- 2 days ago
S1 E1 – Sailing the Shipping Forecast with Rev Coles ⛵🌊
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Short filmTranscript
00:00now it's time for the shipping forecast Shannon West Bearing Northwest three to
00:08five for over a hundred years sailors and fishermen have received daily
00:12life-saving warnings from the shipping forecast it's now a national institution
00:21and its soothing tones have become a recognizable comfort to all good occasionally moderate dividing
00:29UK and surrounding waters into 31 areas it predicts wind weather and visibility for those venturing out
00:37to see with modern technology now providing 24-hour forecasting the twice daily shipping
00:48forecast is no longer the only safety guide for those at sea I wish I was on yours but for me the
00:59shipping forecast is timeless it's like almost a prayer yeah it's comforting comforting I'm going
01:06to make those poetic words pharaohs white Thames Lundy a blueprint for an epic journey around some of our
01:15beautiful coasts we're sort of on a collision course meeting the people on and offshore this is amazing
01:23this is beautiful huh whose lives depend on the weather and the sea oh my goodness look at that
01:30I'll do one of my famous engine prayers if you like
01:33cut some fish yeah with the most amazing views may the force be with you
01:42rain and showers perhaps thundery later moderate or good Lundy Fastnet Irish Sea variable two or three
02:00becoming southwest three or five later fog patches moderate or good
02:08the Lundy Sea area takes its name from a small granite island off the Devon coast
02:15it's a triangle of roughly 7000 square miles linking Ireland Wales Devon and Cornwall it's an area of notoriously
02:24stormy seas where the Bristol Channel meets the Atlantic Ocean these waters have long been important for shipping fishing and trade and today they're also home to coastal communities holiday resorts and fishing villages
02:41it's a place where daily life is shaped by the power of the weather and the sea
02:56where better to start than the Cornish coast a thousand kilometers of spectacular scenery and ancient villages
03:03it's 5 30 a.m. in Port Isaac and only local fisherman Callum seems to be awake
03:17this village has earned its keep from fishing since the 14th century and Callum has invited me aboard his cheetah catamaran
03:23the Evan George stand on the front bit get your leg over anything you say boss
03:31in the words of my favorite shark themed film you're going to need a bigger boat and where's my stateroom
03:39wait till you see your en suite
03:45attention all shipping the forecast for Port Isaac is fair becoming good risk of engine trouble later
03:53why is it so funky here well we're right on the edge of the Atlantic Ocean right if you look out there's
04:03there's no land to America from here so any large swells got a long time to keep that up
04:11for fishermen like Callum predicting stormy weather can be a matter of life or death
04:16and in this part of Lundy which is so exposed to the elements is especially important
04:20you wouldn't believe the number of forecasts I look at paid on paid and it just you're just looking
04:29at a general theme for a few days yeah no one's really got much idea a few generations before
04:37what did sailors rely on fishermen rely on well they did use a shipping forecast i sometimes think
04:43for people who listen to it it's like almost a prayer it's a form of words that you get so used to
04:49yeah it's comforting comforting yeah i often hear if i'm going out early and have the radio on
04:53it often comes on and i do listen to it what do you want to hear when you switch on the shipping
04:58forecast what do you want lundie to be doing no gales hopefully of course there are some things
05:05even the shipping forecast can't predict
05:07just hit a bit of something
05:15i think we've just caught a bit of seaweed it's laying on the surface just seem to lost power
05:20there for a second all right can i make myself useful uh no not at the moment
05:25can you see the dolphins oh my goodness look at that look at that beautiful
05:36it's wonderful beautiful
05:54we'll try a bit more oil i'll do one of my famous engine prayers if you like that would be lovely
06:00well if anything like my arsenal prayers you wouldn't say that as callum wrestles with the
06:06engine this unscheduled stop is making me realize how small this boat is and how vast and choppy the sea
06:16quite close to being sick oh preferably go over here would you a nice little gap thank you
06:23and you'll be better once we're moving now as with every good journey i'm already learning new
06:32things about myself in this instance i'm not a good sailor
06:40you all right that's it i think you're good
06:43all right we're just going to give it a final try to see if um see if we have to abandon ship on
06:53the sea legs at last
07:10things are looking up now we're on the move and finding my sea legs at last
07:23i don't go that far out into deeper water anymore because that's where the crab was
07:31but there's no longer there
07:33callum's catch is being badly affected by climate change he used to bring up a mixed
07:38haul of crabs and lobsters but the crabs can't cope with the water warming up
