What was my job..?
I was measuring the water current in the water column near the rig to determine if the drilling riser could get damaged by shear.
we would steam for maybe an hour in a transect and deploy a sensor. This would measure the currents for 20 minutes and then we would recover the sensor. process the results, send a report to the client by email and then continue on our journey for an hour.
This meant I had about 30 minute breaks waiting to reach each stop point. I did various things in this time depending what was planned. I could have my meal. make an email to the office or home, watch part of a movie.. but most of all I liked to...
Watch the water at night as we steamed. I loved it.. the splash of water with light from the vessel being lit by the deck lights. I liked to sit on a piece of steelwork looking out to sea. The flying fish were the best thing of all. When a shole would pass by attracted to the light they could be seen to fly around the vessel for 20 - 30 yards and had such grace. I had never seen them in until that trip and it was amazing! One jumped onto the deck and I was able to look at it's shape. the "wings were just like birds wings crossed with a dragonfly wings.. strange and normal to look at all at once...
This process went on for 2 weeks.. In that time:
I got hit in the face with a 200kg weight. This gave me a small scar under my eye.. I was lucky it didn't give me more. (most friends say they don't notice a scar... but I do)
I caught a cold and sniffed and grumped for a few days.
I met a guy with a cooler job than mine.. he looked for whales.. that was it.. 2 weeks at a time.. offshore, looking for whales.. :^)
Anyway, The job finaly ended and I made the return journey only pausing to be given a baseball cap and watch by the rig people for a job well done.. *sigh*
Next installment, I'll be in Belem again waiting for 3 days for my flight.. I wonder what will happen.
Monday 3 March 2008
The story went on...
We entered the "Heli Admin Room" signed our names and were dispatched to the canteen for a cup of coffee. The thing that amazes me about american rigs, is the amount of cake and sweets they have ALWAYS avaliable. I had a few cups of coffe and a slice of cake while waiting and eventually the crane was ready for my next journey.
I put on another life jacket and walked across the helideck again. This time a "basket" was there that I had to climb onto and be hoisted some 30m into the air and over the sea to a supply vessel that was now bobbing up and down near the rig.
I don't like using these things, they are banned in some parts of the world as they are erm.. somewhat unsafe.. infact do a search for the image..
Offshore Basket transfer
On the rig I met up with a guy who was to become a friend when I moved to Houston. He showed me around the vessel and our equipment. We were on 12 hour shifts me and him.. I was working from 12 o'clock lunch time until 12 o'clock midnight. He showed me the procedures for a few hours until 3 and then he went to bed to catch some zzzz's as I finished off my shift and added an hour for him to get a little extra sleep.
I put on another life jacket and walked across the helideck again. This time a "basket" was there that I had to climb onto and be hoisted some 30m into the air and over the sea to a supply vessel that was now bobbing up and down near the rig.
I don't like using these things, they are banned in some parts of the world as they are erm.. somewhat unsafe.. infact do a search for the image..
Offshore Basket transfer
On the rig I met up with a guy who was to become a friend when I moved to Houston. He showed me around the vessel and our equipment. We were on 12 hour shifts me and him.. I was working from 12 o'clock lunch time until 12 o'clock midnight. He showed me the procedures for a few hours until 3 and then he went to bed to catch some zzzz's as I finished off my shift and added an hour for him to get a little extra sleep.
Right Right.. where was I.. :^)
So there I was in the jungle waiting for my helicopter.. The meal we ate was a little unsettling (spicy!) but all in all it was a gloriously exciting day. Eventually after a few hours of waiting a "thud thud thud" noise of helicopter blades cut into the air and we knew the next stage of the job was kicking off.
As a group we went back to the air strip which was looking brigher than ever.. We were still in shade at the edge of the air strip while the absence of trees makes the sunlight shine in and shows the ground as a dusty green.
The chopper had landed and we all climbed on board one after the other with our life jackets on around our necks.
The view on the way out was AMAZING.. I have been on well over 100 helicopter rides, but this one sticks out as one of the best. The rain forrest was below me and we were cruzing at around 100m. Terrific patches of grass and river as the jungle canopy openned every now and then. After 30 minutes of flight, we reached the coast and the great brown sea where the amazon chucks out all off the sedement. I know this area as a ROFI (Region Of Freshwater Influence). I worked out later that the water remained brown for around 70 km from the coast. Eventually we decended closer to water and we saw the rig we were headed for.
This was an old american rig, didn't look amazing.. But hell I was getting off it shortly anyway. The Chopper landed with a light judder and after a few moments we stepped outside, picked up our luggage, and decended into the bowels of the rig.
