En un mar picado las Imágenes de este video son Impresionantes - YouTube (http://www.youtube.com/watch_popup?v=T4FIS1FnOQg)

Thanks for posting that video, evenually I puked all over my keyboard

Did the skipper of that boat lose his command like Queeg did in similar circumstances?


vtqf0CCVUek

Mal de mer....;)

Nah, that was rather refreshing but not suitable for landing seaplanes if one was low on petrol..:sad:

Jaysus, Mary and Joseph.
Does the sea state scale go that high?

Yeah, that would certainly make one think again about the dream of living in a lighthouse. Or at least consider a really sturdy one. :)

I assume the video was taken from the SAR chopper who was hanging around just in case...

Does the sea state scale go that high?

I believe that they just give up at a certain point ...

"Sea State Phenonmenal"

wave height over 14 metres (46 feet)

I think after that "you're on your own guys"

Yer lumpy water,can a reet buggah.
Thanks Mr R.:ok:

I believe that the footage was take off Ushant. The ship with the red slash on the hull is one of the 'Abeille' salvage tugs, one is based in Brest and there is another the 'Abeille Liberte' based in Cherbourg. The lighthouse is close to a place called the 'Raz du Sein', a nasty piece of water with insane tidal flows and standing waves.
I took a Nelson 45 down through that way in the summer of '91 in no more than a F2 to F3 and also timed when the tide should have been slack and managed to bury her in green water up to the flying bridge. We went through a piece of sea for a duration of about 9 nm's which was like a slalom course, the sea was just a series of steps caused by standing waves due to tide.
I also have a series of photos (hanging in my house) taken from a helo looking back towards the Ushant headland at dawn after an Atlantic storm in Dec. 1989 had passed through.Huge waves and swell.

Ocean's Fury Unleashed - YouTube

beaufort - :ok:

Cruise ship in a storm - From inside the ship - YouTube



SHJ

How long did it take and how many very brave souls were used to build that lighthouse?

I've seen bigger goffers in a tea cup.

Indeed Mr SLF,think of the poor buggas who had to build them,good documentary about the Stevenson family who were involved with the building and running of seemingly most of the lighthouses round our shores for generations on the telly a while back,they were apparently very disappointed in Robert Louis who took up the pen rather than the trowel.
:uhoh:

I have this sudden urge to go back to sea. Always loved a bit of rough weather.
Per

Once you had mastered the art of walking at a angle of 45 degrees you were ok
:rolleyes:

Tony...just how did they build lighthouses out in the ocean like the one in the video?

There's a Stevenson lighthouse on the Isle of May in the Forth. There's an open day next month with trips from the Scottish Seabird Centre in North Berwick. If the weather's OK, I might take a trip out. Just too late for seeing puffins, unfortunately.

With great difficulty Mr SOPS,plenty of stuff on tinternet about the struggle with the sea over building lighthouses,see here.:)
Bellrock.org.uk : Stevensons : Who Built the Bell Rock Lighthouse? (http://www.bellrock.org.uk/stevensons/stevenson_who.htm)

Impressive video, must have been a fairly sophisticated camera mounts to get such steady shots. Had to have been well prepared beforehand. So those shots are not mere coincidence of a passing helicopter.

If I hadn't quixotically decided to be a pilot. I may well have gone to sea. Sadly my only experience of shipping is only on Irish sea ferries. Being aboard for one or two storms but never anything like that and in any case those ships are well stabilised. I found it amusing and surreal to try and eat my burger and chips while it moved around the table erratically. On another trip it was quite rough so I went out on deck to watch. There was a Coaster off to the starboard getting hammered with white water covering it at times. Made me glad of the stabilisers.

The Ulstein X-Bow seems to offer a far smoother ride in such sea-conditions. Impressive video! I recall back in the 1980s we severely "oil-canned" the bow plating of a 141,000 tonne bulk-carrier in the Great Australian Bight in a heavy swell with large waves. Not a pleasant sensation.

Mr Draper is quite right about learning to walk at 45 degrees. Walk in the corners of corridors, climb stairs only when the vessel's pitch is favourable for the ascent, open doors with the roll of the ship, not against it. Aah, memories!

