Amazing Quest: Stories from Brittany | Somewhere on Earth: Brittany | Free Documentary

[Music] so [Music] sometimes the ocean needs to blow off steam off the point of brittany in western france the sea flexes its muscles with a harsh beauty fascinated by this impressive display one could almost forget the danger storms are spellbinding a wild fantasy for land dwellers a tragic menace for sailors the fishermen of the tumultuous radissa are both humble and brave in their pursuit of a noble prey others intrepid storm hunters track the bad weather in huge waves as they push themselves to their limit in their never-ending search for the absolute don't go there police problem you'll end up on the rocks every winter brittany is buffeted by storms [Music] here the foam and black rocks caught up in the shifting light and currents mark the land's end the descent is a passage six kilometers wide between the puente duha and the island of sun [Music] for sailors this is brittany's most dangerous spot an infamous passage [Music] twice a day the surface of the water turns into a churning treadmill [Music] when the iowa sea and the english channel fill up and empty the powerful tides give birth to one of europe's strongest currents the radissa is an immense torrent that plows into a barrier of submerged rocks only a few brave souls dare venture here if the va lighthouse could speak it would tell just how violent and brutal the ocean can be most of the time the spectacle of the ha plays to an empty house [Music] there have been no lighthouse keepers here for a long time here we see the evacuation of the last residence of the har the sun [Music] the lighthouse keepers stationary sailors had a front row seat but the final curtain came down for them in december 1995 with the last shift change they were the guardian angels of the hadith and the local fishermen [Music] [Music] it was better when the keepers were there the door was open we could see them going up and down it was a presence now the door is always closed and the spot is even more hostile only the fishermen remain for 40 years a handful of daring men have been risking their lives to work in this swirl of foam and rocks sometimes very scared [Music] olivier mayville is an old salt of the point a hard-headed sailor an aristocrat of fishing [Music] six months of the year he fishes for sea bass the most expensive and sought after fish found along the french coasts [Music] and you also have to have some nerve because you're fishing in rough seas it's a tough dangerous profession especially in places like radisson where we fish you have to know these spots you can't just come stumbling in here [Music] olivier is the captain of the mundaka he's one of the few who dare tackle the waves of the had the sun [Music] only about a dozen fishermen come here it's no place for amateurs veterans only aboard his little boat olivier can count only on himself one hand for the rod the other for the boat and both eyes peeled you have to keep the boat on course and above all avoid running a beam to the waves that's when the boat is the most vulnerable you really have to slide down the back of the wave or do a quick u-turn and point the bow right into the waves that's how you minimize the risks [Music] and you really have to know the ropes you can't just sail in here without knowing something about the spot in the sea these are very dangerous waters there have been a lot of accidents and it's really a profession where you have to respect the sea and not take risks when it's too rough [Music] olivier is a craftsman of the sea he respects what it offers rod and reel fishing is a duel between man and sea it's also a somewhat monastic work that goes from sunrise to sunset you catch sea bass one by one in a silent waiting game and when the swell rises the radissam becomes a road of suffering [Music] uh [Music] after his studies in marine biology olivier could have ended up in a lab but he chose to take up rod and reel to pursue brittany's most coveted fish line caught sea bass [Music] today the sea is too rough for fishing a boat breaking man breaking sea olivier is in close contact with the elements the weather always has the last word olivier never forgets that people have lost their lives here in the ha this kind of fishing is no game our lady of the shipwrecked is there to remind sailors that the contest taking place at her feet has its rules [Applause] [Music] we're always on our toes because the fish are out there and you have to go after them when you can sometimes we'll be stuck in port for several days so as soon as we can get out even if it's for only half a day we'll take a look and maybe think hey it's good today we have a window then we take the boat and go if we have three four hours we can get lucky and get a decent day's catch [Music] so [Music] [Applause] [Music] in the early morning after two days at dockside olivia can at last leave the port of odiel an hour from the sun [Music] being drawn to the element of chance is not enough to make a rod and real fisherman one has to be ready for combat and sacrifice [Music] [Music] [Music] alone on board the mundaka olivier is totally concentrated like a boxer about to climb into the ring a boxer slash rodeo rider he'll have to take the blows but dish them out as well bob and weave thrust and parry we wait for the birds to come feeding at the surface it's a sign that there are sea bass you see they prey on mackerel and sardines that flee to the surface so i have to cast my line inside the school while cutting through the waves and there you