• Sunday, 13th of May, 1498
    Queen Eleanor has authorized me to follow the tracks of a unique item my mother found in the market yesterday, in search of new lands and wealth for Char. Any and all land found is to be claimed for Char and anything that I deem valuable shall be retrieved. If I find land I am to seek a northerly passage around it and map what coastline I encounter. I am required to bring back samples of unusual flora and sketches or the animals and people, if any. In return, Her Most Serene Highness has agreed to supply and provision a ship for a two-year voyage and choose the crew. It is a most generous offer and I am very glad that Queen Eleanor has authorized this voyage. The artifact that I will be tracing is a feather, similar to that of a kingfisher but larger with a most singular hue. It is neither black, white nor any shade of grey. It has a number of hues present, all of them strange.. The Scandinavian trader to whom it belonged said that it was a parrot feather that he had inherited from his many times great grandfather Leif Eriksson who found a new land across the seas to the west after being exiled to Greenland. I hope to follow his path, starting in Scandinavia to find out his route and sailing west to Greenland and then, I hope, to this new land. If I succeed Char will become the most powerful country in Europe, in terms of wealth, land and power. I must not fail!

    Monday, 14th of May, 1498
    This journal is my personal record of the voyage that I am soon to undertake. During this voyage, I shall write every Sunday of the events of the week. This journal should be fat and bulging by the end of my voyage for it will be a long and hazardous one. The only similar voyage ever undertaken was that of Christobál Colon, in 1492. He hit rocks a day away from Portugal and had to be brought back by fishermen. I have hit upon a plan of recording the distance and direction traveled each time we change direction or speed in a log, separate from this journal, in order that our course be easily charted so that others can follow our path. I believe that it will be easier than astronomical navigation. Tomorrow I shall inspect my ship, The East Winds Blessing.

    Tuesday, 15th of May, 1498
    The east Winds Blessing is a beautiful ship. She is a three-mast carrack with a top sail on the main mast. Only the mizzenmast has old fashioned lateen sails. That is to be expected. But this ship is so modern that she has a steering wheel. Not only is she equipped for such high speeds as 7.5 knots, but she is beautiful, too. Her boards are dark oak, nearly black against the waterline.
    The mast extension is barely visible on the main mast. Her canvas sails are so clean that they are nearly white and the sum gleams off the brass stand for the wheel. She is by far the best ship in the harbour and I am eagerly looking forward to sailing on her. Today I also met the lieutenant and the boson. The lieutenant is the son of a friend of my mother’s and we know each other well. The boson is the well-to-do brother-in-law of our cook. Both are honourable men and I trust them greatly. I have give the boson the task of choosing the provisions for our ship with a budget of ‡1000. One thousand quins is not a small amount of money, however it is not excessive and William will have to be careful how he spends it. When the boson had left to see the merchants, I took Robert to see the inspiration for the voyage. He was fascinated when I told him what I had found out about Eriksson and has agreed with my plans for the voyage.

    Wednesday 16th of May, 1498
    The boson has bought most of what we require, leaving us with ‡200 and †75. The seventy-five chars spent on trading goods this morning for if we find inhabited land, and the two hundred quins I will save for Scandinavia and Greenland, to ease the search for information and to restock. I bought a quantity of beads and glass and pottery items, a number of images of Christ, to demonstrate our religion and many pictures of Her Most Serene Highness Queen Eleanor, that they might acknowledge her as a good person and a bringer of good things. It is my hope that any people we find will appreciate the value of such things. If we find people.

    Thursday, 17th of May 1498
    We will be leaving the day after tomorrow for the New World. The day after tomorrow!
    This week has gone by very fast. I have been going over my wind charts and it appears that it will be easy to follow one wind current from the strait of Gibraltar all the way to Scandinavia. It may then become more difficult but I believe it should be possible. I only hope there are no violent storms during the journey. I am not a very experienced sailor. I shall have to trust William for that. I am very lucky to have him as boson. It is unusual to get such an experienced boson on your first voyage, but then again, this is a rather unusual voyage. It is very important that I succeed. It would not do for my ship to sink.