For those interested there is an excellent book called 'Guernsey Sentinel : The remarkable Les Hanois' about the politics and the physical building of a lighthouse called 'Les Hanois' which is on the SW corner of Guernsey. This was built if memory serves me right just after the Eddystone Light was reconstructed after it was washed away. Les Hanois was the first stone block tower constructed using blocks of I think Portland stone which were cut in such a way that they interlocked by using dovetail joints and no mortar was used in the construction. A good read.;)

Watching that excellent video reminded me why I didn't follow in my father's footsteps, RN. Instead I opted for the RAF...good decision!


One cannot but admire the fortitude of the men who built lighthouses and served in them.

Coming from a seafaring lot, I have lots of past relatives lost at sea - this one was my mothers mothers father, the Chief Engineer of the Mervinian. He drowned swimming out to rescue a young seaman back to the lifeboat when their boat foundered in a Biscay storm. He left a wife and five daughters. Afterwards, a sailors charity paid for my granny to be educated at a school down south - she told me she copped a lot of grief for her Geordie accent.... :}
Papers Past — Poverty Bay Herald — 11 January 1908 — CAPTAIN HERO. (http://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/cgi-bin/paperspast?a=d&d=PBH19080111.2.82.28)
http://www.teesbuiltships.co.uk/gray/spheroid1891.htm

All this rough water nautical stuff reminds me of a lively passage back from Guernsey to Weymouth in the late 1970's with my wife and our three young children. We were booked on the Sealink ferry 'Caesarea', and the forecast was severe weather up to Storm Force 10. My wife was a Guernseywoman, so knew where to go and what to ask for in the local chemists, Stonelakes. Their proprietary travel pills against seasickness were renowned in the island at that time - no longer available over the counter, I believe.

Having taken our 'magic' pills before embarking, we reached the general vicinity of Alderney where the poor ferry almost went up on her beam ends, despite the stabilisers. The passenger lounge we were in had a constant stream of people staggering to and from the toilets in a very ill state, while our family sat happily playing pontoon/21 for matchsticks around a low table, with absolutely settled stomachs and unfazed by the abject misery evident all around us. But we had a box of fancy cakes and delicious cream trifles from Le Noury's tea shop in town with us for the journey ...

To be fair, my wife and I did consider not consuming these goodies in front of our fellow travellers, as amounting almost to sadism. But our appetites (and the children's whingeing) won the day I'm afraid. We tried not to enjoy the cream trifles too much, but for the remaining hours of that tumultuous crossing, many a baleful glare was cast in our direction.:uhoh:

My father was a lighthouse keeper during the 1950s. He was on Wolf Rock for a while. There are some scary pics online of huge waves hitting the tower. He says that it was a little worrying when he was sitting having a cuppa and the water was going up instead of coming down! A master of understatement is my Dad. After having seen the pictures, I gained a new respect for him. He and another keeper were stranded one Christmas as the boat couldn't get out to take them off. I still have the newspaper cutting.

603DX,

Strange, isn't it, that the Sarnia and Caesarea didn't last as long as the St. Helier and the St. Julian? And in the summer, the St. Patrick brought round from Fishguard. Not forgetting the Sambur and the Roebuck for potatoes and tomatoes. Plus the railway to Weymouth Quay.

Incidentally, are tomatoes still grown in quantity on Guernsey? I never see Guernsey tomatoes on sale here.

radeng tomatoes are no longer grown on a commercial basis for export sadly. The Dutch growers got huge government subsidies in the 70's on the oil used for heating their greenhouses and our local growers couldn't compete. The industry moved and started growing flowers and things like kiwi fruit for a while but with the advent of widespread air freight again the island couldn't compete with produce grown in Spain,Canaries and further afield. A lot of the glass is slowly falling into disrepair and the great storm in Oct.87 brought a lot of greenhouses down. With the finance sector taking off in the 80's horticulture just couldn't compete in terms of wages and until the finance sector collapses I can't see a resurgence in the growing sector.:(

From the interweb:-

The cost of production increased when the price of oil went up, and it became cheaper for England to import tomatoes from Holland.
Subsequently tomato growing in Guernsey became more or less unsustainable and many growers tried turning to other fruit and vegetables.
Some tried growing kiwi fruit and star fruit, but others were more successful with aubergines and peppers.
Some turned back to flower growing, but it was not long before many greenhouses all around the island became derelict.

