Episode 3 Channel Patrol

Stretching from Land's End to Dover,

this is the busiest seaway in the world.

And come hell or high water...

Three, two, one, fire!

No amount of training can ever prepare you

for what we faced that night.

..it's open for business 365 days a year...

Over 90% of the world's trade travels by sea.

It's not just TVs and refrigerators, it's everything around us.

..teeming with every type of vessel...

Everyone on board reckons their job is the hardest.

..and a rich diversity of wildlife.

It's kept safe by those who patrol its seaways.

Just drag him onto the boat.

Their actions standing between triumph...

-THEY CHEER

-..and disaster...

He's up, he's up.

..on the unpredictable waters of the English Channel.

Today, the Royal Navy have to combat rough seas...

It's the ultimate test for him, especially in these conditions.

..a high-speed ferry pilot battles traffic in the Solent...

The more troublesome traffic are the leisure traffic

like the yachts and the little speedboats and things

cos you're not always sure what they're going to do.

..a sickly seal is washed up on a Cornish beach...

That's got a temperature of 38.5, which is slightly on the high side.

..and £700,000 worth of cargo needs to be handled with care.

Right, start turning her, gents. Just gently.

Touch wood nothing should go wrong because if it goes wrong

then it's going to go badly wrong.

Guys, are we clear on the nose?

Along the coast of the English Channel are castles,

towers and fortifications

testament to the role this area has played

in Britain's many wars and battles.

Defence is still important today.

And the Royal Navy operate out of two bases here

with a fleet of 48 patrol vessels, submarines and ships.

After a six-month tour of the Gulf chasing pirates and drug smugglers,

this is the first time the Royal Navy HMS Somerset

will be back at sea following a month's maintenance.

It's fantastic. It's the best job in the world.

I mean, I get to work

with 180 fantastic people.

Every day's a new adventure, I do something different,

I'm in a different part of the world with a new set of challenges.

And I've got 4,500 tonnes of British technology,

which we take around the world.

It's a great job.

On board the frigate, the first job of the day

for Captain Michael Wood is to receive a briefing

before leaving harbour.

Good morning, sir. Your met brief for today.

We have warnings in place for gusts, gales, thunderstorms, hail, snow,

sea state inside the breakwater of two to three,

outside the breakwater four to five, however it may have an effect

on planned flying operations later today.

-Service complete. Concludes your brief.

-Thank you.

Today the crew has two operations to complete -

reuniting the warship with its on-board helicopter

followed by a deck landing exercise.

But the weather will make both jobs much more treacherous.

First, they have to get out of the harbour.

Today is going to be a challenging departure.

It is difficult conditions and we have a lot of ships around us

so we have to stay smart, be alert

and let's get off the berth nice and quickly.

Thank you.

HMS Somerset is pulled off her berth by two tug boats.

With Plymouth behind them, they have to negotiate

the River Tamar and head out towards the Channel.

Starboard, starboard.

HMS Somerset is a 4,500-tonne, Type 23 frigate.

Roger. On time.

She's 133 metres long and has a top speed of 28 knots.

She has huge diesel generators

powering electric engines for cruising

and additional gas turbines for high speed.

Altering 090.

MUFFLED RADIO SPEECH

As predicted, the weather is closing in and the sea is getting rougher.

The ship was designed exactly for working in winter conditions

and there is no sea state limitation on the operation of ships.

HMS Somerset was built originally as an anti-submarine frigate.

So she is optimised for hunting submarines and killing submarines.

She's very good at doing that.

Now HMS Somerset has left the harbour,

the crew can prepare for the arrival of the Merlin helicopter,

a vital part of the ship's capability.

Merlin's a fantastic world-beating, anti-submarine helicopter.

So when I'm trying to find submarines

I combine her with my long-range sonar,

I send her off to look down the sonar bearing

and hopefully she'll find the submarine

and then with her weapons destroy it.

Regulating Petty Officer Daniel Mansfield

is the flight deck officer who'll be making sure

the helicopter lands safely on board.

What they're doing now is a FOD plod,

which stands for foreign object damage.

