This is what happens racing in the Southern Ocean. It's always wonderfull to wake up flying in mid cabin heading for the hull beneath you... I did it on a 100 year old wood schooner.... I must have been insane back then....
N/A Hard Core Sailing......
- Thread starter Henning
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Capt. Geoffrey Thorpe
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This is what happens racing in the Southern Ocean. It's always wonderfull to wake up flying in mid cabin heading for the hull beneath you... I did it on a 100 year old wood schooner.... I must have been insane back then....Back then?
I think I'll stick to the Great Lakes...
I heard someone yelling "Get me a knife, Get me a knife"- personally I always have two on me when I'm on deck.
This is what happens racing in the Southern Ocean. It's always wonderfull to wake up flying in mid cabin heading for the hull beneath you... I did it on a 100 year old wood schooner.... I must have been insane back then....Back then?
I think I'll stick to the Great Lakes...
I heard someone yelling "Get me a knife, Get me a knife"
Yeah, 20 years ago almost, got my gold hoop. Don't do Southern Ocean too much anymore in anything under 260' with a pilothouse, stabilization and heat, no sails...though I did do a coastal (not that it makes a difference to the seaway)Southern Ocean delivery across the south coast of Australia a few years ago in a 40' sailing cat.
I used to carry a really nice switchblade a deckhand gave me. I got pulled over once and did the "empty your pockets" thing and he checked out the knife "You know having this is a felony? Why you carrying a switchblade?" "Sir, I'm a captain in the oilfield, by the time I have to get my knife out, it has to work one handed." He bought off on that.
Flyfishingpilot
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I heard someone yelling "Get me a knife, Get me a knife"
Ditto. i have one on me, but have a knife taped up under each hatch
woodstock
Final Approach
I thought of you today Henning, I'm down at Hilton Head and boats abound... even in this cooler weather, they are all out there having fun. The water is like glass these past few days - even the ocean is calm calm calm.
It's beautiful out there when it's flat. Last two times I came by it was 6-8', not as much fun....
rottydaddy
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The thread title immediately made me think of Reid Stowe, who's been down there a few times and is currently doing some even more hardcore sailing: single-handing his 70-foot schooner for 1000 days without stopping or resupply. He started out with his girlfriend helping, but she had to get off months ago because it turned out she was pregnant... he's an odd character, but a great sailor.
http://1000days.net/home/
AdamZ
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Wow that was incredible, I thought sailing across Rehoboth Bay hiked out 3-4 ft above the water on a Cat was fast that was awesome. As a side note some of my favorite books are about sailing especially the solo crossings on was about an English guy and a Transat race another was about an Aussie who after WWII ended was stuck somewhere in Panama and didn't know when he'd get home because there was a real shortage of troop transports so having never sailed he bought a boat in Panama futzed around in the harbour a bit to learn what he was doing and then set sail for Austrailia. Got shipwrecked and saved by islanders in the south pacific great story as was "My Old Man and the Sea" Not the Hemmingway novel but "MY OLD MAN... it was about a guy and his dad who sailed around cape horn. Sailing and Flying are my two passions.
The thread title immediately made me think of Reid Stowe, who's been down there a few times and is currently doing some even more hardcore sailing: single-handing his 70-foot schooner for 1000 days without stopping or resupply. He started out with his girlfriend helping, but she had to get off months ago because it turned out she was pregnant... he's an odd character, but a great sailor.
http://1000days.net/home/
Every read Webb Chiles book "Around the World Alone." It's interesting because you can read the developing insanity from isolation build. A few things happened in his mind he didn't write about either. Most people start hallucinating after about a month alone.
I have done several single handed passages, I don't do them anymore. Besides being unwise and annoying, they are also illegal. Rule 3: There shall be someone on watch at all times the vessel is underway. How can you be on watch when you're sleeping? It's not only for your own safety, but others as well. During the first BOC Challenge one of the leaders lost his keel and vessel off Cape Horn. He was calling Maydays for awhile through the early morning hours, but everyone was asleep and sailed on by him....He died in the cold Southern Ocean waters. If you follow the rules, any passage over 12 hrs requires a mate.
wby0nder
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I wonder how fast they were going before they keeled-over? I've never seen a sailboat move like that. Of course I've never sailed the southern ocean.
