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| Cast and Crew | ||
| · | Lisa Lattes | |
| · | Barclay Jackson | |
| · | Hodding Carter | |
| · | Terry Moore, Captain | |
| · | Robert Stevens, Master Boatbuilder | |
| · | John Abbott | |
| · | Doug Cabot | |
| · | Homer Williams | |
| · | Dean Plager | |
| · | John Gardner | |
| - | Allison Hepler | |
Getting Ready |
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| · | The Food | |
| · | The Gear | |
Reports from Greenland |
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| The Game | ||
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Hi, I'm Barclay Jackson, the wife of one of the Viking Voyagers. Lands' End asked me to write to you this summer about my point of view on this journey the intrepid ones are undertaking.
Well, fair enough - I suppose the original voyagers left friends and family behind, too. In some ways, maybe those early left-behinds were better off. You say goodbye and mean goodbye forever. We get daily reports of every fog bank - inviting us to grope through vicariously!
So maybe I can fill in some of the details that explain how and why a 56-year-old fellow with a comfortable, interesting life would actively pursue the chance to spend four months away from home - cold, wet and probably dirty - in the sole company of ten other cold, wet and dirty men. And maybe you'd be curious about how and why that's okay with me.
About me
You should know right up front that I'm a lawyer. I didn't start out that way. I
studied theatre and then did all sorts of itinerant things to scratch out a living
before going to law school in Vermont. (If the lawyer business bothers you, maybe
you should click back to the main menu.)
I really love what I'm doing. I'm a regulatory lawyer. I work for the state of New
Hampshire in telecommunications law. That means I'm really busy just now, trying
to stay ahead of the technology curve and open up the market to competition. It's
complicated and challenging (that's the new word for hard-to-explain) and doesn't
have anything to do with Vikings - but a girl has to carve out her own niche.
My marriage to a Viking
You may have read my husband's bio on the website. He is Dean Plager, the one who
is actually Norwegian on his mother's side. Long before the Snorri was even a gleam
in Hodding's eye, Dean was telling me that he is a Viking. I believe him. How else
could you explain an Iowa boy moving to the seacoast of New England specifically
to learn to sail?
Dean and I have been married for seven years. On average, he's been away for about
three months a year. So we've been apart for 21 months during that time. Sounds Viking-ish
to me. During those seven years, he's been on trips of varying length to Central
Africa, Colorado, the Northwest Territory, Alaska, Nova Scotia, Bermuda, the Azores,
Madeira, the Canaries, St. Lucia, Martinique, the Virgin Islands, South Africa, Lesotho,
Greenland, and Baja Mexico. On these trips he sails, scuba dives, hikes, snorkels,
canoes, skis, pilots planes and drives dune buggies.
I only list all this to help you understand that this trip is part of a pattern.
These guys really are unusual.
So anyway, off he's going and off he'll go again. Last year as he set off, we talked
about the possibility that this Viking trip could end in disaster. He assured me
that if that happens and he doesn't come back, I should know that he was doing exactly
what he wants to do and was absolutely satisfied.
What can you say to that? How many regrets would I have if I woke up dead tomorrow?
Quite a few, I assure you. How about you? I tell you, this Viking is a rare person.
How we got mixed up in this
Dean and I were watching TV a year ago February when Dan Rather or someone
introduced a piece on a boatbuilder in Maine recreating a Viking boat. With help
from the public library and Ma Bell, Dean pinpointed the place and went up to see
and admire the work. Off and on for several months he went up to the boat shop in
Maine, making himself available for grunt work or whatever. He was just there, doing
what he wanted to do. He's still with them.
Dean left for Greenland on June 2. Even though the Snorri probably won't set sail
until July, Dean wants to take advantage of the opportunity to hike up on the ice
cap. After all, it's a once in a lifetime...
My own to-do list
I'll write again in a few weeks. Maybe by then the construction will have begun on
our house. While Dean is gone, I'm supervising a major renovation of our little house
- the result of a course I took on "Designing an Addition." We're taking
the roof off, adding a second story, moving the front entrance out and over so the
stairs have room to reach the second floor, and pushing out a sun room. Cool.
We've moved most of our belongings into a huge trailer on the front lawn and moved
ourselves into a little apartment for the duration. I'll miss Dean this summer, but
I'll have lots to do - and free rein to make all the house decisions myself!