Rough seas

The Captain warned us that we would be experiencing rougher weather once we left the protection of the fjords on our way to the Shetland Islands.  Yep.  And we are in the best room on the ship to feel the least movement - right in the middle, deck 9, midship.  Kinda bouncy nonetheless.  Imagine sailing on a ship without modern stabilizers.

To complicate matters, there was some difficulty overnight with the port propulsion system, such that our progress to Lerwick was slowed and our arrival delayed by a couple of hours.

Lerwick is a tender port, which means that the weather also determines if we go ashore. 

The sky is sunny and clear, a coolish 14 degrees.  The seas, however, are Very Rough, with 4 - 6 metre swells.  The Captain comes on the p.a. system to say that we're having to use thrusters and engines to maintain our anchorage.  He says it's unsafe at the moment to launch the tenders.  Stay tuned ....  An hour later, same message.  By 1 pm, absent any improvement in the seas, the Captain has decided to cancel our stop in Lerwick.  He's moving the ship to the northern tip of the island where the waters are calmer so that the engineer can work on the propulsion system.  

Makes for a great travel story!

So, this is all we saw of Lerwick  ...