07:4618.5 the water temperature that's the surface water temperature it's amazing it's madness isn't it
07:52utter madness so um that that's the reason for the change what should it be now 16 but that's a big
08:01difference two degrees yeah yeah half a degree is a massive difference on the on the on the fishing
08:07side of things so where are the crab going they're off into deeper watering further north so the catcher
08:14the now catching crab like in denmark where they've never caught it before
08:24all the red and orange flags around here uh is me so uh we're going to pick up some lobsters and
08:30bring them in right so everything's connected in one long line yeah
08:35yeah so this is 10 lobster pots all connected together okay and how far down are they 20 meters
08:43so this is 26 27 meters here well we got our first lobster oh there we go look at that
08:54all right quite lively yeah is that big enough we're gonna have to get the measure out and have a look
08:59all right by law callum can only keep lobsters if they're at least 90 millimeters from their eye
09:05socket to the end of their back the younger smaller ones must be thrown back in the sea to breed
09:12and keep the population at a sustainable level well she's just big enough she yep do you ever get nipped
09:19i try and avoid it it does hurt really hurt
09:21oh second pot second lobster but this one's i would have said was small
09:31yeah a bit smaller yeah so this one's about i don't know four years old okay so we'll put that
09:36one back and have that one again in a few years it's hard work callum it is very physical i mean you
09:43would need to be all right with that wouldn't you there's no way you can't really cut a corner with
09:47that no it's um it's a vocation yeah it's not um yeah it's not something you do
09:56for the money and you say vocation callum but family business as well right so trace's
10:01dad and granddad were doing this you've got great granddad and great granddad yeah my son's
10:06desperate to do it he wants to fish yeah but he's um the economics of it is he's he's struggling at
10:14the moment just to make it financially work to make it financially work yeah he's always come out
10:21with me from well since he could walk really and i say to him what you want to do today and he say go
10:26fishing really on my day off but he's always been super keen and now he's still he's a proper fully
10:34qualified marine engineer and he delivers you know like super yachts and things so he's working on the
10:40sea he's working on the sea but he wants to come back fishing but at the moment because we've lost
10:45the crab because of the global warming is the the viability is not there hopefully we're not the
10:53last generation to go fishing from poor isaac this last part coming up now i'm feeling lucky feeling
11:05lucky good to manage your prayer for this one as well okay i'll do my best after four hours at sea
11:14we've caught just enough to head back to port isaac and offload the catch
11:26it's now 9am and callum's wife tracy is opening up their other business
11:31a seafood cafe where some of our freshly caught lobsters might become dish of the day
11:38who shall have the fishy on a little little dishy who shall have a lobster when that book comes in
11:45hello tracy best catch ever my first lobster yeah yeah the first lobster call missing dolphins
11:52minky whale wow that's not many lobsters so is it lobster in as many ways as you could yeah lobster
12:00lots of different ways yeah to suit all tastes hopefully so this is what they would call a kind
12:06of through business now you've got calum catching them you're prepping them yes serving them yes so
12:12you get more of the benefit of that whole process yeah definitely yeah rather than whole
12:17calum just wholesaling it yeah and that's a way of making it work yes could we do some prep yes yes
12:24excellent well i'm not going to keep you from the sea are you hungry no no i'm off i'm always
12:27hugging thanks nice to meet you you too catch many more bye thanks so tracy what are we going to do
12:34what would you like to make i would like to make the most elaborate lobster termidor you have ever seen
12:39well happily just just a regular lobster the idea of pulling a lobster out of the sea bringing it to
12:46you prepping it cooking it eating it all in one go i know it's a good feeling yeah the freshness you're
12:54going to get is fantastic on reflection perhaps simplicity seems best so you're looking for a nice
13:04clean cut all the way down yeah yeah i just like that so to make the most of its freshness and flavor
13:14i'm opting for a simple but delicious sandwich look at that lovely put some salad leaves on again as
13:21much as you know as much as you like yeah so do you listen to the shipping for is that what every
13:28fisher person does is to kind of tune into shipping forecasting what's happening when i was a child
13:33yeah and my dad was fishing from for isaac we um so if he wasn't at home his children we had to
13:39listen to the shipping forecast and we used to have to write it down for him so if i were to say viking
13:43forces gravity force you know what i'm talking about yeah it's in there right yeah it's in there