have a sort of barrier of three or four big standing waves you have to get past and you really do not want to get parallel to the waves you can't make the slightest error [Music] so there's a lot of tension you have to keep an eye on the other boats you have to watch out for the others and at the same time go over the right spot to try to catch the fish look i got one [Music] if it were that easy the sea would have been fished out a long time ago it's all part of the game it also means that the fish stand a chance [Music] for olivier every day out at sea is a win in spite of the constant risks and hardships he has learned to appreciate the watery world that surrounds him and adapt to a life that is hard with which he has chosen [Music] i do this because i love it i think you have to love it to do this kind of work it takes up a lot of time you're on the water and have that feeling of freedom the weather and the fish call the shots out here [Music] but it's our passion and we're hooked it's really wonderful to work in a site like the honduras [Music] in this light you could almost forget how dangerous the radissa is yet this beauty should not diminish the worth of the men who confronted [Music] raging weather as we call it is when you get a wind blowing between force 9 and force 12. at the mouth of the channel we had 20 meter waves and we did rescues in these 20 meter waves [Music] yes it brings back fond memories that's for sure and sometimes i dream about it i don't know why but i'm back on board and i'm not 50 or 55 like when i retired i'm 75. like i am now and it's strange it's just a dream [Music] bulow is known as captain storm he commanded a legendary boat la bay flan a tug rescue boat capable of standing up to brittany's most extreme conditions to help ships in trouble jean is now looking back on his life as a sailor and the places marked by his adventures as a rescue worker zhang and the rescue crew from porcell are headed for the four channel in the iron sea where a maritime catastrophe changed his life [Music] here in this zone bristling with shoals is where his career as a rescue worker began in the late 1970s a few days after one of the worst shipwrecks on the coast of brittany the wreck of the amoco cadiz the oil tanker was over 300 meters long and broke in too spewing forth thousands of tons of oil you have to imagine yourself in the middle of all that the waves crashing into the cliffs a boat that's drifting and about to run aground on the rocks but they'd have jumped overboard it's highly symbolic to return to the spot where the tanker went down he recalls his blind rage in short it was the wreck of that ship that changed captain bulow's life he became a rescue worker captain of the first high seas tug rescue boat based in brittany so that the sea would never again be tainted with oil [Music] [Music] [Music] adventures written in seawater are not forgotten jean is heir to the cape horners and the long distance sailing captains 400 years and 16 generations of navigators have forged his character [Music] john became a writer and he draws his material from his adventurous life a tireless teller of sea yarns he has a seafarer's gaze and salt water memories [Music] his next book will once again take him to this land of mist and lighthouses [Music] jean is on his way to the island of moline where he's going to share his memories of storms and rescues [Music] he's with chris his projectionist today he's going to show a movie to the 13 children of the island's one school jean wants to transmit the human values of sea rescue to the younger generation they take big risks especially the men on the aft most the time they don't see the wave coming because they're busy with something else so there's the old saying one hand for yourself and one hand for the boat when someone does notice something they'll communicate with gestures or shouting because there's so much noise around with the engines it's not even worth using walkie-talkies or the intercom they and it's very dangerous because the men aren't secured they don't use harnesses above all on the app when they're moving around and a huge wave washes over covers everything the guys can get tossed around and the steel cables can start lashing around the guy can't get free and he can be cut in two or swept overboard [Music] so the rescue boat goes into action as soon as the ship is in trouble they say that these sailors from the captain to the deckhand are willing to put their life on the line in order to save the lives of others they're anonymous heroes in the heart of a storm in the course of his career at sea john bulow has assisted 200 ships in distress did you have any rescue that were really difficult way or two yes nearly all the rescues were difficult because they always took place in bad weather for over 15 years i carried out rescues along with my crew of course because the captain is nothing without his crew when a boat asks for help it means they're already in trouble so we go out to help we don't care about the weather or the size of the boat our objective is to save the crew and after the boat jean pushes on with his voyage between the mainland and the islands of molen and wesson he feels right at home in the ship's bridge it's where he spent his life abby bourbon come in this is coming into the island of west salt he is struck by an ironic twist of history [Music] the abbey bourbon the tugboat that replaced captain bulow's abe flanders is there moored in the shelter of the cliffs all ready to face the next storm here we're facing the mullen islands