Two nights, not a bed in sight. I really like the Northlink ferry, but was this a bad idea? 

The designers should be required to sleep on one for two weeks, and then see how well designed they become.

@@theherrdark4834 Those pods look a lot like first class commercial airliner seats on US airlines. Being of such size that coach accommodation on commercial airliners just won't work (it is actually a safety hazard and even at my greatly reduced 375 pounds I am not legally allowed to fly coach, years ago I weighed a hefty 550 pounds) I pay about $1500 round trip from Grand Rapids, MI; Detroit, MI or Chicago, IL to San Francisco/Oakland, CA or Los Angeles, CA whereas if I were 150 pounds lighter and a foot shorter I could get away with only paying about $300. I usually recline for a nap in my expensive first class seat as the flight is about four to five hours. Unfortunately we don't have the option for fish and chips at a bar on airline flights and the food is universally shitty although I usually ask for and receive some Biscoff cookies as food (including a meal) is included on first class flights, IIRC I was told that Biscoff cookies are about 50 cents per pack of two or three in coach although I haven't flown coach since deregulation in the late 1970's, I had to make a shorter flight in a plane without first class so they sold me a business class seat (IIRC the flight was to Ottawa, ON -- about a 10-12 hour drive from my house) -- never the hell again, I will have my driver take me to wherever in my car before I do THAT again considering sometimes she has to drive me to Chicago (about six hours from my home, Detroit is about five hours and Grand Rapids about an hour and a half) anyway!

TV

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I am 70 and plan on a cabin. Visiting Scotland for the first time next September ❤

That is Wowww story!

Homesick for furry boot city ? Get yourself some professional therapy before it's to late ! 😂 Malta warm , Aberdeen Baltic

Dave, you are absolutely spot on!

Just what I tought!

Good idea. Better design all round could make it great.

They'll never do it unless they change the seats altogether. Think of all the work it would require. The fixtures of how the seats attach to the floor would have to be redone, lighting redone, other electrics etc.

Wow that sounds fascinating.

Hello Andrew! I think I agree. My sleep is important.

Oof there's a challenge! Aye, I totally agree with you now mate!

Sleep and a cabin is very important

Thanks so much guys! Haha enjoying some pleasant weather eh?! :)

Oh it's SO high on the list!

I was ok on that boat when a group of us took our sea kayaks over for two weeks a few years ago. Several people were sick...it does roll quite a bit. It is shallow draft to get in to St Marys.

A friend of mine did that crossing a few years ago. He was so seasick that he was hospitalised and came back to the mainland on a helicopter.

@knobjockey76 Cost is always a factor, but those vessels may not be suitable because the voyage from Aberdeen to Shetland takes at least 12 hours in good weather and longer if the ferry also has to dock in Orkney, so it's much further than the route which you mentioned, the North Sea is a relatively shallow sea so the wind soon makes it very active and dangerous and there are areas where the Atlantic ocean meets the North sea and the currents there can be treacherous.

Hey Michelle I had my eye on that VERY spot, but unfortunately I was too late! I always love the crew on the Northlink - super friendly and professional :)

Aye good point Blair - VERY quiet on the outbound leg!

Steve - I see less face mask wearing. What is Europe's current concern on the COVID B4 and B5 variants? Seems very transmittable and reports are saying the current vaccines aren't blocking it. I'm planning an early December trip to Munich and remain vigilant.

Cheers Davey! A pleasure to show you the trip, although 'pleasure' might not be the right word :)

I barely see a mask anywhere now, to me it looks like it's being treated more like a flu now. Certainly though unless 99% of people are wearing masks, it won't make much difference anyway. Interested to see how it develops

@@mstrdiver they are not vx cines at all; theyre something farr worse

You're very welcome Brian! I couldn't do it this way again! :)

Yes, because we have such an extreme difference between mid-summer and mid-winter the difference is noticed every 2-3 weeks. Sadly, we've had a dreadful summer with little clear sky so we haven't been able to enjoy the 24hr light.

Try Alaska or Nunavut in the middle of June or July sometime. The sun never sets. However, the sun also never rises in the middle of January!

John I bow to your superior knowledge and will also be booking a cabin from now on! I wouldn't do it on the shorter crossings though as I need to be outside filming. Hey, great idea about getting some kip out on deck! Cheers :)

Iv done the overnight English Channel and a cruise of the Dalmatian coast and slept like a baby in the cabin. Iv done lots of trains two/three days in my youth when money was tight no cabins and it’s tough so I’d never do a boat without a cabin.

