All language subtitles for Raging Planet S01E08 1080p DSCP WEB-DL AAC2 0 H 264-WiLF_track3_[eng]

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NARRATOR: Crossing the earth's oceans
is always a battle against nature.

Out there, there's nowhere to run,
nowhere to hide.

If the wind doesn't get you, the
waves will.

Watch out! Watch out!

It takes skill, courage and luck to
survive storms at sea.

♪ Theme music

Over two thirds of the earth's
surface is covered by oceans.

At any one time, there are hundreds
of thousands of ships at sea...

...and it's not always smooth sailing.

With little warning, severe storms
can come out of nowhere.

High winds howl across the oceans.

Waves reach heights of more than 15m.

When this happens,

even the largest ships can get into
trouble.

And for mariners, a pleasant voyage

can quickly become a life or death
struggle.

On average, two large ships sink
every week.

Some of the most dangerous seas
around North America

are just off the coast of
Newfoundland.

On February the 14th 1982,

hurricane-force winds caused a
disaster

that shocked the world.

The day before, weather forecasters
had issued a warning

about an Atlantic storm heading up
Canada's eastern seaboard.

Directly in its path were several
huge oil rigs.

Owen Myers was working as a weather
observer on one of them.

He'd been through his share of bad
storms,

but nothing had prepared him for what
was about to happen.

This one really came very quickly

and intensified really rapidly too.

It just kept getting bigger and
bigger and bigger.

The waves were pounding into the
rig.

You're looking around and you're
thinking,

'Well, something's going to fall
off.'

As the winds increased to over
160km/h,

enormous waves began to break higher
than the rig platform.

Instead of being 60ft up, looking,
you know,

down towards the waves, you're
actually seeing the crests of waves

that were above you.

Just 25km from Owen's rig,

84 men were working on the Ocean
Ranger,

the largest rig in the world.

That night, the storm was moving
straight towards it.

This rig wasn't attached to the
sea floor.

It floated on giant ballast tanks.

Inside one of the legs,

operators pumped water into and out
of the tanks

to keep the platform level.

The portholes were just 8.5m above
the waterline.

Around seven o'clock that evening,

a giant wave struck the rig and
broke through.

(SIREN WAILS)

The tons of sea water that surged
into the leg

short-circuited the ballast controls

and water poured into the ballast
tanks.

The weight of the extra water

started pulling the platform down on
one side.

The crew sent out a desperate mayday.

MAN: We're listing badly and we need
to get the people off the rig.

MAN: Roger.

MAN: We may not be able to save the
whole rig.

The crew had no choice. They
abandoned the rig.

90 minutes later, Ocean Ranger
sank.

On Owen's rig, the crew were glued to
the radar screen.

Target just disappeared. It was
astonishing.

You were just looking at it and it's
gone.

It's a terrible finality,

because you know when something that
big isn't showing up,

it just can't be there any more.
It's sunk.

The next day, all that was left were
the remains of the lifeboats.

The waves had smashed them to pieces.

None of the 84 men survived.

Any time you go to sea,

whether it's on an oil rig or any
other kind of boat,

anything that's floating can sink.

Like the Titanic,

Ocean Ranger was supposed to be
unsinkable.

Now, like the Titanic,

it lies on the ocean floor.

Stern's clear. Onboard.
Onboard.

Someone who knows well how dangerous
the ocean can be

is Chief Shawn Winters of the US
Coast Guard.

His team patrols Cape
Disappointment in Washington State -

one of the most treacherous areas on
the Pacific Coast.

In this area that we work,

we can go from conditions kind of
like today

where it's not so rough to there'll
be breaking surf

all the way across this entrance

anywhere from 15ft to 20ft to 30ft.

In the winter, huge amounts of water

flow out of the mouth of the Columbia
River

and collide with the Pacific Ocean.

Storm conditions can be so hazardous
here

that it's earned the nickname the
Graveyard Of The Pacific.

The Coast Guard is called out every
week

to rescue people in trouble.

It's extremely dangerous, it's very
treacherous.

For people that think or say, 'Oh,
I'm not afraid,'

well, you should be.

If you don't have respect for what
the ocean is,

what Mother Nature's gonna throw at
you, you shouldn't be out here.

It's a big ocean. We're a little,
small part of it.

To describe conditions at sea,

sailors use the Beaufort Wind Force
Scale.

Force zero is calm.

When winds reach 29km/h, it's a force
five.

Small waves have breaking crests with
light foam.

At force seven, winds can be 50km/h

and waves a terrifying 6m.

