Crossing

We've done the long sea route from Kirkwall to Aberdeen, which is overnight so its not too bad.

 Board at about midnight, head down and sleep as soon a possible and then arrive at Aberdeen at 7 am and drive home. 
This time we travelled north from Aberdeen. And here's the ferry,Hjatland as we wait to load

And we got the cars and trailer on the ferry 

Its a calm crossing, the captain said. So seeing as we had missed lunch driving north we went to get something fairly substantial to eat. 

Now is “its a calm crossing “ 
- an accurate statement so you can enjoy a decent meal when the ship leaves
- means the furniture doesn't need to be tied down 
-they always say that.

We assumed the first option.  After a couple of hours we didn't feel or look too great. I spoke to the crew who said it gets a better after the ship rounds Peterhead, sill about 30 mins away.

 Shortly after that we did feel a bit better, having relieved ourselves of the dinner we had eaten earlier. 

And looking around, we weren’t the only ones feeling like this.  But we only felt a bit better. Migrating to the middle of the ship helped and finding a couple of reasonably comfy chairs we managed to doze for the next couple of hours. 
        
Orkney came into sight shortly after 1030pm (daylight lasts a long time this far north at this time of the year), we docked at 1120 and the short drive to the B&B  and proper bed, followed by a proper breakfast.

I would do the Aberdeen crossing again – n=1 isn't usually  a good number on which to base long term decisions, but I certainly wouldn't have burger and chips trusting in a calm crossing. 
Anyway, we arrived