With the weight of the aircraft being in excess of 14 tonnes

creates a lot of downwash,

so we need to ensure that the flight deck is completely clear

of any minute obstacles that could either damage the aircraft

or more importantly damage us due to the downwash and blowing it around.

You can find all sorts - screws, washers, anything like that.

And you don't want that hitting you or an aircraft.

Little bits of wood, so just important that we clear the deck

before the aircraft turns up.

So it's done for our safety, as well.

HE LAUGHS

Bits of debris are not the only hazard.

The main challenges for me,

as you can feel at the minute, the sea state is very rough.

The aircraft itself is in excess of 14 tonnes,

so there's a lot of downwash created from the aircraft

when it comes over the deck.

So physically fighting against the downwash is quite difficult.

Once we do go to flying stations,

the bridge team will take us onto a flying course,

which would be the safest possible course.

So we should find a reduction in the swell

and the sea state should become a bit calmer for us.

Sea state is just...the swell of the sea, the spray of the sea

and just how much it affects the ship rocking and rolling around.

The engineers are very protective of the aircraft.

We see it as our aircraft.

We look after it, it goes through some rough weathers.

The salt is always trying to break it down

and we're here to make sure it's maintained at the highest standard.

So, yeah, it is our aircraft and we loan it to the aircrew.

Today I'll be overseeing as well as getting involved

in doing a few lashings and fastening it to the deck.

So as you can see, in these sea states

we want to make sure the aircraft's not going to go anywhere.

The waves are getting bigger and at sea state six

they're at the edge of their operational capability

for a successful landing.

The Solent, 20 miles long and four miles across at its widest point.

It's a major shipping route

serving the two busy ports of Southampton and Portsmouth.

Jostling for space alongside

the immense freight and military vessels

in this narrow strip of water

are more diminutive passenger ferries.

But what these vessels lack in size they make up for in speed.

Red Funnel operate three high-speed catamarans shuttling back and forth

between Southampton and the Isle of Wight...

..carrying three and a half million passengers a year.

It's just before 5am in Southampton

and Alice Platten is arriving for her shift on Red Jet 5.

I'm the chief officer on board here so I'm second in command, really.

Involved in helping the commander with navigation,

driving the boat,

a bit of maintenance and helping the passengers.

It's a bit of everything, really.

Alice starts the day by checking the ferries' oil levels

and pressures in the engine room.

My dad was Merchant Navy, my mum was Royal Navy

so I sort of grew up in their stories.

So I thought, "Yes, would be good fun, I think."

Alice starts up the electrical equipment on the bridge.

Just a switch.

This is our ECDIS, that's already started up,

it's just like a sat nav, really.

What you'd have with your car but for boats.

Morning, Alice, I'm ready for service.

She then runs through the engine checks with Commander Ali Mousavi.

COMMANDER SPEAKS OVER RADIO Neutral.

So that's us finished all of our start-up checks now

and we'll transfer over onto our running berth

ready to pick up some passengers.

Red Jet 5 makes up to nine trips a day

each with a scheduled journey time of just 25 minutes.

Many passengers have onward connections to make on trains.

Keeping to this punishing timetable is a challenge Alice relishes.

It's good fun.

Yeah, I can't complain, driving a speedboat all day up and down,

it's good, it's good.

Working alongside Chief Officer Alice

is Cabin Assistant Kerry Camilleri.

She's quite good, she did a speedy one the other day, didn't you?

We got in a bit early.

We were like how did we get there that quick?

We must have had the tide with us, we were just lucky.

Yeah, flying through. No, she's really good, I'm impressed.

It's nearly departure time for the first trip of the day.

A very good morning, ladies and gentlemen,

on behalf of the commander and our crew

I would like to welcome you on board Red Jet 5,

this high-speed service to West Cowes.

Today it's the start of half term

so the crew is expecting extra holiday-makers.

I'm only allowed to carry 190 passengers,

anything above that I would need a second cabbie

so we've always got someone on standby.

How many have we got this morning?

We have nine passengers in total.

-Busy day though?

-Hmm.

It's a slow start.

But Kerry knows from experience things are set to get busier.

