Windy Day.

[WelshGas]

On a trip to Swansea Maritime Museum today. On the M4 near Port Talbot, just passed an overturned Lorry, single file, 20mph, when my off-side headlight cover snapped in half. The outside bit went sailing away to the R, no traffic as we were single file, and the other half was held to the wing mirror by the wind. Wound window down and lifted piece into car. Fortunately no damage.
Definitely windy today. Despite speed limits plenty of vehicles speeding past.
The California, however, was much more stable in the crosswinds than my Land Rover Defender was.

 

[briwy]

You should worry
Ferry from Bilbao cancelled due to the weather so just driven 800 miles up from Barcelona to Caen where BF assure us the boat will sail. Awful on the autoroutes dodging huge artics struggling to stay in one lane
Seasick pills at the ready

 

[WelshGas]

Think I wou

You should worry
Ferry from Bilbao cancelled due to the weather so just driven 800 miles up from Barcelona to Caen where BF assure us the boat will sail. Awful on the autoroutes dodging huge artics struggling to stay in one lane
Seasick pills at the ready

l would prefer the drive rather than The Bay of Biscay in this weather. Have a safe journey.

 

[briwy]

Think I wou

l would prefer the drive rather than The Bay of Biscay in this weather. Have a safe journey.

Yes same here WG but we it made sense as we were visiting Basque friends in San Sebastian then on to our place in the Pyrenees and down to our daughter in Barcelona.
Never again though

 

[Tactical]

l would prefer the drive rather than The Bay of Biscay in this weather.

Have a look at http://earth.nullschool.net/#current/wind/surface/level/orthographic=-16.94,54.33,1321

Click on the 'earth' button and change the 'Height' from Sfc to say 700hPa. Awesome!

Then set 'Mode' to 'Ocean', 'Animate' to 'Waves' and 'Overlay' to 'HTSGW' (significant wave height). Hmmm. Not today thank you!

 

[larrylamb]

Have a look at http://earth.nullschool.net/#current/wind/surface/level/orthographic=-16.94,54.33,1321

Click on the 'earth' button and change the 'Height' from Sfc to say 700hPa. Awesome!

Then set 'Mode' to 'Ocean', 'Animate' to 'Waves' and 'Overlay' to 'HTSGW' (significant wave height). Hmmm. Not today thank you!

Wow, great site, thanks.

 

[Dottie]

Being thick...how do I change the height.?

 

[briwy]

Got back eventually. Two hours late so eight hours in total. Hell on earth in the middle of the channel. 15 degrees to one side and back again and massive thumps as waves hit the boat. Feels like it has hit something.
And, my Pringles rolled away never to be seen again.
It amazes me that none of the vehicles move.
Spoke to one of the crew who said that it was as rough as they would allow to sail. Any more and it would have been cancelled.

 

[Tactical]

Being thick...how do I change the height.?

In the your screenshot you have 'Mode' set to 'Ocean', so the display shows sea-related information.
Change 'Mode' to 'Air' and then you will see a 'Height' menu running from Surface (Sfc), through to 10hPa Pressure Altitude.



You'll see that the wind speed increases dramatically with increasing altitude.

For info: Air pressure in the International Standard Atmoshore (IDA) is 1013 hectoPascals at Mean Sea Level and the pressure decreases with altitude, at about 1 hPa per 30 feet gain in height in the lower levels of the atmosphere.

 

[Alan]

Briwy's post makes mine seem insignificant, after leaving my van at SMG (Cowfold) at 3.pm for its 3 year service
What should have been a 1.45 minute journey took 6 hours to get back home
Gridlock every where due to the Dartford crossing shutdown due to the bad weather,Chris Rea's "the road to hell" kept coming to mind

Alan

 

[larrylamb]

Got back eventually. Two hours late so eight hours in total. Hell on earth in the middle of the channel. 15 degrees to one side and back again and massive thumps as waves hit the boat. Feels like it has hit something.
And, my Pringles rolled away never to be seen again.
It amazes me that none of the vehicles move.
Spoke to one of the crew who said that it was as rough as they would allow to sail. Any more and it would have been cancelled.

Sounds dreadful, bet it's taken you all day to stop swaying.

 

[shudycamps]

We took the sailing from Portsmouth to Santander on 29 Jan. Departure 4 hrs late, but we eventually loaded and sailed. Had our dogs with us, no pet cabins available on this leg of the journey. Pet accommodations in relation to what we paid: very substandard. Within 2 hrs, ship starts to pitch and we were in Force 10. Try and take dogs out to toilet in this weather, ha! In any case they are expected to squat anywhere on Deck 10 (top deck). No astro turf set aside at all. Exercise area outside on deck. Force 10. Seasick all the time and I have never been seasick in my life and have sailed many times. Late docking in Santander as well, which was to be expected. NEVER AGAIN. We only did this as we were skiing and thought to ease the 21hr journey by partially sailing part of the way. We are driving back home in a week's time. Not impressed.

 

[Victor]

We use Brittany Ferries at least 4-5 times per year with our dogs and have always found the facilities, cabins excellent, especially on the Pont Aven where you can access the kennels any time day or night. I don't think you can blame the Force 10 in the Biscay on BF, it is just the risk you take when doing this type of crossing

 

[WelshGas]

We use Brittany Ferries at least 4-5 times per year with our dogs and have always found the facilities, cabins excellent, especially on the Pont Aven where you can access the kennels any time day or night. I don't think you can blame the Force 10 in the Biscay on BF, it is just the risk you take when doing this type of crossing

Especially at this time of year.

