When I say "ferry", you may picture a fairly small vessel that takes a few cars and a dozen or two passengers on a route from 5 minutes to 3 hours. This ferry is a bit bigger. The Northlink ferry takes 13 hours to travel from Aberdeen to Shetland via the Orkney island. It holds maybe a hundred cars plus up to 600 passengers. The basic fare of around $30 gets you passage - and extra $100 gets you a cabin, which hold 2-4 beds. As a cruise ship - it's rock bottom. As a ferry, it's top of the line. We had a cozy outer cabin with two beds, our own bathroom with tiny shower, and a big window.
We boarded right at 3 pm. After 18 hours in transit, we were grateful to settle into our space, unpack a bit, and then roam the ship. Like the plane, there were very few passengers compared to summer. The ferry is a lifeline for the islands. When storms kept it for operating for five days last month, the shelves at the big grocery store, Tesco, got really bare. So there was probably plenty of cargo even if there weren't as many human passengers. But for us, the extra space was a bonus.
As I mentioned earlier, we'd been watching the wave forecast on windy.com. We'd been concerned that they'd cancel the crossing, as they'd done twice the previous week. Nope. But they did give us a special handout on rough crossings, which noted that we could rebook, and that we'd have to be especially careful to hang on when walking. They were right.
The first part was lovely. There were boats to see in the Aberdeen harbor, and sailors to watch with the ropes. We shared a "jacket potato" for dinner in the restaurant - a fairly small and mild meal. We fell asleep to the noticable rocking of the ship.
After the stop in the Orkneys around midnight, the rocking got more pronouced as the winds came from the west at up to 35 knots (we were traveling north) and we were pelted by heavy rain. By the time we were apporaching Fair Isle, the boat was merily pitching and rolling to and fro. It was exciting. I could hear sloshing, only to realize it was the toilet. Walking turned into lunging from one handhold to another. No way were we planning to leave our cabin. Out the window we could see the surf as the boat crashed up and down and sideways. The safety briefing told us that if we heard signal - seven short blasts followed by one long one - we should dress warmly and go to the meeting place (the restaurant). I thought a lot about what I'd wear. I sometimes get seasick but I was doing fine - until I wasn't. Good thing they keep seasick bags in every cabin. We watched some TV (I watched the reflection in the window so I could keep the horizon in sight) and finally were able to get back to sleep. When we woke up, we were almost to Lerwick and the sea was calm.
We arrived to a gorgeous morning. Overcast, windy and dry, and so familiar. A lovely woman from Bolts met us with our car - and remembered us from last summer. Last week, during Up Helly Ah, they ran out of cars, but this week they had plenty for crazy tourists who wanted a car for 21 days in February. They issued us a cute bright yellow Kia Picanto. I'd chosen a manual transmission this time, partly because it's cheaper than automatic, but mostly because I wanted more control of the transmission on the hills. But that meant both driving AND shifting on the left. I was right about the power - but it's taking a long time to not reach down with my right hand for the stick shift!
We headed straight for Tesco and loaded up on a few days worth of groceries, and then headed north.... Next up - crossing Shetland to Unst!
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