Wind Cancels Fast Ferry in UK & Whale of a Nightmare

"Holyhead to Dun Laoghaire ferry cancelled in strong winds"
by David Powell, UK Daily Post Oct 20 2008

"STENA Line bosses have cancelled a Holyhead to Dun Laoghaire fast ferry today as strong winds batter the region...Passengers will be switched to the super ferry service at 1.50pm or the next high speed sailing, which departs at 3pm. Gale force winds yesterday battered the North Wales coast. HM coastguards at Holyhead reported gusts of up to 54mph. A spokesman said there were gale force eight winds increasing to severe gale force nine coming from the Irish Sea. The Met Office said there was also persistent and occasionally heavy rain yesterday and strong, local, southwesterly winds."

That's Beaufort Force 8 and Force 9 mentioned above, Force 8 is when fast ferries get cancelled here too by Coast Guard regs. Force 8 and Force 9 are also gale conditions here. See BOM.

Also, in response to the two articles in yesterday's Honolulu Advertiser, a little bit of prognosticative satire about a dream:

"Brief Literary Satire: A Whale of a Nightmare"

"Penguin Banks, HI (Sometime in the Winter of 2008-2009) -- A large humpback whale gains speed 50 meters below the surface to do a full body breach. As it gains speed, it hears an unusual noise that it began hearing only last year, but never did understand, so it continues on its course to breach the water.

In a split second, just as its full body breaches the water, a huge unnatural object, unidentified by the whale, slams into the whale at 25 knots, destroying the whale. The unidentified object shudders, sending its controllers flying across the deck. At that moment, the object, surprising thin skinned and soft, sustains huge dents from the direct impact with the large whale. [To be continued...]

I don't think the operator nor passengers of a 100 meter vessel would even necessarily know if they hit a whale unless it was large, on the surface or breaching water, and directly T-boned."

Aloha, Brad