A force nine. These conditions, with
75km/h winds

create a serious challenge for ships.

Much more dangerous are storm force
winds -

force ten on the Beaufort Wind Scale.

Winds gust at speeds greater than
80km/h

and the sea appears almost white.

But the ultimate nightmare is a force
12 - hurricane force.

Winds blow over 117km/h.

The water is completely white with
foam and spray.

Waves can reach 14m and higher.

Despite the dangers, some sailors are
still willing to take the risk

and one of them paid the price.

He found himself trapped and fighting
for life

far away from land.

Most sailors do all they can to avoid
storms at sea,

but there are some who take on the
challenge

of sailing the most dangerous seas in
the world.

The Southern Ocean surrounds
Antarctica.

As the westerly winds race around the
planet here,

there's nothing in their way to slow
them down.

They can reach speeds of more than
240km/h.

These are the strongest average winds
found anywhere on earth.

Sailors know that high winds mean
high seas

and the Southern Ocean has higher
waves

than any other ocean on the planet -

big enough to swallow a yacht whole.

November 2008, on the Atlantic Coast
in France.

30 sailors are preparing for the
Vendee Globe race.

Each will single-handedly sail around
the world,

crossing the Southern Ocean.

It's the ultimate sailor's challenge.

They face a greater risk of dying
that climbing Mount Everest.

The Southern Ocean's a pretty
fearsome place.

The most unpleasant place on earth.

70ft waves, 70 knots of breeze, icebergs.

Not the place you'd go for a
holiday.

Family members know they won't see
their loved ones for three months

and then only if they're lucky.

Woo!

As the lone sailors set out, over
300,000 people see them off.

(PEOPLE CHEER, HORNS BLOW)

Experienced skipper Tony Bullimore
has sailed the Vendee Globe before

and knows how tough it can be.

You've got hundreds of spectator
boats everywhere,

then, slowly, all the spectators
disappear.

You might be close to one or two of
the other competitors

and you wave once more to them and
they wave back, 'Good luck,'

and then you're on you're on.

Day 1 and the yachts head out into
the North Atlantic.

From here, the shortest way around
the world

is to sail close to Antarctica,

across an area of the Southern Ocean
known as the Roaring Forties.

In the 1997 Vendee Globe race,

Tony Bullimore discovered the
unpredictability

of this ocean for himself.

When it's bad down in the Southern
Ocean,

it's the worst sea in the world.

Parts of this ocean are so remote

that only astronauts have been
further away from land.

It's all very lonesome.

The boat becomes your world.

You can't call on anyone. You're on
your own.

When Tony was 800km from Antarctica,
things turned nasty.

There was a black line coming from
the south,

which was a big roll of dark clouds
that was coming over me.

The wind kept increasing from sort
of 20, 25, 30, 35, 40

50, 60, 70, 80.

At one time, it was gusting 100mph
winds.

So I'm beginning to worry about
pitchpoling -

you know, with the boat rolling
over.

The heavy seas and strong winds
finally took their toll.

I hear this crack.

Within seconds, literally,

two or three seconds, the boat had
gone shht!

The keel had snapped.

As the boat capsized, Tony found
himself standing on the ceiling.

Then things went from bad to worse.

The boom hit one of the viewing
windows,

which was now under the boat, and it
just burst open

and the water started to come in.

It was quite amazing. It was like
the Niagara Falls upside down.

It just shot up in the air.

Freezing cold water was filling the
cabin.

Tony was left with just a tiny pocket
of air to breathe.

He had seconds to get into his
survival suit

or he'd freeze to death.

His automatic radio beacon sent
out a distress signal

picked up by the Australian military.

But the nearest rescue team was well
over 2,000km away.

No-one had ever conducted a rescue
this far south.

Three days later,

a search plane miraculously spotted
his overturned boat.

But they had no way to pick him up

and no way of knowing if he was still
alive.

I've got no real water, I've got no
food,

I'm getting very, very cold.

I decided I'm not going to last more
than a day and a half.

The Australian Navy sent a ship to
the rescue,

but it was still two days away.

By now, Tony had been trapped inside
the overturned hull

of his boat for over four days.

He struggled to survive in the icy
water.

All of a sudden, I heard this
banging.

It was a team from the Australian
Navy

pounding on the hull of his boat and
looking for signs of life.

My ears pricked

and I could distinctly hear the
English language.

I took a few deep breaths...

...swam down a few feet, then swam
out about 15ft...

