Finally made it home, fog grounded all helicopters for 5 days and a power cut at Aberdeen airport didn’t help.
The last move was all about getting a Flotel up close and personal to a platform, close enough to install a bridge between the two so workers could eat and sleep on the flotel and work on the platform.
This was done successfully with the help of the AHV’s Balder Viking, Brage Viking, Magne Viking and the Island Vanguard and with a great team of people.
Here is the platform the Gannet A from a stand-off location.
One of the AHV’s
And the reason we couldn’t get off the Flotel, got to say thanks to Jim for drinking all his coffee, eating all the Tab Nabs and just annoying him for those extra days.
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This job is quite a complex one, the flotel is held in position with 12 anchors, 6 of theses anchors have been pre-laid and 6 we are deploying now, the pre-laid anchors were done a while ago and the chain ends were buoyed off. Now we are back on location the AHV’s have to grab the buoys and pull them up on deck, disconnect the buoy and connect either the anchor chain or rope inserts and then connect the other end to the rig, here’s the guys on deck of one of the AHV’s grabbing one of the buoys.
First the AHV slowly moves toward the buoy.
As it gets closer the guys on deck get ready and between two of them throw a cable around the buoy.
Once lassoed the winch driver pulls the buoy up and over the roller.
And then made secure on deck, all in a days work for these guys.
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Here we are almost on location and the wind picks up, 30 knot winds aren’t good when you are moving a large Flotel next to a platform, at the moment we have moved a safe distance away and have four vessels holding us here, three of the boats are Viking boats so I had to try a panorama and see if I could get them all in.
Here is a couple on their own, in the winter these boat spend a lot of time way up north breaking up the ice sheets.
You can just make out a FPSO on the horizon.
We can’t forget the other boat, the Island Vanguard, there is a couple of our guys on it, feeling a bit queasy I bet.
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Getting off one rig and going straight out to another, wasn’t to bad, travelling all day, including two flights and a two hour train journey, wasn’t to bad, the taxi driver dropping us off at the gate and a half mile walk with bags to the rig, wasn’t to bad. Arriving as the base of the rig and seeing 157 steps to climb, with bags, in the dark, that was bad, I hate steps.
It didn’t look that bad from back here.
Looking from here I was hoping they would send the crane down, at least for our bags.
We managed the steps and after a safety brief made our way to our cabins, this rig is a Flotel, accommodation only, so it’s quiet and clean, even outside. At full capacity it can sleep around 350 people, but as we are moving it to a new location after a re-fit in Copenhagen there is only 52 of us onboard.
Here’s something I don’t get to see every day, a Maersk Supply boat having some work done in dry dock. Cool.
Have a great weekend.
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Left the Maersk Resilient on Monday, job went well and it was time to get home, there is a group of people on a rig that do an outstanding job, now as a third party worker I move from rig to rig and as I meet people that do a similar job we always compare rigs we’ve worked on, now we could say things like “Hey is that the one with a Derrick 210′ x 45′ x 45′; and a Capacity of 1,500,000 lbs, and 3 Mud Pumps and that Rotary Table, 49.5 in. diameter with 99,500 ft.lbs torque and 40 RPM. Opening 49 1/2″ and Max. load of 800 t”.
No we don’t, it goes something like this, “hey didn’t I see you on the JW McLean, that cheese cake is to die for, and steak night is something else, see for us, rigs are remembered by their food and how we are looked after, and this brings me back to this fantastic group of guys and girls,who without, a rig would very quickly become not a very nice place to be.
This of course this is the catering crew and the stewards, and on the Maersk Resilient they were right up there with the best, cabins were spotless and the food, well I’ll let these couple of shots speak for themselves, this is a normal Saturday dinner on the MR.
Now this is just the cold buffet, the hot stuff was on the other side.
I never did make it home, after one night in Aberdeen I flew out to Copenhagen and have joined another rig, let’s see if this one can come close to the MR.
Thanks again to all the staff on the MR and all the rigs I have been on. (I’m never going to lose weight.)
