Tony Course on Transport
Yeah, Hovertravel had probably quite a sensible roster scheme so it was divided into two. We either start early and do three hours I think, and then have three hours break and then another three hours, working two Pilots alternating and I had done the morning business and then I came on about 2 o’clock I think and two or three trips.
It was winter so we weren’t so if I recall right, we tended to have a break every so often in the middle of that because of the passenger flow in the winter. In the summer of course we were shuttling.
On the particular trip, I’d experienced two trips before and the weather was slowly deteriorating and I’d got a new forecast etc, I’d asked the Southsea Terminal to monitor the gusting and it was gusting about 32 knots if I can remember rightly and I told the beach maybe gusts 40, let me know and I’ll you know, pull out. But we’d been in worst conditions certainly abroad, so the trip that mattered, I had to have a finger repaired because the one thing I really was a bit pernickety about was vision out of the forward windscreens and it was a forward finger so it was blowing up spray over the windscreen on the trip back and you know, that was unacceptable to me so we had a slight delay at Ryde and we tested the finger, they replaced the finger.
The Engineers replaced the finger and then I set off and the wind definitely strengthened and towards the North Sturbridge Buoy, I was, you know, really having to concentrate on keeping the right direction, because of course, you know, virtually not much friction to hold the ship. You need to be steady in steering in whatever direction, but the SR-N6, the amphibious Hovercrafts have got much more drift.
So, the wind was coming from the starboard quarter and as we got out of the lee of the Island of course the effect was increasing, so I was pushing like hell with the right foot to keep the right direction. But I wasn’t worried. The worst thing as far as I was concerned was having to turn back, weather cocking and you know, bring the passengers back to Ryde.
When we got the approach to Portsmouth, Southsea Terminal, Clarence Pier port side, I was then being swept towards No 2 Buoy, which was a red buoy on the left hand side, the port hand side as you are going towards Portsmouth and I had to slow down at one stage to, you know, to stop the drift and then, unexpectedly, all right the race was much higher that I’d experienced before because that’s the tide rushing out of Portsmouth Harbour which is like a vast sort of reservoir with a very narrow entrance, and we were certainly in a seaway that I hadn’t experienced before in that area and as I slowed up, I went to zero pitch, we rolled a little bit and I wasn’t that worried about it but then we rolled a second time and that’s when we hesitated.
In other words, the tide was pushing the port hand side, the left-hand side of the craft and of course in hindsight, the puff port centre opened and the wind was pushing us the other way and it was just a fulcrum effect.
I remember thinking once we were, you know, it was obvious we were going to capsize, I was concerned to make a radio call, which of course wouldn’t have worked anyway, and I remember shouting, “Put on your lifejackets” you know because it was instinct and I remember thinking ‘Oh, should I turn off the engine?’ I can’t remember if I put the HP cock up or not and then we were over and it was opaque and there was a rush of water.