Just wondering what it's like to be out at on the high seas in this sort of weather. Anyone got any personal experience?
Do ships ever sail through these sorts of big 100mph storms if they can avoid it? If so.. how do they cope with the conditions?
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100mph + winds are 'interesting' on land... but what is this like at sea?
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Posted 5 months ago #
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Its no fun on the Seacat form Folkestone to Calais. An ordeal!
Posted 5 months ago # -
Bearing in mind most decks are 30 metres or so from sea level !
My mate was stuck on elgin platform last week after a chopper had a gearbox fault on take off
They strapped it to the helideck strapped the blade down and still the wind ripped one off and bent another
Been out in 60knots on a jack up and even thats not plesent wouldnt like to be on a ship or a semi
Posted 5 months ago # -
Most of the fishing vessels will have to run from the storm. If they're out of port at all, they'll be avoiding the big seas. Its only the big transatlantic stuff that can cope.
Posted 5 months ago # -
depends on how big the ship/boat is.
Passaged through Biscay once on HMS Scott in a F12 with 10m swells. Big ship but pretty spectacular all the same. It was a relief to get past the lizard.
I think you tend to run and hide if you can, if not just steer into it and hope nothing breaks.
Posted 5 months ago # -
Bearing in mind most decks are 30 metres or so from sea level !
SOD THAT!!!!!!!
Posted 5 months ago # -
My dad has... it was only for a few mins though ! in a old classic boat off Cannes.
He has hit 57mph winds in a yacht in Irish see for more prolonged periouds. Basically over 32mph in a 30' to 40' is not fun.
100mph in open sea in an average yacht would be hard to survive.Posted 5 months ago # -
This is the oil platform that I work with a couple of weeks back.
The one with the legs is the BP Andrew and is fixed to the sea bed. The camera footage is taken from the Borgholm Dolphin which is a floating semi-sub rig, held in place on anchors.
The biggest wave they saw that day was about 18 metres.
Posted 5 months ago # -
Posted 5 months ago #
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As someone said: fasten everything down, dog all the doors, close the galley, chug into the weather making just enough speed to steer. Having a bow thruster might help. There's no going out on deck to throw up, that's how people fall off, and there's no possibility of turning the ship.
I wouldn't like to be on a ferry, knowing that once one person throws up, it's contagious.
Posted 5 months ago # -
I've been told tales of RRS Discovery rolling to over 50 degrees when in the North Atlantic in the winter.
Posted 5 months ago # -
10 years in Merchant Navy, small coasters to large ro-ros.
You try and avoid the worst of them, as they can cause damage to ship and cargo, or adjust course to avoid the worst of the battering. Only had to run for shelter a couple of times.
It is pretty hard to sink a well handled ship, unless rogue wave gets you. (Usually off S Africa)
Posted 5 months ago # -
My mum.. who's in her 60's.. has made a couple of transatlantic crossings since her semi-retirement.. Her and her fella have a long keel floating caravan that they have sailed to the Caribbean and beyond..
To me their little sailing boat looks like it would struggle on a nice day up the estuary but what do I know..
They encountered some very severe weather on their last voyage where they had to batten down the hatches and sit it out and she summed it up like this:
'If we were afraid of dying then I'm sure that it would have been absolutely terrifying'
Posted 5 months ago # -
I was on the last channel ferry out of Dover in the famous storms of 1987. They closed the port after we left.
The worst journey i've ever taken, took around 3 times as long going out as it did to come back a week later.
It was a school skiing trip and one of the pupils left his hand in the door frame when one of those big doors slammed shut which nearly severed his fingers. He had to wait at Zeebrugge when we got there to be flown straight home.
I was up on deck in the fresh air holding on for dear life as anybody who stayed inside had to compete in the 'Who can throw up the most' contest.
I'm really not a boat person.....
Posted 5 months ago # -
I delivered a crappy Beneteau Oceanis 47 to Gran Canaria from Newcastle a few years back. leaving in November wasnt the best idea - force 9 in English Channel was bad but Biscay in a 10 was horrendous - theyre is a shelf that nearly runs from ushant to Cape Finisterre which jacks up the sea. We stayed West of this and storm jibbed only for about 2 days.
