Boarding at Sea

This photo was taken on a Sunday Morning about 200 miles south of Ireland, 200 miles west of France. The "Silure" was fishing for Hake on the edge where the sea bed disappears off into the abyss. Boarding vessels at sea is dangerous, you are leaving one safe seaworthy vessel to get on another using a piece of equipment that has been left out to perish in the extremes of the elements on the deck of a fishing vessel. Getting on the ladder is a matter of timing, you can see in the photo the vessel is head on into a sizable swell, the idea is to get on the ladder as the inflatable boat is on the top of that wave, sometimes it works out sometimes it doesn't, the inflatable sometimes disappears from below you as you are just about to step off leaving you hanging by your arms. Coming down is even more dangerous. With the inflatable disappearing from below your feet just as you are about to step on it. leaving you hanging around till the swell brings the inflatable back up to your level. Scared of heights? You will find out coming back down from the deck of a super-trawler. As I come alongside the ladder I am scanning it, the condition of the ropes, see if the rungs a held in place securely and are not cracked. Stepping onto the ladder I "bounce" on the first rung to see if its strong enough to hold me, better falling of from there and not further up.
The regulations around ladders are strict. The ropes can only be made from natural material, the last three rungs cannot be made of wood. The extra long rungs are called "spreaders" and are there to prevent the ladder twisting as you climb it.