As a group we went back to the air strip which was looking brigher than ever.. We were still in shade at the edge of the air strip while the absence of trees makes the sunlight shine in and shows the ground as a dusty green.
The chopper had landed and we all climbed on board one after the other with our life jackets on around our necks.
The view on the way out was AMAZING.. I have been on well over 100 helicopter rides, but this one sticks out as one of the best. The rain forrest was below me and we were cruzing at around 100m. Terrific patches of grass and river as the jungle canopy openned every now and then. After 30 minutes of flight, we reached the coast and the great brown sea where the amazon chucks out all off the sedement. I know this area as a ROFI (Region Of Freshwater Influence). I worked out later that the water remained brown for around 70 km from the coast. Eventually we decended closer to water and we saw the rig we were headed for.
This was an old american rig, didn't look amazing.. But hell I was getting off it shortly anyway. The Chopper landed with a light judder and after a few moments we stepped outside, picked up our luggage, and decended into the bowels of the rig.
Friday 29 February 2008
Another long long day
It's been quite a rough week.
SO so busy in the office, half the hassle is just calling clients to let them know we are busy and not able to help them any time soon. Supprising how many say.. "okay, thanks.."
It didn't help that I've had a cold for some of it which always makes me feel a little overloaded and wanting to curl up and sleep.
Still, the week has ended and the weekend starts here. Sadly the plan for tonight is to collapse infront of the TV with a DVD and an early night. How exciting!
So to make this boring post a little better..
I boarded the plane in London, I was excited as this was a new type of job for me, it was last minute and it was to a new country! YAY.. This was 4 - 5 years ago when I was still learning.
The flight was to Sau Paulo in Brazil. I was a little nervous about the place, but eager to give it a try. The flight was around 12 hours I think.. but that passed quite fast. Landing I was found by a guy who works for my company and he "fast tracked" me through customs with a wave of my passport. The que was HUGE and I got some serious dirty looks, but I was being lead away...
I never got to see any of Sau Paulo in the end as I was immediately thrown onto a domestic flight to Belem via Brazillia. It was at this time I realised.. English is NOT spoken in Brazil! I never thought about it before.. I had travelled to spain before, many times infact.. so I tried talking Spanish.. Well that worked.. kinda.. but people were fairly quick with me! I had no idea why.. but just accepted it.
Flying into Brazillia it was very odd. the capital city. it seemed small and all to neat. The roads were all grass and tree lined and more, they were all in very straight squares. I was a little wierded out and was glad when we took off again to Belem. Here was more exciting.. an old city on the banks of the Amazon river and the Atlantic ocean.
I was greeted by a guy with a deep sun tan and a baseball cap. He had a big smile on his face and I knew thing were going to go well. I was taken to the Hilton hotel in the centre of town and given a room. I collapsed.. It was a very long day.. I knew I needed to go early the next day.
So the next stage was to get up early and head out to the airstrip again. This was a little more interesting. The drive through town was very exciting in my people carrier. No one spoke engish again.. but I was okay with it. The first leg of today was getting into an old propeller plane that held maybe 14 people. This was also amazing.. the view out the window was teriffic, I could see amazonican rain forrest as far as the eye could see. I remember smiling and wondering how I got to be here doing this as a job.
Anyway, we landed in a small airstrip in the middle of the rain forrest. There were maybe 4 - 5 wooden houses around the strip but NOTHING else but forrest and noises. We disembarked and went to one of the houses were we were fed some lunch as we waited for our helicopeter. I looked around the area amazed at the place....
To be continued..
SO so busy in the office, half the hassle is just calling clients to let them know we are busy and not able to help them any time soon. Supprising how many say.. "okay, thanks.."
It didn't help that I've had a cold for some of it which always makes me feel a little overloaded and wanting to curl up and sleep.
Still, the week has ended and the weekend starts here. Sadly the plan for tonight is to collapse infront of the TV with a DVD and an early night. How exciting!
So to make this boring post a little better..
I boarded the plane in London, I was excited as this was a new type of job for me, it was last minute and it was to a new country! YAY.. This was 4 - 5 years ago when I was still learning.
The flight was to Sau Paulo in Brazil. I was a little nervous about the place, but eager to give it a try. The flight was around 12 hours I think.. but that passed quite fast. Landing I was found by a guy who works for my company and he "fast tracked" me through customs with a wave of my passport. The que was HUGE and I got some serious dirty looks, but I was being lead away...
I never got to see any of Sau Paulo in the end as I was immediately thrown onto a domestic flight to Belem via Brazillia. It was at this time I realised.. English is NOT spoken in Brazil! I never thought about it before.. I had travelled to spain before, many times infact.. so I tried talking Spanish.. Well that worked.. kinda.. but people were fairly quick with me! I had no idea why.. but just accepted it.
