Rough in the Channel!
- 23 August 2010 16:1666926
This picture was taken about 1.15pm today. As you can see it is extremely rough. Quite an August shocker for the hapless tourist returning from the motoring hol on foreign shores. Feels more like October/ November. Try holding on to your breakfast in that lot. Picture a bit grainy as its a long way out and the ould camera was pushed to its limits, but it gives you an idea how nice it is to be on terra firma.
I like an occasional foray onto the briney blue myself but always pray in advance for 'a calm sea and a properous voyage'
I believe this to be The Moliere.email: dover7@msn.com - Jan Higgins
- Location: Dover
- Registered: 5 Jul 2010
- Posts: 13,931
23 August 2010 17:4066932I love pictures of stormy seas, so long as I am on land.
On BBC Breakfast this morning Carole said there were 60mph winds in the channel. I know one of my heavy tubs with a tree in it blew over.-----------------------------------------------------------------------
I try to be neutral and polite but it is hard and getting even more difficult at times.
------------------------------------------------------------------- - 23 August 2010 17:5966935Yes dead rough out there in the channel, the Saga Ruby has cancelled calling into Guernsey today and is apparently heading into Dover at midnight tonight. The MSC Poesia is not coming into Dover tomorrow as planned. Batten Down the Hatches!
- 23 August 2010 18:0666936That is indeed the SeaFrance Moliere. The photos always make it look much worse than it really is because all the Dover ferries are fitted with cowcatchers to fit into the pads in Calais and Dunkerque and these scoop up the water and fling dramatic curtains of spray back over the bows. The ferries are all big enough these days, and all fitted with stabilisers, such that they hardly move. (I know you won't believe me!)
Cue for Paul to reminisce about the dreaded Princess Maud. Judging from the website below, he wasn't kidding!
"Of all the Irish Sea railway-owned ships, the Princess Maud is arguably the one most local people still speak of when reminiscing about rough winter crossings! Having no stabilisers, on a wild night she was said to be unbearable; her reputation for rolling mercilessly being well-earned. On one very bad night, my father arrived at Dun Laoghaire Pier to find not the Cambria or the Hibernia alongside, but the Princess Maud. He promptly turned around and went back home and made his crossing the next day!"
http://www.sealink-holyhead.com/railway/ships/princess_maud/home.html - 23 August 2010 19:2766946Sure does look rough there looks somewhat calmer now, just looked in on Ed's link at the Princess Maud interesting to read about it.
- 23 August 2010 20:0066949Oh my Gawd Ed as I live and breathe...The Princess Maud !!
Amazing stuff there about the oul favourite ( Im lying) Princess Maud. I thought I was the only living relic to remember it, but it seems there are others who have ventured forth on her and lived to tell the tale. The Irish Sea is not for the foolhardy - nosireee. I swear it has waves as big as Burlington House, as the prevailing atlantic winds whistle up that gap between Rosslare and the Welsh Coast and beat the livin daylights out of the Holyhead shipping line. So in an ideal world and in such circumstances, you need a sturdy vessel under yer quiverin legs.
Well you didnt get that with the Princess Maud. She pitched, she rolled, she lurched. One whiff of a sea breeze and the restaurant closed down, the chef took his chopper off for a dram or two...knowing full well that afore tooo long the poor buggers heading for the shamrock, would be puking with all the gusto of a force 8. Some would even try to abandon ship knowing they were probably better off clinging to a loiferaft in the raging briney.
After the nine hours usually passed... on what was scheduled as a three hour 45min crossing..the most welcoming sight in the world was the soft green rolling contours of the Dublin mountains rearing their head above the welcoming Dun Laoghaire harbour.
As the bedraggled passengers disembarked you could see the landlubbing dockworkers shake their heads in pity.
email: dover7@msn.com - 24 August 2010 07:0266989I got a few images along the sea front yesterday, with the tide coming in, and plenty of pounding waves. Didn`t stop some swimmer`s going in though. Spectacular picture above PaulB, and maybe a wake up call to those returning here from their hols abroad, to let them know they`re back in England.Tell them that I came, and no one answered.
- 24 August 2010 08:3067001Im still quaking re my memories of the Princess Maud..my timbers are still shivering.
But as we know a full moon hung over Dover last night and the sea returned to tranquility. Managed to get this pic although its just a snap as it were...to do it properly a timed exposure would be needed. But it gives an idea of how the harbour looked last night..
email: dover7@msn.com - 24 August 2010 16:0567035
Again an unseasonal Gale Force 8 in the channel this afternoon. These Seafrancers crossed in the blustery conditions. Even the evergreen Richard Branson had to abandon a Kite Flying crossing today from Dungeness which he was doing with his family to celebrate his 60th birthday...rough!
This guy popped up in the harbour to see what all the fuss was about.
email: dover7@msn.com - 24 August 2010 17:0767041Oh what a cutie
- 24 August 2010 17:3167046Great picture`s there PaulB, and if I lived down there, I`d be at the window everyday. Always something of interest going on. I was down there much of the day yesterday, and into the early evening, with just a glass of wine between. I got a nice picture of the moon just before dusk.Tell them that I came, and no one answered.
- 24 August 2010 18:2767053let's be honest here, how many of us wished mr branson had try to fly over the channel today?
might have wiped that permanent smile off his face. - 24 August 2010 18:5767057He may sport a supercilious grin, but his (no qualifications) efforts have led to the employment of tens, if not hundreds of thousands of UK workers. UK Plc needs more like him.
- Jan Higgins
- Location: Dover
- Registered: 5 Jul 2010
- Posts: 13,931
24 August 2010 19:1567065I have heard he is a very good employer and I know he often hosts charity events in the grounds of his house in Oxfordshire. I know this because my daughter-in-law is the voluntary RNLI secretary for that area.-----------------------------------------------------------------------
I try to be neutral and polite but it is hard and getting even more difficult at times.
------------------------------------------------------------------- - 24 August 2010 19:1967068all must be true but i still have this vision in my mind of him taking off at dungeness and being blown straight in to the concrete facia of the old power station.
- 24 August 2010 20:5867076Maybe we should track down the Princess Maud and book her for an excursion, as a treat for the Boss, I'm sure he would appreciate it
- 24 August 2010 21:0467077Branson`s doing what those government arseholes across the Atlantic should have been doing long before now. He`s commercialising space travel, our ONLY future.Tell them that I came, and no one answered.
- 24 August 2010 21:2367080I love a bit of rough!! (PaulB - you knew I'd say that didn't you lol)
A rough sea has character, style and romance. The sea is an element that man can't control - like the weather. That's what makes it so awesome. Mind you I'd rather be blown about in a force6 up the Medway in a 24ft cruiser than in the channel on a ferry, but that's just me
There's always a little truth behind every "Just kidding", a little emotion behind every "I don't care" and a little pain behind every "I'm ok". - 25 August 2010 00:0667113I wouldn't want a Force 6 up the Medway under any circumstances.
- 25 August 2010 07:5367123 Lol!! Jacqui yes I know you like it when its rough...its all that lurching back and forth isnt it!?
And speaking of rough...how about this one.
A whole series of trawlers picked yesterday to go down the channel. It doesnt make sense as they were getting a right battering, but then maybe they are used to it. maybe I only saw them because they came more inshore because of the weather...who knows.
Sid yes you are quite right..a force 6 up the medway could have a debilitating effect on the equilibrium, not to be recommended lightly..and BarryWS yes ermm we could hire oul Maud for the Christmas Party for a night on the channel in dark growling december..we could all enjoy that rolling and tossing and lurching..well they say its never a good party unless everyone gets sick!!email: dover7@msn.com
