Was on the Fleetwood to Larne crossing on tuesday night and due to the high winds it was quite rough 
. I only got about 2 hours kip 
Was anyone else on here crossing the Irish Sea that night?
Sadly no, I used to love crossing teh irish sea when it was a bit bouncy. 
Sorry, the last time I crossed the Irish sea was Belfast to Liverpool, in 1973.
Have some sympathy for me then, between 2000 and 2004 I worked at sea on small coasters and they put any ferry to shame for rolling. It wasn’t unknown for us to be in such bad weather in winter that a 24 hour voyage could end up taking 5 days. My worst ever experience at sea was in January 2004 when I made a couple of voyages on a horrendous old British coaster which didn’t even have such luxuries as a washing machine, everything had to be hand washed in the sink, oh, and the drinking water turned to a white foam whenever the ship rolled, which was all the time. On one particular occasion after two days at anchor off Great Yarmouth we got orders to get to Hamburg asap to load 1200 tons of fertilzer for Gunness Wharf on the River Trent, about 24 hours into the voyage and off northern Holland, in a force 10 gale, we got a stray fishing net around our starboard propellor, which made the engine mis-fire and set on fire, all this at 4am. The fire alarm went, I struggled to even stand up whilst I got dressed, a heavy wooden armchair in my cabin then broke lose and flew from one side of the cabin to the other, as the ship rolled almost 50 degrees each way (I know this because we had a thing in the bridge which showed the degrees of the rolling). In the end we had to limp to Hamburg at about 4 knots which took another two days and then yours truely had to go over the side in the dingy and hack the net off which took the best part of the night and the next morning, and as you can imagine, the water in Hamburg in January is ■■■■ cold, my hand and arm were almost dead after that. The only good thing about the whole experience is that the company were cheap skates and wouldn’t pay for a German engineer to come and fix it, so we sailed to Gunness at half speed with one engine, and to my delight it was the engine directly under my cabin that was broken so it was much easier to get some sleep as anyone who’s spent any time on coasters, its bloody noisy with the engine on!
Ive had a few bumpy crossings to Belfast, but the bit from Holyhead to Dublin was like a mill pond last week.
I prefer an old sailing ship with no engines and having to go up the rigging in a force 8 at 4am 
Sail Training Association. Best way of sea travel and sickness
is Robinhood the modern day equivalent of Roger the cabin boy?
i crossed from larne to cairnryan on monday nite and it didnt seem any worse than usual
paul
penfold:
Was on the Fleetwood to Larne crossing on tuesday night
If i’d known you were coming right past my door Penfold, I’d have put the kettle on 
not that there’s anywhere to stop like 
I’ve been seasick 3 times. Once as a deckie on the Queen Mary, but then everybody was sick in that Atlantic gale. Once on a fishing trip with taxi driving mates off Sydney (3am start after night shift with empty stomach then stoked up on tinnies, oranges(?) and BBQ chicken). Very embarassing, they all knew I’d been a seafarer. Then finally on the Irish Sea as a driver. Arrived at the dock in Dun Loaghaire at 9pm for a midnight boat but because of the violent gale blowing weren’t allowed on board till about 2 in the morning. Nothing to eat and precious little sleep, I dived straight into the cabin ignoring the others who made for the galley and the toast and tea left out for the drivers. Halfway across I started spewing and didn’t stop till I got on dry land again at Fleetwood. Worst of it was we were stood off Fleetwood for 3 hours because of the weather and although I could see Blackpool tower could not stop heaving.
BTW if anyone needs a tip against seasickness, mine is - fill your stomach with anything, even a full English. Foolproof. All the above instances occurred when I didn’t, or couldn’t, follow that rule.
Bon voyage!
Salut, David.
Spardo:
BTW if anyone needs a tip against seasickness, mine is - fill your stomach with anything, even a full English. Foolproof. All the above instances occurred when I didn’t, or couldn’t, follow that rule.Bon voyage!
Salut, David.
A good tip David, I remember a few years ago, a gang of us decided that an 8 hour fishing trip would be a good idea We only decided about 22.30 on Saturday night and the boat left at 7.30 from Bridlington.
Me and my mate being bloaters got there early for breakfast. the rest turned up later, hung over and ill. Ivan who I was with had bought some sticky buns and doughnuts, just in case.
After 8 hours, me and Ivan were worried that the cakes and buns were getting stale. the other kids were all threatening to kill us for teasing them with proper food
Twenty + years ago when I’d been unemployed for far too long with nothing on the horizon, I was visiting my favourite auntie in Banffshire when I started to ask about the possibility of getting into the fishing. My cousin managed to get me on his boat for the week to give it a try. We were out for four days,I couldn’t eat a thing just came straight back up and the only relief I got was when lying down.We had a force eight gale one night and I was just rolled all over the place in my bunk. I couldn’t wait to get back on dry land ! 
I used to work for Merchant Ferries going from Heysham to Belfast.
When the weather was really bad they would just cancel the sailing. They didn’t want the damage to all the trailers.
If the ships were at sea it wasn’t unknown for them to go anchor and hide at the Isle of Man.
The worst weather I have been in was in the Meddy on a container ship. We were rolling all over the place, all the cabins were being trashed, no one could sleep. We were in that for nearly two days. I was starting to get worried then
As for sea sickness, try a bit of toast. It works for me, although I haven’t felt ill for years but I go get sick of the sea all the time. 
Bren:
The worst weather I have been in was in the Meddy on a container ship. We were rolling all over the place, all the cabins were being trashed, no one could sleep. We were in that for nearly two days. I was starting to get worried thenAs for sea sickness, try a bit of toast. It works for me, although I haven’t felt ill for years but I go get sick of the sea all the time.