Cheers Christopher! I think you make a good call. I do prefer a wee flight, especially if the weather is decent, views can be incredible :)

Oof! That would have been a great video though! :D

My mother had a tray with a little USB powered fan that she used for her laptop on trips. They date back to when the old Pentium 4 laptops needed the fan but they folded flat for placement in her laptop case and they kept the computer from choking on the comforter even though by that time the fan was no longer necessary. I bought one for one of my nephews about five or six years ago (ironically identical to the one my mother had), my mother got about 6-7 years out of hers before the legs broke, the fan was quite noisy by that time as well. For traveling they were well worth the $20 I paid.

I did that journey as a kid and didn't get one hour of sleep. The seat reclined only about 45 degrees, the lights didn't fully turn off and that combined with being surrounded by a bunch of strangers completely out in the open just made the whole thing feel very on edge. Don't think I would ever do any sort of overnight journey again without a cabin, bar flights of course.

Totally agree Peter, never again will I put myself through this, not for both directions anyway :D

@@steve-marsh totally, know it is different with a 3-4 hour crossing going to Ireland against 12 hours going to Shetland, have tried to sleep in Stena plus lounge but always someone talking or bright lights on. Also can never sleep on aircraft even in business class

@@peterdnreynolds777 If you want some sleep or at least rest try the Stena Hygge seats, they are fixed recliners with acres of space unlike those rubbish "pods", no food and drink like the + lounges though. Obviously a cabin is better but I find it hard to justify the price on the short crossings for little more than 3 hours rest.

Glad to hear you fared better than me Tom!

@@steve-marsh I've been told that I could sleep on a chicken's lip!

As for the sea sickness tablets, in the States, meclizine tablets are sold as generics and they are usually quite cheap. Your doctor can prescribe patches worn behind each ear but my mother found that the cheap meclizine tablets worked well enough for her and her sea sickness was legendary (she even got "sea sick" riding in the back seat of a car). My parents and I had the same doctor at one time and the doctor messed up on prescribing the patches for sea sickness, prescribing them to me instead of her (even though we lived at different addresses and had different medical insurers) once. When I had to switch doctors at one point my then new doctor had one hell of a time figuring out why I had the sea sickness patches prescribed to me. We finally figured out what happened but it took a few minutes.

In 1962 I would have bought a couple more cases of lager for the guys, a couple of quarts of whiskey or vodka for me and had one hell of a good time! Back then I would have slept at my destination but I was only 16 years old at the time (at least in the States most areas didn't have a drinking age back then, if you could climb up onto the bar stool or see over the liquor store counter you could have your alcoholic beverage) and just starting university so I wouldn't have cared if I slept or not.

Thanks mate! I think you'd make the best decision, I'd be in the cabin too next time - especially for the outbound journey, otherwise you're just walking around Shetland like a zombie! :)

Cheers Paul, I'm getting better these days at adding the extra info! :)

Just being able to stretch the legs and walk about freely makes it better for sure

Totally agree with you mate!

Endorse the Itchy Boots recommendation, she is an inspiration.

My sister tells me the secret to traveling alone as a woman is to be a 350 pound woman and be able to bench press a large car engine. No one ever gave her trouble while traveling alone and she used to go to New York City and Los Angeles regularly. She went to places where even I as a similarly sized man wouldn't dare go in large cities and everyone I ran around with thought I was the brave one (she even walked around in Skid Row, Los Angeles at close to midnight, she definitely doesn't look like she belongs there but she didn't get hassled about it -- I make sure to have whomever is driving me avoid that area of town)!!!!!

The country wasn’t overrun with mystery meat back then.

Totally know what you mean Anthony - it costs a fortune to get up there, and even more if you intend to stay! Really like Bolts car hire in Shetland though - they are a great option, well used to be anyway, not used them for a few years.

Sounds good. I remember one daytime ferry crossing in a gale - at one point I heard a big crash from the deck above and realised it was probably a vending machine or something similar tipping over. I was very glad to see the harbour wall of our destination gliding past.

Cheers for the info! I'll be there next time (even if in a cabin!) and I'll stay away from flying vending machines :)

Barney, I would have loved to see the old St Clair, the lift on lift off one! Wow!

Boats??? WTF

​@@steve-marshI was on the old St Clair a few times. There were green plastic couchette style bunks in sort of open cabins, & the steward gave you a tartan rug. Was fine, far far far better than stupid Serco money grubbing pods. Mind you, smaller boat & no stabilisers ! Then when they hoisted your car out & put it on the quay a docker drove it clear. They did in my mum's accelorator pedal.

Cheers mate! Likewise! :)

I'm with you there Lynne - cabin every time from now on!

Glad you had a better experience Iain! I just think they are too crammed in, but it will be in line with demand I guess! But if they took some creative design tips from Japanese ferries, I believe they could fill the space with much more comfortable options and maybe make even more money!

