinavian" oriented like the Sons of Norway or Icelandic Glacial Water but we don't know if that would be possible.
The listed average speed of the river is 3-8 miles an hour. Sam believes he can maintain a speed on the river through rowing or sailing that will allow us to make between 40 and 50 miles a day. Much depends on daily weather conditions including temperature, wind speed and direction.
Fortunately, there are conservation areas and boat ramps with camping and toilette facilities all along the stretch we will be traveling and we are going to plan to stop at those areas when convenient.
We will also be doing some primitive camping along available sand and gravel bars as needed.
Sam had planned this last year but it was a bust due to the Amish begining construction on the buildings at Norstead at that time.
I personally wont be able to make the entire trip but am planning on making at least one leg of the trip with him and am excited to be a part of this adventure!
