Waking up to a similar calmness we decided to take the plunge and donning our Crewsaver Ergofit 290N lifejackets we cast off from the mooring. We took the opportunity to try the outboard out yesterday, to run it in as well as trying to see if it was suitable for what we had planned for it. We took the boat down to Eday and back by outboard bringing its total running time up to 7 hours. On the whole it seemed to perform well and really helped our confidence in it as a viable auxiliary engine.
Which meant we needed to trial the Volvo Penta inboard and a trip to Fair Isle seemed as good of time as any. Fair Isle lies about 40nm to the North East of Papay most of which is open sea. Although exceptionally lucky with the weather we were given a more realistic indication of what we might experience when heading for Norway with several rougher patches on the way. (not that the picture suggests anything but mirror calm!)
We took time at Fair Isle to practice approaching landings which we were unfamiliar with which will help us massively in the future. 6 hours after departing we returned to the mooring just as the weather appeared to be taking a turn for the worse.
Great to spend some time getting familiar with the feel of the boat in circumstances similar to that of a crossing to Norway, although the chances of getting relatively smooth seas for 400miles is less likely!
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