Bay of Biscay - Winter/Storm - Guaranteed - 50%+ chance of Sea Sickness.

 

[shudycamps]

On the Pont Aven, out of curiosity, the exercise area; would you mind to describe it in full? Uf nothing else, just to make me green eith envy. Perhaps the Pont Aven was equipped with much much better canine facilities than the Condor. Since we don't live in Cornwall, Dorset or the South West coast, thus negating the need to drive from Portsmouth to Folkestone and then from Calais to Bilbao or Santander, obviously our route to the continent is much different than perhaps yours. As it was, I think the facilities for the money charged were crap. And crap will always be crap. A lesson learned for us on an expensive sharp learning curve. I, for one, do not find at that price exquisite joy at the prospect of using thoughtfull hosepipe provided to swab down the kennel deck of dog urine or dirt. When opening up the kennel door at 6am to a hot, stuffy, reeking, small kennel area, trying to keep my feet on the deck in a Force 10 and walk the dogs so they could attend to their needs, and having one of the uniformed staff tell me how dangerous it was for me to be up on Deck 10 in that weather; well WTF. Even had we had had dog cabins on Deck 9, the dogs would still need to "use the decks." I agree, it was not BF's fault the Bay of Biscay was throwing a paddy, but for the money charged on the Condor was and is enough, for me, to say NEVER AGAIN. Bon Voyage to you and may your good travel experience continue.

We use Brittany Ferries at least 4-5 times per year with our dogs and have always found the facilities, cabins excellent, especially on the Pont Aven where you can access the kennels any time day or night. I don't think you can blame the Force 10 in the Biscay on BF, it is just the risk you take when doing this type of crossing

 

[WelshGas]

On the Pont Aven, out of curiosity, the exercise area; would you mind to describe it in full? Uf nothing else, just to make me green eith envy. Perhaps the Pont Aven was equipped with much much better canine facilities than the Condor. Since we don't live in Cornwall, Dorset or the South West coast, thus negating the need to drive from Portsmouth to Folkestone and then from Calais to Bilbao or Santander, obviously our route to the continent is much different than perhaps yours. As it was, I think the facilities for the money charged were crap. And crap will always be crap. A lesson learned for us on an expensive sharp learning curve. I, for one, do not find at that price exquisite joy at the prospect of using thoughtfull hosepipe provided to swab down the kennel deck of dog urine or dirt. When opening up the kennel door at 6am to a hot, stuffy, reeking, small kennel area, trying to keep my feet on the deck in a Force 10 and walk the dogs so they could attend to their needs, and having one of the uniformed staff tell me how dangerous it was for me to be up on Deck 10 in that weather; well WTF. Even had we had had dog cabins on Deck 9, the dogs would still need to "use the decks." I agree, it was not BF's fault the Bay of Biscay was throwing a paddy, but for the money charged on the Condor was and is enough, for me, to say NEVER AGAIN. Bon Voyage to you and may your good travel experience continue.

Out of interest, which Ferry company did you use, because I didn't know that Brittany Ferries had a ship called the Condor on that route or in fact has a ship called Condor in their fleet?

 

[Martin]

I was going to ask the same, I think he might be talking about Cap Finistere which is known for not being very good in the Biscay. We have used the Pont Aven many times with dogs and always had a brilliant crossing even in rough seas.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

 

[shudycamps]

Out of interest, which Ferry company did you use, because I didn't know that Brittany Ferries had a ship called the Condor on that route or in fact has a ship called Condor in their fleet?

Hi WG and Martin, just consulted my paperwork and it stated we sailed on the Cap Finistere, however I seem to remember seeing Condor on the side of the ship as we waited 2 hrs to board in Portsmouth on the outbound leg of the trip. I don't disparage yours or anybody else's trip on BF from England to Spain and am pleased to know your journeys have been pleasurable during the 24 hrs plus sailing. Perhaps the bespoke dog cabins enjoy a far better standard on Deck 9 than the kennels on Deck 10. This I cannot compare. But what I can compare for the £27.66 charged per dog and the facilities provided were substandard at all levels. Aside from the 8 small kennels stacked on top of the 4 large kennels, crammed into a small space, complete with hose pipe to wash the deck down with, leading out to another deck where dogs could relieve themselves; no, these expensive bespoke facilities fell far short of my expectations. I can only speak about Deck 10 and have left out the joy heaven bestowed upon everyone by giving them a taste of sailing the ocean blue in Force 10. We took a gamble, suffered ourselves, suffered our dogs and gleemed an insight: take ZuluCampi in the future and enjoy motoring. We look forward, albeit without ZuluCampi, to hit the road in the Berlingo to go home in. And the overnight in Pons, in the heart of Cognac country. Salute!

 

[Pinkietee]

As a regular winter traveller on the Portsmouth /Plymouth to Santander route I would recommend anyone to try Scopolamine patches. Only available on prescription. I can't travel backwards on a bus but have had a couple of bad weather crossings on the Bay of Biscay no problem.

 

[andyhull]

Hi
You should be grateful that you don't live in the channel islands and have to use Condor Ferries they are a terrible outfit, very expensive and totally unreliable not a good combination £350 for an hour crossing to Saint Malo France !!