With regard to what Jens says about voices saying she is to big for the route in winter, i have to say i tend to agree with that thinking.
Even when she used to call at Lerwick in winter sometimes she dropped off maybe only 4-5 passengers and picked up even less! Now the lunacy of having a 36,000gt ferry running around during a northern winter, with very few people on board smacks of stupidity.
Ideally what Smiryl Line should have done is got themselves a smaller ferry for the winter, and chartered the Norrona out to the cruise market/or some other ferry company were i'm sure she would have made a return. That way she would be earning money in the off season instead of cancelling out her summer profit....
A no brainer i would say.....
Regards
Richard