A very good morning once again, ladies and gentlemen,

we will shortly be arriving at our berth in West Cowes.

Alice delivers the travellers to Cowes Harbour bang on time.

We've only got a five-minute turnaround really

so we have to make sure to stay on time cos if we're two minutes late

it could sort of impact us for the rest of the day.

The nine passengers disembark and the next batch get on.

It's not yet 7am and numbers are starting to build

as is the pressure on Alice.

Quite busy, quite a lot of people commuting to work.

I'm looking at the time, I better go and get ready to let go, actually.

They stay on track for the return journey

getting their passengers to Southampton on time.

But as the crew leaves the mainland for the second time today,

dawn is breaking and the Solent is starting to get congested.

The ferry was coming out, we've got mooring boats, tugs.

So you always have to sort of keep an eye open

in all different directions for traffic.

It's amazing how things can creep up on you, really,

when you're not looking.

Alice also has to balance her tight schedule

against respect for other seafarers.

He's got tugs working so we just slow down

to minimise our wash so we don't disturb them too much.

We don't have to do it but it can be quite dangerous for them

and to the bow of the ship like that when they're making fast their line

so we slow down to try and make life easier for them and a bit safer.

The cargo ship puts them a minute behind,

which could mean commuters miss their connecting train.

Alice must now try to make up the lost time.

At the moment we're going flat out at 100%

and we're getting just under 35 knots.

35 knots or 40mph is a fair crack

especially compared to the car ferries they share the route with.

Did one of them describe us as wasps always buzzing around,

overtaking them?

The time it takes them to do one round trip we've already done three.

So we're just coming into Cowes Harbour now

and there's a six knots speed limit, which is why we're slowing down.

You'll notice it feels a lot slower than what we were doing.

Alice needs to navigate the ferry into its parking spot or berth

so the passengers can disembark safely.

She switches the controls to a mode that allow for fine-tuning

of the engine so she can carefully manoeuvre the boat in.

When we get just past the berth, we'll stop and turn around.

These boats turn really on their own axes, it's quite impressive

and then we thrust alongside.

So, we land on the berth nice and parallel.

Yeah, we've made it. MUFFLED SPEECH OVER RADIO

The catamaran has made up for the lost time.

Kerry quickly ushers the passengers off the boat

and welcomes the waiting commuters.

Within five minutes they're ready to go.

Our ship's in Cowes Harbour, Red Jet 5 shortly departing.

West Cowes outbound.

It may be a fast turnaround but the Red Jet team

have to remember their priority.

Safety of navigation is more important

than commercial pressure, staying on time

and the company understands that.

We try and do both.

Good morning, Red Jet 5 departing Cowes with 132 on board.

With a relentless schedule and no let up,

piloting the boat is a shared role between Commander Ali and Alice.

We rotate the driving here,

Alice helps me out with the driving.

She's one of the best drivers in the fleet, really,

on ferries and high-speed.

The Red Jet is back in Southampton

on schedule and running like a well-oiled machine.

OK, that's us alongside.

After a successful morning,

a sudden surge of half-term tourists

could make keeping to schedule this afternoon

a more difficult proposition.

As well as a ferry terminal,

Southampton is one of the UK's top ports.

As an island, we rely heavily on shipping.

Around 95% of our international trade is transported by sea.

And in recent years we handled a greater weight of goods

than any other country in Europe -

over 500 million tonnes.

Southampton acts as a global gateway for 38 million of these tonnes

including expensive big-ticket items such as luxury cars and boats.

Today, a custom-built catamaran worth £700,000,

nearly four times the price of the average UK home,

has just sailed in from France.

It has to be loaded onto a cargo ship bound for Australia.

What I'll do is I'll go up, drop all the lashings.

We'll lash it so it's secure

and then you can move her out of the way, please.

Lifting this 14-tonne luxury yacht out of the water is no mean feat.

It requires the specialist skill of dedicated loadmaster

Shane Brearley.

Touch wood, nothing should go wrong

because if it goes wrong then it's silly stuff,

it's going to go badly wrong.

The only thing that could go wrong,

you might get a dink or something

but on my shift hopefully nothing will go wrong.