they say this spot has a bad bottom with all of its it has lots of shoals rocks currents nasty seas it's a very dangerous zone you have the va lighthouse in the radisson over there's at the tip of the show the sound you realize that lighthouse keepers would stay out there for a week at a time sometimes too when they couldn't change on account of the weather now it's somewhat better but it was really acrobatic plus your morale had to be pretty solid to stay out there personally i'd rather be out on the water than in the lighthouse [Music] [Music] it makes one wonder just how the lighthouses can remain standing when the wind whips up the sea like this one of the greatest concentrations of lighthouses and sunken wrecks can be found around the islands of finistere wesson is also known as sentinel island further proof of how dangerous shoals have always been for seafarers from its height of 55 meters crease the most imposing lighthouse dominates the cliffs and fogs and still guides the ships sailing off the coast of brittany [Music] in his books jean speaks out against the folly of humans the oil spills and the sailors that are abandoned captain burleau never left the community of seafolk [Music] in winter he isolates himself to write in his haven on a little island in the maubion gulf he blends his own experiences with imagined stories this sailor writer depicts the adventures of men and women confronted with the hardships of the weather and life itself an obvious choice for someone known as captain storm we'd bring the rescued boats back to brest and they'd call me captain storm that's how i got my nickname [Music] yes i feel good here and it brings back fond memories some people like picnic weather i prefer the wind in the movement i was born in the wind and the waves and i'll die in the wind in the waves [Music] [Music] [Music] so [Music] a force 10 storm brittany hunkers down and the sea hurls torrents of surf up to impressive heights [Music] with the howling wind and the unchained breakers the fury of the sea knows no limits [Music] this buffeting is the first serious alert of a winter that will be like all the others sometimes the storms off the western tip of brittany follow one another for days on end [Music] [Music] [Music] while everybody else is protecting themselves from the raging weather a handful of men eager for a rush of adrenaline head out to tackle the waves [Music] the people here live with this they live with the storm systems but we have a different take on that i mean the locals have all lost someone at sea it used to be only the fisherman's families here they have a more suspicious attitude than we do for them to see doesn't mean pleasure every time the elders would see me on the beach they'd say oh no you can't go out there today it's too dangerous so we've brought a different attitude toward the ocean which used to be synonymous with the storm's sinister side [Music] in this corner of finistere bruno andre is a breed apart ever in search of the ocean's peaks and troughs twenty years ago bruno settled here on the tip of cape cezanne [Music] is really a rugged spot the way it's formed with all these sharp rocks it's quite austere it's black it's grey but it can also be magnificent with the contrast between the bad weather like today you'll get say a ray of sunlight that breaks through and gives you a riot of colors in the blink of an eye you go from a kind of creepy darkness to a paradise on earth with green water bright white caps it makes a landscape a real moving painting bruno has the humility of the local inhabitants two years ago he weathered a tempest in his own life and it was the sea that saved him i went from living the dream of a professional windsurfer traveling enjoying each day on the water to a hospital bed laid up for two months missing an organ well missing two kids they told me it was all over i realized that it could all come to an end but i never accepted it i said to myself okay someday it will all finish but not like this bruno had a kidney transplant from his sister it was a little over a year ago thanks to his determination to live and the energy he draws from the sea every day he has been able to continue his passion [Music] his old renault catrell is a familiar sight around cape caesar whatever the weather he'll be driving around the point in search of the perfect wave today bruno is going to meet an old friend antoine another surfing buff right it's what they forecasted could be pretty heavy look at this one plus there's some good walls today look yeah it's all good the wind's shifting it's going to be good right it's raining a bit but that won't stop us it's exciting because each time it's like a new discovery what's it going to be like today will i be up to it or we'll joke will the water accept me today or spit me out on the first way it's a very deep relationship here in the odeon bay the wind and swell offer them perfect conditions [Music] i've always heard that you're never stronger than nature you're never stronger than the wind so you have to learn how to play with him if you fight nature you'll always lose because it's always the biggest wave the strongest wind that'll have the last word the idea is to adapt and create an osmosis out there between man and nature [Music] at a certain moment in my life i realized that i didn't know just how lucky i was it opened my eyes and made me realize that i was really a very lucky person and now i savor all these things in a different way this misfortune taught me something very profound bruno faced up to his disease