Sokni hurried aboard just as they shoved off. Eirikr looked at him. “Last to boat but first to battle, I hope!”

Thus his initial crew was set. Under Eirikr’s navigation, they made the usual stops along the way for news and supplies, and to invite others to their quest. News was scanty, but supplies and crewman both grew in number.

Stern was Eirikr’s face against the salt air, his jaw set firm towards the task ahead. Few words escaped his mouth between ports, save a stray comment barely heard by another: “So much sea-ice, and so far into Spring...”

The first major sign of Vinland’s fate came when they sought the colony in Greenland. Up and the cost and back they sailed, wondering if their maps were wrong, or their eyes, since no sign of the settlement could be found. Finally, stray herds of cattle were sighted, and with heavy hearts they cast ashore to increase their store of meat. They tarried there a few extra days, by unspoken agreement. If there was disagreement, it also was unspoken.

They had come to the last and most perilous part of their trek across the whale-road: finding their way to the shores of Vinland itself.