Shane works for a world-leading boat transportation company,

Peters and May, who move more than 4,000 boats a year.

Shipping cargo this size doesn't come cheap.

This delivery is setting the owners back approximately £40,000.

This price includes the services of a French company

who have sailed the yacht from the manufacturers in La Rochelle,

a total journey time of nearly 40 hours.

Over there. That's enough.

With the yacht safely parked alongside,

the French crew gives the interior a final once over

to ensure everything is pristine.

It's time to raise the vessel out of the water and onto the dock.

Shane has a diver in the water to help keep a close eye

on the manoeuvre.

Lifting straps go under the bottom of the boat

so the crane can winch her out.

Boats must be kept perfectly level during a lift.

Stop. Stop.

If not, there's a chance the boat could slip out of its slings.

The team know where the centre of gravity is

and position the lifting straps accordingly.

Are we good on that side, Dave?

Under Shane's close supervision,

the diver carefully checks each strap is flat against the boat

and not twisted or caught on any protrusions

before clearing the scene.

-Merci beaucoup. Merci.

-OK?

Shane gives the signal to raise the boat.

-Right, I need somebody on the stern line now.

-Dead level.

I'll come up in a minute, all right? Just... I'll be on here a minute.

All right?

Can you pull...? Boss, boss, pull in.

The catamaran is out of the water

but now she needs to clear the jetty.

Can you see me all right? Yeah?

A trailer is brought into position to receive the precious cargo.

Have you got any?

Shane needs to turn the boat to 180 degrees to bring it

into the correct position for the trailer.

Right, start turning her, gents, just gently.

Slow and careful handling is critical at this stage.

Just keep it like that, gents. Keep it tight.

You're just going to have to boom it out.

If it's taken too quickly, the boat could swing dangerously

potentially crashing into the crane.

Guys, are we clear on the nose?

Just square up, gents.

Before touchdown, Shane decides he needs to cushion the landing.

All right, lock it like that.

Dave, what we'll have to do is get some wood.

What we'll do is just pack out wherever it's not touching now.

Right, fingers, gents, it's coming down.

Come down to five. Down to five.

-The boat has landed safely on the trailer.

-Right, disconnect.

It's time for Shane and his crew

to carry out a comprehensive check for any damage.

They make an unfortunate discovery.

The propeller appears to have sustained a knock

on the journey over from France.

In the night...in the first night, the boat touched something

but, you know, you are sailing, this is in the night, you don't know.

We just discover now. Sometimes we can have this type of problem.

The waters are littered with debris and this could be the culprit.

Obviously, something's happened in transit because we've just lifted it.

No issues with lifting.

So the skipper of the yacht will talk to the server

and that'll get noted down on the survey report.

This is a big propeller

so this is more expensive than a small propeller.

Er...it cost about 3,000 euros.

There's no time to repair the damage in the UK

so replacement parts will be sent to Australia

ready for the boat's arrival in six weeks' time.

It's time for the catamaran to be loaded onto the cargo ship,

taking its place among 1,200 cars

as well as heavy construction equipment.

Shane and his team's job is complete -

a small but very important part of the catamaran's long journey.

As well as boats big and small,

the English Channel is home to both grey and common seals.

It's in winter that seal sightings increase

when they migrate to the shore and give birth to their pups.

And it's this time of year that rescue charities

are at their busiest.

The British Divers Marine Life Rescue operate a voluntary network

around the UK coast to respond to stranded animals

at a moment's notice.

Quantity surveyor Dave Jarvis coordinates rescues

for the charity in Hayle, Cornwall.

In winter, seal pups in distress keep Dave extra busy.

PHONE RINGS

Hello.

Yeah. Cheers, mate. OK. Bye. Bye.

A woman's reported a pup in distress on the beach.

She said a dog was having a go at it

but it's in a rock pool or something.

-Hello.

-Hi, Susan, it's Dave from British Divers Marine Life Rescue.

-Oh, hello.

-Hello, whereabouts is the pup?

-Towards the lighthouse.

-OK, I'll be there in a few minutes. OK, Susan, Cheers. OK. Bye.

-Bye.