I crewed off Malibu one day. It wasn't totally sunny and the captain was kind of a jerk. The swell must have been twenty to thirty inches at least.
I crewed off Malibu one day. It wasn't totally sunny and the captain was kind of a jerk. The swell must have been twenty to thirty inches at least.
Capt. Geoffrey Thorpe
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Looked to be to be 25 knots or so. But that's just a guess.
And I ain't never sailed near that fast myself - 10 knots is white knuckle stuff for us (33' Sparkman and Stephens Pilot built in 1946).
That would be "heeled over", and my estimate would be 12 kts up swell, 18 down swell.
vontresc
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Hmmm I just googled "Chinese Gybe" and that doesn't sound like a fun thing to do in strong winds. My sailing experience is quite limited (Badger Tech Dinghys on the lakes in Madison, WI), but I must admit it's a hell of a lot of fun to go out in a dinghy at 25+ kts as long as the water isn't too damn cold.
Capt. Geoffrey Thorpe
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It started with the gybe but ended up with a broach when the main was restrained by the running backstay after the boom came over (you can hear someone yelling "get the running back" several times before the "give me a knife"). http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Broach_(sailing)
rottydaddy
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I figured as much (about the law)... not sure how he's keeping watch now(and it worries me a bit), but ironically, when they were about a week out, with rotating watches, one night, with all lights on aboard the schooner, when he left the pilothouse for a minute or so they bumped into a freighter that was running without lights, nobody on watch, and no alarm on the radar system.
They were lucky- only broke the bowsprit, which he was able to jury-rig so they could continue (with limited foresails).I'm pretty sure he's avoiding the shipping lanes as much as possible now, and since he's not headed anywhere in particular, he's not flirting with bad weather in order to maintain a course.
We'll see how it goes; he's passed 500 days already without major problems- the big challenge now seems to be keeping the boat in working order while finding time for everything else. At least he's not bored...
I figured as much (about the law)... not sure how he's keeping watch now(and it worries me a bit), but ironically, when they were about a week out, with rotating watches, one night, with all lights on aboard the schooner, when he left the pilothouse for a minute or so they bumped into a freighter that was running without lights, nobody on watch, and no alarm on the radar system.
I'm pretty sure he's avoiding the shipping lanes as much as possible now, and since he's not headed anywhere in particular, he's not flirting with bad weather in order to maintain a course.
We'll see how it goes; he's passed 500 days already without major problems- the big challenge now seems to be keeping the boat in working order while finding time for everything else. At least he's not bored...
There is no place on the ocean that is not a shipping lane, there are vessels everywhere. There may be some areas that are busier than others like if you draw a line from the Panama Canal to the Straights of Malaca, but there are sufficent othe ports everywhere that ships run everywhere. The real ***** about it is, you are most likely to run into that unlit freighter "out of the shipping lanes", because the big boys are lit up.
ggroves
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You guys are giving me premature spring and boat fever. My annual sailing trip around the BVI is still 8 months away..........
You guys are giving me premature spring and boat fever. My annual sailing trip around the BVI is still 8 months away..........
July for BVI? You need to add a second mid winter trip...
flyingriki
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bbchien
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Look at that UTube. We would NEER have been running with that much sail with the companionway open. If you pitchpole or swamp, you're going down.
wby0nder
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Well obviously you haven't done much sailing here in IOWA Jeez...
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You didn't have a self bailing boat either..... Most of those boats also are comartmentalized for one compartment flooded stability and floatation.
Capt. Geoffrey Thorpe
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handy
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It amazes me, listening to all you folks talking about your experiences at sea. I come from Idaho, which is pretty much land-locked ... never any real exposure to this sort of thing. I live vicariously through your stories. Thanks!
