Clipper passengers spend night at sea as 70 mph gales batter Island
Thursday 5th January 2012, 3:01PM GMT.
The Clipper finally reaches the harbour, tilting in the choppy sea
HUNDREDS of passengers spent a miserable night at sea after the Commodore Clipper was forced to ride out last night’s storm in huge waves off Jersey’s east coast.
The slow boat was unable to get into the Harbour last night as Jersey was battered by gale-force winds of over 70 mph in the latest severe storm to hit the Island. One passenger described the experience as ‘just horrible’.
As the storm pounded the south and west coasts, the vessel’s captain was forced to abandon plans to dock at the Harbour and instead shelter off the east of the Island. The vessel finally docked at 2.41 pm
During the night, gale-force eight winds battered the Island, with forecasters recording gusts of up to 61 mph at the Airport and 71 mph at the Harbour.
And the Met Office’s sea data recorder, situated five miles off the south coast of Jersey, reordered at wave of 32.5 ft at about 6.30 am, which forecasters believe could be the biggest wave recorded around the Island.
• See today’s Jersey Evening Post for the full story
• Know anyone who was on board the Clipper? Contact the newsdesk on 611640 or email news@jerseyeveningpost.com
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It’s unfortunate but it’s a risk you take travelling by sea at this time of year. Does this boat carry cargo? if so and the receipient finds their import damaged who is responsible, the supplier, courier or is it deemed an act of nature with no individual responsible.
For those of you receiving goods by sea in the next few days check them carefully.
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crikey me bah cri,… even simon cowell is worse than JUST HORRIBLE
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Ai Ai Ai —
I would have needed an airlift!!
that sounds absolutely horrible!!
Hope all the passengers are taking a day to recover..
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Last time I went to UK I was so ill coming back on this ferry,I vowed never ever again to go by see unless they get something in fit for purpose.
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I’ve been on ships of all shapes and sizes in other parts of the world and I have to say it’s not that the clipper isn’t fit for purpose at all. Choppy seas will give ferry passengers a rollercoaster ride whatever ship is used and this is what passengers must accept when booking especially at this time of year. I think the clipper serves this island fantastically well. This is just an unfortunate occurrence as the swell resulted in too much risk involved in docking. This would have been a problem for any vessel trying to dock in these conditions.
I hope the staff onboard the clipper today have received due praise and thanks for handling what must have been an horrendously long and difficult shift for them!
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You must mean a tunnel, Bella!
A bridge would be closed in those conditions (Adrian please note, wherevever you are lurking).
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Honestly? What ‘something’ would be fit for purpose then? The if the seA is rough, the boat will rock.
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Bella,
what exactly do you expect them to have that can be more “fit for purpose” than the clipper in those tough conditions?
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well one of the odder coments not helped by the use of the word ‘see’ and not ‘sea’. The clipper is a fantastic, sound, ship with a very professsional crew who sail her in some of the busiest seaways in the world crossways. imagine trying to run backwards and forwards across the M4 in rush hour!
I would be interested in knowing what ‘Captain ‘Birds Eye’Bella’ would describe as fit for purpose. A ride on the wings of angels?
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Well spotted, but I think that the use of the word “see” was intentional. She vowed never again to go “by see”, which I think meant that she vowed not to go and look at things in a rubbernecking way, like people do on motorways when there is an accident on the opposite side.
Those who go “by see” hold up the traffic in much the same way as the weather conditions held up travel.
Then again, if it were a vow not to go “by c”, then it would mean that the person concerned had made a vow not to travel by automobile in the future, which would clearly obviate any intention to go “by see” from a motor vehicle.
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She could, perhaps, be a Bishop writing under a psuedonym.
However, it rather sounds like the conditions endured amounted to an unholy sea.
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It did exactly what it said on the tin.
Storm force winds and high seas.
Anyone who climbed on the boat expecting anything other than a rollercoaster ride was going to be disappointed.
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“hundrets of passengers” ???? 125 to be precise…
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The problem was not the Clipper, which copes admirably with such conditions, but the harbour and it’s approaches
Why did our ancestors choose to build a harbour on the south coast, exposed to much of the prevailing weather?
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Are you for real? Yes it would have been a lot better to climb up the cliffs of the north coast to the capital parish of St Martin.
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‘Why did our ancestors choose to build a harbour on the south coast, exposed to much of the prevailing weather?’
Yeah. you’d think they could have backed her up to St Catherine’s slip to unload. A few old tyres hung on the rough granite wall for protection should do the trick.
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Why did our ancestors choose to build a harbour on the south coast, exposed to much of the prevailing weather?
Serious answer, our ancestors used wind to power their ships. Its probably easier to dock with a little wind to push your sails I would guess.
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Bella.. not what you would expect, the QE2!! At least it ran and Condor looked after everyone. No Ferry is going to be comfortable in Force 9! Get a grip!
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The Clipper should never have left Port in these conditions in the first place, whoever made that decision to sail should be sacked!
What was the urgency anyway?
Some passengers delayed for a day or so, so what! that is the chance anyone takes travelling at this time of year.
Mind you, anyone takes a chance travelling with Condor at any time of year…!!!!
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What makes you qualified to make that decision? The only person who makes that decision is the Captain of the ship and I don’t think Condor are going to sack a Captain because he deemed it ok to set sail in a “small” storm. A passenger has the ultimate decision in whether they check in and board the ferry. I’m sure everyone was warned when they checked in and would have been given the opportunity to rebook if they wished to.
