Not sure where this link got tweeted from, so stop me and buy one if it was you, but having mentioned the nasty weather on the Isle of Man and my parents’ subsequent ferry trip – which was thankfully uneventful – it seemed apt to post this amazing footage:
That’s internal CCTV footage from onboard the Pacific Sun cruise liner as it hit some heavy seas.
Or rather, they hit it.
Wow.
Perhaps the first thing to note is the helpful kitchen worker who strides purposefully off to rescue the furniture at 0:20 – no need mate – it’s already on it’s way back! And immediately thereafter, a fat man in a striped shirt shows that the sea is no respecter of obesity.
See if you can spot him popping through the shot again at 1:00 and 1:12. You’ll have to be quick! Whoosh.
Also worth a look is the brave officer who “saves” a woman as she rolls past and then uses her to protect himself from the next onslaught of furniture. In fact, that’s a recurring theme, as people grab onto the pillars and think they’re safe, only to be overwhelmed by a sea of tables and chairs.
Oh, and the faceplant into the pillar at 0:48 is, of course, pretty special.
In the second part of the video, I’m not sure what makes the bloke stop and step back (1:26). Suffice to say it was a pretty good decision.
As a kid, I remember crossing the Irish Sea in all manner of nasty conditions and being horribly ill. The worst bit of the 4 hour journey to and from the island was 2 hours out, when you were feeling absolutely horrible and yet you knew that it would be at least that long again before you were anywhere near the safety (and stability) of dry land. Happy days.
UPDATE: The Pacific Sun incident took place in July 2008. Never say we don’t bring you the latest stuff here on 6000 miles…
WOW!
I remember going on a cruise to Marion Island in 2005. On the way back we caught the very edge of one of that season’s tropical storms. It was tame compared to that footage! As we had already been aboard for 6 weeks, we were not very seasick. We had enormous fun by going up to the heli-deck, which was over the stern of the ship, and, as the stern dropped into the trough of the wave, jumping up as high as we could. Felt like we were floating. The crew thought we were mad. I don’t know what the islanders thought; they were all seasick.
Tara > I want to go out to Tristan da Cunha one day, but the sea voyage is very offputting.
I haven’t been seasick for a long time, but that’s because I have avoided traveling extensively by ferry.
But I have had some crossing not far short of this when I was a kid. Smaller boats get tossed around a lot more.
Bwaaaaaaahahahahah-hahahahahahahha!!!!! Jeeeepers that faceplant was awesome!
Goodseo> The equivalent of a big hit in rugby.
It would be wrong to laugh, oh, so wrong.
I must be evil!
Thank you SO much for sharing this!
@6000 To be honest, the longer you are on board, the less you are affected by sea sickness. I was ill for a day or two and then I was fine. And the Aughulas was known as the ‘Vomit Ship’; though apparently it’s not as bad as the Algoa. So who knows?
Well, fine until we had to count euphausiids in the lab, peering down a microscope. That wasn’t a lot of fun. The things we get to do for science!!
gosh,
maybe it’s better to be obese – that way there more padding for those incidents with furnature
ha! the funniest thing for me is the soundtrack and the slo-mo – classic!
Yikes. I got seasick just watching that. Scary stuff. I was on a ferry between the North and South Islands of New Zealand and thought it was rough. We had to go and “rescue” a sailing vessel by going round and round it until real help arrived. I was not well then but it was nothing like this footage..
yes remember used to get the train from london to holyhead, then onto that dam ferry always at night and always at winter time surrounded by the 2nd and 3rd generation irish builders from london going home for christmas who just kept drinking and drinking and drinking, while the rest of us where thinking if we where going to make it or not…..
now we have ryanair which is much scarier