13:48and that just that rhythm ever is is so lovely isn't it pop a little bit of lemon excuse me if you don't
13:55mind well yeah make it you know you've been on masterchef you can do this thank you very very much indeed
14:01no one is touching this sandwich apart from the presenter i should be really clear about that
14:12lunch time
14:16what could be nicer lobster from the sea
14:20prepped by my own fair hand squeeze a lemon bon appetit
14:33lovely all worthwhile it's been great to be here i've really enjoyed it what's most impressive is the
14:40way callum and tracy and everybody here has adapted to not the sort of timelessness of it but the changing
14:48circumstances right just like weather blowing in unpredictably from the atlantic you never know
14:54whether your business is going to be viable or not there are so many factors that come into play in
14:58that and i love the way they've adapted with resourcefulness that's just typical of fishing
15:02communities everywhere
15:11and my hope is that just as tracy you know three generations of fishermen before her i just hope
15:18there's a generation coming after their son will who'll keep that tradition going obviously adapting it
15:24rejuvenating it reimagining it being creative
15:35variable two to four becoming northerly or northwesterly three to five
15:39occasionally six in north rain at times
15:44i'm back on board ship exploring the lundie sea area on a beautiful vintage german ferry
15:50you join us on the pitching deck of the lovely ms oldenburg making our way down the bristol channel
15:57to the point where it becomes the atlantic ocean
16:05it's two hours by boat or 10 choppy nautical miles from the coast of devon to the tiny remote island
16:12that the lundie sea area is named after
16:20since reading treasure island at robinson crusoe as a kid i've always wanted to have that castaway
16:26experience and celebrity jungle aside i have a feeling lundie might be the closest i'll get
16:31this three mile long lump of rock is only accessible by ferry twice a week and only in summer in good
16:43weather look at that beautiful it is beautiful lucy is one of the few people who grew up there
16:53it's a beautiful place to live but you've got to be a certain sort of person to be able to live there
16:57yeah you know miles away from everything when the the wind and the fog comes in that island is is
17:04is quite a rough place to be also an isolated place to be if the ship can't get there what do
17:09you do so we get moments when um the fog is bad the helicopter can't come in if there's an emergency
17:14then the lifeboat might go i think you love it don't you i can tell you do i love it
17:28we're sort of on a collision course like that aren't we i've been looking to see a little swing to
17:34port yeah we're going we're going let's be around here okay i think we might have a seal on the beach
17:43but it's really hard oh yeah yeah great ceiling now they're great oh yeah one's moving yeah all
17:47great seals there so we're just coming down the east side and then we've got the jesse just ahead
17:54of us so the boat's going to war up and you'll be able to get up on top of the island and have a
18:00look well thanks so much for the introduction no problem we're looking forward have a super day i
18:04hope you get the magic inhabited since the iron age londy was colonized by marauding vikings
18:13and in the 15th and 16th centuries even became an independent pirate kingdom
18:17now the only marauders are tourists catered for by national trust staff and volunteers
18:29hello richard my name is joe i'm the island warden joe how was your sailing today it was great great
18:34it's a pleasure to be here i've always wanted to come excellent let's show you the island
18:41joe has lived on the island for two years his job is to make sure the bird population here is thriving
18:47so for someone who's interested in birds well then this is great because it's a sort of
18:54very distinctive environment and protected environment it is yes so we're a site of special
18:58scientific interest we've recently become a bird observatory the water's behind us a marine protected
19:04area some of the highest marine protections in the country i'm an avid bird watcher so joe's offered to
19:12take me for a closer look at the cliffs where there's a huge colony of rare seabirds including
19:17the manx shearwater
19:22a slim black-winged bird the size of a small gull
19:26that winters in south america but breeds on islands around the uk
19:33manx shearwaters they're burrow-nesting seabirds they need predator-free environments you're not going
19:39to get that on the mainland you need an island that's free of rats and london here for the last
19:4420 years has been a safe haven for these seabirds numbers have increased exponentially we've now got
19:49over 40 50 000 seabirds breeding on the island take me to your seabirds i would love to show you a
19:56chick richard come on this way okay manx shearwaters often occupy pre-made burrows dug by rabbits or other
20:04birds but joe's made a few too to help the colony along and covered this one to protect the chick
20:11while we're filming
20:15and this chick oh my goodness look at that my goodness look that's a chick