I assume the video was taken from the SAR chopper who was hanging around just in case...

I do not go so far as assume, but I ask: Who took the movie, and from whence?

Item on telly a few years back featured the bloke standing in the doorway of that lighthouse being presented with a large framed version of that photograph by the bloke who took it,
Might be on youtube,everything else seems to be.:rolleyes:
Couldn't find that item but this looks a similar event,lighthouse certainly under the tempest cosh.
:uhoh:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m7RSryuJAwE

I do vaguely remember a weather report for Bay of Biscay begins with "16 meters of swell ! Incredible, isn't it?" That was first and last time I ever saw unofficial language used in a wx report.

Suppose during that storm, you heard a rat-a-tat-tat on the front door of that lighthouse. What would you do?


I suppose you'd have to cry out, 'who's there?' Least you could do, but, what if . . .


A female voice cried, "it is me, Cynthia, the girl with such huge breasts no life-jacket will fit me. Please let me in . . ." pause for big sploshing noise. "it's wet, and it's cold."

Capt. D I've posted a link to the photograph you mention on the previous page. It was taken by a French photojournalist who specialises in taking these types of piccies and had chartered a helo for that purpose. The lighthouse keeper you refer to thought it was a SAR helo as the tower had taken a battering during the night with water getting in to the lamp room, and had opened the door to take a look.

The Beaufort wind scale was extended to F17 in 1946 but this is only used in relation to typhoons and is mainly utilised used by Taiwan.

Rivets, you'd have to reply "Well, take off these wet things first; we've got new carpets in here".

yer I read you thingy Mr B what I mentioned was a news clip of the two blokes involved.
My Old Uncle John spent his life working for Trinity House in Lightships finishing up as Master ,he oft opined that Lighthouse keepers had it cushy compared to them,at least the lighthouse remained stationary in lumpy weather.
It don't seem to have done him any harm though,he is the only one of me Mothers siblings still walking the Earth.
:)

Some lumpy water in Cape Town. Don't know what the loon out there is thinking.

http://i1192.photobucket.com/albums/aa329/rigpig1/BigMonday090.jpghttp://i1192.photobucket.com/albums/aa329/rigpig1/BigMonday097.jpg
http://i1192.photobucket.com/albums/aa329/rigpig1/BigMonday326.jpghttp://i1192.photobucket.com/albums/aa329/rigpig1/BigMonday283.jpg

All of this just confirms the theory I developed, aged 8 during an interesting crossing of the N. Atlantic.

"The sea hates everything that floats or walks on dry land"

p.s.

edit to add

and especially me (green faced calling on Hughie & Ruth on the big white telephone)

Watching these videos brings to mind a (probably stupid) question.
Just how..even when the sea is calm..do you get to some of these lighthouses?
They all seem to be built on dangerous looking rocks. I know that some of my more clever JBers will have the answer.

They always dig a tunnel from the top of the cliffs that comes up in the basement of the Light House of course.
:rolleyes:

When the Bell Rock light was under construction (I think it was the last "sea-washed" light built in the UK), Stevenson found a point where the tenders could land construction material, and built a railway to the construction site.

Nice painting by Turner:
http://www.trinityhouseleith.org.uk/bell-rock-turner.jpg

Found this on u tube it is part 1 of 4 all of which you can click onto :-

The Miracle Lighthouse - Part 1 - YouTube

I've been really enjoying this thread...and although J'ai Oublie Comment tout de mon Francais..[Italian too]:uhoh:
I still can appreciate this song...

