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Worst Ferry Crossing you’ve been on?

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Ediswan

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Not so much worst, as complicated.

Late 1960s family holiday to Guernsey, day trip to Sark. On arriving at the harbour for the return journey, it was apparent that the sea state was a bit lively.

The ferry (Le Dame de Serk ?) went straight past the 'new' harbour (1866). Everybody duly trotted through the tunnels to the 'old' harbour (1588). The ferry continued past. After a while somebody appeared to say that we all needed to walk (1.5 miles) to other side of the island to the 'other' harbour, Havre Gosselin, which none of us visitors had heard of. More of a cove than a harbour. Suitably protected from the prevailing weather. The only access was down steep steps. No dock for the ferry. Hence, a shuttle service provided by a small motor boat. It was a good few feet up from tha boat to the ferry, no ladder. Rather, two of the ferry crew were standing either side of a suitable gap in the rail, each holding on with one arm, pulling the passengers up by the other. All very efficient, in its own way.

How aas the crossing back to Guernsey ? No memory. There again, I have never suffered from sea sickness.

The later return crossing was cancelled. A night on the church hall floor for some. No internet, just the local grapevine.
 
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contrex

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Dieppe - Newhaven, aboard the SNCF ferry Villandry, 1965. Dad's 100E Ford Anglia down on the vehicle deck. Rather lively sea, waves breaking over restaurant glass roof. Ship moving about a lot. Me aged 13 perfectly fine (never been seasick). Mother, father, little sister looking miserably over the rail at the sea. Me standing back. Man rushes out of restaurant and pukes copiously over the rail just upwind of them. Wind takes it and dashes it all into my family's faces. They promptly upchuck. I go in near-deserted restaurant and eat fish and chips. Lovely. Saw Bulleid 'Hornby' loco from ferry while docking at Newhaven.
 

ijmad

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Crossing from Igoumenitsa to Corfu Town, boat got caught in a storm and was pitching +/- 10 degrees at least. Was then struck by lightning.
 

Caboose Class

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September 1993. Tórshavn (Faroe Islands) back to Aberdeen on Smyril Line's old Norröna (1973). From memory, the ship's restaurant was on either Deck 6 or 7 at the front end of the ship. I was trying to have breakfast with fifty foot waves crashing against the windows. Never experienced conditions like it before at sea. Rounding the Horn and crossing the Drake Passage, in comparison, were both very smooth crossings.
 

james60059

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Probably late 1980's when the St. Brendan plied the route between Fishguard and Rosslare, coming back on the night sailing the sea was really rough and I was really ill. Only time I ever had sea sickness though, since then I've been good
 

Cloud Strife

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September 1993. Tórshavn (Faroe Islands) back to Aberdeen on Smyril Line's old Norröna (1973). From memory, the ship's restaurant was on either Deck 6 or 7 at the front end of the ship. I was trying to have breakfast with fifty foot waves crashing against the windows. Never experienced conditions like it before at sea. Rounding the Horn and crossing the Drake Passage, in comparison, were both very smooth crossings.
The old Norrona was also a notoriously poor boat for that run. A friend's Faroese dad used to travel between the Faroes and Denmark on it quite frequently, and he said that it was nothing uncommon for the boat to arrive and depart hours or even days late.
 

william

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Turning up for the ferry at Mallaig on my carefully planned trip around Scoatland only to find it had been cancelled due to the weather.

Worst actual crossing.....The airport shuttle from Lungi Airport to Freetown in a fishing boat (it had been risk assessed has having lower risk than the alternatives which were aging Russian ecilopters (which are prone to crashing randomly), a seriously overloaded 'proper' ferry (which are prone to sinking randomly) or a water taxi. They looked to be quite safe and akin to what I'd expect for a western type water crossing but they were death traps apparently).

Needless to say, after recovering from the overwhelming fear that me and my fellow western passenger had been kidnapped and managing to get our months worth of luggage across a wooden jetty into the back of the boat, it ended up getting caught up in some serious looking fishing net. The guy driving it seemed hell bent on trying to plough on regardless. I was composed enough to give him a not so subtle tap on the shoulder at this point.
 