(Idaho turned out to be a great place to get my PPL though. No complaints there. )
Brian
(Idaho turned out to be a great place to get my PPL though. No complaints there.
)Brian
etsisk
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Idaho is "pretty much" landlocked??? What would it take to "really" landlocked, then??
handy
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Hmm, you have a point. Maybe put a roof over it?
That looks like east of Good Hope. That's a salvage tug and he's probably heading for a ship on the rocks. I've been in the wheelhouse playing out that scene more times than I care to recall... At least when you're light tug, the ride is easier. When you're towing a barge through it, it's very trying.
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gprellwitz
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Well, according to the comments*
* Not vouching for the veracity of the commentsramseyboater
To answer a few points :
The company is Les Abeille, the search and rescue division of Groupe Bourbon.
The ship wasn't in danger, it was till recently the guard vessel for the French coast based at Brest. The conditions shown are pretty normal for winter off Ushant.
The helos were filming for a tv prog about the vessel, and the helo in shot is a French aircraft practising rescue techniques.
Answer the second point, the crew are seasoned sailors, ex fishermen, and mariners (plus a damn fine chef). The work she does is fairly normal for offshore tugs / rig support vessels. Yes, it does take a bit of experience, and there are times when even we don't manage to keep breakfast down...
Not sure where the "Marejeda" bit comes from - the vessel is the Abeille Flandre, the Bourbon Groupe rescue vessel previously at Brest, now replaced by the Abeille Bourbon. The film relates to a tv prog made about her - the helo was so low as it was about to winch a casualty from the deck in a training exercise. The conditions are pretty normal for winter of Uissant. She was a lovely ship, now at Marseilles, but the new Bourbon is something else. Not a bad job
It's Flandre. Bourbon is new, a rounded bridge superstructure, different deck configuration and has French colours on the side. Trust me, I know what the ships I work on look like! Try searching for Abeille Bourbon on here and you'll see the difference.
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By the time you're working that stuff, you are well seasoned, green hands die quickly working in those conditions They don't know which of the 22 things trying to kill them at all times to watch for, when the reality is, "All of Them". The novelty has long since worn off by the time you take crew out on those jobs. The motivation is strictly mercenary with a bit of environmental and human concern, but mostly mercenary.
Could very well be accurate, the Bay of Biscay often looks like that in a winter storm. I never though the tug was in trouble, I though a tanker or other ship may be and he is heading that way. Quite a few ships are lost every year along that coast causing great pollution and public "Rabble Rabble"ing. This may have been a promo video showing off the new emergency ocean salvage and rescue tug (she'll probably also do some business handling Anchors in the North See Oilfield), because that is definitely what she is, I've run several of them. As for all hands being experienced, yep, you bet, but rarely do I use fishermen, they just don't know the equipment and rigging, same as my fishing rigging experience is limited, and the guys have to know exactly what to do and how to do it. You break in new guys doing anchor handling and line haul towing so you can break them in on lower risk jobs with bigger safety margins.
tdager
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Holy cow....does anyone LIVE in that light house? To have the ways damn near coming up to the top!
I cannot imagnine the force exerted on the structures! I would be freaking listening to them moan and groan under the strain.
I cannot imagnine the force exerted on the structures! I would be freaking listening to them moan and groan under the strain.
gprellwitz
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Actually, there were a number of lighthouses depicted. I must presume that there are times when they have better weather, because I don't see any way they could have possibly built them with those sorts of seas.
vontresc
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The norht Sea can be fun as well in the fall/winter. A good cyclonic storm combined with the tides can give you a pretty good storm surge.
This is a picture of Hallig Südfall not too far from where I grew up.
These are little islands in the North Sea without dikes. Their only flood protection is the earthen mounds the farmhouses are built on.
This is a picture of Hallig Südfall not too far from where I grew up.
These are little islands in the North Sea without dikes. Their only flood protection is the earthen mounds the farmhouses are built on.