Recent stormy sea - Deerness, Orkney

[Copinsay]

Not a great day for Ribbing in my usual haunts.

www.facebook.com/v/10151332805958679

These clifs are 100 feet high Enjoy. Steve

[Ian M]

Can you change the permissions, public viewing is currently not enabled.

[Copinsay]

Thanks Ian - hopefully this way works better :o)

Happy Christmas!

Steve

[Ian M]

Been diving up your way quite a few times, always a great time. Interesting to see the winter face of the sea

[Robbie Diesel]

Serious conditions! I now see why they are flying food to shetland by Hercules!

[willk]

Originally Posted by Robbie Diesel

Serious conditions! I now see why they are flying food to shetland by Hercules!

Tesco Air Force

If they need a loadmaster - I'd be more than willing to push out a few pallets of tinned goods as they overfly Lerwick

[Copinsay]

Hi Ian

I have to say this has been quite an unusual and prolonged storm... combination of new moon and easterlies made for the archetypal "perfect storm".

We've only been here 5 years, but local say the worst in living memory, though we've not really had too much damage, compared to further south in Aberdeenshire... or indeed SW England.

Here's a couple of pics showing what our parish slipway is normally like, and then a shot to show the tops of the entry spars disappearing in the waves.

Do give me a yell if you are up this way or need any local info, though I guess you'll probably be pretty sorted.

Best wishes for a great Christmas

Steve

[Copinsay]

Hi Willk

To help put it in context, they will run our ferries in this:

Hamnavoe in heavy seas - YouTube

So you can imagine what it will be like to cancel for so many days.

That said, feeling locally now is that the ferry firm (now Serco) is more concerned about being sued for injuries to passengers after a couple of incidents in the last few years, rather than it being unsafe to sail per se.

Happy Christmas!

Steve

[Boatnomad]

"but local say the worst in living memory"
Yes,the weather in general seems to have taken a turn for worst.That sentence above is cropping up a lot these days!!!
Great video and interesting shots.

[paddlers]

Great thread.

[willk]

Originally Posted by Copinsay

Hi Willk

To help put it in context, they will run our ferries in this:

Aye - I've had a few runs on Hrossay over the years - never in bad seas though. Even the big boys like Norrona have copped a bit of damage in winter and I can imagine that handling passengers would be a nightmare. Just keeping cargo secured would be an issue before the ship was in serious danger.

I think the use of a Hercules simply turned what could have been a public relations disaster for Tescos into a news item. I'm quite sure the Shelties wouldn't starve for a week or two. On the other hand, one Saturday night in Lerwick and I nearly expired for lack of a steak dinner. Dear oh dear

[Copinsay]

Hello Willk

For sure - when you see the rig support vessels sheltering in and amongst our islands you know it's pretty hard core.

Yep a good PR opportunity for Tesco, though equally stoking the concerns about domination of smaller shops, but I'll leave that for another forum! For sure the Shelties would not be starving, but maybe it wasn't "food" that was being shipped in... :o) Whatever, I'm sure it was a commercial decision rather than any benevolence....

A year or two back a lorry filled with aggregate came loose, tipped over and squashed a couple of cars (thankfully no pet dogs in them) when crossing the Fair Isle channel, and I think there's been a couple of people fallen out of bunks with injuries.

Anyway, really calm this morning - like it never happened.

Good weather for the wind turbine though and cooking Christmas dinner for free :o)

Have a great Christmas!!

Steve

[willk]

When it goes wrong on Car Ferries! I'm not quite sure why there's a clip of Kerny doing his party piece at 0:44. Best wind forward to 1:44 for the good bit...

Norrøna in stormy weather - YouTube

[kerny]

Originally Posted by willk; I'm not quite sure why there's a clip of Kerny doing his party piece at 0:44.

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and I didn't spill a drop

[Andy B]

I remember a couple of crossings like that when I used to do the simmer din rally on Shetland, and that was in June!

They used to load the bikes with mattresses between them and tied together through the wheels.

Think the ferry was called the "St Clair", but it was a while ago now

I remember having long jump competitions down the corridors, it you timed it right with the swells a 40' jump wasn't unheard of!

[matt h]

Hilarious.. at 44 seconds those boys know how to have fun.. Brilliant

[Poly]

Originally Posted by Copinsay

That said, feeling locally now is that the ferry firm (now Serco) is more concerned about ... injuries to passengers ... rather than it being unsafe to sail

Interesting definition of "unsafe to sail" you have!

[C-NUMB]

Originally Posted by Copinsay

Thanks Ian - hopefully this way works better :o)

Happy Christmas!

Steve

Very nice footage! Beautiful to watch but not always so nice to be in the middle of action ... Visited Sullom Voe and Flotta a dozen times in my Youth, nice memories.

Happy Christmas!

[Copinsay]

Originally Posted by Poly

Interesting definition of "unsafe to sail" you have!

Hi Poly

Just to elaborate on this “unsafe to sail” view – this reflects a feeling often heard here and in Shetland that Northlink is more prone to cancelling ferries than in the past, due to fears of being sued for what in the past would be accepted as a “reasonable” chance of some minor injury to passengers/goods. If you do any risk assessments for work etc, it’s like the subtle difference between “hazards” that will always exist and the “risk” or chance that someone adverse will happen.

Basically, the feeling is that as society is becoming more litigious, the threshold of when to cancel is being lowered to avoid being sued, rather than the boat being incapable of dealing with the conditions.

Or in other words, in the past passengers will have accepted the chance of a stumble / trip / roll out of bed / when the boat rolls/pitches as part of travelling on a ferry to here, esp. in winter. These days, the feeling is some passengers are more likely to see any injury as “negligence” and the chance to make some money.

Other islanders may well have different views too :o)

Hope that helps

Steve