Wednesday 9 May 2012

The Storm and the Force Twelve+ and a lucky escape


The weather forecast on the radio last night was terrible for today, with rain wind and cold, like being at sea in a force twelve+. I am not sure how many of you have been out at sea in a force twelve+ but I can tell you it is not nice. The best place to be is on the bridge with the captain and his trusty lieutenant. Well I thought it was until you realize they are both saying OH ********* look at that wave *********** *****. It is also odd that one minute you can see nothing but sky the ship shaking and pointing upwards at rather an acute angle, then the next second the ship seesaws, there is a huge bang and you are looking down and all you see is sea, no sky just a wall of water……WELL COOL?.  The bit at the bottom before going up again is best left out of this story however.


This is the very ship that I sailed through the force twelve+ storm on when it was called 
The Shearwater Sapphire. I was up on the Bridge standing forth window from the port side.



Still the point is it can get wet, so I made sure that everyone went to school today suitably dressed for this possible rain and stuff, with sou’wester coat and hat and waders. I also took the precaution of ensuring everyone had lifejackets and associated survival equipment,  just in case of flooding.  As it turned out though the weather was not quite that bad in fact it did not rain until almost midday and even then it was more just drizzle and grey skies. This was not good, you would think that it was good but no, not when you have convinced everyone at school to dress up in several layers of waterproof rubber and lifejackets plus big waders and thick gloves.  I was very worried as I was unable to runaway from the angry masses who said I had made them all look like IDIOTS, luckily although I was unable to move little faster than a snail neither could anyone else. As I tried to escape along the high street chased by forty five angry people we appeared to panic a bus tour from Japan who thought that they were being attacked by strange bright yellow rubber Zombie creatures from the dark swamps of darkest Wales, “Swamp Zombies”.

The Japanese according to the dog are easily spooked by angry mumbling Swamp Zombies as a result of a series of badly made cult films in the sixties and early seventies that has left an indelible mark on their nations psyche

I did escape in the end, when I met one of the Fighting Fishermen of Fishguard  (from the A to Z challenge) who thought I was his lucky mascot from his trusty trawler, being perused by EU fishermen  complaining about the British Whelk.   

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6 comments:

  1. I feel seasick just reading your description of the Force 12 - uugg!! Hope you kept your sea legs.

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    1. I was OK because two days before while we had been in a rather calm sea, I had been very seasick. By the time we hit the big storm I was fine, the only concern was whether the ship would make it out the other end in one piece.

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  2. Wow, Rob, what an adventure! I get motion sickness easily. Funny, it doesn't happen if I'm on a cruise ship, but it's a real problem when I'm in anything smaller.

    It's pretty cute how you had everyone all mega-suited up for disaster. :D I don't blame you--I'd do the same thing.

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    1. There are many adventures associated with the Shearwater Sapphire, the sea, robot submarines and North Sea Tigers.

      But no one wants to know about reality and living on the edge do they.....

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  3. Ungrateful people, they wouldn't have been mad at you if it had rained as much as you thought! Technically they should blame the weatherman, you were just the messenger :)

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    1. Well I probably need to take a bit of the blame I think I was listening to the Maharashtra regional weather forecast and not Shropshire

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