20:20really absolutely richard so this is being handled under a ringing license which i hold so i'm happy
20:26for you to hold the bird just don't want to stress her let's hold that wing that's perfect you're
20:31doing really well richard i love these but i seriously i seriously love a main shearwater i
20:35never thought i would ever hold a chick it's wonderful very special beautiful you've got the
20:41perfect grip that is the most look at that bill long hook tip quite bitey quite bitey they're perfectly
20:49evolved for catching squid small fish it's the most beautiful thing isn't it so downy and just
20:56absolutely yeah absolutely we're going to reduce the amount of time this bird has got out in the
21:03environment here you go buddy i can't believe i just held a manx shearwater um is there a distinctive
21:15call to the bank shearwater i'll do my best for you richard all right um you've got to imagine 25 000
21:21birds going flying all over the island coming into the slopes just again please i'd like to hear yours
21:31a bit coarser a bit coarser yes you sound like a female and the male slightly high pitch hey we're kind of fluid
21:44with careful guardians like joe around lundie has been nurtured by the landmark trust since the 1960s
22:01but before then wealthy and often eccentric owners made their own mark on the place
22:06in the 1800s the appropriately named reverend hudson grosset heaven built the church in 1925 martin coles
22:20harman bought the island declared himself king and even introduced his own currency
22:25how could you ever move from here seriously this is pinch yourself a lot of the time i can feel already
22:36joe that the sort of stresses of living in a highly technological busy crowded world that affect you
22:43i can feel them going dissipate immediately the lundie effect it is absolutely lundie time out here
22:50my time is spent out on the cliffs watching birds watching wildlife i've got a question for you go for
22:56it it may be an indelicate question yeah romance yes someone in your life do you have to have that
23:03ready made before you come here bloom here it's a small pool of people right that would help um
23:08you meet like-minded people out here um so it actually becomes a bit of a love island in itself
23:13so it could be lunder instead of it could yeah absolutely
23:25the hub is the important thing isn't it we're in the middle of the island now
23:29tavern just down here five o'clock today once we wave the ship off everyone's going to gather in
23:35there decompress enjoy a pint in the pub talking about the terrible behavior of touring absolutely yeah
23:41and what about everyday stuff say you kind of run out of sugar or something bang your neighbor's
23:46door is there something you can do oh i do have to knock on my neighbor's door and get the key to
23:49the shop just here the harrods of lundie absolutely go check it out
24:00wow well it has got a well it's got a bit of everything look savoy cabbage very important hello
24:06sorry i'll be interrupting your shopping oh look coconut milk marigolds very important
24:14that's very good blimey choice of cabernet sauvignon ah that's what i'm after
24:21my favorite chocolate bar containing coconut i'll say no more than that but can i buy this please
24:28certainly thank you very much is money all right yes we can take card or all cash is fine so that's 90
24:33pence please thank you very much i've lived in a village where the village shop was really this
24:39sort of comm centre as well you'd know everything right oh yes definitely we know all the gossip
24:45i should come back off camera yes absolutely absolutely see you later
24:52the area forecasts for the next 24 hours viking north ootsira south ootsira southerly or
25:00south ootsira southerly four good occasionally moderate lundie fast net irish sea northerly or
25:07northwesterly three to five occasionally i've been asking myself could i live on lundie to be honest
25:18although i wouldn't be short of aubergines or my favorite bottle of sauvignon i'm not sure i have the
25:23temperament for it i miss my friends too much and meeting new people but i can see that for the
25:30right sort of person lundie's isolation is charming and its unspoiled beauty makes it a slice of paradise
25:42before i reduce its population by one and jump back on the ferry there's a final thing i must do
25:49to get the best view of all i guess the dead center of lundie the shipping forecast area is here
25:57the old lighthouse on the island itself over there is cornwall and over there through the haze
26:03is wales and that's where we're going next
26:12atlantic low expected west soul 1010 by midnight my next port of call is southwest wales where the
26:20lundie sea area borders a 200 mile strip of some of the most beautiful coast in britain
26:26the gower peninsula west of swansea is an area of outstanding natural beauty popular with walkers
26:39surfers and bird watchers
26:47here they have unusually high tides the second highest on earth in fact
26:56this farm complete with historic webley castle has belonged to will's family since the 1950s
27:09for over 70 years their sheep have grazed on the unique marshland that's amazing look at that
