Wednesday, May 7, 2008 MV Pont L’Abbe Somewhere near Roscoff Not much to see this morning – misty or foggy. Not sure until I get outside. Last night slept very well. Not near the stabilisers, and just the gentle throb of the engines, the slight roll of the ship, the shushing of the water past the hull (somewhere below the car decks) and a little tinkling bell to wake you up in the morning. I really hope that Brittany Ferries NEVER exchanges this old-fashioned method for an electronic wake-up system. I had a glass of red wine in the bar last night and chatted to a chap who used to work for P&O as a navigator, mainly on the far east routes, but also worked on the tankers and container ships when they first came in (1960s). The ships got bigger but the harbours didn’t. They have now, but interestingly the cargo ships, he said, have not and still come in at around 1000 feet. He described coming down the channel, in fog, 3 men on watch calling buoys and bearings as they charged up Southampton Water trying to arrive on time. Also dodging the whirlpools in the Straits of Messina. He has no attraction to sailing yachts, although his partner and her ex were keen dinghy sailors. He was harbour master in Falmouth for 10 years and probably of the opinion that leisure sailors should stay at home and leave the seas to the professionals. After some of the things he’s seen (a yacht sailing under a tow line, for example) it’s not surprising. Now they have a mobile home on a permanent site in Agde, and do a bit of part-time work in the 6 months of summer. They go home and do not very much in the winter. Did he have an opinion on the super large cruise ships (3-4,000 passengers)? Yes. They will be very difficult to evacuate if anything goes wrong. Arriving Roscoff.
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