Rough Seas

The only time I’ve been on that ferry ride was on my motorcycle. The seas weren’t that rough but pretty close. I had to sit on the bike the whole way and keep it up.
 
Mom used to love to tell the story of the family trip many decades ago, when we took the ferry in rough weather, and I howled all the way.
A lady looked at Mom (who was horrified at my "making a scene") and then told me it was okay, that I was doing what everyone else on that ferry wanted to do! lol.
 
The shallow Pamilco/Core sounds really whip up quickly which is why it is one of the most deadly waters in the US. I believe two trawlers were lost last year. Around 2000 a group of us in the scouts tried to kayak from Harkers/Cape lookout to Ocracoke, We made it to Atlantic and beached for our lives after the weather whipped up and we paddled for safety. We saw a couple waterspouts that day. My best friend capsized in front of shrimp troller and I pulled him on the front of my yack to get him out of the way. I did it the next year in 2 days which should have taken 4 as we caught the tides just right to get sucked and pulled/pushed along. Have to say the overall trip had the worst and best times.
 
I'd have been outwardly very calm because my wife is quick to panic.
Inside I'd have been screaming and praying to any deity that might be listening, including some of the bad ones.

A few years back we were on a little boat in capri italy. I hate water. Wife wanted to see the "blue grotto". sigh, give me a floaty vest and put me on a small boat in the sea... I didn't panic (outwardly)
Anyway, a storm was rolling in, and the guides wisely decided that the grotto was NOT on the itinerary because you have to duck to get in on a good day and they didn't want to get us trapped/sunk due to waves.
So yeah, little boat, 10 or so people, trying to beat the storm around the island, some lady throwing up constantly... look over and see water, look up and see water, look further up and see water, look 10-15 feet up and see sky. wave passes. look over, see sky. look down and see sky, look 10-15 feet down and see water. I did my best to look bored while screaming insanely on the inside.
Then we had dinner in sorrento, walked to the train station and found that the storm had stopped all trains... got gelato and called a bunch of people while we waited 3 or 4 hours for service to be restored...

call me crazy, but humans aren't made to spend time in/on the water.
 
DrScaryGuy said:
I'd have been outwardly very calm because my wife is quick to panic.
Inside I'd have been screaming and praying to any deity that might be listening, including some of the bad ones.

A few years back we were on a little boat in capri italy. I hate water. Wife wanted to see the "blue grotto". sigh, give me a floaty vest and put me on a small boat in the sea... I didn't panic (outwardly)
Anyway, a storm was rolling in, and the guides wisely decided that the grotto was NOT on the itinerary because you have to duck to get in on a good day and they didn't want to get us trapped/sunk due to waves.
So yeah, little boat, 10 or so people, trying to beat the storm around the island, some lady throwing up constantly... look over and see water, look up and see water, look further up and see water, look 10-15 feet up and see sky. wave passes. look over, see sky. look down and see sky, look 10-15 feet down and see water. I did my best to look bored while screaming insanely on the inside.
Then we had dinner in sorrento, walked to the train station and found that the storm had stopped all trains... got gelato and called a bunch of people while we waited 3 or 4 hours for service to be restored...

call me crazy, but humans aren't made to spend time in/on the water.
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Reminds me of a fishing trip down to Santee-Cooper Reservoir. We're with professional guides out in the middle Moultrie and a storm blows up. Guides say we need to hold up until the storm passes. They start engines, so I think we're headed in. Nope. The boats cluster together, but still about 20ft apart. I watch the waves build until I can see them behind the other boats, but 2-3 times as high. They look like they are going to swamp the boat. Turns out they are "swells", think fat wide waves and the boats just ride up and down them. But, it was a similar circumstance. Sometimes you were in a valley of water looking up to see the top of the swells and sometimes you were looking down from the top of one, into a watery abyss that's going to swallow your boat. I was puckered. Still love Santee-Cooper though. ;)
 
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First of October 1984 on the Cedar Island to Ocracoke ferry I had an unforgettable whitewater ride. I truly thought cars were going to start sliding around and motorhomes were going to flop over on their sides. They didn't. :)
 
charliesgrave said:
I took the ferry from Dover to Calais a couple times when I lived in Europe. Those are pretty big boats, and usually it wasn't bad.
But there was one trip where the channel was awful. You haven't known true fun at sea until you've been slammed back and forth in a bathroom stall while puking uncontrollably.
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Never did the ferry, but took the under sea train a few times. I've already forgotten what it was called. Euro tunnel, maybe?
 
