Extreme weather | At Sea in Hurricane - vlog

Undertaking a P&O Ferries 'Car park Shopper' round-trip duty-free shopping trip aboard the Pride of Canterbury from Dover UK to Calais and back again without disembarking in France, the whole journey should have taken around five hours.

However, on the return journey to Dover the winds picked up considerably. Around five miles off Dover an announcement was made to advise of a short delay of around forty minutes as other ferries needed more time to manoeuvre within the confines of the port.

Later, were granted permission to enter...the winds at this time were approaching from the south-west meaning we kept close to the Southern Breakwater of Dover Harbour to ensure as much space as possible between us and the Eastern Arm Breakwater on our starboard side to prevent collision.

Coming to rest within Dover Harbour only one tug was available to assist with our manoeuvre onto the berth. The wind now between Severe Gale 9 and Storm 10, fortunately it was low tide which prevented waves from cascading over the port's breakwaters.

The single tug not being powerful enough, Dover Port Control gave us a green proceed aspect and we duly headed back out to sea where it was thought to be safer, as there would be no chance of us drifting and colliding with other ships.

As soon as we left the Port of Dover the winds picked up to Beaufort Scale Severe Storm Force 11 - HUGE towering waves hitting the ships' bow and starboard quarter.

P&O Ferries Pride of Burgundy followed us out of the port - truly mammoth waves engulfed her forward superstructure and blew over her funnel!

Continuous announcements from the bridge officers kept passengers up to date with the situation and reassured us that both we and the ferry were safe.

Complimentary meals and hot/cold beverages were offered to passengers. Customer service was excellent - second to none - well done!!

A Belgian band who was travelling to the UK were granted permission to play to the ships' passengers to keep spirits high and to distract us from the lengthy delay.

We finally arrived and successfully berthed in the Port of Dover some nine hours late - around 14hrs after I initially left Dover!

More videos of my storm crossings can be found in my YouTube playlist 'When travelling doesn't go to plan'.

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[philhawley]

Well done to the band playing to keep up the passenger's morale. My grandmother's cousin was Wallace Hartley, he was the bandmaster of the Titanic and sadly he did not have such a happy outcome.

[OmuraXD]

That's so cool, yet so scary at the same time! Great footage - as always.

[ThomasSteffien]

it is nice to have a brass band aboard ... interesting video

[damo]

Props to the crew, band, and yourself for managing to put this together in difficult circumstances. The channel doesn't kick up too much of a stink too often, but when she does..

[jonathangoll]

Some years ago I remember a rough crossing from Portsmouth (I think) to Jersey on the hydrofoil. A sea stack (Orsac? ) 60 foot high had the waves crash over it. The boat was very big, but practically the entire boat was being sick!

[Boatdogvantraveller]

Good old British spirit. Great to see . Thanks for sharing 👍

[stephenduck]

Christ it’s like a scene from titanic with the band playing, glad you all got in safe

[hazebren]

Had plenty of them days when I worked on P&O, first you see the sea then you see the sky as the ferry rocked, usually had to go around to Ramsgate and drop anchor and wait ✋

[jimcrawford]

Great fun! Ex steward from the 50s & 60s on the Irish Sea & Nth Atlantic.

[peterfields]

Crossed the Irish Sea many times in storms, brings back great memories, really exhilarating, those were the days, these days the sailings seem to be halted whenever it gets even slightly rough!

[bigdmac]

We were once on the old Isle of Man steam packet in similar conditions : ship rolled like crazy - urine, vomit and faeces swimming about our feet as we desperately tried to keep our kids safe. An experience not to be repeated.

[sebastianbagergaardrasmuss]

AMAAAAZING announcement service on the PA!!!!

[stetomlinson]

We were in Calais a few years before this was made. Ships were stopped from entering Calais because the following sea and wind strength meant they couldn’t actually stop! Two large ocean going tugs were eventually brought in to act as “catchers”, to stop the ferries hitting the harbour walls. We got the train after that! 😆

[davidtresarden]

Looks like they were enjoying themselves, at least nobody was throwing up!

[peteg]

Memories of years ago back in the sixties coming back from Oostende in rough weather. My brother and I were out on the stern on the lower deck when he turned around gazing up at the deck above and recieved a nice dose of vomit full in the face from the deck above. Tried to clean him up a bit but the wash basins were full of you know what. Great memories. You just had to laugh.

[jckonstanz]

Memories. Going home for Christmas this happened quite a few times. The worst was one time when they announced in Dover that they stopped taking life stock on board. After a very rough crossing we had to wait near Calais for six hours until it was safe to enter the port. I had quite a few complimentary English breakfasts to pass the time while everyone else seemed to be seasick.

[lesscotford]

Went over on the dover to oostende ferry back in the 80s with a couple of mates on route to Germany and the weather was crazy, the boat was listing side to side and the waves an seaspray was stinging. Got there tho, cheers neptune.

[montyzumazoom]

Have experienced similar in the channel.
Best thing to do is order a pint of beer and a fry up with wobbly, runny eggs. Nothing better to settle your tum!
Love the Belgian band! Good people those Belgians.

[paulharding]

Did a trip across many years ago on an old 3000 ton boat - got tossed around like a cork.
Arrived in Bolougne feeling sick, and had to re-embark only about 1.5 hrs later, only to find that the return journey was even worse ! Ugh.

[InterlineTravel]

Full credit to that captain and cruise line some airline should take note of the frequency of communication even if there is nothing to update it is the best pr possible