I came out of Calais on the Nord Pas De Calais once (at the time, the fastest boat on the straight), the waves were coming up onto the windows of the drivers lounge, and the boat didn’t even try to get into Dover, spent 2 hours steaming head to wind somewhere off Deal before we eventually headed into Dover
What about the Duc de Normandie,Brittany ferries,i was always ill on that,even if the sea was flat.
toby1234abc:
What about the Duc de Normandie,Brittany ferries,i was always ill on that,even if the sea was flat.
Whenever I went outside on that there was always a strong smell of sewage drifting around!
i noticed that too,hence why i was sick,attractive female crew on there.
Oostende to Ramsgate, dog-rough crossing not exactly improved by the “On board cuisene” I can see the lumpy mash now being chucked on my plate by a fat sweaty bloke wearing a string vest and a bandana 
, I didn’t know what put me off the grub the most the rough sea or his mega hairy armpits 
The Eurovoyager (recently gone for scrapping) always had a somewhat attractive deckhand who used to knock you up on approach to Ramsgate. I didn’t answer the door one day as I was in the shower, so she came in anyway to see me stood there dressed only in a towel… She looked pretty hot in her boiler suit (although she didn’t quite know where to look…)
Roughest one I was ever on was the Truckline ferries from Poole to Cherbourg. in them days they had no problem
if you slept in your cab on the top deck. it woke me up during the night banging and rolling all over the place
and it felt ten times worse being in the cab ! I was convinced at one point we did a 360 degree roll !!!
I think from memory it was a 13 hour crossing ?
Regards
Kenny
I crossed from Zeebrugge to Dover during the night when Sevenoaks ended up with fewer oaks than they had at first.
That event has become known as the Great Storm of 1987.
Rather than me rattling on about how bad it was, I’ll point you to the Wikipedia version for the facts and figures.
Great storm of 1987 - Wikipedia
On that night, I can remember eating a curry (and going back for seconds 
) in an otherwise empty restaurant whilst everybody else was outside heaving up over the side of the ship. 
Two crossings stick in my mind, the first was early 1990s and I was traveling Dover Calaiswith my dad on the SNCF FIESTA are the time this boat was new to the route but had been a conversion of an old freighter it along with its British flagged sister (the Sealink Fantasia) were the answer to p and o pride of Dover and Calais. For those unaware these ships has a sister that that had sunk in contentious circumstances some years before
Before entering service they had ‘sponsons’ I believe they are called added - essentially large boxes of air to aid stability any way on leaving Dover we hit very rough water all the way to Calais - the journey took about an hour longer - after using the commercial restaurant we decided not to for go the general seating area which was full of school kids and go up to the top deck for a bit of air apart from a side wind of about 70 MPH the boat was rolling like mad litteraly all sea one moment and all sky the next
When we docked down on the freight deck a double deck coach had lost a window and several trucks had shifted during the journey.
My second experience was about 5 years later and at the time I was driving a Mercedes van for a flower importer to airports all over Europe collecting flowers - on the way back from Amsterdam I was told that the ferry’s and tunnel had big queues so I continued down to boulogne in the hope of using the hover speed seacat service to folkestone. On arriving I checked in and was surprised that the lanes were empty but the boat was on the dock - it transpired that the early crossing had been abandoned with customers being offered vouchers to transfer to the tunnel as the vouchers covered only cars it was tough luck for me so there I was stuck on Boulogne Dockside on my own.
About two hours passed and a knock at my window. It was a deck hand from the boat "we a returning to Folkestone empty the captain says you are welcome to come if you want " so I boarded and went up to the lounge at this point all the staff gathered for what was a briefing from the captain basically he said that there was a good chance we could hit the harbour wall at this point several female members of the crew fetched life jackets
Next minute we turned on a sixpence in the harbour and woosh full speed ahead according to the crew no one had ever tried this manoeuvre we hit the open sea at something like 20 knots thrill and terror filled me the next hour was like being on a roller coaster we docked in the dark and I was amazed how we didn’t seem to hit the wall or anything. I must admit to being very tempted to drink a bottle of duty free I had picked up on an earlier crossing!