27:19i've never seen anything quite like it because you've got the flat marsh you've got the estuary
27:23you've got the beach you've got well like mountains and hills beyond it's something isn't it
27:29the sea beyond the farm rises 10 meters at high tide and when it recedes leaves acres of almost
27:36unusable land
27:39so presumably when the tide comes in how far does it come it can come in and cover everything you can
27:45see particularly if there's a high wind as well at the same time so well i'm thinking
27:50that's a logistical issue for you if you've got animals out there yeah we rely on tide times we
27:54know when the tide's coming in and we all you've always got to keep a guard for it and then we've
27:58got to get out there and bring them in if we know there's got a tide coming they look happy from here
28:02but can we see them closer yeah we'll have to go and have a look at them yeah
28:09there's nothing like clinging to the back of a farmer's quad bike to make you feel like easy rider
28:15though uneasy rider might be a better description so will how many acres of marsh so oh several
28:24thousand acres so happy sheep with big marsh to graze on they've got a lovely area to graze on they
28:33can go to the beach if they wanted and they can do it all yeah
28:36but the sheep seem quite happy grazing here a salt marsh like this one where the tide continually
28:46floods coastal grassland is rare in the uk
28:51how are your boots richard you okay it's characterized by gullies and drops created by silt deposits
28:57and water erosion it's really important we've got to get the sheep in the sheep won't notice the
29:04water coming in they won't notice the little pills fill in so it's really important we go and get them
29:08in well in advance so looking at it in a sort of um logistics point of view wouldn't it be easier to
29:16to graze your sheep on land which isn't covered by water yeah yeah it'd be a lot easier if they were
29:22safe and sound in a field wouldn't it but this is what we do this is the farm this is this is our
29:28fantastic product this is a part of our sort of what makes it so great
29:33and it is great lean like venison because the sheep are exercise so much and with unusual floral
29:39notes because of the unique grazing this lamb is a delicacy served in some of the best restaurants in the uk
29:48where we're standing now it's so it's so different the grass and all the herbs that grow here which
29:54only grow here grass looks like grass to me but it's obviously not regular grass this grass what
29:59we're on now thrives in this environment and if you if you're standing on it it's actually firm and dry
30:04isn't it even though it gets covered by salt water yeah the sheep and the lambs will have a nibble on
30:09on that and that all adds to the to the profile of the lamin
30:22the tide's about to come in and when that happens there's no messing around
30:29will and his dad and brother all work together to bring in the thousand or so sheep
30:33that cover the six mile area of salt marsh with the help of toby the dog of course
30:41and what can you get the dog to do to kind of steer them um you can shout commands
30:48it's just come on no perfect come on i'd whistle if i could you've done this before yeah
30:54to be fair it's a different sort of flock from the usual sunday crowd i've seen natural command
31:02natural authority and as you as you can see they're on their way they're on their way yeah
31:07this is time-consuming labor-intensive work
31:12especially for sheep which are normally such low maintenance animals power man over nature
31:18yeah but it's obviously worth it to turn the marsh into useful grazing and the lamb into an unusual
31:26delicacy they're ignoring me over there
31:37will's farm is a brilliant example of finding a way to work with the challenges of the weather
31:42the sea as many in lundi have to do but after that hair raising dash to higher ground we're starving
31:50so wills offered me a dinner of what else his salt marsh lamb
31:56so as they say here yakida oh i'm gonna go with this one
32:01i don't know if this is me just thinking it but i think there's a slight salt back taste to it yeah
32:15could that come off it could come because you've got you've got the grass down there i guess the
32:19salt water so yes it almost is um i sometimes say it's almost like seasoned ready and you don't need
32:24to you don't need to season it sometimes i wonder if that's it tastes really really good i'm gonna have
32:29to have another piece to check keep on going i've really enjoyed my day in lundi and what a lundi sort
32:42of day it's been because it's all been about the weather been about the rain of course and also that
32:47that extraordinary landscape of the salt marsh sea coming in nourishing it and in turn nourishing
32:54those sheep that give us that delicious lamb that seems to sort of distill something of the place
32:59into something on the plate
33:05this is radio four and now it's time for the shipping forecast issued by the net office on the
33:10heart of the maritime and pass by agency so lundi fast net irish sea westerly or southwesterly three to
33:19five occasionally six at first in east lundi and later in west soul