The first time I rode the Washington State Ferry from Coupeville (Whidbey Island) to Port Townsend was in November. Hell of a ride with solid 40-50MPH winds. That piece of Puget Sound can really rip with wind.


Your waves ain’t big until they move cars into one another!
 
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kcult said:
Never did the ferry, but took the under sea train a few times. I've already forgotten what it was called. Euro tunnel, maybe?
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The Chunnel.

While I was spending some job related time in the UK my wife said take the train to Paris. I looked and the travel time getting to the train and rail time would have left me 1hr to look around Paris before heading back. I opted to go to the tank museum instead.
 
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There's bound to be a squid lurking in here somewhere who's chuckling quietly to himself right about now.
 
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I kinda enjoyed it. It was rough on the way there too but we were in the middle lane, right in the middle of the boat so the side to side action was muted somewhat.

FYI, Ocracoke is still closed, only the general store was open. Looked like lots of places were busy rebuilding after whatever the last big hurricane was that came thru.

On the way back we were parked on the outside lane so the rocking was exaggerated. The wind had picked up so it was a bit rougher than the trip there.

Stupid beach trip. Dare county closed down to non residents after the Corona thing took off until 4/29, which meant we'd still make the trip. Then on 4/21 they extended the lock down until 5/22 which meant no beach trip. And that's how we planned. Jenny scheduled hip surgery for 5/12.

On 5/6 Dare county arbitrarily lifted the order a week early allowing non residents entry starting 5/16 which meant we could go after all, but all the restaurants were still closed to dine in and a lot of places were just closed. The realty company said you either come on short notice or lose your rental. The travel insurance company said the governors stay at home order (effective until 5/22) wasn't a valid reason to cancel and be refunded. Fortunately Jenny's surgery would provide a valid reason to cancel and be refunded.

The surgery was canceled the morning of. So we came to the shuttered outer banks.

Then Arthur came along, followed by a cold front. Wind and cold rain all week, except Sunday, that was nice.

The house is nice on the surface. But is infested with roaches. ETA : if these little bastards hitch a ride home with us, I'm coming back to burn this island down to the sand.

It may sound bad, but this is pretty much on par for how life treats us.

Got this Sunday.

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Brian K said:
I kinda enjoyed it. It was rough on the way there too but we were in the middle lane, right in the middle of the boat so the side to side action was muted somewhat.

FYI, Ocracoke is still closed, only the general store was open. Looked like lots of places were busy rebuilding after whatever the last big hurricane was that came thru.

On the way back we were parked on the outside lane so the rocking was exaggerated. The wind had picked up so it was a bit rougher than the trip there.

Stupid beach trip. Dare county closed down to non residents after the Corona thing took off until 4/29, which meant we'd still make the trip. Then on 4/21 they extended the lock down until 5/22 which meant no beach trip. And that's how we planned. Jenny scheduled hip surgery for 5/12.

On 5/6 Dare county arbitrarily lifted the order a week early allowing non residents entry starting 5/16 which meant we could go after all, but all the restaurants were still closed to dine in and a lot of places were just closed The reality company said you either come on short notice or lose your rental. The travel insurance company said the governors stay at home order (effective until 5/22) wasn't a valid reason to cancel and be refunded. Fortunately Jenny's surgery would provide a valid reason to cancel and be refunded.

The surgery was canceled the morning of. So we came to the shuttered outer banks.

Then Arthur came along, followed by a cold front.

The house is nice in the surface. But is infested with roaches.

It may sound bad, but this is pretty much on part for how life treats us.
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You are not alone on that, my life pretty much is this .gif. I can see something good coming then........
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DCGallim said:
You are not alone on that, my life pretty much is this .gif. I can see something good coming then........
200.gif
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Yep. I've become real good at just rolling with it and adapting. It's either that or rampaging, and I don't have the bail money for a good rampage.
 
Jeppo said:
Soon to be rust bucket.
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Thats how you go from southern car to a northern car in seconds not years. That would make me more ticked or uneasy than the rough water. Not anyones fault really just one of those things that would bother me and try to find nearest carwash or rain storm to drive in to wash it off.
 
