ALWAYS RESPECT THE SEA AS IT WILL NEVER RESPECT YOU. I have crossed some of the big bars in NZ as a fisherman and still tell the tales to my young ones, being there to tell them is so important.
For viewers who aint sailors and might not understand what it is all about. A 'bar' is a ridge on the sea bed, often from sand piled up by currents. As the sea hits it the water is forced upwards. Waves are created, existing waves are magnified. Other effects, such as wind, can magnify this effect even more and create large breakers. To 'broach' is to be slewed around. The last thing a skipper wants is to be pushed around so that the boat is side on to waves. Try and imagine the weight of a mass of water 40ft long X the thickness of a wave, that is the weight slamming into the side of a broached boat. A wave hitting the side is apt to roll the boat over or even smash the side in if the boat isnt strongly built.
+CaptainArt777 Thank you for your comment. I think we both realise that there is a lot more that can be said on the matter. But I thought that any more detail would probably just confuse a non-sailor. so I tried for a broad and simple explanation to get the essence across. I'm an amateur skipper with a small sailing cruiser and I'm happy that marine engineering is able to keep entry to my home harbour, Poole, clear of a a bar. Christchurch, just along the coat does have a bar and I AVOID like the plague. So, to be honest, I must admit that I haven't much experience with bars, just enough to know that gaining knowledge through study is much nicer than gaining it through tough experiences.
Kimdino1 No not really my well educated waterman , I think the only thing you didn't touch on is ( we face here on the east coasts of MD, DE, NJ , VA, N & SC inlets/bars ) are a changing tide bucking any decent amount of winds, man that can be a dangerous situation, but good seamanship, well maintained vessel, no drug or alcohol use & THE GOOD LORD LOOKING OUT FOR HIS FISHERMEN!!!! SAFETY FIRST NO MATTER WHAT CAN KEEP YOU ALIVE !!!
My dad used to take the family to the coast every Christmas when i was young around 6 years old till 12 years old! This certain place dad new a captain ! My dad used to go to the same place as a boy with my pop and pop new the same captain too! It was a family tradition! We would go out on berty's boat a few mornings every holiday and he was a fine seaman! We crossed the bar but i think he would only take us if it was calm! He would never risk our lives! The fishing was amazing amd i can still remember it vividly! When i was 22 years old the family was watching the evening news and a boat and crew died at phillip island! The boat was smashed into the rocks just outside the bar! As the story was being told we could sense something wrong! And then the news man said the skippers name was berty Johnson! We had not gone to that christmas spot in 10 years as dad would take us all over the country of victoria to different locations! It was very sad to hear how tragic circumstances took the life of a great man! He was 85 years old and still fishing ! He didnt have the big boat anymore just a small one but this man had so many years experience and proves the sea has no hesitation in putting your life in exstreem danger in an instant with no mercy! They believe it was a freak wave that took him slamming into the rocks! I feel a little teary now and the affects of loss stay with you forever! I really enjoyed this video the sea is so beautiful but no less danderous! Always take the safe option and no risks! If you have to think twice about a situation you are in danger so get out alive and take the right option! Hope this story encourages the right attitude when it comes to the sea! And in particular bar crossing!! 💙🍺
+Ken Cartwright I was puzzled by the caption added in that said Florida, USA. That bar and entrance could never have been in Florida, where the land is flat and the coast is barely above sea level. I don't know who added that in, but it sure was misleading.
In Skerries in Ireland they just don't go out if the forecast is bad. They won't cross the bar in bad weather and no-one ever died that I know of. Maybe the answer is simple!
think you might be right there.. been put in a few hairy moments myself cos of stupid decisions by boat owners.. same sort of mentality as the clot at 5:29 calling his workers clowns
He calls them Jokers, not clowns. It's a word that are used to tell how much he loves and respects them, his crew. Maybe you have to be a fisherman for some years to understand?
"....ye just about want a pair o grundies with a hole in the back o them so ye don't make a mess..." From the Columbia River Bar, I heartily agree with this idea! Hysterical way of putting it Cap'n.
Oh lord, that sudden 70's style narration completely surprised me. Didn't see that coming, much like those boats didn't see those big waves coming from behind. :-)
+Kevin Simmons Yeah I am 100 percent sure they would just have to use this video on one of those one week learning courses somewhere for something, it was that bad.
