Local knowledge ... Monday night

JumbleDuck

JumbleDuck

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Dear East Coast Experts

On Monday night I am booked to take the DFDS ferry from North Shields to IJMuiden. With forecasts at this stage talking about SW F5 - F8, how unpleasant is that likely to be in the North Sea? Plan B is to drive down to Dover and take a short crossing from there on Tuesday ...

Yours

A West Coast Sailor
 
I used this route coming back a couple of years ago in some unpleasant weather, having sat around for 8 hours in the Ijmuiden terminal until the Captain deemed it safe to sail..... Our cabin was as far forward as it was possible to get and we (Wife) both slept like logs, The ships are pretty stable but it is a long crossing. The Channel will be more unpleasant but of course a much shorter crossing.

The DFDS crossing was one long party for some with fancy dress and more..... It was definitely part of our holiday, a couple of weeks on a friends boat in the Dutch Canals....
 
According to MeteoConsult coastal forecasts, it will only be 5 gusting 7, and later 6 gusting 8, at the departure end.
Looking at nearest intermediate area (off NE Norfolk) it's lower, and over towards the Dutch side lower still: 4 gusting 5, later 5 gusting 6.

In a big ferry I wouldn't worry about it.
 
Boz said:
I used this route coming back a couple of years ago in some unpleasant weather, having sat around for 8 hours in the Ijmuiden terminal until the Captain deemed it safe to sail..... Our cabin was as far forward as it was possible to get and we (Wife) both slept like logs, The ships are pretty stable but it is a long crossing. The Channel will be more unpleasant but of course a much shorter crossing.

The DFDS crossing was one long party for some with fancy dress and more..... It was definitely part of our holiday, a couple of weeks on a friends boat in the Dutch Canals....
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Thanks. I used it in the spring and had very smooth crossings both ways. I am hoping that a Monday night will avoid the weekend-in-Amsterdam parties. I don't grudge them their fun, but they can be ... lively!

LittleSister said:
According to MeteoConsult coastal forecasts, it will only be 5 gusting 7, and later 6 gusting 8, at the departure end.
Looking at nearest intermediate area (off NE Norfolk) it's lower, and over towards the Dutch side lower still: 4 gusting 5, later 5 gusting 6.

In a big ferry I wouldn't worry about it.
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Many thanks to you too. From that it looks as if we'd be heading out of it rather than into it. I won't make active plans to switch to Dover - so many ferries there that advance booking is barely worthwhile - but I'll keep an eye on Meteoconsult as well as the shipping forecast. And maybe not prebook a meal on the IJMuiden ferry ... Alas the car has a currently-unused LPG tank fitted, so we're not allowed on Le Shuttle.
 
Don't be too proud to take some stugeron, or use hyoscine patches. The motion on ships is very different to that on yachts and can catch you out. Our daughter once did Dover-Ostend in a F11 and was one of only about four people still able to stand at the end. It's all part of life's rich tapestry.
 
Many years ago we were scheduled to take the Harwich Hook ferry daytime crossing. I saw the Met Office were forecasting a NE gale F9 - 10 for the North Sea. I rang the Port to enquire if the ferry was likely to be cancelled and was told, "No Sir, we are like the Windmill Theatre, we never close!"

In the event it was blowing fiercely at Harwich and it took 3 tugs to shift the ferry off the berth, but once underway we made normal speed as far as I could judge. There was an enormous swell such that at times other ships not far away were disappearing entirely in the troughs. We docked quite normally at the Hook. Fortunately both harbours are well sheltered.
 
johnalison said:
Don't be too proud to take some stugeron, or use hyoscine patches. The motion on ships is very different to that on yachts and can catch you out. Our daughter once did Dover-Ostend in a F11 and was one of only about four people still able to stand at the end. It's all part of life's rich tapestry.
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Unfortunately all my Scopaderm is on the boat but yes, if we go, we'll be doped up. Which will probably make us the only people on the ferry planning to buy drugs before getting to Ansterdam ...
 
You'll be able to see our boat from the ferry, although I've never been aboard the ferry. When our youngest son went to Amsterdam, the ferry hugged the east coast, presumably for shelter before crossing to the continent. With the wind from the SW, the ride should be comfortable at least until you turn east, by which time the wind will have eased anyway.
 
