Obscure ‘Vikings’ Tackle an Unusual World Tour

They cruised into port suntanned and a bit salty but otherwise none the worse for wear, amid fanfare that was fairly scant and almost purely Scandinavian.

A news helicopter buzzed overhead. A firefighting boat paved their way, water cannons blazing. A dozen or so compatriots waited patiently at the docks.

Hardly a welcome fit for a king, but for a couple of modern-day Vikings, it’ll do.

Sweden’s Roy Karlsen and Ove Herlogson are being called that and more by those following their obscure and daring adventure around the world--in an 18-foot motorboat that has only a canvas canopy for cover and a built-in gas tank that holds only 35 gallons.

They carry much more fuel, of course, in plastic containers stored with other gear beneath the canopy.

“And we stopped smoking,” Herlogson assures.

The pair pulled into Marina del Rey on Monday afternoon, about one-fifth of the way through their journey, having run nonstop for seven hours from San Diego. It was the latest of many long legs during an odyssey aboard a little red boat powered by a 50-horsepower outboard that has served them faithfully since they left Lysekil, Sweden, last June 5.

Their travels have taken them 11,000 miles across the stormy North Atlantic, to Iceland and then Greenland before the most harrowing stretch, a 490-mile run to Labrador in the Canadian province of Newfoundland, during which they went sleepless for 55 hours while negotiating 50-foot peaks and dodging icebergs.

“You give me $10 million, I never try that again,” Karlsen said, while sipping a cold beer from the sunny California Yacht Club patio. “No, no, no, no! It’s so cold, you don’t even want to hear about it.”

At one point, his hands literally froze to the steering wheel and Herlogson had to pour water on them to free his grip. “That was crazy,” he said.

At Newfoundland, Herlogson recorded in his log, “Today we have been to the Viking village Lanc’s au Meadows. It was found in 1961 by Helge and Anne Ingestad from Norway. They have been here eight years excavating a village believed to be founded by Leif Eriksson in 1000 AD. It was a marvelous feeling to come here almost exactly 1000 years later.”

Off the East Coast of the United States they were tossed about by hurricanes Floyd and Irene. In Cuba, they were nearly rammed by a gunboat “because we were supposed to announce our arrival” and detained for three days.

In Nicaragua, they were ripped off by fuel salesmen and threatened with bodily harm by people who had more interest in their belongings than their historic quest. “We had to leave because of those people,” Herlogson said. “They wanted our engine and one guy killed a dog in front of my face and said, ‘This can happen to you.’ ”

They became pilots of what they claim is the smallest motorboat to pass through the Panama Canal, before making their way north along the coasts of Central America and Mexico.

When they set foot on the docks in Marina del Rey, they were greeted by mostly blond people waving Swedish and Norwegian flags (Karlsen is Norwegian but lives in Sweden), and met by Norway’s honorary consul general, Richard L. Fine, who proclaimed, “In these two we have the Vikings all over again, but in a far more modern situation. I think it’s unbelievable.”

Indeed, to sail around the world in a small boat is one thing. To attempt a circumnavigation in a small motorboat is quite another. The wind is an enemy, not an ally. Long crossings are not possible. Karlsen and Herlogson must hug the coast whenever possible and hope to find gas at every port of call.

If they complete their journey, they will have covered 55,000 miles, more than twice the circumference of Earth. They also will have become pilots of the smallest powerboat to have traveled around the world, thus earning an entry in the Guinness Book of World Records.

Their gas bill, they estimate, will total about $36,000.

Karlsen, 41, a former construction worker from Oslo, said the idea came about 10 years ago while he was making one of his 40-mile shopping runs from Lysekil in a 16-foot open boat to Skagen, Denmark, “because they have cheaper wine over there.”

“It was out there, where I got this crystal-clear vision. I thought, ‘If I can go over to that small town in such a little boat, I can actually do this around the world. I started working on it. I was focused.”