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52290

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The old Norrona was also a notoriously poor boat for that run. A friend's Faroese dad used to travel between the Faroes and Denmark on it quite frequently, and he said that it was nothing uncommon for the boat to arrive and depart hours or even days late.
I sailed on the Norrona from Lerwick to Seydisfjordur (Iceland) in June 1987. It was a stormy night and the boat was 2 hours late arriving from Bergen at about 2am. Meanwhile the returning Faroe islanders were getting completely plastered on what for them was cheap beer in the adjacent Shetland Hotel, where the manager had unwisely decided to keep the bar open. The crossing was a turbulent one but by this time the Faroese were completely comotose. As we approached Torshavn the sea suddenly calmed down, the clouds disappeared and the sun shone brilliantly on the beautiful Faroes. After a 2 hour stop for restocking the bar etc, we proceeded to Iceland without incident and arrived on time.
The delayed departure from Lerwick wasn't blamed on the storm which they said they were use to, but on a heat wave in Norway which had delayed the arrival of the train from Oslo in Bergen.
 

mike57

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Worst crossing was the foot ferry from John O'Groats to Burwick, on South Ronaldsay on the Orkneys. This was around 1980, I dont know what its like now but then it was a very basic vessel which would carry around 100 foot passengers. There is something about the Pentland Firth that makes it rough even when it fine, the day we crossed there was a stiff westerly, and it was like a cork bobbing around in a bath tub. We stayed on deck, and I was unaffected, my companion was OK as well, but just about all those who went below deck into the seating area emerged and promtly parted with the last meal they ate. Her parents were meeting us in Burwick, we were travelling up from Yorkshire. They commented on the green state of most the people getting off, and looked at me questioningly. I am good as long as I stay on deck even if its rough. They were quite impressed with the fact that I had survived with no ill effects.

Not a ferry crossing but worthy of mention, My Mother-In-law had asked that her ashes be scattered in Bridlington Bay, and you arrange for a small boat to take you out with the family members to scatter the ashes. We went out with about 6, my sis-inlaw, my MiLs best friend, my wife etc. I was nominated to scatter the ashes. The day dawned and it was blowy, not gale force, but certainly lively. There was considerable trepidation amongst the mourners, in particular my Sis-in-law who has always refused to have anything to do with any form of transport that involves floating on water. After a lively 15 mins getting maybe 1 mile offshore, and bobbing around the captain turned the boat into the wind and told me to scatter the ashes from the back of the boat. I dispensed them, I reckon some ended up being blown clean across the North Sea. The captain then asked if anyone wished to say anything, and Sis-in-law pipes up "Get this !#*$ing boat back to the harbour". The moment has never been forgotten in our family, what a send off.
 

BayPaul

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Worst crossing was the foot ferry from John O'Groats to Burwick, on South Ronaldsay on the Orkneys. This was around 1980, I dont know what its like now but then it was a very basic vessel which would carry around 100 foot passengers.
In 1980 it was the Souter's Lass running the crossing. She was replaced in 1987 by Pentland Venture, which is still running the crossing. The Venture is purpose built, but only a little larger (250 passengers, 29.6m) than the Souter's Lass (126 passengers, 21.9m), which was originally built for trips from Bournemouth, and now runs on the much more sheltered waters of Loch Linnhe from Fort William.
 

OhNoAPacer

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October 1984, Weymouth to Channel Islands. The sea was on the verge of being too rough to allow the ferry to sail.
It was a bit bouncy, lots of ill looking people.
I know it is not how genetics is supposed to work but I must have inherited good sea legs from all those ancestors on my mother's side who fished the Irish Sea.
I felt hungry and went to the cafeteria, it was empty apart from a few crew members sitting playing cards, I heard one say "bl**** h**l, someone wants to eat!
 