Flying into Brazillia it was very odd. the capital city. it seemed small and all to neat. The roads were all grass and tree lined and more, they were all in very straight squares. I was a little wierded out and was glad when we took off again to Belem. Here was more exciting.. an old city on the banks of the Amazon river and the Atlantic ocean.
I was greeted by a guy with a deep sun tan and a baseball cap. He had a big smile on his face and I knew thing were going to go well. I was taken to the Hilton hotel in the centre of town and given a room. I collapsed.. It was a very long day.. I knew I needed to go early the next day.
So the next stage was to get up early and head out to the airstrip again. This was a little more interesting. The drive through town was very exciting in my people carrier. No one spoke engish again.. but I was okay with it. The first leg of today was getting into an old propeller plane that held maybe 14 people. This was also amazing.. the view out the window was teriffic, I could see amazonican rain forrest as far as the eye could see. I remember smiling and wondering how I got to be here doing this as a job.
Anyway, we landed in a small airstrip in the middle of the rain forrest. There were maybe 4 - 5 wooden houses around the strip but NOTHING else but forrest and noises. We disembarked and went to one of the houses were we were fed some lunch as we waited for our helicopeter. I looked around the area amazed at the place....
To be continued..
Tuesday 26 February 2008
travelling abroad.
That I want to got out of this miserable country and find some warm weather for a bit. I saw a photo of a mountain range is a hot country earlier today and it made me feel like I wanted to be there. It was like a sudden flash of "that would be good to relax". A moment later I thought "I would only want to be there with one person at the moment too."
All in all I am feeling drained and it's only tuesday this week. I was concidering going home for a weekend this weekend.. just to get out the country.. but I can't justify it as I will probably be working over some of the weekend anyway.
So...
When I was in Australia, one trip I went on was to sail on a 87ft Super Maxi racing yaght. It was in the Whitsunday Islands which are between Cairns and Brisbane.
The vessel was called "The Condor" and it was a lovely yacht. I was able to take the helm on a few occasions and it was terrific, so responsive. However for the most part I was a grunt running the winches and hanging over the side when sailing fast. Only thing that agnoyed me on the whole 3 days was that we were given a chance to race another ship, but because someone onboard had caught sight of a dolphin, half the crew decided to leave the race and check the dolphin out instead. It irritated me a little bit especially as the dolphin disapeared immediately afterwards.
Anyways we sailed for 3 days from Airly Beach around Hamilton island and stopped off at a few beaches for snorkling and chilling time. I had an amazing time and I look forward to maybe going there again.
The YACHT was being run by 3 full time crew (skipper, cook and first mate). Then there were 12 brits all from mixtures of places and genders and two dutch girls. We got on alright. 4 of the brit guys were friends from home and were terribly chique. I was there on the 6 weeks holiday alone and this worked best in most cases, in this case, I was an outsider.. Despite this the other guys were great and it was a really good time. So relaxing!
I remember one evening watching the Nectoluca in the water sparkling as we drank wine and got hammered.
All in all I am feeling drained and it's only tuesday this week. I was concidering going home for a weekend this weekend.. just to get out the country.. but I can't justify it as I will probably be working over some of the weekend anyway.
So...
When I was in Australia, one trip I went on was to sail on a 87ft Super Maxi racing yaght. It was in the Whitsunday Islands which are between Cairns and Brisbane.
The vessel was called "The Condor" and it was a lovely yacht. I was able to take the helm on a few occasions and it was terrific, so responsive. However for the most part I was a grunt running the winches and hanging over the side when sailing fast. Only thing that agnoyed me on the whole 3 days was that we were given a chance to race another ship, but because someone onboard had caught sight of a dolphin, half the crew decided to leave the race and check the dolphin out instead. It irritated me a little bit especially as the dolphin disapeared immediately afterwards.
Anyways we sailed for 3 days from Airly Beach around Hamilton island and stopped off at a few beaches for snorkling and chilling time. I had an amazing time and I look forward to maybe going there again.
The YACHT was being run by 3 full time crew (skipper, cook and first mate). Then there were 12 brits all from mixtures of places and genders and two dutch girls. We got on alright. 4 of the brit guys were friends from home and were terribly chique. I was there on the 6 weeks holiday alone and this worked best in most cases, in this case, I was an outsider.. Despite this the other guys were great and it was a really good time. So relaxing!
I remember one evening watching the Nectoluca in the water sparkling as we drank wine and got hammered.
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