...and then I headed for the surface
and a big grin came over my face

and I said, 'God, I've been saved.'

His rescuers were amazed that he'd
survived so long

in the freezing waters of the
Southern Ocean.

The planet can be an awful place
anywhere on any of the oceans,

but in the Southern Ocean, that's
the daddy of them all.

OK, big smiles there, guys.

Come here!

(BOTH LAUGH)

From start to finish, the Vendee
Globe race

is a test of human endurance.

In 2008, only 11 of the 30 boats
finished.

Once again, it was the Southern Ocean
that took the greatest toll.

One sailor fell and suffered multiple
fractures

when a huge wave smashed into his
boat.

Several others were overwhelmed by
high winds.

In all, 12 skippers were defeated by
the extreme conditions

of the Southern Ocean.

In the Northern Hemisphere, the
Atlantic Ocean

has some of the most ferocious
storms.

Many begin off the coast of the US
and head east.

As a storm crosses the huge expanse
of the Atlantic,

there are nearly 500km of ocean with
nothing in its way...

...so the waves can just keep growing.

It's only recently that scientists
discovered

exactly how big these waves can get.

The ship Discovery is the scientific
research vessel

for the UK's National Oceanography
Centre.

Dr John Allen is one of the research
scientists.

He's made many trips onboard this
ship,

but when the Discovery set off in
January 2000,

little did he know the voyage was
going to make history.

It's not something we'd want to see
again and, frankly,

a few of us would rather not have
seen it in the first place.

The research team was heading out
into the Atlantic

for some routine observations of
ocean currents.

When the ship was 240km off the
coast,

they ran into several big storms.

The first storm was very severe

and the first storm whipped up much
larger waves

than most of us onboard had ever
seen before on its own.

MAN: This is force ten in the
North Atlantic.

Lovely jubbly.

The storm made life onboard very
uncomfortable.

Basically, your world is being
thrown around rather like a cork.

Maybe you could imagine a can going
over a waterfall.

At that stage, we didn't realise
that it might get somewhat worse.

It did get worse. The waves grew.

You're looking at something quite
monstrous -

waves that appeared, literally,
almost as big as the ship.

It was, um, quite humbling.

John tried to take a photograph.

This wave breaking over was so
violent,

I couldn't actually take my finger
off the button.

Down below, a recorder was measuring
wave height.

When the scientists got back to base
and checked their data,

they found out why their experience
had been so terrifying.

They had plowed through a 29m wave -
the highest ever recorded.

It was a pretty awesome experience.

It made you feel as though you were
definitely part of something

much bigger than yourself.

Scientists have discovered there's a
mathematical formula

to determine exactly when a wave
becomes a danger to ships.

In this tank in Denmark,

they test model ships in different
types of waves.

The wave generator produces
increasingly larger waves.

At first, the ship rides over them
with ease.

But the situation gets critical

when the height of the wave becomes
greater

than one-seventh of the length of the
wave.

When this happens, the water at the
top of the wave

starts to move faster than the rest
of it.

That can be lethal.

A breaking wave 90m high and 91m long
weighs 45,000 tons -

a danger to even the most experienced
seamen.

The Atlantic Ocean can be rough, but
if you're a fisherman,

the worst place in the world to work
is on the Bering Sea.

Being a crab fisherman here is
dangerous.

Mountainous waves frequently
overwhelm their fishing boats.

Oh!

Alaskan ocean storms are among the
deadliest on earth.

If a crewman gets swept overboard,

he has just minutes before he dies
from hypothermia.

These fishermen risk their lives

to haul in millions of tons of
seafood

and they keep fishing through the
most severe storms.

Working in these seas is a test of
endurance.

The fuel for the storms in the Gulf
Of Alaska

is wind coming off the coastal
mountains.

Gary Hufford is a scientist with the
National Weather Service.

Much of the mountains along the Gulf
Of Alaska

are considered some of the highest
in the world.

There are mountains in this area

that go as high as 12 and 13,000ft.

These huge mountains produce a deadly
wind called a gap wind.

When the air blowing from the land
towards the sea

hits a narrow gap in the mountains,

it's forced through and the
compression speeds up the wind.

This is a perfect example.

We're looking at a very narrow
valley

where the mountains go up on either
side,

giving a perfect route for the winds
in the interior

to come out all the way here to the
ocean.

Satellite pictures show the gap winds
as streaks of red,

shooting out from the land.

It's like a squirt gun.

If you open it up and you squirt it
without much pressure,

it sprays out all over,

but when you tighten it up and make
it go through

a very tight hole, it shoots far and
fast

and these winds do the same thing as
they go through the gap.

