# Pont Aven, Anyone on-board tonight?



## teemyob (Nov 22, 2005)

Heading out of a Severe force 9 in Biscay into a Force 10 in Plymouth.

How was it for you?.

TM


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## jiwawa (Jun 22, 2007)

Oh, I feel sick just reading that! Did you survive?


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## ambegayo (Jan 7, 2007)

*Ferry or Eurotunnel*

We sailed (as in our yacht) for 30 odd years but couldn't face that on a ferry. Sure you are seasoned ferry travellers tho! Perhaps you have a answer to my post tonight about computer screens  :roll: 
Safe passage, Wendy


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## teemyob (Nov 22, 2005)

*ferry*



JWW said:


> Oh, I feel sick just reading that! Did you survive?


I was not on it!


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## jiwawa (Jun 22, 2007)

Ah, that explains why you felt well enough to be posting on the forum!!


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## nicholsong (May 26, 2009)

Just about, on-topic - do ferry companies lash down vehicles when such conditions are expected? 

If so do they do it when loading or en-route?

I would hate to think of my MH sitting next to an artic, which might be loaded with a high C of G, which could topple over.

We always lashed down vehicles in the aircraft, whatever the weather.

We did not do it with pigs - it annoyed the pigs and they squealed to the boss  :lol: 

Geoff


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## teal (Feb 23, 2009)

We ended up at very front and was lashed down, as said there was a big one side of us as well.


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## nicholsong (May 26, 2009)

teal said:


> We ended up at very front and was lashed down, as said there was a big one side of us as well.


Teal

Thanks. For lashing-down do they use chains and turn-buckles or rachet-straps ?

Geoff


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## erneboy (Feb 8, 2007)

I was on a freight ferry once in rough weather in the Irish Sea. It broke down and broached, rolling sufficiently to alarm the crew to the point where having lashed all the stuff in the kitchen down they then put on their life jackets.

At the same time one of the trucks on deck broke loose, apparently it had a load of beef hanging from the roof of the trailer making it top heavy. It began bashing the crap out of the trucks either side of it, almost pushing the one to seaward over the side.

Meanwhile we heard that a trailer had broken loose down below and was just flailing around hitting things at random.

Very exciting. I wasn't overly bothered till the crew started with the life jackets!

Eventually they got the engines going again and things calmed down. 

On arrival at Liverpool I went below to collect my van to find the whole lower deck strewn with tin lids. Apparently that was the load on the trailer which had broken free. Millions of them I would guess.

Not an experience I am keen to repeat, Alan.


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## nicholsong (May 26, 2009)

Alan said

'Very exciting. I wasn't overly bothered till the crew started with the life jackets!'

You were really not worried about the MH? or was your 'van' a company commercial, not your MH?

Geoff


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## Hymervanman (Aug 20, 2010)

I did a few months with Belfast Freight Ferries between Heysham and Belfast on this fine vessel: http://www.shipsnostalgia.com/gallery/showphoto.php/photo/103084/title/saga-moon/cat/502
We carried mainly trailers which were lashed to the eyebolts on the deck with chains and bottle-screws. We also carried new cars over to NI- these were never chained down- just left in gear with handbrake on. It was one of my jobs as navigating officer to minimise the ship rolling in heavy seas; on a predominantly NW/SE crossing this could be difficult in the Irish Sea with the prevailing swell coming from the SW- a long fetch from the Atlantic. Our sister ship in the company, this fine vessel 
http://www.shipsnostalgia.com/gallery/showphoto.php/photo/150529/title/spheroid/cat/502
managed to topple some trailers on one crossing even though they were chained down- quite a mess and expensive for the insurers.


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## tomnjune (May 1, 2005)

we are on the cap finister 3 april i hope that we dont get a bad crossing, i am not the best of travelers. we over look the irish sea at heysham and love to watch when the sea is rough but i would not like to sail on it HA HA . if it looks bad will head for tunnel ?? 

june


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## nicholsong (May 26, 2009)

Hymervanman said:


> I did a few months with Belfast Freight Ferries between Heysham and Belfast on this fine vessel: http://www.shipsnostalgia.com/gallery/showphoto.php/photo/103084/title/saga-moon/cat/502
> We carried mainly trailers which were lashed to the eyebolts on the deck with chains and bottle-screws. We also carried new cars over to NI- these were never chained down- just left in gear with handbrake on. It was one of my jobs as navigating officer to minimise the ship rolling in heavy seas; on a predominantly NW/SE crossing this could be difficult in the Irish Sea with the prevailing swell coming from the SW- a long fetch from the Atlantic. Our sister ship in the company, this fine vessel
> http://www.shipsnostalgia.com/gallery/showphoto.php/photo/150529/title/spheroid/cat/502
> managed to topple some trailers on one crossing even though they were chained down- quite a mess and expensive for the insurers.