I don’t know, I kind of like it over the noisy music heavy crap you sometimes get. These older narration styles actually I find interesting. The narrative is factual, no emotions or drama “huge waves/desperate struggle bla bla” and to the point.
That was a dangerous broach but if she is well found (keeps watertight) and dosen't come too far broadside she will survive. That's the theory anyway! I bought a boat from Aberdeen in Scotland and there was a biggish sea anchor aboard her for use entering Aberdeen or Lowestoft harbours in heavy weather. Good idea me-thinks!
That first bar crossing blows me away everytime I see it and I've seen that video many times, I believe the main factor is the boat or more so the hull design!
Also how a real foamy sea can change the way a boat sits in the water with all the air bubbles mixed into the water, that can really make a hull act differently ..! The hull is designed to react to water, not air ...!!
Looking at the chap at 3:50 they’re some experienced old sea dogs, prob been crossing it for years. But if you listen they talk with such surprise at how it went wrong, like a first timer. Just shows how dangerous it is if old sea dogs get caught out. Not like they’re sounding confident about it. Ocean isn’t predictable, even when you think it’s predictable. Statement of the obvious. I used to fly coastguard aircraft and was always thankful I was up there looking down. But I’ve done a few search jobs for missing vessels.
My GG grandfather Thomas Kendall drowned on the bar at Kawhia in 1928 and he knew a hell of a lot about the sea,especially there ,but he still got caught out by a rogue wave.
A boat tied to a wharf is safe but then that's not what boats are designed for .....or... To see the world one first has to let go of the wharf and to felcas even on the calmest of days at sea the bar can deadly !
No way that was Florida in the first clip. There are not any cliffs that high on the shore of Florida. Unless there is a Florida in Australia or New Zealand
In the first clip, commentator says, 'Getting it right does not depend on luck. These sailors were prepared.' Seems like bullshit to me. In a 'bar-entrance' harbour, where extreme waves are not uncommon, there should be REAL preparedness - an experienced Harbourmaster who can, by signal and radio, close the harbour. Yes, sometimes the boats waiting to come in might have to wait a day or more for the waves to abate. But a damn sight better than the extremely risky procedure we saw in the first clip. It was a gamble, and professionals should not gamble.
The first clip is from Noyo Harbor, Fort Bragg, California, November 10, 1987; I found a full clip elsewhere on RU-vid. I grew up about an hour south of there; the harbor entrance is an 87 foot wide river bar with shale and sandstone cliffs running north/south, and a lot of really jagged rocks and reefs a long way out. Not quite Depoe Bay or Columbia Bar, but apparently pretty nasty.
great video! learned allot, EXEPT in the first clip, we definitely don't have cliffs like that in Florida lmao, found this vid elsewhere by accident and it actually happened in California
@@theneptune2011 ummm... Columbia River bar, Indian River bar in Maryland, Oregon, Hatteras and Ocracoke inlets on the Outer Banks of NC.... I've seen Ocracoke and Hatteras inlets look like the opening shot from Hawaii 5 - 0 (the old one) with a heavy southeast swell
+Ryan Norton Not true. Slack and flood are, if not calm, a lot calmer. At least that's true on the Columbia River, which is reputed to have one of the worst bars on the planet.
+Susan King Ya, I hear the Columbia is one of the worst. I nearly capsized on the Fraser where max ebb met a 30 knot inflow wind. It felt like a washing machine with 10 foot waves... not sure how I made it out alive. Coast Guard broadcast a warning not 5 minutes after she spat me back up river. Now I memorize my tide charts, keep constant tabs on the wind, and carefully time all voyages through bars and narrowings.
Thought with the most dangerous inlets in the world it is the bottom topography along with the current wind and waves now with this suggestion it may be government doesn't want to come off the pocketbook but my thought is what would happen if you used the equivalent of a river lock and went upriver and cut a bypass Channel exhausting the current from the river to the Sea and do not let boats use that channel instead there would be a lock gate of the inland side of the jetty in the river Channel run the Jetties far enough out to where you can hit, Kamar water and put a lock gate there so that there is no River current and waves between the gates and the Jetties and of course the two sets of Gate at either end cannot ever be open at the same time so other words the river and its current and the rough Seas that it causes it goes one way and the ships the boats they go the other way through the locks to the Sea
There must be an easier way! You shouldn’t have to risk your life every day just crossing the bar to earn a living. I couldn’t do it. You’d have to possess the kind of bravery that very few people have.And the next time I eat seafood I’ll appreciate it even more!
