Really... I didn't know that...
No way... You shall never say that again. And here is why...
Your right, they could not sail against the wind... Only downwind... Do you think that makes it harder or easier to navigate? Much harder...
They didn't fluke their voyages to Iceland, Greenland and Canada... They were masters of celestial navigation and leaders in the most advanced ship building designs and techniques...
In the middle of the ocean they knew where they were, where they were going, what time of year it was... And they did all their sailing near the arctic waters where there is risk of getting eaten up by ice...
It wasn't until the Portuguese invented triangle sails in the 14th or 15th century that they started to sail into the wind... My parents are Portuguese. They are great navigators as well... But the Vikings were masters, unmatched in their era... So don't you ever let me catch you saying such crazy things again... LoL
I think it was lucky that the Vikings found Christianity because they were in the process of conquering the whole of Europe and kind of settled down after the 10th century
I know history books try to make the Vikings seem incredibly intelligent and skilled, but they were mostly brave.
Who could navigate at that time?
I know that we have endless stories of Vikings missing their target, I don’t believe that they were great navigators, and I’ve never seen any proof of that either. I believe they were brave and hard working, which made them succeed, but I simply refuse the good navigator story.
USA was most likely found by Vikings failing to reach Iceland.
Navigating in the North Sea also isn’t that complicated. UK on your left side, Sweden and Norway on the right, when facing north. If you ignore Sweden on your right and go right, you end up in the Baltic Sea.
Go between UK and Norway -> Iceland.
Go between UK and Norway and ignore Iceland -> Greenland.
Vikings thought of themselves as brave, not good navigators..