Did you chain them down on all crossings or only when bad weather was forecast - if so what Beaufort?

Geoff


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## MrsW (Feb 8, 2009)

Our son went on a ferry from Portsmouth (I think) to St Malo on Monday in a Force 10. When the ferry arrived they informed the passengers that the car ramp had frozen so they souldn't leave the ship. Eventually they got it thawed but then told passengers the roads were all closed so they couldn't disembark. They were left on board for 12 hours during which time they were fed and then the ship returned to the UK with everyone on board. He says he spent 36 hours on board and ended up back where he started. Today he has flown to Paris to try to retrieve something from what should have been a week there.


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## Hymervanman (Aug 20, 2010)

Did you chain them down on all crossings or only when bad weather was forecast - if so what Beaufort?

They were chained down regardless of the forecast. This was done in port by the stevedores as the trailers were loaded. We only used to carry a dozen or so complete units with tractor unit/trailer/driver and the rest of the trailers were loaded/unloaded by mule units at each end.
On a 6 hour crossing the weather can soon turn and in any case a beam swell was the main cause of the ship rolling. In many cases the waves generated by the wind were not the obvious problem.


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## 113016 (Jun 5, 2008)

Years ago, when I used to ship over weekly with my artic on Brittany Ferries freighters, the trucks were always chained down.
However, if a truck had an air leak (and many did) the trailer would slowly drop down during the crossing and the chains would inevitably loosen.
Then, if it was very rough, the trucks sometimes would slide around and in worse cases did bang together.
The larger passenger ferries all have stabilizers, unfortunately the freighters did not and some were even flat bottomed, such as the old Normandie Shipper.
Some of the older and smaller passenger ferries, could also roll, such as the Duc de Normandie. Not to be confused with the larger Normandie.


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## teemyob (Nov 22, 2005)

*ash*



MrsW said:


> Our son went on a ferry from Portsmouth (I think) to St Malo on Monday in a Force 10. When the ferry arrived they informed the passengers that the car ramp had frozen so they souldn't leave the ship. Eventually they got it thawed but then told passengers the roads were all closed so they couldn't disembark. They were left on board for 12 hours during which time they were fed and then the ship returned to the UK with everyone on board. He says he spent 36 hours on board and ended up back where he started. Today he has flown to Paris to try to retrieve something from what should have been a week there.


Good job they was not an ash cloud at the same time!

TM


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## teemyob (Nov 22, 2005)

*St Malo*



MrsW said:


> Our son went on a ferry from Portsmouth (I think) to St Malo on Monday in a Force 10. When the ferry arrived they informed the passengers that the car ramp had frozen so they souldn't leave the ship. Eventually they got it thawed but then told passengers the roads were all closed so they couldn't disembark. They were left on board for 12 hours during which time they were fed and then the ship returned to the UK with everyone on board. He says he spent 36 hours on board and ended up back where he started. Today he has flown to Paris to try to retrieve something from what should have been a week there.


Was LD Lines according to Mr W ! so maybe not St Malo


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## MrsW (Feb 8, 2009)

*Re: St Malo*



teemyob said:


> MrsW said:
> 
> 
> > Our son went on a ferry from Portsmouth (I think) to St Malo on Monday in a Force 10. When the ferry arrived they informed the passengers that the car ramp had frozen so they souldn't leave the ship. Eventually they got it thawed but then told passengers the roads were all closed so they couldn't disembark. They were left on board for 12 hours during which time they were fed and then the ship returned to the UK with everyone on board. He says he spent 36 hours on board and ended up back where he started. Today he has flown to Paris to try to retrieve something from what should have been a week there.
> ...


You're right there, it was Le Havre, not St. Malo!


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