By some mircale I have never been sick at sea, even though I’ve been on in some very foul weather on small coasters for up to a week at a time, though it is true to say that I usually felt at deaths door for the most part during these sorts of weather and as a result I’d eat and drink very little and end up dehydrating myself and then feeling worse still. One such cause for this was that on the first ship I went to sea on, a nice modern German coaster, they didn’t have a tank for drinking water so it was only bottled water which they tried to make you pay for and even then, it was only the fizzy stuff which I detest. The only free drink on all the German ships I’ve sailed on was milk for some reason, which I happily drank until one day I started to down a mug full and was almost sick due to it being thick and lumpy.
Just out of curiostity, how long ago was it when you were at sea on that container ship in the Med and what company were you sailing with?
robinhood_1984:
Just out of curiostity, how long ago was it when you were at sea on that container ship in the Med and what company were you sailing with?
In the Meddy was about two years ago.
I was and am still working for Maersk.
I come onto this site and read the post as I have my C+E and do a bit of driving when I’m home on leave.
Bren:
In the Meddy was about two years ago.
I was and am still working for Maersk.I come onto this site and read the post as I have my C+E and do a bit of driving when I’m home on leave.
My Captain on the Hoo Swift used to be at Maersk, something to do with cadet training if I remember right. Are the ships you sail on British or Danish flag? I’ve seen a crew list for a British one, the ‘Trein Maersk’ I think it was and it stated that 6 of the crew were ‘British Indian Island terriroty’ and the rest were pretty much either Thai or Polish. I was only at sea as a deckhand so as you can imagine, I stood absoluetly no chance of gaining employment with a company like Maersk working on a containership as a deckhand with British citizenship, but I don’t really care anymore, I’m happier driving a truck 
thankfully i don’t get seasick often, remember coming back from scheveningen just before xmas 1999 on one of the norfolkline tubs, got on saturday dinnertime, couple of heinekens and a decent meal, got head down for about an hour then up and barfing for about another 2 - did i ever feel rough, can’t imagine the half case of guinness i’d done when i arrived on the dock late on friday night helped though 
robinhood_1984:
the Hoo Swift
we do work with lapthorn’s now and again - small world eh!
best cure for seasickness , never fails
stand under a tree
got told that while on hms plymouth while going across the pentland firth.
never helped me though
robinhood_1984:
My Captain on the Hoo Swift used to be at Maersk, something to do with cadet training if I remember right. Are the ships you sail on British or Danish flag? I’ve seen a crew list for a British one, the ‘Trein Maersk’ I think it was and it stated that 6 of the crew were ‘British Indian Island terriroty’ and the rest were pretty much either Thai or Polish. I was only at sea as a deckhand so as you can imagine, I stood absoluetly no chance of gaining employment with a company like Maersk working on a containership as a deckhand with British citizenship, but I don’t really care anymore, I’m happier driving a truck
I work on British flag ships.
The ship I was on in the Meddy was the Tobias Maersk, sister ship to the Trein.
They would have had Polish crew, Thai riding squad to do cleaning or painting.
Officers would have mostly been British although this is changing a bit now.
Maersk UK still do have a few ships with British ratings but these are tankers trading between European ports as they require EU nationals, and without causing offence to anyone they are moving away from Poles as they are causing too many problems.
Bren:
robinhood_1984:
I work on British flag ships.
The ship I was on in the Meddy was the Tobias Maersk, sister ship to the Trein.
They would have had Polish crew, Thai riding squad to do cleaning or painting.
Officers would have mostly been British although this is changing a bit now.
Maersk UK still do have a few ships with British ratings but these are tankers trading between European ports as they require EU nationals, and without causing offence to anyone they are moving away from Poles as they are causing too many problems.
My Captain claimed that when he was at Maersk and charged with setting on cadets it was polocy to purposely chose some of the worst candidates as they had less chance of passing and thus the company could employ cheap officers from elsewhere. I don’t know wether or not this was true, but I have no reason to not believe him, infact he was on the whole, very supportive of having foreign crew over British crew, or should I say, very indifferent.
A lot of Poles are losing their jobs on ships now, especially ratings. You may know of a German company called Erwin Strahlmann, they only have coasters but with a fleet of over 60 ships, they are worth mentioning. Every ship is under the Antigua flag and until about one year ago, all but about six ships had full Polish crews, infact half of this companies offices are located in Poland, but now, many of the Polish deckhands have been replaced by Filipinos who have finally become cheaper than Poles again. I put this down partially as a result of Poland joining the EU and the subsequent raise in living standards and wages. The next thing we know, even Polsteam will employ Filipinos or Russians, might sound daft now but like my dad says, when he was on German merchant ships in the 60s, when they had full German crews, the idea of having all foreign crews on German ships sounded ridicuous and thought it could never happen. He always goes on about how he wanted to work for Rickmers going to China and in the 60s it was very hard getting a job there and the company then wouldn’t even consider employing a foreigner, now most Rickmers ships are foreign flagged with full Burmese crews.
In 1964 my first ship was the St. John, a freighter of the South American Saint Line, which was bought out by British & Commonwealth. We had a strictly segregated setup. British officers, white deck crew with a Polish bosun, African/Caribbean engine room, and Chinese galley. We all got on fairly well but thought the Chinese a bit meek and mild and very accepting of profane criticism of the the standard of the food (which I thought was very good, but then I liked school dinners ) until one day one of them came flying through the small serving hatch shortly followed by one of his mates wielding a meat cleaver .
Fortunately he didn’t catch him, but if he had and the stew had tasted a bit funny that night - I don’t think any of us would have complained
Salut, David.