33:24next in my whistle stop tour of the shipping forecast i'm heading for some lundi seaside
33:4050 miles southeast of will's farm at the mouth of the bristol channel is barry island the iconic
33:48seaside town of gavin and stacy fame so i'm off to see what's occurring
33:53it's one of those places that kind of conjures summer of excitement and holiday and refreshment it's
34:02that the sort of more kind of margatey i guess mablethorpe end of the spectrum but a traditional
34:09seaside resort is one of my favorites
34:15some of my best childhood memories are of endless summers spent on hun stanton beach
34:20running around in trunks shrimping and eating chalk ices
34:23it probably wasn't unlike barry which by the early 20th century was the seaside mecca for miners and
34:32their families from the valleys
34:37in fact barry was so popular that in 1934 on a hot august bank holiday there were 440 000 visitors
34:47that's a long queue for the dodgems
34:54like many seaside towns barry isn't quite as busy as it used to be
35:00but i do get the sense that one thing it's bursting with is civic pride
35:06we would like to take this opportunity to welcome all visitors to barry island today
35:11and we hope you appreciate how clean and tidy it was when you arrived
35:14could you please help us keep it that way by bringing your litter and rubbish
35:18off of the beach and putting it in the bins provided
35:23so now i'm hoping to do some kayaking with a barry bigwig called brian
35:32hello hi there you are fob yes friends of barry beaches richard brian hello brian but we've entered
35:39into an agreement where if i help him do a bit of litter picking first then he'll take me out on the
35:45water tool me up bill so you've got yourself a litter picker thank you very much now what's the technique
35:52ah right so it's a highly skilled job as you can see you've done such a good job i need to find some
35:57litter yes oh hang on ah a detector shard right oh excellent technique there you go look at that
36:08not on my watch do you think there's something special about barry brian that makes people want
36:14to come out and join with you and do this and take care of the place and make it nice barry is a special
36:20place such a beautiful beach and you know people are interested and they care and they want to show
36:26and protect where they live and i think you can see that by the numbers that we have they come out on
36:31on our activity days with not a stray contact lens left on the beach it's time for brian to make good
36:39his end of the bargain
36:48tada wow i'm ready to go yeah sadly i've got some bad news oh what's happened the wind is a bit too
36:56frisky and you can see it's a bit choppy out there it's a shame because i was looking forward to
37:01cleaving the waves with my mighty upper body strength of course and i was expecting to see
37:05that as well richard if you've been listening to the shipping forecast this morning we might have
37:09seen this coming indeed thank you for putting presenter safety first no problem not everybody
37:15does take care look after yourself yeah you too bye
37:28i might not have been able to kayak in that but a lot of people are taking their chances so i've come
37:33to spend some time with some lifeguards and see if i too could express yet more of my natural innate
37:38heroism the rnli are best known for saving lives out at sea but they also have trained professional
37:47lifeguards at over 230 of the uk and ireland's beaches including whitmore bay here in barry which
37:55has four full-time lifeguards most are young highly trained and super fit like beth so i think i might fit in
38:04nicely i'm sort of from this area and i just i love it i love being by the beach um it's something
38:12i've been around it my whole life we're all quite good on the board and swimming we know the sea
38:17we're aware of the dangers so the best thing is to stop anyone getting into trouble yeah he's sort of
38:23trying to keep people into the safest areas the red and yellow flags that's our sort of safe swimming
38:28zone so people will just sort of think they're having fun before they realize that they're
38:32out of their depths or they're sort of they've moved really far down the beach and they just don't
38:36even realize it and it's really important for you guys then to know what's going on and yeah
38:41comps is a big thing yeah if we've ended up having to swim out and we don't have a radio on us we do
38:47have as a last minute result hand signals um which we use to communicate with other lifeguards so we
38:54have me right yeah i could make loads of views
38:56so beth has roped in another lifeguard joe to pretend to be a swimmer in trouble
39:04and i've got to direct her to find him before it's too late
39:10time to save a life
39:20hoping my signals are less disco and more hero it's time to put them to the test
39:32a little bit further
39:35out for the right right right
39:39pick up casualty yes joe when you want to name your first kid after me it's richard
39:53all right i'll keep it in mind
40:08i'm finishing my tour of lundi back in the beautiful village of port isaac on the cornish coast
40:13the stunning scenery warm weather and historic buildings make this place a popular destination
