Travelling around Europe in captivity like one does, i have had to endure many a frightfully horrendous ferry crossings. As my captor leaves me in the truck on deck at all times I am often called as witness in Maritime Incidents when trucks are incorrectly or as on most cases insufficiently secured!
My worst crossing was a few months back when travelling from Ireland to France, the crossing was truly life endangering for me, trucks were sliding and banging into one and other, lots of damage was caused. I actually banged my head on the windscreen and had mild concussion. Luke was unusually kind that day. When the drivers re-attended the freight decks there were lots of arguments.
I remember that crossing well Bertie. I thought we were done for. Then when I returned to the truck to find you injured I was most upset. I’m still awaiting the compensation from Celtic Link for your medical bills.
The Weymouth to St.Malo Condor ferry was terrible the day we used it even the crew were bringing up their breakfast as this ferry was pitching all over the place, my missus was so bad she passed out.
Do you get motion sickness sat next to that blithering fool of a driver Bertie ?
Wilko:
I took an old Sealink ferry from Boulogne to Folkstone years ago.
Was between Xmas and the New Year.
The poor boat chugged out of the port and came to a shuddering stop after clearing the breakwater of the harbour.
I had a meal booked and was in the resturant with the plates rolling all over the place.
I made my exit very qucikly and spent the whole of the crossing on the open deck freezing cold and wet, so much so that seasickness wasn’t on my mind.
It was lovely to see Folkstone harbour in the distance, an ordeal over, well it wasn’t boat diverted to Dover, eventually got there!
The Customs were working to rule that night and pulled me. Just got out and the sea sickness kicked in, I threw up on the guys shoe, I lie not.
Funny thing is he let me go then!!
Yep wilko.
Ive been on that,forget the ferry com.name but the ship was the pride of boulogne[originally designed to criuse the norwegian fiords] and flat bottomed.One night i was waiting to board in boulogne and it came in with a list,on talking to a driver who had made the journey it was halfway across and got hit with a wave side on
and went over at 45 degrees,result everything in hold broke loose and all smashed into each other causing all sorts of damage,result no service till next morning.This is no bull,scotters used it regularly and brought marble back from italy on flatbeds,twice i have witnessed loads sliding off trls during rough crossings.The ship was just not up to the job.
regards dave.
the channel could be like a millpond but every time i ended up on that crappy little sea france freighter it was like crossing the irish sea at it’s worse.
Many years ago i was doing the cauliflowers out of Brittany. Had loaded in the afternoon and gone down to Roscoff to be told that it wasn’t sailing because of the weather. At about 10.00p.m. they rounded us all up and said that’s it were off. I thought to myself, your jesting it was blowing about force 10 and the rain was going sideways.Anyway, off we went and there followed about 6 hours of the worst torture i can imagine. As the bow went over the top of a wave i swear the props were coming out of the water. So after about 6 hours it levels off, i thought thank god for that. Got my kit and went upstairs to find we were back in Roscoff. The captains bottle had gone in the night and he had turned round and gone back.I would have killed the ■■■■ if i had got my hands on him.
Had a few less than smooth crossings on the Dover >> Calais over the years,including one that struck the berth at Dover after a 3hr crossing from Calais , i slept most of that time, that was on my return journey in a Van from Copenhagen so was in need of the extra zzz’s
But the worst one i can recall was the Stenna line ferry from Holyhead to Dublin after having waited at the port for nearly 24hrs due to all sailing being suspended due to adverse weather , upon boarding everyone got their meal full roast dinner (spot on) As soon as it got out of the harbour,
It started up &down, it was similar to being on a roller-coaster,lol i briefly stood at the front watching the waves crash over the bow , But as i started to feel a little iffy i decided to move to mid ship with a brew , as it neared Dublin the swell dropped
I shipped back on the old Nor-Cargo boat from Amsterdam straight into Aberdeen in 98, was supposed to be a 24 hour crossing but the weather was so bad it took us nearly 36 I spent most of the crossing in my bed only getting up to speak to God on the big white telephone. Got off the boat at 5 oclock on the Sunday morning, swapped trailers and went straight down to Hull to get the NSF boat back to Holland, thank ■■■■ the weather had died down a bit by then lol.
Cycling holiday, CalMac, Oban - Barra, May 1992 (i think) worst May crossing for 20 years some said, It took 9 hours, I had a large fish & chip supper when we set off, fine whilst we were in the Sound of Mull, but out in The Minches, I regretted having that supper many many times . What made it worse is that one of our party (a diabetic & former merchant seaman) just would not stop eating for the whole journey, every time I looked up he was munching on something, which meant another trip to the rail, couldn’t use the bogs as they seemed to be having the same trouble as most of the passengers! There was one chap that had a greyhound with him, I’ve never seen a dog get seasick, but when I did I had to head for the rail.
After that night we had the most glorious fortnight, the Western Isles could’ve quite easily have been mistaken for the W.Indies.
One that i recall, was about 8 years ago Dover/Calais.
Was on the Kent(think it was the smallest on P+O then)
Bit rough going out but after 3 hrs waiting to dock ,was getting a bit peeved and was sat peering out of the window in the drivers lounge thinking “kin ell that fishing boat looks a bit close”
It was a tug nudging the ferry into the port
Vascoingles:
Mukran to Klaipaeda at the beginning of the 90´s to this day I am convinced that it was an old Wehrmacht landing craft converted in to a ferry
Done that a few times on the old rail ships. Cabins stunk of diesil fumes and by god didn’t they ever roll. And food was err interesting.
Bilbao to Portmouth one November, left early afternoon and things didn’t seem to level out until the next morning. I stayed in my cabin for most of it and when I did venture out the boat just smelled of sick, which sent me rushing back to my cabin.
Your crossing does sound really scary Bertie, especially as it must be very difficult for you to run away.
Well it’s been a long held ambition of mine to converse with an oversized Lego head, so obviously I have a few questions.
Such as how do you manage to get on the Internet?
How do you type the words, do you use some attachment like Stephen Hawkins?
Getting back on subject do Lego heads suffer from sea sickness?
muckles:
Bilbao to Portmouth one November, left early afternoon and things didn’t seem to level out until the next morning. I stayed in my cabin for most of it and when I did venture out the boat just smelled of sick, which sent me rushing back to my cabin.
Your crossing does sound really scary Bertie, especially as it must be very difficult for you to run away.
Well it’s been a long held ambition of mine to converse with an oversized Lego head, so obviously I have a few questions.
Such as how do you manage to get on the Internet?
How do you type the words, do you use some attachment like Stephen Hawkins? Getting back on subject do Lego heads suffer from sea sickness? [/quote]
I spent most of the crossing in my bed only getting up to speak to God on the big white telephone. Got off the boat at 5 oclock on the Sunday morning, swapped trailers and went straight down to Hull to get the NSF boat back to Holland, thank ■■■■ the weather had died down a bit by then lol.
. What made it worse is that one of our party (a diabetic & former merchant seaman) just would not stop eating for the whole journey, every time I looked up he was munching on something, which meant another trip to the rail, couldn’t use the bogs as they seemed to be having the same trouble as most of the passengers! There was one chap that had a greyhound with him, I’ve never seen a dog get seasick, but when I did I had to head for the rail.