I have been on dozens fo extremely rough crossings, the freight boat from Poole to Santander (MV Cotentin) would roll about on a duck pond. One particularly rough crossing from Poole was about 4 weeks ago, as soon as we got into the channel we were in 5 metre head seas for the next 11 hours, when she eventually turned south we then had a beam sea - and she dont like it from the side. Corkscrewing is what they call it, and corkscrew she did!! Not many of us were down for lunch and dinner on that crossing I can tell you.
Hombre,i do not think the MV Cotentin is fit for purpose for that long a crossing to Spain,the Bay of Biscay has a reputation.
toby1234abc:
Hombre,i do not think the MV Cotentin is fit for purpose for that long a crossing to Spain,the Bay of Biscay has a reputation.
I dont think theres anything wrong with the ship, they simply do not deploy the stabilisers as it is too costly - increased drag = increased fiel burn. At the end of the day as far as Brittany Ferries are concerned we are “just freight” as quoted to me by a member of their staff.
I get sea sick on a duck pond,let alone that crossing,best to have the meal,then straight to the bunk,and try to relax,i feel ill on the short Dover /Calais route,some of the old ships smell bad,that sets off the sea sickness too.
Scheveninger to Gt Yarmouth
Dover to Dunkirk in old Sheppy
Cadiz to Casa.
LiscoBaltic Service from Klaipeda Lithuania to Aahus Sweden in fall 1997.
Fishguard - Rosslare
Sassnitz - Trelleborg
And anything involving the Schiaffino. 
Liverpool to Dun Laoghaire in the late 80’s. As we headed for the Bar lightship they tied the wagons down and then my van and then started putting lashings on the cars.
After we got past the Bar, when it was getting a bit choppy they offered cabins for sale. I went into the restaurant and the service was brilliant with very few customers. They had put the fiddles up on the tables so my dinner did not slide off as well. Then it was off to my pre booked cabin. We got to Ireland on time though 13 hours later.
The Pompey to St Malo trip that I took whilst working for Mortimers was an eye opener. I parked my unit on the lorry deck and looked for my cabin. I found it down some stairs and had to pass through some huge watertightdoors which I knew would be closed if there were problems. My cabin was below the lorry deck !
jacko22:
This ol tub!
0Reggio Calabria to Valetta 4 of us on board & the boat had 8 cabins with 4 bunks in each. Only 3 of the cabins had doors on them the others had doors that wouldn’t shut securely & would spend all the night banging open & shut. Out of all 8 cabins we found about 6 mattresses you would dare lay on. In the drivers room (
Must admit though it is the only ferry i have been on where the captain has came up to the drivers room & asked the drivers if they all fancy a beer, then proceeded to dock in Catania & throw a rope ladder over the side & take us all to a local bar whilst his crew load more trailers on!
Sailed on her 4 times in total but i believe she is no more
I’ve been on that flea-pit, ffs truly shocking, wierd thing they put your trailer on then you put the unit on!!! Nice arriving in Valletta to see The Ark Royal docked there though…
When i was a young 17 year old in the RAF, we used to go with the civvy drivers as escorts (not that kind!) to germany.
First time i went, we had to go on a freighter cos we were carrying aero engines.
I think we went from sheerness to holland, (long time ago).
We got cabins and after a meal and a beer, everyone hit the bunks.
At about 6am, a really bloody loud bell started ringing, so being young and pretty stupid, i thought it was an alarm.
ohgodohgodohgod, the boats sinking thought I.
jumped up, woke up my driver and started running about in my undies, panicking like a good un.
This woke some of the other drivers up as well.
“daft ■■■■■ says my driver, thats just the bell to say we are almost in port…
Just a little bit embarrassed… 
A week before xmas 1999 i went for a trip with my dad when he was on for Virginia’s. Got to Liverpool only for the crossing to be delayed for four hours whilst the damage to the bow doors was welded up!. We eventually sailed into a force ten, people were getting flung out of bunks, fortunatley for me and the old man, a big meal and a few pints of guinness we were none the wiser. There was some very green looking people in the restaurant in the morning though!.