When these high-speed winds blow,

they travel up to 500km off shore and
can be a serious threat

to fishing vessels.

In November 2007,

Alan Ryden was alone on his fishing
boat,

The Pacific Lady, in the Shelikof
Strait

south-west of Anchorage.

The wind was just funnelling down
through there really intensely.

On boats, you're used to taking
really big rolls,

but they come back and you're ready
for another big one.

But this, the wind pushed the boat
over and held it over.

The gap wind was so strong, Alan's
boat didn't stand a chance.

I knew almost immediately I was
losing the boat.

As the boat sank,

Alan was left at the mercy of the
seas.

I was getting rolled by these
cresting, breaking waves

that were picking me up and throwing
me

down the face of huge waves.

Even worse, the wind snatched his
life raft out of his hands.

Thing just screaming down the face
of the wave.

It's just like... (GASPS)

So I swam and swam and swam

and it was still, like, right out of
reach.

Then I caught up to actually one of
these lines that was dragging behind

and then, obviously, after that, I
tied it to my wrist.

That was pretty scary.

Back at Alan's home port, no-one
noticed his boat was missing.

Meanwhile, the powerful gap wind

pushed him further off shore and the
waves got even bigger.

They just got progressively larger.

I think that they were about
25-footers

throughout most of the night.

Finally, six hours after Alan's boat
capsized,

the Coast Guard picked up his
emergency signal.

They scrambled a search and rescue
plane.

It was a dangerous mission.

Pilot Steven McKechnie wrestled with
the controls

through winds gusting up to 95km/h.

It was very turbulent on the
take-off, on the climb out.

The guys in the back jet altitude

were starting to get a little
queasy.

The crew flew towards the spot where
the boat had capsized,

but by now, Alan was miles away.

Finding him seemed impossible.

It was 20ft seas, not to mention it
was pitch dark.

It was real turbulent and
everything,

but we really couldn't see much on
the surface at all.

When the Coast Guard was still 11km
from the boat,

they had an amazing stroke of luck.

Lo and behold, I saw right out the
left window

this one white strobe just flashing.

It was the sound of a C-130, Coast
Guard C-130 flying low

and fast, full bore right over -

it seemed like they were right over
my left shoulder, just wrrrm!

Even though they'd found him,

there was no way to pick Alan up.

All they could do was improve his
chances of survival.

So we came back around, then we
dropped the flare

and then - so we have a better
visual for him.

And then basically dropped the
life raft.

It literally bumped into me. I
never paddled a stroke.

I put my left arm out into it and
rolled right into it.

2.5 hours later,

another fishing boat spotted Alan's
flare

and pulled him out of the water.

He was lucky to be alive.

He was in the water ten hours, we
found out later on.

It was unbelievable.

Even seasoned rescuers were amazed
Alan had survived.

The Cape Of Good Hope on the southern
tip of South Africa

is on a major shipping route.

Bartolomeu Dias, the first
European to reach here in 1488,

named it the Cape Of Storms.

Since then, over 1,000 ships have
foundered

in these treacherous waters.

In many cases, there were reports of
rogue waves,

which had been written off as
sailor's tales,

but scientists now know that these
legends are true.

These waves arise as the wind blows
across the sea.

They begin as capillary waves just a
few millimetres across.

When the wind increases, the waves
build in size.

As they travel across the ocean,
some waves move faster than others

and as they catch up with one
another,

they combine and grow until they
produce giant waves.

Captain Dai Davies

is one of the leading salvage
experts in South Africa.

He's seen first-hand the damage these
waves can do.

I've been involved with five major
incidents there

where ships of 365,000 tons

have lost up to 5,000 tons of steel.

Since 1990, over 20 big ships
navigating this busy route

have been crippled by giant waves.

The Mimosa was one of them.

A huge hole was punched in her side.

The captain there was a very, very
experienced man

and he said he'd never seen
anything like it in his life.

It was like a bomb had hit there.

In 1991, the Atlas Pride lost most of
her bow.

The waves took out 5,500 tons of
steel.

No-one could explain why there are so
many rogue waves here

until scientists plotted the
positions of the damaged ships

and overlaid them with an infrared
image of the ocean.

Suddenly, a pattern emerged.

The ships all lay in the path

of one of the world's strongest
ocean currents,

the Agulhas Current.

This runs around the Cape from the
Indian Ocean into the Atlantic.

It can flow up to 16km/h.