'les reflets changeant sur la pluie'
La Mer. Charles Trénet - YouTube

:):):)

nothing like a bit of CGI to keep Jet Blast threading

Strange, isn't it, that the Sarnia and Caesarea didn't last as long as the St. Helier and the St. Julian? And in the summer, the St. Patrick brought round from Fishguard.

radeng, I think the sister ships Sarnia and Caesarea, which lasted 17 and 20 years respectively on the Channel Islands services, were 'casualties' of the change in passenger ferry requirements at the end of the 1970's. The trio of the St Helier, St Julien and St Patrick between them served from 1925 to 1972, the first of these was in service for 35 years, less the 5 years of the German occupation.

These were all predominantly passenger ferries, only able to crane on a few cars, but by the 1970's there was an increasing demand for roll-on/roll-off ships able to take cars and freight vehicles as well. So Sealink chartered a Swedish built ferry, the Svea Drott and renamed it the Earl Godwin, to suit the newly provided roll-on/roll-off ramps at Guernsey and Jersey harbours. From then onwards, most ferries to the islands have been of this type, including the Condor fast 'Seacat' services.

Several things combined to end the service of the Caesarea and Sarnia
First, as 603DX states, they weren't RORO so everything had to be craned on, producing slow turn-round times.
The knockon effect of that was that vehicle capacity was minimal. Also the slow turnround meant that it wasn't possible to do a return journey in 24hours, so requiring two ships for a daily service. The return journey was usually overnight - an unpopular timing. and finally being steamers, fuel costs hit badly in the 1970's - diesel ships were cheaper to run.
The writing was on the wall for them when BR-Sealink brought in the "Falaise" to run a Weymouth - Cherbourg RORO service and the one ship managed to carry a similar load as the two sisters, despite the longer route.
The following year, the "Maid of Kent" (converted) RORO was drafted in and took over the brunt of the channel islands service, with the sisters appearing during the summer holidays, and on emergency standby the rest of the year
The year (or two?) after that, Earl Godwin and Earl William appeared at different times, with "Godwin" being the more used.
That lasted until the 1980's when Manx Viking should have taken on the route as "Earl Henry" - but the Seamens strikes got in the way - and the route was transferred to Portsmouth. Ultimately Condor reopened it with fast ferries. For a while...... Seems to be dead again now

As far as I'm aware though the sisters weren't totally withdrawn after removal from Weymouth - i believe at least one of them was used at Dover for foot passengers only for a season or two

I seem to remember the St. Helier - and possibly the St. Julien - were at Dunkirk. The St. Patrick was the replacement for the St. Patrick lost in a bombing in 1941.

The Maatsuyker Island Lighthouse (http://www.lighthouse.net.au/lights/TAS/Maatsuyker%20Island/Maatsuyker%20Island.htm)

Watching that excellent video reminded me why I didn't follow in my father's footstepsI wanted to follow in my Dad's footsteps, but I was under 21 and he wouldn't sign the papers. He said that walking at 45 degrees is easy, its when the sea gets rough that it becomes a problem.

I was in a nice F&C in Whitby when the woman in front complained about the price of fish. A fisherman behind me said loudly "Its all right knowing the price of fish missus, but its how much it costs that matters". There are men who actually go out fishing in that stuff. In little ships. Very little.

I seem to remember the St. Helier - and possibly the St. Julien - were at Dunkirk

Yes radeng, you're quite right. The St Julien was in Operation Dynamo, the Dunkirk evacuation, and the St Helier was also there. Later, in 1944, St Helier was also in Operation Overlord, the D-Day landings. Venerable ships indeed!

Milo, I think you are correct about one of the Caesarea/Sarnia sister ships being briefly used out of Dover. It was Caesarea, if my memory serves me right, and my Guernsey wife and I went on a day excursion in her to either Calais or Boulogne in about 1980, for 'old time's sake' since we were very fond of those two when they had transported our family on our annual holidays to stay with her family in Guernsey over many years. They were both purpose-built by J. Samuel White at Cowes in the Isle of Wight for the Channel Islands service. They were built to the maximum size possible, to suit the limitations imposed by the harbour in Jersey, which could cause problems at certain tidal states.

ps: As far as I am aware, the Condor fast ferries are still in full operation, and I have travelled on them with my car on several occasions.