Getting up there as quick as we can, really.

The English Channel, despite all the shipping,

is a busy place for animals.

You get dolphins.

And about 13 years ago, there was quite a famous incident

with a minke whale that got stuck on a rock

and that was successfully rescued.

And the big incident, must be about eight years ago now,

where there was a mass stranding of dolphins just near Falmouth.

Seal rescues are never a one-man job.

So fellow volunteers including Dave's son Dan join him

at Godrevy Beach.

Is that her?

Sue?

OK, so it's just behind that surfer.

-In those rocks there somewhere.

-Yeah, yeah, yeah.

OK, that's great. Thank you.

The concerned dog walker who put in the call

is unsure about the pup's current whereabouts.

Yeah, it was here somewhere, I can see its tracks.

That's its tracks there.

Yeah.

Trying to find a small and well camouflaged seal pup

isn't Dave's only challenge.

The tide is coming in fast and he needs to get round the rocks

to where the pup was last seen.

Son Dan has found the disorientated pup.

He's placed a towel over its eyes, which has a calming effect

on the animal.

But with the rising tide threatening to cut them off from the beach

they need to move it somewhere safer as quickly as possible.

But wrangling the wriggly pup into a specialised seal sack

is no easy task.

Oh, zip's gone.

The pair have to keep a tight grip on the broken bag.

Seal pup season is from late autumn and through winter.

Weather and sea conditions

affect the young seal's chances of survival.

The team must assess whether this pup needs further care

or can be set free back into the Channel.

DAVE SIGHS

Unfortunately the bag burst so we sent for another bag,

which Kev's gone to get.

And now we're at a bit of a safer location,

we'll give it a proper examination

and then we'll decide what to do with it.

Taking its temperature.

That gives us a clue if it's got any infections and any other illnesses.

Yeah.

That's got a temperature of 38.5, which is slightly on the high side.

Seals have the same sort of temperature as humans,

you know, so mid 36s and so forth.

So its temperature's quite high but, of course, it's been stressed out.

So Dan's just doing a check over now

see if he can see any other injuries

and then we'll weigh it, as well.

Um...anything below 20kg, we normally take him for rehabilitation.

The pup weighs in at 19 kilos

so Dave decides it needs further attention

at the Cornish Seal Sanctuary at Gweek on the Lizard Peninsula.

People ask, "How did you get involved in rescuing marine wildlife?"

Well, personally, I actually blame the wife.

Some years ago she saw a very badly injured seal pup

at the Seal Sanctuary.

She fell in love with him and we sort of sponsored him

and it carried on from there.

The whole family are involved.

Both my sons are involved.

My youngest son actually works at the sanctuary.

The phone's never off.

Basically available 365 days a year, 24 hours.

That's me. You know, sleep with the phone beside the bed.

The Seal Sanctuary staff are on hand to receive the new arrival.

Over the course of the coming months, they'll fatten it up

so it's strong enough to go back to the Channel.

We do know that these seals do commute over to France.

So, actually, the English Channel is full of seals

going backwards and forwards.

There was a story of a little seal pup a few years ago

that had got a satellite transmitter tag on

and that, actually, was born up near Anglesea and within ten weeks

we knew from when they downloaded the information on the satellite

that he'd gone across to Ireland and Wales, down to the Isles of Scilly,

nipped across to Cornwall

and then shot across to France and then came back

and was rescued on the Lizard Peninsula

on Boxing Day a few years ago.

So it travelled all that distance in the first ten weeks of its life.

With the seal now in the capable hands of the rehabilitation team,

-Dave's work is done.

-We've cleaned all the equipment now.

That's all nice and ready for the next one.

And we never know when that'll be. It's happened before.

We were walking her back to the car and the phone goes again,

we never know when the phone will go.

But when it does we'll be ready.

The Royal Navy has a response force task group

ready to be deployed at short notice to missions around the globe.

When not on deployment, many of the Navy's frigates are based

on the English Channel for maintenance and training exercises.

As well as these vessels,

the Navy has a fleet of aircraft including Hawk jets

and an array of helicopters.