Aye, it was fairly calm seas both ways for this part of the world, but flying is so much more fun and if the weather is right, the approach into Sumburgh is stunning :)

It's not actually so bad - a lot of the captains are locals to these places and know the waters very well (I'm from the outer hebrides so very much used to the calmac crossings in the north west). Also it's pretty common to see marines doing their training exercises on these ferries with the choppers and boats (which could be a reason why the helicopter pad deck is closed off to the public sometimes), as they'll be doing it in all sorts of conditions, day or night. Also common to see lifeboat services doing training as well, and a lot of marine students actually go to the north of Scotland for their training. If your stomach is sensitive to the swells though, best place on a boat to be is at the back and as close to the middle as possible on a ferry this size. If you're travelling on one of the much smaller ones (like the harris-uist connection), then you are on a tiny block that is thrown about in the waters in all directions lol, I would say that's the primary route where I've seen tourists genuinely panic because they think the boat is going to tilt all the way into the ocean lol. Also the northlink ferries, the charge for the recliners is actually a tourist trap - if there's seats free and you haven't paid for one, you can actually use it. Paying for a seat just guarantees that you get one, so it's like a reservation of sorts (similar to what happens on the train where you can sit anywhere unless a seat is marked as reserved between a specific route). :)

Ahh, I didn't realise I could have avoided the £3.50! Aye, the advantage of summer of course is more daylight to film :) I'll take a look at the Japanese ferries, cheers! But the pods - they just try to stick too many in the space without thinking of comfort at all.

Sounds fantastic! Would have loved to have sampled some of that hot chocolate!

First trip I made to Orkney was on the Sunniva in 1989. That was when it went to Stromness & docked at 19:00 ish. A civilised time.

Thanks so much Julie! Welcome aboard :)

Think he was on he Hjatland , but filmed the sister ship Hrossey

Sounds awful but good point Rob :D

I think you are spot on with that! But yes, a cabin for me next time as well :)

One of the very best!

Ahhh that makes sense! And always trust a Shetlander!

To be honest. It’s the North Sea. Don’t think it would matter what ships they were using, it’s still go be rough.

@@xr6lad I know how it works, what I’m saying is there no ship in the world that doesn’t move about in a swell. These ships are only 20 odd year old and to be fair I’ve been in worse ships in next to no swell😂 Plus deeper draft means deeper harbours etc.

my old man works on these northlink ships, he also worked on the St Sunniva when it was P&O. The old ships had stabiliser system that could be activated in rougher seas. Without them you would be worse than the newer northlink ships. The newer ships don't have that however they were built for the North Sea. If you had ever crossed the sea from scrabster to Stromness on the old P&O ships you would understand how decent the northlink ones are. That 1 didn't have stabilisers and it was horrendous in slightly bad weather. I've slept in the pods a few times and if they had slightly more legroom they would be fine. However a cabin is essential usually for these trips 🤣🤣 In 1992 we were on the old P&O boat going home.to shetland from Aberdeen. I was only about 8 years old but I remember clear as day how rough it was. Not a seat left in site in the old bar and every glass in there was smashed. There was busted windows and the whole place was a wreck. I think that's why the newer ships are tied down hahaha.

the northlink boats don't go in all weathers because they know they can't handle all weathers. the p&o boats were very rarely cancelled no matter what the gale force. i also recall some hellish trips on the stclair and remember the sunniva being referred to by the locals as a 'tub'.

Thanks anghara I'll try my luck sleeping in them on my way to Lerwick this Christmas !

Cheers Gary! :)

Aye, you're not allowed access at all to the vehicle deck when sailing - otherwise I think everyone would be done there :) Good spot by the way - I remember noticing that onboard despite the prices being great, this was ridiculous! :)

Ah, campers and motor homes, best way to crowd the roads in the pristine remote areas and not spend a penny for the economy after you leave your rubbish and such.

Haha cheers Alexander! I always have a lot of that kinda stuff downloaded on my phone, and I need to skip them when they start playing during flights :D

Go for it! :)

Thanks for sharing Angus, would love a shot at some of the ferries over there!

@@steve-marsh Hey Steve. Many thanks for your comment. I shall try and get some shots of the Ferries here for you. The Australian National Line (ANL) are introducing two new Ferries soon, but I shall try to get the shots of The "Old" "POT (Princess of Tasmania) the m/v Empress of Australia which followed the POT and the subsequent ferries. How can I get the pics to you? BTW; I am looking at the Japanese Ferries as well. There is a chappy who uses the pen name "Solo Travel Japan" who travels all around the Japanese Islands and gives pics of the food, cost et al. He does not speak but puts up text which is easy to follow. Chat soon mate.

Superb Aidy! Cheers for sharing!

You're a fortunate man to be able to sleep so well :)