Back aboard!

We have now returned to Quickstep in Unst! With the past few weeks busy with various arrangements seeing us head south we are finally back aboard and in a position to say 'for good' this time!

We've spent the past few weeks spread between Papay, Kirkwall, Aberdeen and a quick stop back in Unst too, in fact we have barely spent a day together darting between places, so it's great to be back aboard, together and waiting for that all important weather window. So long as there is no unforeseen problem it is now our full plan to get on with Papay Arctic Adventure, we have no future appointments or ties to the UK and so it is really a waiting game.

On our short return to Unst last week, the locals were busy with the annual moving of the young salmon. Salmon are anadromous, meaning that in the wild they are born in fresh water migrating to the salt water as adults and returning to fresh water to spawn. The local Salmon farmers have the task of taking the Salmon from the fresh water lochs and to do this they use a helicopter!

With nothing left preventing us beginning our trip to Norway apart from weather we will make the most of the "spare" time to keep adjusting the boat. Now as soon as we spot a spell of calm weather approaching which will need to span Shetland to Norway we will begin the fuel filling process, which with so many litres to load will take a considerable time! We are avoiding loading this too soon as the boat will be so heavy with the added fuel that we will not self drain without being on the plane, this would be a nuisance while living aboard, especially if the weather was to be particularly rough and wet, meaning day or night during rain we would be required to head out with a bucket every now and again - something we would rather avoid!

Unfortunately we are relying on forecasts, which often might not ring true when we look out the window! The logistics of forecasting for Unst a dot miles off the north of Britain surrounded with vicious seas, with nothing North until the north pole, East until Norway and West until Greenland is near impossible, and its no surprise they/us can't always be right! Upsetting for us, a wrong forecast might make us miss one of the few possible crossings which would be suitable for us, and so we can only wait with fingers crossed, patiently (something neither of us are known for!).

All in all it is great to be back on track and fully ready for the crossing, as the season moves on we most likely will be presented with more opportunities for leaving. The added daylight is a real benefit too, in mid December we had only around 7 hours of light a day where as we are now almost at 17hours a day, making for a brighter crossing when it comes, much preferable when travelling at high speeds. It is nice to be on Unst, but our aim when we set off in August was to travel Norway, and that is still very much our plan.

On a little side note which some of you boaty people might find interesting, Carson RIBs (Which Quickstep is one of) are back in production with ProBond Marine, working along side Barry Carson to make great world class RIBs. Give them a look over at http://www.probondmarine.co.uk/ something pretty exciting ahead for these! Who knows, maybe one day you will be able to get your hands on your very own Quickstep!!