He divorced his wife four weeks before his departure in a marriage he said wasn’t working out, anyway. He left behind two young sons.

“I was fed up with my total life. I was out-burned,” he explained, struggling only slightly with his English. “And this is no escape. This is a dream. I want to have a world record nobody else can break.”

He and Herlogson, 38, who had been opal mining in Australia when contacted by his longtime pal, have no support team and only a handful of sponsors. One of them, Mercury, came aboard to drum up publicity for its more efficient and less-polluting four-stroke engines.

“We not only go around the world, but we go cleaner,” Karlsen said, “so there’s an environmental message too. Besides, you could not do this with a two-stroke.”

Like all great adventures these days, theirs is being chronicled on the Web at https://www.adventure

aroundworld.com. On the site is a map showing their progress and a log-book with entries written by Herlogson.

From Los Angeles, they will travel to San Francisco and Seattle, leading to a long and potentially dangerous hop across the Aleutian Islands to Russia’s Kamchatka Peninsula.

From there they will work their way south along Asia, toward and eventually through the Suez Canal, into the Mediterranean and ultimately back to Lysekil.

Asked about the pirates known to haunt the tropical waters off Asia, Karlsen said the pair would merely change nationalities during that stretch.

“That’s the only place where you want to go and sail with the American flag,” he explained, “because these guys down there have been watching the Rambo movies and they think every American is like that, da-da-da! . . . with the big gun.”

Asked about the prospect of spending another year or more atop a choppy ocean, he answered that he wouldn’t have it any other way.

“The ocean is like a drug. I have to have it,” he said. “I’m swimming all year [back home]. I cut holes in the ice and I swim. And I never use shoes, normally. I’m barefooted around the year. I never get cold.”

Finally, when asked if he misses his family and friends, he held up a satellite phone donated by one of the sponsors and said, “I called my mother today between San Diego and Los Angeles and told her all about the island [Catalina] out there. [The reception] was so crystal clear that she thought I was lying. She told me she had dinner on the table.”

NEWS AND NOTES

* Saltwater fishing: The first party boat-caught albacore of the year was hauled aboard the Vagabond on Wednesday morning, signaling the start of the 2000 season. Point Loma Sportfishing’s Vagabond, fishing 149 miles south, ended up with six fish weighing about 14 pounds apiece.

Meanwhile, the white seabass bonanza continues at Catalina Island, with the fish surfacing one day and sinking down the next. Yellowtail are spicing up the island bites, both at Catalina and San Clemente. Closer to the mainland, a full-scale barracuda invasion has finally begun.

* Freshwater fishing: Another successful Eastern Sierra trout opener has come and gone. Even DFG wardens caught their limits--of poachers, that is. They issued 79 citations last weekend--34 for over-limits, 15 for using barbed hooks in restricted waters, 12 for fishing before the start of the season, seven for fishing without a license, seven for possessing undersized fish, and one each for chumming, giving false statement to a warden and using two poles and fishing in a closed area.

* Women in the outdoors: The DFG’s popular Becoming an Outdoors Woman program will be in Santa Barbara County June 9-11. Deadline for registration is May 9 for a workshop at Rancho Alegre Boy Scout Camp featuring shooting, fishing, backpacking, survival skills, cooking and map-reading. Cost is $185. Details: (916) 657-4333 or (916) 653-7448.

* Rafting: Saturday is opening day of the 2000 whitewater season for most outfitters and forecasts call for a long and fun-filled season. A listing of California outfitters can be obtained on the Web at https://www.caloutdoors.org. Other sites of possible interest: https://www.gorafting.com and https://www.raftcalifornia.com.

* Spring skiing: Mammoth Mountain is the only game around, with plenty of snow and fairly good conditions. But the big news is the price of a season pass for next season. Until July 4, Mammoth is offering a limited number of 2000-20001 season passes for only $375, following a successful marketing ploy used by other large resorts around the country. Details: (800) 626-6684.