Today, off the coast of Plymouth, HMS Somerset is about to be reunited

with her on-board helicopter

following the vessel's routine maintenance.

After its arrival,

pilots will be taking part in a deck landing exercise.

DANIEL MUMBLES OVER RADIO

Right, seven miles away. It's on its way in now.

But at sea state six, it'll be a far from routine landing.

This is the ultimate test, really, for a helicopter pilot.

You know, it's the smallest deck we land a Merlin helicopter

so one of the Navy's biggest aircraft

and he's sticking it on the smallest platform.

So, yeah, it's the ultimate test for him, especially in these conditions.

It's the responsibility of flight deck officer Daniel Mansfield

to ensure the helicopter lands safely on board

despite the rough seas.

During daytime operations, we'll use these orange gloves,

which can be found in here.

Latex, orange gloves, as you can see,

but attached to the right glove here is a pressal switch,

which is our communications to the aircraft.

If I'm not content that it's safe to land the aircraft

onto the flight deck, I'll wave him off.

I'll demonstrate to you now without the gloves.

Simply, I wave off, I walk out into the flight deck

and do that signal there.

And the pilot will be watching me at that point

so I'll wave and I'll say...

I'll do that in conjunction with saying over the radio,

"Wave off, wave off, wave off."

And he'll know then it's not safe to proceed onto the deck

and he'll go off for another circuit.

Making his approach over there now.

It's time for Daniel to bring the £25 million helicopter home.

When he's on the quarter and I want him to hover,

I simply put my arms out straight like this.

If he's coming in from the port side, simply wave him over.

When he's at the middle on the centre line of the ship,

it's back into the hover.

Once he's steady, I can bring him down.

Simple down movements.

And then once he's landed safely,

I need him to engage his harpoon, which is a lock, onto the deck

and that's simply done by that hand signal there.

With the helicopter safely on deck,

the engineers make sure she stays put.

Safely back on board. Yeah, it's good.

Just arrived is second pilot Dan Gregory

who'll be taking part in the deck landing exercise.

I really like the variety of the flying helicopters.

It can change the role of the aircraft

so we can be involved in perhaps search and rescue one time,

anti-submarine warfare another time

while moving troops about on another day.

Dan will be making his first ever deck landing of a helicopter

on a type 23 frigate.

So today we're knocking on the door of 40 knots of wind,

a sea state of six.

Both of those are really on the limit

of what we'd like to go flying in.

Particularly, as you can probably see at the moment,

the deck's moving around quite a lot

and you don't want to be in the hover above the deck

and the ship come up to meet you.

Upright!

The 15-tonne Merlin,

loaded with state-of-the-art technology,

is the world's most potent submarine-hunting helicopter.

It is an expensive bit of kit

but I should imagine a guy that owns an expensive car

doesn't get nervous every time he puts it in the garage.

So... I think, like anything,

it's something that you build up to very slowly.

While the pilots and observer have some lunch,

the engineers get the helicopter

into the hangar for some maintenance.

Don't want to hit the side of the aircraft

on any of the hallway on the way in.

It's bigger than a Lynx helicopter, obviously,

and it's smaller than a Chinook so it's kind of in the middle.

Quite near the beginning of our work, yeah.

As in we've got to check the aircraft,

make sure it's safe to fly.

So, after-flight servicing.

And basically correct any faults with the aircraft.

Yeah, the poles go into the plates that he's passing up there

and basically they hold the rotor blades rigidly so they don't move.

Outside the weather's not improving.

A decision on Dan's first deck landing exercise has to be made.

-KNOCK ON DOOR Come in.

-Sir, good evening.

Flight commander, hi there.

So we've had a check of the weather

and basically the situation,

the strength of the wind is probably too strong to get airborne

given it's a sea state six at the moment,

forecast to increase to a seven later on.

So with that in mind, Sir,

I think it's sensible that we knock the flying on the head this evening.

So, reschedule for tomorrow

and let's make sure we recapture the training objectives for tomorrow.

HE MUMBLES

It's up to flight commander Nick Bell

to give Lieutenant Dan Gregory the bad news.

It's a no.

The weather, as we saw earlier, mate,

the weather's taking a bit of a turn for the worse.