Baddox said:
You'll be able to see our boat from the ferry, although I've never been aboard the ferry. When our youngest son went to Amsterdam, the ferry hugged the east coast, presumably for shelter before crossing to the continent. With the wind from the SW, the ride should be comfortable at least until you turn east, by which time the wind will have eased anyway.
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Are you in the Tyne? I'll wave at everything, just in case! The forecasts are pretty consistent that it's going to get manky here (in Newcastle to spend a day tuning the car tomorrow), but not until about midnight, by which time we should be the best part of a hundred miles south.

Many thanks.
 
LittleSister said:
Let us know how you fared!
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It was OK. Very strange weather in Newcastle - street lights on at 1pm and then a spooky yellow fog - but we left in sunshine and with little by way of waves. It built up a bit over the evening, but still fine by bedtime at 10pm-ish. Then in the small hours .... oh dear lord, the waves. Plunging about all over the place, I think when we turned west and got out of the lee of East Anglia. Wheeeeee. Fell asleep again after an hour, uneventful arrival in IJMuiden. Not something I'd choose, but perfectly tolerable.

Many thanks, all, for the advice.
 
JumbleDuck said:
It was OK. Very strange weather in Newcastle - street lights on at 1pm and then a spooky yellow fog - but we left in sunshine and with little by way of waves. It built up a bit over the evening, but still fine by bedtime at 10pm-ish. Then in the small hours .... oh dear lord, the waves. Plunging about all over the place, I think when we turned west and got out of the lee of East Anglia. Wheeeeee. Fell asleep again after an hour, uneventful arrival in IJMuiden. Not something I'd choose, but perfectly tolerable.

Many thanks, all, for the advice.
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I presume you are being sarcastic when speaking of "the lee of East Anglia"? I'm reminded of something a fellow Yorkshireman once said of these parts: "It was good of the locals to build churches on hills, so we could tell where the hills are!". It is also commonly said that there's nothing to break the wind between East Anglia and Siberia except a few reindeer!
 
AntarcticPilot said:
It is also commonly said that there's nothing to break the wind between East Anglia and Siberia except a few reindeer!
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Quite correct, there is nothing much between Siberia and East Anglia, but once you get to our wonderful region, we have such wonderful high points as Ely (above the surrounding marshes and, some say, above sea level and even Haverhill which, if I'm to believe my school geography teacher, is more than 400 feet above Ordnance Datum. Now that's a real mountain!

Peter.
 
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Leighb said:
Many years ago we were scheduled to take the Harwich Hook ferry daytime crossing. I saw the Met Office were forecasting a NE gale F9 - 10 for the North Sea. I rang the Port to enquire if the ferry was likely to be cancelled and was told, "No Sir, we are like the Windmill Theatre, we never close!"

In the event it was blowing fiercely at Harwich and it took 3 tugs to shift the ferry off the berth, but once underway we made normal speed as far as I could judge. There was an enormous swell such that at times other ships not far away were disappearing entirely in the troughs. We docked quite normally at the Hook. Fortunately both harbours are well sheltered.
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ISTR – within about the last decade, but only on one occasion – that ferry failing to berth at Harwich even with four tugs, and going back out for a good few hours before trying again, successfully. But perhaps I was mistaken.
 
PeterWright said:
we have such wonderful high points as Ely (above the surrounding marshes and, some say, above sea level and even Haverhill which, if I'm to believe my school geography teacher, is more than 400 feet above Ordnance Datum. Now that's a real mountain!
Peter.
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I had always understood that Mount Wycheproof in Victoria was the lowest mountain in the world. I thought it was 230 feet, but Wikipedia tells me it is 486 feet above mean sea level, so Ely perhaps should rename itself Mount Ely and claim to be the lowest mountain in the world.
I had to trek up to the Cambridgeshire Fens last week to pick up a dingy and didn't notice too many high points, in fact I was wondering how soon the North Sea might be permanently visiting.
 
Glayva said:
I had always understood that Mount Wycheproof in Victoria was the lowest mountain in the world. I thought it was 230 feet, but Wikipedia tells me it is 486 feet above mean sea level, so Ely perhaps should rename itself Mount Ely and claim to be the lowest mountain in the world.
I had to trek up to the Cambridgeshire Fens last week to pick up a dingy and didn't notice too many high points, in fact I was wondering how soon the North Sea might be permanently visiting.
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My own estimate is that my grandchildren or great-grandchildren might have to develop webbed feet. That's based on what I know of Greenland and Antarctic ice dynamics and their response to climate change. We can expect sea level rises in the few metre range by the end of the century; more than enough to defeat Mr Vermuyden's efforts.
 
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