MysticMagpie

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The worst I’ve been on were the old Sealink cross channel ferries Hengist and Horsa Dover/Folkestone to Calais/Boulogne- we would be en route to stay with family in Northern Italy. I remember my first crossing in 1973 at the age of 5 on Hengist who had only been in service a year. Dreadful weather and shivering on the wave and rain soaked open top deck with my sister watching other passengers puking everywhere; our mum had insisted on stuffing us with cheese and tomato sarnies and Fanta as soon as we boarded. Consequently she spent the whole crossing in the loo while I ended up groaning on one of the plush bar seats being watched over by my dad who had amazing sea legs. Probably the worst was In 1985 from Folkestone on Horsa - as we were going along that corrugated iron/breeze block passage thing from passport control to board there were huge waves smacking the sides of it. ‘I hope you’re a good sailor’ we heard a crew member telling the passengers in front of us. Absolute nightmare- looking out of the lower deck windows there was just a wall of foam and black water. Big carrot jobs on the floor everywhere. A family of Americans who stuffed themselves as the boat moved off were all lying like corpses across the lounge seats. Another family next to us were all throwing up apart from the mother who was smoking a fag with a pint of lager in one hand loudly proclaiming she didn’t know what the fuss was about. Loads of school kids jumping around in the luggage room with sick bags. We went into the duty free staggering around like drunks to keep our balance and gad a near miss with cages of beer rolling across the floor and smashing. My dad and sister narrowly missed getting projectiled over by the woman sat on the table next to us and then they announced that the ferry had docked on the port side and not starboard so it had to go back out and turn round leading to another 20 minutes of misery. The final cherry on the cake was as we were eventually leaving and walking along the rain, sea water and puke soak promenade- there was a loud bang and swearing behind us. A very immaculately dressed large gentleman had slipped in a big pile of sick and was lying down in it, and slipped everytime he tried to get back up like a Laurel and Hardy sketch- he even got the sick in his neatly trimmed beard poor bloke and the crew members who ran to help him didn’t do a very good job of hiding their laughter. Apparently Horsa is being crowdfunded for purchase as a museum piece after serving her time in Greece renamed Penelope A - I bet a lot of steam cleaning has been done over the years!
 

pitdiver

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A couple come to my mind. First was a crossing to Esberg in Denmark from Harwich a few years ago in late Nov this was pretty grim.
Second was last Nov/Dec Scrabster to Stromness just before the storm struck. As someone as already mentioned the Pentland Firth an be lively. It certainly was last year.
 

brevets

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A few rough Irish Sea crossings...
Early '70s night crossing from Liverpool to Belfast, the ship (Ulster Prince) was banging the harbour wall.
'85 from Stranraer to Larne (poss Galloway Princess), very rough but I kept thinking that if anything happened the Cairnryan boat was only 100yds ahead!
'92 from Rosslare (Stena Felicity), like a very bumpy bus ride. It was dark, there was a cabaret and the curtains were closed so you couldn't see or hear the weather but you could fell the shudders!
'95 Dover to Calais, Force 5 in the channel. We'd driven to Dover because the previous day's Newhaven to Dieppe ferry hadn't docked in Dieppe yet! 2017 Belfast to Birkenhead (Stena Mersey or Lagan) was a bit rough outside Belfast Lough but calmed down a bit after passing IoM.
I wasn't seasick on any of them though...
 
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Summer 1991, my first trip to Ireland, with two friends from university. Thanks to my inability to read a train (or possibly ferry) timetable, we arrived at Holyhead in mid afternoon for a late evening sailing. Holyhead not being renowned for its cultural facilities, we spent several hours in the pub, and then had a Chinese takeaway just before boarding.

It was a rough crossing. I have never been so sick, throwing up bright green bile once I had emptied my stomach, starting a minute or so after we passed the breakwater at Holyhead and ending as we entered the harbour at Dun Laoghaire. The thought of the return crossing hung over the holiday and I thought I might have to stay in Ireland for the rest of my life... but the return trip was smooth as the proverbial millpond.
 
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