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When they left port there was a chance they would get into Harbour in both Jersey and Guernsey. The Captain obviously navigated some ‘tough’ seas and had the wherewithall to decide when it wasn’t safe to continue. So I agree with you Ian, indeed I’d go as far as to say sounds like a good Captain to me.
If they hadn’t sailed everyone would have been moaning that they could have got in after all!
Funnily enough back home people are far less inclined to blame the staff, most are usually impressed at the weather and manoeuvres the Captains do manage to handle.
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OH dear I seemed to upset a few folk.
If you are all happy to sail on a second rate service so be it.
In the last few years I have only had one normal trip on any conder ferry out of six.
Always breaking down or 1 engine turned off or some other problem.
I have been on Dover to calais ferries,Holyhead to Dublin,Stranraer to Larne, to name a few, mostly in rough seas,but these ferries could easily cope with the weather,they were built for it.
So IMO not fit for purpose
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Bella,
if you had been talking about the smaller ferries I would have agreed with you, they did have significant engine problems last year and were often running late. However, what you said above, that people reacted to, is that that the Clipper is not fit for purpose. This is clearly untrue.
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I agree with you Bella that in general Condor offer a rubbish service on poor quality vessels. Anyone who has sailed on Brittany Ferries or P and O would probably agree. They get away with it because there is no competition, for reasons which escape me.
However even Condor can’t be blamed for the weather! I don’t think any ferry would have had anything other than an uncomfortable journey on that day.
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Bella, the Clipper was built if I remember right by the yard Van Der Guissen now known as Merwede in Rotterdam who build offshore oil vessels that work in the most inhospitable environs in the world. Having been a tecnical manager for theses ships built in the same yard I can assure you that the clipper is probably the most fit for purpose vessel out there for these conditions. No vessel in the world will be anything other than horrible to be on in these conditions, the only difference being with the Clipper is that she will get you home safely where others will not, a ship to trust. I am from Stranraer originally and believe me ferries operating out of there and Cairnryan have exactly the same issues as here. Anyone operating in the commercial marine passenger sector knows that there will always be issues with vessels as this is just the nature of the beast. I am not sticking up for Condor but I cannot read such wrongly opinionated rubbish and not respond!
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I am afraid you really don’t know what you are talking about. Back in the 70′s and 80′s prior to the introduction of fast feries with their imitations, the ferries of the day ploughed back and forth in all types of conditions, often with a load of passengers on a bonus brekaway trip, vomiting all over the ship, while on the car deck, vehicles were getting damaged.
We get the service that is sustainable for the route, with vessels which can get into the small harbours. The Dover Calais and Irish routes have no comparison with the CI route
I suggest you do a bit of research before sprouting off !!!
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Bella, I bet you read the Daily Mail
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I truly hope not!
I read somewhere that Daily Mail readers are likely to have particular DNA which is linked to shorter life span.
Of course, it’s hardly likely. I’m sure the shorter-lifespan scare is simply a leftie ploy to stop right wingers from reading the ‘truth’ in the Daily Mail.
However, I have noticed that my hairdresser gets uncharacteristically irritable and prone to rage after swallowing some dubious Daily Mail headline as true.
So, before she has a ‘right-wing-rage-induced’ heart attack, I think I’ll pass her the Guardian and save her life!
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The Guardian induces nausea as surely as does the Daily Mail, the latter particularly so at the moment with its self-satisfied ranting about the recent miscarriage of justice in England. With its smug agenda so favoured by distant, leftist academics, the big “G” positively reverberates with self- satisfied champagne socialism and the Orwellian march towards a leftist totalitarian state. I very much suspect that your hairdresser’s health will not be well served by the jounalistic exchange which you envisage!
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I’m sorry, there’s no other option…only the Guardian can save her!
You see, I read somewhere that the Daily Telegraph and the Times are directly linked to gastrointestinal disease and anxiety disorder…and all the other newspapers (except the JEP, of course) can cause serious brain damage.
By the way, do I detect a touch of right-winginess in your words?
If so, try some RED wine…it flushes away those nasty low-density lipoproteins that accumulate in veins and arteries and, perish the thought, can lead to heart disease.
Here’s to a healthy lifestyle. Cheers!
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If I was a passenger on that boat I would be speaking to my lawyer.
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“I would be speaking to my lawyer”
About what? The weather? Now what is your lawyer going to do about that? File a lawsuit against the wind?
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Why? To sue Michael fish for the bad weather?!
Sometimes sea crossings are unpleasant. If you don’t like it, well, there’s a boat in the morning.
oh, hang on…
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Surely people who can afford lawyers would fly?
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Exactly the kind of attitude that is destroying the USA and the UK
Or, are YOU a lawyer?
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We never had these problems in the good old days of BR, and it wasn’t in the private sector either. So much for the privatise and get a better service brigade. Total tosh but the right wing clowns will persist in this capitalist utopia.
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Seems Condor did fine on this occasion, no one forced people to get on that boat so th Captain and crew did well
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For ALL the rubbish spouted above.
I would praise the Captain and crew for their dedication to duty in getting all their passengers and vehicles safely across a busy channel in heavy seas on an obviously sea-worthy ship. They didn’t go on strike when their normal shift ended but carried on and did their duty to deliver their cargo safely.
Well done one and all.
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