Jp8819 said:
Thats how you go from southern car to a northern car in seconds not years. That would make me more ticked or uneasy than the rough water. Not anyones fault really just one of those things that would bother me and try to find nearest carwash or rain storm to drive in to wash it off.
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That's what I thought too but we got rain. Lots and lots of rain. Lots of deep puddles on the way back to the house to rinse the under carriage and make the serpentine belt squeal.
 
They might have split up or they might have capsized;
May have broke deep and took water.
And all that remains is the faces and the names
Of the wives and the sons and the daughters.

Bon Voyage :D
 
On a ferry ride from Southport to Ft. Fisher last June we talked with one of the ferry workers (mates? seamen? deck hand?). They have a hard limit for max winds and seas (though I'd hardly call sounds seas, but you know what I mean). It's really not that much, they have a short trigger for how quickly they will shut down.

I always thought that would be a great retirement job.
 
Brian K said:
... all the restaurants were still closed to dine in and a lot of places were just closed. The reality company said you either come on short notice or lose your rental.
...
The house is nice on the surface. But is infested with roaches.
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sounds like they got you by the curlies. Maybe tell them you're going to call the health department about the infestation... take a few pictures and email them to the company.
See if they'll refund you. I don't know anywhere that's allowed to rent out places they know are infested. even if they don't do something for you, have your wife get on "next door" or something and make a fuss. if nothing else, maybe they'll fix it and stop spreading those little buggers to renters
 
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The Minnesott Beach to Cherry Point ferry in Pamlico can have some rough weather (wind actually raises and lowers the water levels along with creating waves) but the trip isn’t the hardest part ... the docking and loading/offloading is where I get nervous on crap happening.
 
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B00ger said:
When the waves turns the minutes to hours?
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Yeah Booger, I'm an old guy. Gordon Lightfoot sang Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald back in the day. It's a great song and was quite popular. Lightfoot is a great songwriter. Stuff being written today is mostly commercial crap. The Edmund Fitzgerald has been found in recent years and the exact cause of the sinking still isn't clear. Those who don't sail the Great Lakes have no idea just how nasty a storm can be. Storms on the Lakes can be every bit as powerful and dangerous as in the mid Atlantic. The difference is the Lakes are fresh water and many of the wrecks there are in a fantastic state of preservation.
 
Brian K said:
The travel insurance company said the governors stay at home order (effective until 5/22) wasn't a valid reason to cancel and be refunded.
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That's some class-A bullshart, right there. This is why I cringe at the thought of those "insurance" or "product warranty extensions." They find >ANY< reason to get out of it. There could be Russian landing craft coming ashore in front of the beach house and they'd find a way to weasel out of it.
 
Dave951 said:
Yeah Booger, I'm an old guy. Gordon Lightfoot sang Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald back in the day. It's a great song and was quite popular. Lightfoot is a great songwriter. Stuff being written today is mostly commercial crap. The Edmund Fitzgerald has been found in recent years and the exact cause of the sinking still isn't clear. Those who don't sail the Great Lakes have no idea just how nasty a storm can be. Storms on the Lakes can be every bit as powerful and dangerous as in the mid Atlantic. The difference is the Lakes are fresh water and many of the wrecks there are in a fantastic state of preservation.
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Thought they found the beam was snapped, presumably from the ship "bridging" two wave crests of dozens of feet high each...essentially making the bow and stern support the entire ship's mass, including a load of iron.
 
9outof10mms said:
Thought they found the beam was snapped, presumably from the ship "bridging" two wave crests of dozens of feet high each...essentially making the bow and stern support the entire ship's mass, including a load of iron.
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Yup, but from what I've read, that's not a certainty as to cause. That might have happened as the ship was going down and already destined for the bottom. Either way, the boat sank and everybody died.
 
Dave951 said:
Either way, the boat sank and everybody died.
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That's the crazy thing. You'd think at least a few of them would have said "the hell with this" and jumped overboard with a life ring.
 
9outof10mms said:
That's the crazy thing. You'd think at least a few of them would have said "the hell with this" and jumped overboard with a life ring.
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Most people don't realize how effing cold (and deep) the great lakes are. You won't last long in a life ring with or without rough seas.
 
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