40:25but an additional draw for tourists is that it's the home of one of the last decade's musical
40:31sensations first of the day it's just cold tea with a fluffy head on
40:37the fisherman's friends are a phenomenon a group of ex-fishermen who sing sea shanties they've played
40:49glasterbury and the albert hall toured the world and recorded 10 albums
40:55they've had two feature films made about them a musical and several books
41:00they're folk music royalty and i've always wanted to meet them it occurs to me that port isaac this part
41:07of the world is like nashville for shanty singing right that's nice and your dolly part well i'm
41:12going to say that but this is absolutely the sort of place where shanties would have come from and
41:16is still sun today yeah definitely yeah yeah when i first went fishing we used to bring the moorings
41:21up with a block and tackle and our father used to keep time just just going like one two and hey up
41:26and that sort of thing in a rhythm to get all three of us leaning back at the same time and that
41:30that is a shanty it's just a chant well it's a bit like marching soldiers then using somebody to keep
41:34a rhythm in step yeah calling response to keep the rhythm going so that the a group of men can act
41:40together almost as a machine i heard in cats but easier yeah yeah it's kind of almost anticipates
41:47the machine age doesn't it you're doing so many keep people together and yeah yeah absolutely and it
41:51sort of began to die out come the 1860s when uh there was a lot of mechanization came in with steam
41:58ships and everything and so the era of shanties sort of finished i guess around about 1870s so
42:06like the last time arsenal won silverware in fact the only reason many shanties have survived is thanks
42:15to a cornish fisherman from the late 19th century called yankee jack he found himself sailing ships during
42:21the american civil war hence the nickname but traveled the world collecting sea shanties which
42:28he passed on to a famous folks on collector ensuring they were preserved
42:36i was just thinking because i was thinking where do you where do you hear men sing now well maybe at
42:40the football perhaps yeah without singing but it's quite unusual for adult men to come together and sing
42:45it's not down in cornwall like i say cornwall and wales as well i mean they've got tremendous the
42:50male voice choir has never died out here or wales you know that's really interesting because i
42:54wonder if it has an origin in a bit of males camaraderie solidarity yeah mining is no walk in
43:00the park fishing also has this yeah yeah i think in this day and age as well there's a lot said about
43:06men's mental health and uh you know unashamedly we're we're an all-male group yeah trying to make
43:12it a feel-good thing and an engagement with people as well and not to take ourselves too seriously
43:17and also that the songs are um because they're not by and large they're not written songs they're
43:23songs that have evolved right and so they're quite accessible to people they're not terribly
43:28complex and so people find it easy to join in within a couple of verses people already know the
43:33chorus you know it's very simple to get into yeah people just find themselves singing along and
43:37tapping their feet you know if they weren't simple we couldn't do them to be honest i'm glad they're
43:42so simple because um if you said accordion hanging about i might just join you oh there you go oh
43:47yeah that would be nice yeah we've got promises about a feel-good factor well if you make people
43:54laugh that's half the battle well let's do it luckily for me it wasn't too hard to twist a few arms and
44:01rustle up the rest of the band for a last hurrah from lundi hello everyone what a nasty surprise for you
44:10we are the saucy the fruity the bawdy the jolly rogering fisherman's friends today and today only
44:16featuring the reverend richard gold big round of applause please
44:23we're going to do a song you'll all know which is a drunken sailor please join in but not too loud we
44:27don't want you to spoil it thank you very much here we go what should we do with a drunken sailor what
44:34shall we do with a drunken sailor what shall we do with a drunken sailor her lie in the morning
44:40oh
44:54Rale under, put him in his covers to the lee, Rale under, her lie in the mornin'.
44:59Hooray, up she rises, hooray, up she rises, hooray, up she rises, her lie in the mornin'.
45:08Hooray, up she rises, hooray, up she rises, hooray, up she rises, her lie in the mornin'.
45:28Hooray, up she rises, hooray, up she rises, hooray, up she rises, her lie in the mornin'.
45:56So Lundy, really the interaction of people and coastlines, sea, sky, weather, the variables and also the unknowns of politics and economics.
46:18But what I come away with is actually something that really affirms that sense that it's through facing those challenges,
46:24the resourcefulness and the creativity that that produces.
46:27Well that's what gives a community its pulse and its heartbeat and really makes it live.
46:34f5.
46:35H1.
46:37H1.
46:40H1.
46:41H1.
46:43H1.
46:44H2.
46:46H1.
46:47Transcription by CastingWords
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