Like the jet stream does for
airliners,

this ocean current can cut travel
time for ships.

It can save up to a day as they
round the coast of Southern Africa.

But it also comes with a high risk.

Scientists have discovered that when
the wind blows

in the opposite direction to the
current,

it pushes against the waves and slows
them down,

allowing waves behind to catch up.

As the waves combine, they can grow
to record heights.

Sailors have reported waves of up to
30m

that appear out of nowhere.

These are the rogue waves that have
turned this coastline

into a ship's graveyard.

Now that scientists have discovered

exactly why this part of the world is
so hazardous,

most ships take the safer, slower
route

160km further south.

Taking the old route is a devil's
bargain.

Most mariners will do anything to
avoid dangerous seas.

But a captain of a pilot boat often
has no choice.

They have to guide ships into port in
all weather conditions.

Today, boat designer Frank Kowalski

is sailing out into a stormy Atlantic
sea

to test his latest design.

It was designed specifically as a
pilot boat

search and rescue boat, so its
hull is designed

specifically to deal with rough
weather - big waves, storms.

The only way to find out if it's
tough enough for the job

is to test it in the worst weather.

Today we're expecting force nine.

We've got 50mph winds.

It should be nasty conditions out
there.

Frank heads out alongside another of
his boats,

right into the oncoming wind.

OK, Keith, if you just pull in front
of me,

go straight over the harbour rocks.
Over.

(MAN YELLS)

Frank is battling 6m waves.

But he's designed his boat to take
the force.

Tremendous force, you know.

One cubic metre of water is a ton.

Luckily, we've got a big wave
deflector on the foredeck there.

The wave deflector splits the wave
and dissipates its energy

so you're not hit with such green
water.

A series of massive waves slams
into his boat.

We had three big waves there. The
first one broke over the boat.

That's always the dangerous moment.

If you were beam onto that, possibly
a capsizing situation there.

In seas like that, you've got to
line up, keep it square

and take it on the nose.

These boats are tough,

but even the strongest ships on the
planet

can't withstand the mighty force of
a hurricane.

When a hurricane, typhoon or cyclone
surges across an ocean,

it stirs up the most dangerous seas
on the planet.

On land, you can escape hurricane
winds by taking shelter.

But at sea, there is nowhere to go.

Even the largest ships in the world,
like aircraft carriers,

are no match for these extreme
conditions.

The chief meteorologist on the
USS Eisenhower

is Lieutenant Commander Elizabeth
Higgins.

This ship, even though it's well
over 90,000 tons,

is not invincible and Mother Nature
is a very fierce force

that we have to reckon with.

The ship's weather room has all the
technology

the commander needs to avoid
hurricanes and typhoons.

The mariner rule of thumb

is always to never cross the track
of the storm.

You see these areas here with the
semicircles,

that shows that it's a significant
area of impact

and that we would not want to have a
ship of any sort

drive through that area.

Keeping the ship out of harm's way is
a matter of life and death.

There could be significant damage to
the ship

and possibly personnel on the ship
if we rode through a typhoon

or any type of heavy seas at all.

Before the days of modern weather
forecasting,

the only way to avoid hurricanes and
typhoons

was to avoid sailing in places where
they strike.

But during World War II, the Navy
often had no choice

but to sail straight through ocean
storms.

On December the 17th 1944,

the US Navy's Third Fleet was
sailing east of the Philippines

when a meteorologist noticed a sign
of an approaching storm -

a drop in atmospheric pressure.

In those days, the ships would have
used a barometer,

which measures the atmospheric
pressure.

The needle actually went well below
the actual scale.

The scale goes down to about 27.7
inches of mercury

and they said the needle was
recorded to be

down around the U in the US Navy.

Radar was a new invention.

A radar operator onboard saw this
unusual image on his screen,

but had no idea he was looking at a
typhoon.

Without knowing it, the whole fleet
was heading into the storm.

They ran straight into 225km/h winds
and 24m high seas.

The storm crippled the fleet.

Three destroyers capsized and sank...

...and 790 men lost their lives.

For the US Navy,

it was one of the worst disasters of
the Second World War.

Today, technology means the Navy can
stay one step ahead of the weather.

But they still have to steer well
clear of hurricanes at sea.

The fact is no ship ever built

can withstand the most extreme forces
on the ocean.

This can be the most dangerous place
on earth.

When storms strike, there is nowhere
to hide.

The smallest mistake can be fatal.

And nothing can prepare you for the
unexpected.

Only the brave or the foolhardy
dare to risk storms at sea.

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