Ate nothing for ages as it kept coming back up - one thing i will always remember is the Muller Rice Apple that I had once it all calmed down to an 8.
Posted 5 months ago # -
It was a school skiing trip
Ooooh! Very Lah-di-dah
Posted 5 months ago # -
www.youtube.com/watch?v=VchsHhPIx_sNot me personally, but a friend of mine was on the Pacific Sun when that video was taken.
Posted 5 months ago # -
I sailed across the atlantic in this in 1991...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fryderyk_Chopin_(ship)
Straight out of the Clyde into a force 9 in the Irish sea was a good start.
Force 10 off the Bay of Biscay was entertaining, especially when one of the top "sky" sails came loose and needed to be lashed down in the middle of the night... guess who was volunteered!
Next big dodgy was off Bermuda in a 10. The fastest she had gone at this point was 12knotts with all sails set. We ended up doing the same with only one sail, and with the wind from behind it was pretty rough going. Only certain crew were aloud on deck for safety reasons and there is a huge risk of driving the ship into a wave and thus down into Davy-Jones-Locker.
Great adventures but hairy at times... but nowhere near as hairy as it must have been when this happened to it...
*shudder*
Posted 5 months ago # -
Sailed across the Southern Ocean form Patagonia to South Georgia and onto Uruguay.
Betwen SG and Uruguay we encountered a storm that recorded the lowest ever pressure on South Georgia. That is an island that sees low pressure!
Full on force 12 in a homemade 46' steel yacht/ skip. All sails blown out. No toilet. No functioning HF radio. Lifeboat didn't look like I'd like to risk it. I know what it is to look at good friends and know we are up against it and thuis could be it.
Would I do it again? You bet.
Posted 5 months ago # -
Not me personally, but a friend of mine was on the Pacific Sun when that video was taken.
I'm sure it hurts like buggery to have 30 tables and a piano slide into your face, but if you imagine everything is made of foam, that looks like awesome fun.Posted 5 months ago # -
I had a gaff rig ketch once. Tiller steering, so out in the weather. Waves looked higher than the mast (but always looks worse than it is). My jacket got shredded into ribbons. Boat was being laid flat with minimal sail - just enough for headway. Was ok until the ballast started shifting, then it got really exciting.
Fortunately just off Great Barrier Reef so not so cold.
Posted 5 months ago # -
It's interesting to see some of that North Sea footage (my Dad used to design those types of oil rigs!). Evidently, as the amplitude of big open sea waves goes up, so does the wavelength. So it's not quite as Perfect Storm (George Clooney), with towering mountains of water, as my landlubber mind had imagined it.
Sweet videos!
Posted 5 months ago # -
Worked on 350m cruise ships with 9m fin stabilisers - the ship was more than double the length of any swell reducing the pitching greatly, and with the stabilisers reducing the roll effect. All you really got was the slow vibration of the hull flexing under the forces of the swell. Now work on a much smaller vessel in Antarctic waters, where 25m waves are not uncommon. It's a humbling experience I can tell you...
The best thing to do is to point the ship into the weather, hold heading and sit it out. That or avoid the weather system in the first place.
Posted 5 months ago # -
Heres Velux 5 Oceans Race, bit windy that, bit like we had..Yes, I used to race some rather sexy Yachts and the windyest I've been out in is 70knts on the way back from retiring from the Sydney Hobart back in 2005, we lost our stick and had to jury what was left of the sails..
Waves averaging 35mtrs, short sharp swells too about 30mtrs apart so we had no opportunity to slide down and surf, if was just hellish for 4 hours solid but we got the hang of it and all the guys were happy enough, ate all the food and drank lots of coffee..
Heres a vid of windsurfing Red Bull Storm Chase:
[video]http://www.dailymotion.com/video/xgsnxa_windsurf-trailer-red-bull-storm-chase_sport[/video]Posted 5 months ago #
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