just a really nice film clip of some rough water

http://www.youtube.com/watch?NR=1&v=QH6OOfh7sFs&feature=endscreen

cheers
B

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qjDDpHSn2Ek&feature=related

 

About the third one of those pitching maneuvers and I'd be in the head with American Standard tattooed on my forehead!

 

Those cliffs just dwarf the ship.

Tough ride indeed.

................an American Standard tattoo, funny stuff.

 

That reminds me 35 years ago when I spent some time as lieutnant on a warship in charge of protecting a fishing fleet in North Atlantic and North Sea. It's a ordinary weather in the Iceland waters in winter. Note that the boats are close to land (going home probably) so the waves get rougher.
Good stomach mandatory.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m2LeNBY_5gk
A nice storm on the raz de Sein, the point of Brittany. Brest harbour is very close so we knew pretty well the place.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kOejtcuMkf8
The Tug Abeille Flandres making a show full power against the waves for the TV at la Teignouse (close to Sein ) The captain explains that when the tide current is againt the wind the waves can be 14 meters high (about 48 feet). We used the place to test the new warships and the quality of the welds among a lot of other things...The oceanic tris like the Banque Populaire V are tested also there.

 

The same movie but with comments in English
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m7RSryuJAwE&feature=fvwrel

"This video was taken on the 7th of december 2007 in "Raz de Sein" at the western tip of France, in Brittany, on a (very) stormy day.

Those lighthouses isolated in the open sea are/were called "Hells" because of the roughness of living conditions inside these isolated buildings, frequently harassed by the elements.

The first one seen in the video is Ar Men ("The Rock" in Breton), one of the best known lighthouses because of its isolated situation and the considerable difficulties its construction has presented (14 years were needed to build it !!), and the danger in evacuating its personnel.
Considered as one of the most challenging workplaces by the community of lighthouse keepers, it has been named "The Hell of Hells".
It has been automated in 1990.

Later we can see Tévennec, a little known lighthouse situated on the east side of the Sein Island. It had such bad luck in store for its guardians that it was suspected to be baleful, or even haunted. Indeed, during stormy weather, some keepers reported that gloomy screams could be heard. Recently a cave was found in the rock on which Tévennec was built, that may explain the weird noises heard by the keepers.
Since nobody wanted to live on this rock anymore, this lighthouse was automated way before the others, in 1910.

Nowadays, general automation makes human presence useless aboard these ocean look-out posts. In 2004, Kéréon, the Palace of the sea, the last lived-in open sea lighthouse, definitely closed its doors over its magnificent woodwork and its compass rose made in ebony and mahogany.

The previous automated lighthouses were : Armen (1990), la Jument (1991), les Pierres Noires (1992), le Four (1993), la Vieille (1995).

As nobody is here to scour, fix and maintain those lighthouses anymore, they are slowly detoriating. If nothing is done they may collapse in the coming years, like it happened to an auxiliary tower at La Vieille lighthouse during a storm on the 10th of April 2008."

 

Testing a patrol boat at the Mer D'Iroise, in the 1990ties. No weld has cracked.

 

Good God! After watching these videos, I'm woozy just sitting here in my office chair.

Thanks Ilan for a very interesting brief about those light houses..

 

You are welcome...the brief is not mine, but by the uploader of the video, that explains the quotes " I put on the text. To give an idea of the roughness of these waters: 2 more links:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y06f0ULD6NY. At very nice weather (by the local standarts at Sein) the currents made the uprising tide (tides's height range from 7 meters (22 feet) to 9-10 meters (28-33 feet) Currents can reach 6-8 knots.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ONoN7b9pbv4&feature=related
A local fisherman goes line fishing "bar" (European seabass). They use to go alone or by two on 27-33 feet semi displacement or planning boats. The commentary voice explains that the condition are beginning to be limit with force 6-7 winds and a 3 meters (10 feet) chop.

The sea is pretty hard in Brittany like in the Scottish Islands, Norway and all these windy places of the Channel and North Sea.

A lot of sayings of this style (with rhymes)
Qui voit Ouessant voit son sang/ Who sees Ouessant sees his blood (ie you're dead...)
Qui voit Molène voit sa peine/ Who sees Molène sees his sorrow (ie you'll have a hell...)
Qui voit Sein voit sa fin/ Who sees Sein sees his end (ie you're dead...)
Qui voit Groix voit sa croix/ Who sees Groix sees his cross (ie you'll have a hell...)

 

Nice videos. I'd like to see how a wavepiercer behaves in conditions like those.

 

That's possibly my favourite you tube of knarly conditions - just terrifying.

I also like this - the shot down the corridor about 11 seconds in is just amazing. I read once about lakers having built in flex....

http://youtu.be/qEkErF51Uxg

Wasn't there a thread on extreme sailing a year or two back?

Love the french lighthouses too. There are some fabulous still photos from Jean Guichard and the Plissons - well worth a google image search.



Bella Bathurst's 'The Lighthouse Stevensons' is a great, accessible read of the building of many of the Scottish lighthouses. The accounts of building Bell Rock and particularly Skerryvore are just astonishing.
The wikipedia article gives a good overview of the build.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skerryvore

According to Bathhurst, in the early stages, on account of the very short building season, the builders would work 16 hour days, and then, before the barracks were built, would try to find themselves a secure and sheltered place to sleep, wedging themselves into crevices in the rock which is only some 6 feet above high water at best.

I also don't fancy offloading two ton blocks from an open boat onto a low, wet slippery rock, having just completed a 12 mile crossing.

Or spending perhaps 300 hours to finish one of the more complex granite blocks, knowing there was another 4299 blocks to go!

Happy New Year!

TT

 

Thanks Tiny Turnip for the nice links. Yes the flexing cargo is rather frightening but not really dangerous...at least the lower deck has been well cleaned.

Skerryvore is a great work in a difficult place " Statistics compiled for the two decades from 1881–1890 showed Skerryvore as having been the stormiest part of Scotland. There were a total of 542 storms lasting 14,211 hours during that period". Gosh...

Ar Men light house http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ar_Men was built in similar conditions. The foundations were made stone by stone on a rock out of water only 2 hours at the low tide. So it took years. Maybe we need now this kind of determination and stamina they had...

The light houses pics are magnificent. Thanks again.

Happy new year!!!

 

Part time submarine?

 

part time boat, I'd think would be more like it

 

I don't get sick if I'm at the wheel. Otherwise, it's more than I'd want to take for 5 minutes!

Great videos Boston.