as he faces up every day to the sea bms with the report number 15 for friday january 9 2015 4 30. bms weather report like the refrain of a song it announces that the wind is not about to drop winds wind south southwest 7 rising to eight at the end of the night and tomorrow night gusts from panmar to berlin forecast valid from friday january at 21 hours here [Music] [Music] on the water or in the air the storm hunters gladiators of the wind and sea are the sole witnesses of these unchained elements the coast of brittany is just so beautiful and the weather makes it even more beautiful [Music] it's a joy to see it from up here in the air we have an exceptional job not everyone has the chance to see this and be out here in this weather [Music] no one can beat him at flying a helicopter in the most extreme winds [Music] as for jean renee carrozzo he always has his eyes peeled in winter his favorite season for ten years he's been stalking storms eager to capture images of nature and its fury we're over the va lighthouse we'll be working between 150 to 500 feet then we'll be landing on the ill design in 20 minutes okay look enormous wow it's beautiful isn't it humongous powerful look at this one coming [Music] yes this is the life isn't it not bad at all we hardly you can never know what a storm has in store until it's right on top of you only these two intrepid souls with their front row seat can enjoy this spectacle of the sea in its wildest state direction the island of sun off the point tracking storms stalking the winds is an offbeat profession calling for patience and intuition the island of san is just magnificent a sublime spot it's really the end of the earth a wild wonderful place it's a privilege to be here to be able to observe nature in the raw it's fascinating we landed because it's clouding over we have a patch of blue behind us we'll take off into the clear patch and then it'll rain again we take off between the showers it's repetitive in the winter wind and rain rain and wind it's not fun for them we're privileged we can enjoy the sight and it's very beautiful in the air and on land their friendship has lasted for 10 years it takes complicity and trust to fly in any and all conditions jean renee's nickname is kerru it dates back to the time when he sailed the seas and earned his living with magic tricks pick a number from one to ten eight watch i cut the deck two four six six eight stick what was the card you picked what's your card you remember turn okay driver time to take off looks like the clouds are lifting the winter population of sun is 130 souls whose lives are punctuated by the arrival of the boats from the mainland for several months a year they bear the full brunt of the atlantic's low pressure systems when the weather's bad for the locals it's good for us with teary we've had great moments in 2007 there was a huge storm something dantesque 12 meter swells 50 to 60 knot winds fearsome but so beautiful the wind is blowing at 100 kilometers an hour kerry and thierry head to the northern part of the irwas sea about 50 kilometers away [Music] for shooting these are perfect conditions for getting good pictures because we have good light good winds the color of the sea is wonderful and quite wild at the foot of the ilviers lighthouse the conditions are exceptional the helicopter is meeting up with other storm enthusiasts whom keru absolutely wants to film [Music] this morning to take on the britain storm thomas is a great windsurfer world champion of the waves those rocks there are your limit don't go beyond them keep a good safety margin because you'll be sailing out there if there's the smallest problem you could end up in the rocks but just behind there's a little bay you can swim back to shore from there the problem is that in addition to the swell you have a strong wind coming in from the sea that skews everything i'm going to try to position myself so that i can do what i want it should be good of course it's no piece of cake but mick filled me in i know the places to avoid that's the most important as for the waves i can handle them but it's a new spot there are a lot of rocks all over i'll have to be really careful in two seconds you can end up in a bad spot and get hurt for nothing going into the water in the middle of winter you really have to want it toma is fully aware of the risks he's taking by surfing among the rocks of ilvier but he wants to give it a try even in this 14 degree water a frail figure in the midst of a seething cauldron in this raging chaotic sea thomas does one jump after another for two hours [Music] that wave there you can't see it right now it breaks only when there's a big swell like today not many people ride it there's a big swell breaking over there windsurfing is more than a sport it becomes choreography a fragile dancer he traces arabesques between sky and sea and plays with an unchained angry ocean [Music] so [Music] so [Music] in spite of the cold and approaching dusk thomas squeezes the last drops of enjoyment from the fading day for keru and thierry the pilot their storm mission on the point of brittany draws to a close tomah has signed a pact with the sea this evening again he is master of the waves [Music] [Music] you

Channel: Free Documentary

Views: 223,254

Keywords: Free Documentary, Documentaries, Full documentary, HD documentary, documentary - topic, documentary (tv genre), somewhere on earth, amazing stories, amazing stories from Brittany, amazing quest, Brittany

Id: -AAEWuhm9qY

Length: 52min 14sec (3134 seconds)

Published: Sun Jul 24 2022