We've got a bit of a sea state up and the weather looks like

it's calming down tomorrow night anyway so should be much better.

So we'll give it a go then, OK?

Looking forward to doing it tomorrow then.

The English Channel is a challenging training ground

on the doorstep of the Royal Navy southern bases

but Mother Nature will always have a say on what they can achieve.

It's about balancing the risk versus reward.

The Royal Navy's only got 30 of these helicopters

so losing one would have a big impact on the force structure.

So we don't take any unnecessary risks.

Just be willing to accept the plan might not always go

the way you'd like it to go

to be able to roll with the punches.

The English Channel has 19 car and passenger ferry routes

crossing its waters on a daily basis.

On the Solent, Red Jet 5 is one of the fastest.

It's part of the Red Funnel fleet

operating between Southampton and Cowes in the Isle of Wight.

After a successful morning keeping the service to schedule...

Thank you.

..a dramatic increase in passengers

has put chief officer Alice and the crew behind.

Obviously there was a really high passenger volume

and quite a lot of luggage so it did slow us down quite a bit.

Alice needs to recoup the lost time,

but the weather threatens to intervene.

The visibility is sort of over a mile at the moment

so as long as it stays what it is that should be OK.

It's if the visibility drops under about half a mile

the harbour master imposes speed restrictions in the docks,

which unfortunately make us lose another 10 minutes or so,

but fingers crossed things stay as they are at the moment.

The weather and increased passenger numbers

aren't the only factors Alice has to contend with.

The more troublesome traffic are the leisure traffic

like the yachts and the little speedboats and things

cos you're not always sure what they're going to do.

At least with the big ships they've got pilots and experienced captains

so they usually play by the rules.

The weather appears to be holding out.

But as they regain precious minutes, the ferry runs into trouble.

It looks like a tank from here.

A barge transporting a large crane is in their path

and Red Jet has to give way.

The crew is now unable to make up the time in transit

so the pressure's on Kerry to save valuable minutes

in the turnaround time.

We've got five minutes,

obviously, to load passengers and unload passengers.

What we can do is just make sure that in Southampton they're ready,

that all their tickets are collected,

I'll ring the pontoon and make sure it's all done

so then we can hopefully gain the time back.

Kerry gets the passengers' baggage ready

so it's easily accessible when they disembark.

Very good morning again, ladies and gentlemen,

we will shortly be arriving at our berth in Southampton.

Please could I ask that you have your ticket to hand

to show to the bus driver.

Thank you.

Whilst Kerry prepares to usher the passengers off the ferry,

Alice also needs to find time to refuel.

The Red Jet burns around 400 litres of fuel per hour

as it pushes through 100 tonnes of water per second.

So we aim to take about 1,000 litres

as much as we can fit in the turnaround time.

Fortunately, Southampton has a fast refuelling system.

It's just like a Formula One fuelling.

You just click it on within seconds

and we can load up to 300 litres per minute.

Meanwhile, Kerry has emptied the ferry of commuters

and is now busy welcoming aboard the next batch of passengers.

They've pumped in about 500 litres of fuel, a sixth of the capacity.

But to get back on track they decide to halt refuelling for now.

Guys, you're running late. Come on, come on, chop chop.

Chop chop. Get on board, sir.

It's all hands on deck,

even Commander Ali helps usher the final few passengers aboard.

Just as the ship is ready to leave,

Kerry gets a call from the ticket office.

-Quickly!

-'I told them to run.'

The time the team have made up is ticking away

so Kerry makes a difficult call.

OK, Kylie, we're going to have to go.

'OK, no worries, mate'

All right, they'll have to get on the next one. Sorry.

Yeah, it's not really fair on the other passengers

and obviously we can't wait for a very long time

and make ourselves and the passengers even more delayed.

The tough decision pays off.

The Red Jet team has managed to recoup the time

and pretty much get back on schedule.

Basically, as soon as we came alongside, tied up,

and I think we did the whole turnaround

in about three minutes, which was excellent.

The hectic holiday period promises lots more passengers

and traffic, keeping things far from plain sailing on the Solent.

It's going to be another busy one.