Episode 5
Documentary following life on the English Channel. A new ferry captain takes to the helm as the weather closes in and the Navy receive a distress call about trapped teenagers.
The Royal Navy Air Squadron receive a distress call about trapped teenagers, a new ferry captain takes to the helm as the weather closes in and in Southampton Dock, engineers race to fix the port's giant forklifts as a backlog of customers mounts up.
The Channel is host to every type of vessel imaginable, all jostling for space in its busy waters. But perhaps the ones that are most familiar to many of us are the ferries. A staggering 3.4 million cars and 15 million people travel on these vessels to France and Europe every year. On board the DFDS Delft Seaways, newly appointed Captain Mark Miller is facing his first week as captain of the ship. Having started as a deckhand, it's taken Mark 24 years to rise through the ranks to the top job on the ship. But as well as first week nerves, there is bad weather and unusually strong tides to contend with.
At the other end of the Channel in Cornwall, a crew from 771 Squadron is out above the water in their Sea King helicopter carrying out a vital training exercise when they get a call to rescue a group of teenagers who appear to be stranded at the bottom of steep cliffs.
And in Southampton docks, a team of engineers must also rapidly respond to callouts. They play a key role in fixing and maintaining the many cranes, straddle carriers and forklifts that keep the flow of goods running smoothly through the port.