We’re going on two virtual trips today. You might not want to come on the one where I took the featured photo. It was a channel crossing we made a few years go. Expected duration? An hour and a half. Actual duration? Six miserable hours which you can read about here. This shot shows the view as we neared the harbour in Boulogne.
Mainly though, a trip across the Channel – even the North Sea – can be part of the holiday. A chance to enjoy views of the waves, the sunrise and sunset, the salty breezes whipping at your hair. And that’s why I’ve chosen shots taken while at sea for Jude’s challenge this week: waves. After my nightmare voyage, I’ve preferred gentle rippling water playing with reflections from the sun, and vessels heading across the endless waters. That’s my kind of sea trip.


I love that featured shot! To look at, not to be taking in, mind you. Glad you made it.
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I thought my end had come 😦
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😲
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What a nightmare that Channel crossing must have been, great pictures though.
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Truly, it was one of the worst six hours of my life. But soon forgotten.
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Ooh, lovely! Especially first and last 🙂 🙂 Now tell me- how does the featured photo thing work? Does it give you a Header photo? I’ve always just ignored it. Ahem- Ignorance is bliss? 🙂 I have a friend who spent 24 hours in harbour being thrown around at a French port a few years ago. Then 24 hours+ recovering. She’s never been on a boat since 😦
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In the right hand column, ‘Post’, scroll down until you find ‘Featured Image’. Select and hey presto! But confusingly, it won’t show in your draft, so you’ll need to preview to check it’s looking how you expected. Your friend’s experience sounds dreadful. I though I was going to die after about Hour Four.
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hey look at you the block editor tutor now!
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Haha! That’s a s good as it gets though.
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I always thought featured image was to highlight one of the shots you are using, rather than creating a Header but never used it, though I’ve seen the sign. Must give it a go 🤣🤣
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Don’t blame her…
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Gorgeous photos
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Thank you!
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You’re very welcome
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Sea trips always an adventure – I can remember many a rough crossing from Plymouth when I was a child, and also a few dodgy ones from isle of Wight. In fact one time all the boats stopped on the Island as the Solent was too rough for anything to move!
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And that was the case on that awful fateful day. Ours was the only ship to leave all day – and how I wish it hadn’t!
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At least at the end you didn’t have an Irish meat lorry break down causing the ship to have to leave the harbour turn around and come back in again for everyone to reverse off at midnight! Not great after a tough crossing.
Same happened on the island too, although that time it was the doors not a lorry that broke!!
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I fully agree with both…. We once took the ferry from Plymouth to Roscoff – the trip out was horrendous, and it was a night trip too – we were both so sick it doesn’t bear thinking about even now, so many years later. The trip back (a day trip) was sheer bliss, sunshine, calm waves, we were hanging out on the deck….. I LOVE water but I’m a very bad traveller on boats (on the sea, lakes I’m fine with, so far….).
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Yes, I’m a very poor sailor, while \\malcolm is absolutely fine. Just as well we’re not equally hopeless.
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You have given me a memory nudge. In 1986 I took a channel crossing from Dieppe to Newhaven. Scheduled 4 hours and took 8. It was dreadful.
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I don’t have sea legs either. I have done a fair few crossings, and even been ill in the Med! Once on a Greek island ferry and the second time on a catamaran between Sicily and Malta. It was supposed to be a quick journey, but took twice as long and cats roll from side to side. I was not happy. The most memorable was a crossing from Penzance to the Isles of Scilly with three of my children back in 1991. There was an awful storm on the way out and I abandoned the kids to hide up on the open deck not caring about the rain, feeling very miserable. One by one they found me! Going back was very different – blue skies, sunshine!
In case you are thinking of doing that crossing let me tell you that The Scillonian has two well known nicknames:
The Great White Stomach Pump
The Vomit Vessel
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Loved the ending pic … but then it hit me, you took the header image?
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I’ve been on a few rough crossings, especially to the Outer Hebrides. Especially memorable are the crossings from South Uist to St Kilda on the flat bottomed HMAV Arakan and Ardennes!
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No. Just no. I’d never have been there.
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I didn’t have an option! The little Caledonian MacBrayne ferries from Oban to Lochboisdale were somewhat of a horror journey too!
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They’ll have to go unvisited by me then.
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You can fly to Benbecula but you have to wait for them to tie the plane down before you can get off!
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I did. Who knows how. I was so sea sick. But I think I could see the end in sight.
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Yuk … I know I couldn’t have handled that well. I have an idea for a collaboration (your photos on one of my walks). Sent an email.
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Interesting …
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Yep, gentle water for me these days!
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Never mind ‘these days’ …
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Teehee….I remember being in a very ramshackle little ferry between two Greek islands about three decades ago in rather stormy seas….but concentrating on the horizon and an improvised game of ‘Trivial Pirsuits’ my partner and I stayed OK….just…
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I’ve tried Mind Over Matter. It just doesn’t work.
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It did for me, that time, thankfully
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Eek. I’m no fan of boats. Or planes. Your story does not persuade me otherwise.
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Ha! I’m not surprised.
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Great images!
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Thanks!
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Your voyage sounds awful, judging from the featured photo! However, it’s a wonderful photo.
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It’s far enough in the past simply to have become a Good Story. But I’m very wary now,.
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Phew – thank goodness you can think back on it now without too much trauma!
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Oh, I may have been damaged for life 😉
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Fortunately I love the sea. We had a similar journey years ago. After waiting some hours to be guided into Dover harbour only cars could leave, one at a time, because lorries were too long. We could drive off only when instructed when land and the boat were at the same level for long enough. The main problem was no food because the kitchens were closed and all we had was a complimentary hot chocolate. The dog who had to stay in the car was fine – we were allowed to visit.
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Complimentary hot chocolate? You must be joking. It wouldn’t have stayed down for 5 seconds. Malcolm found broken crockery everywhere when he went looking for water for me. Uuuurgh.
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It may have been miserable, but what a shot of the lighthouse! That photo needs to be printed and framed! WOW! 🙂
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Wow! What a compliment. Thanks!
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I’d buy it and hang it up in my house. I love lighthouses like I love birds. 🙂
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Well, thanks. There’s a thought! You’re welcome to download it – not sure it would stand being enlarged much though.
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I will see what I can do with it. It would look great on a Christmas ornament. 🙂
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Gorgeous stormy harbour photo – sorry to read you’re not a natural sailor. Have you seen the opening shots of the BBC4 ‘DNA’ Danish thriller? Those huge waves, I think it is supposed to be the Baltic, are quite terrifying. I’ve not made a stormy crossing for a while, but as a teenager crossed the Bay of Biscay on the way to Lisbon. My mother and sister were both very sick, whilst I spent the worst of it with my father as he played Roulette in the ship’s tacky casino. It’s the one and only time I’ve ever known my extremely prudent father gamble.
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Anything to keep your mind occupied!
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That first shot is very dramatic. It must have been a scary trip in addition to the awfulness of seasickness. The last photo is great too with that gleaming metallic water.
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The only thing I was focused on was the sight of land – at long last.
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