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This day last year we launched Stena Estrid. We had to be in Holyhead for 5am for Wake Up To Money and Breakfast on BBC 5 Live from the Bridge. It finished on the helipad as the sun came up over Snowdonia. It was cold enough to freeze the balls of a brass monkey (a thread).
It took hours to warm up & I am not sure Ian Davies from the photo has ever quite been the same. Anyway 5 Live was a success and the rest of the morning was spent doing interviews with press in UK & ROI. The highlight of the day was a live broadcast with Sky News from the Bridge
For the Ian King Live Show. Sky agreed to send a camera crew to interview our CEO who was flying from Sweden, but a couple of days before they suggested we switch to Harwich, presumably after remembering to check where Holyhead was and realising it was in Wales ie far from London
The problem I explained to them was the new ferry they were broadcasting from was in Holyhead, on its intended route, and that Harwich wasn’t really an option. We couldn’t just sail around to Essex for a bit of PR. But nope no offer of a free ferry lunch could get them to Wales.
So to secure the slot we got a freelance cameraman who could shoot the live satellite link via 4G perfect. Opportunity saved. He was due in at 12:30 and the show was 13:30. I waited for him at the terminal and we drove down to the berth. Except Estrid was anchored in the bay.
No issue I said to him, the Captain knows we are live on Sky News in an hour, he’ll probably bring her in to the Beth soon. Except she didn’t move. We were getting nervous. After about 10 minutes a port operative drove down the quay to see why were there.
I said we were waiting for Estrid as we were doing a live broadcast on Sky News at 13:30. He gave a big Welsh laugh and said “well that’s not happening because she’s not due back in here until at least half one”. Me trying not look worried calmly asked “why not?”
He said “there is no one to lash her up, they’re all looking after the other ferries and they won’t be gone until then”. There was no literally no way the ferry could be back in time. We were due live on national TV in 45 mins. Cue squeaky bum time and nervous phone calls.
I called the Route Director at the time. Thankfully he and the CEO were onboard. But the Captain thought he had to be back for 13:30, not live on air on national TV. “No worries he said, sounding remarkably calm, we’ll send a boat for you”. “Sorry what? A boat?” “Yeah wait there”
Next thing these 2 scousers come flying around the quay Crocket & Tubbs style in one for the Ports speed boats. Happy days. Life jackets on, camera and tripods in the back. Let’s do this. T-minus 35 minutes until air. Then the logistics start to sink in. The ferry looks massive.
I was new to the firm and in my ignorance happily bouncing along the waves I presumed they’d somehow lower the bow doors and get us in that way. When I asked if that was how, the scousers started cracking up. “You see that tiny door mate you’re going up the rope ladder” 30 mins.
To my surprise a ferry has a door on the vehicle deck for emergency deliveries, such as scared PR guy and a TV cameraman. However, it had never been used and they couldn’t open it. So we are bobbing alongside this massive ferry in a tiny boat, with the cameraman explaining to Sky
So they get the door open & as you can see the ladder is the type of rope ladder you’d put on a 10 year old kid’s treehouse. One of the scousers goes “stay on the port (left) side of the boat because if you go on the starboard side you’ll get crushed against the ferry”. Brilliant
Now I don’t know if you have ever tried jumping from the front of bobbing speed boat onto the side of ferry & clung for your life onto a rope ladder, but I wouldn’t recommend it. Certainly not with a massive camera tripod on your back. While everyone laughs at you from the Bridge
Thankfully I muster enough upper body strength to pull myself up the ladder and save the embarrassment of dying in front on my CEO and half of Liverpool. And made it sobbing onto the car deck, which is just about the furthest you can be from the Bridge. T-minus 20 minutes.
We ran. Up and up. Trying to find our way panicked on a vessel that I then didn’t know my way around like some maritime Crystal Maze. And finally appeared on the Bridge to applause. Me feeling like I’ve just free climbed the rock face of El Capitan. T-minus 10 minutes.
That morning the BBC had a whole satellite van on the quayside with a gizmo to track the satellite they needed to broadcast to. The Sky guy just had a magic bag that connected his camera to the Sky studios via 4G. He acted like it had been the most normal day he’d ever had.
A few minutes later amazingly Niclas is doing a live TV interview with Ian King on Sky News & I collapse like a bag of washing into a chair. You really never know what goes on behind the scenes. Here’s the interview. & next week I get to launch Stena Embla
THE END. Right I am off to bed to dream about ferries. Most notably Stena Embla, to figure out how I am going to do this all over again next week. Good night.
