Having assumed that I had the whole day to prepare for my open studios, I received a text message, and suddenly my trip on a pilot boat was finally on. So having rapidly made an apple crumble and thrown my show together, I drove north to Sullom Voe and found myself on the high sea. Traveling fast in a power boat with a crew of four, the receding land was lost in the blur of spray whipping past the windows of the cabin, as we hurtled out into the sea to rendezvous 12 miles off the coast with a large oil tanker from India (which arrived late). A truly memorable experience, and one that I wouldn't have wanted to miss despite being sick in a bucket as we rolled around and up and down, awaiting the arrival of the oil tanker. In fact it was so rough that the tanker was instructed to come in closer as it wasn't safe for the small pilot boat to go further out into open sea.
Being tossed around by the waves, I definitely saw walls of water coming towards us as any sign and hope of land disappeared. Even the crew said it was rough, and I don't think that they were just being kind… and the pilot having to make the crossing from the boat and climb the ladder was certainly not very happy about the sea state. As we finally drew alongside the pilot scrambled from our sea-tossed boat up a rope ladder and onto an equally unsafe-looking metal gangway lowered from the top deck.
Not having been in such a small boat in such a sea before, the whole escapade (and it was certainly felt like one for me) was just amazing, although I guess it was ‘all in a days work’ for the lads. So I made drawings (until I was sick) and took photos, and just felt the power of those waves beneath us. And I am still trying to assimilate it all. 
So thank you to David Smith for setting this up for me and enabling me to go with you and to all the crew for looking after me. The whole thing is a bit of a blur now.
‘Fetch’, means the duration of the wave, from its generation to the point where it crashes on the beach.
‘Fetch’, means the duration of the wave, from its generation to the point where it crashes on the beach.
ReplyDeleteSo the relationship between 'fetch' and 'fetching up' is finally clarified...