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Well it was actually Invergordon wishing us Bon Voyage, or maybe they were glad to see us leave, having such a large rig on your doorstep could be a bit of an eye sore. Still I suppose they must be use to it by now.
Anyway, this is the view as we departed Invergordon, Invergordon in the background with HMS Sutherland moored in front.
HMS Sutherland is a Type 23 frigate of the British Royal Navy. She is the thirteenth ship in the Duke class of frigates and is the third ship to bear the name, more than 200 years since the name was last used.
She was launched in 1996 by Lady Christina Walmsley, wife of Sir Robert Walmsley KCB. Before this occasion, Royal Navy ships had always been launched with a bottle of champagne, but Lady Walmsley broke with tradition and used a bottle of Macallan Whiskey.
On the way now, bit of a job for the Pilot, he has to negotiate a path through the rigs left here to die and rigs coming in for work to be carried out, first on the right is the J W McLean, I was part on the team who brought this rig in for its last time, not sure of its furture.
Second one is the Will Hunter which is coming in to have some work done, it arrived a couple of days ago, we flew over it arriving, seeing the AHV’s doing their stuff from above was a new perspective for me, normally it’s all at sea level.
Almost out into open water, you can just make out the pilot up on the helideck directing the tow vessel.
Looking back toward Invergordon.
That set of legs you can see have been there for years, I heard the top of a once working rig was brought by a Russia company, the legs were left and looks like they can’t even be sold for scrap, which seems a shame, they don’t look that nice and would make navigating the channel a bit easier.
If anyone knows if that is correct or have another story about them let me know.
This is the other side of the entrance, looks like a bit of a gun emplacement going on their, I hope when it was maned there was a bridge of some sorts going to it.
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I’m back at work tomorrow, flying up to Inverness and then hire car to Invergordon, I’ve never stayed in the town of Invergordon before, always on a rig, so I might have time to explore a bit, If I do i’ll try a snap a few off and show you the place.
I’m joining the Maersk Resilient which is a large Jack-up, it’s one I was on a couple of xmases ago.
Here’s a shot of Invergordon from a rig’s point of view.
Here’s a shot of the Jack-up in the first picture I took a long time ago, I’ll be surprised if its still there.
Some of the locals just carry on as if nothing is happening.
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I didn’t get around to posting an iPhone Friday yesterday so thought I would do a iPhone post today combined with a Hank update, there isn’t a great deal to see as most of the work has been carried out under Hank, things like new adjustable suspension all round, drop spindles fitted on the front, lowering the car by 2 1/2″ , rubber bumpstops and new gators fitted all over the place.
Here’s the bits you can see.
New Stainless steel front bumper and clear indicator lens.
New rear stainless steel rear bumper and rear light lens, these and the front bumpers will be coming off when Hank goes into paint but would rather make sure they fit now then when he’s got fresh paint.
New steering wheel and a Gene Burg gear shifter.
Have a great weekend.
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Digging through some old photos I found a rig move we did out of Dundee, I haven’t spent any time in Dundee so don’t know much about the place except what I just read on Wiki and it does sound like a pretty cool place.
We joined a jack-up called the Rowan Viking, this was brand new and wasn’t long here from Singapore, however if I remember it did sit in Dundee for a few months before I joined, due to red tape.
It a pretty big rig, 264′ in length and 289′ wide and can accommodate 120 people and can drill to a depth of 35000′.
At last we are on our way.
And I couldn’t resist a HDR of Dundee.
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I’m back on dry land after 14 days at sea, it was a good rig move, all went well and nobody got hurt.
This shot is from a rig move I was part of, starting in Amsterdam, we had a couple of days before we left and found this really nice steak house, we would order beers and steak and sit outside and watch the world go by, mainly on boats and bicycles, very relaxing.
Have a great weekend.
I’m having some problems with WordPress at the moment, I find I’m having to log on each and every time I wish to comment or ‘like’ on anyones blog, this gets really annoying after a while, so if I don’t comment I’m sorry and I hope they sort it out soon, I have contacted them and each time I do the responses I get is always the same, “turn on cookies” which I have done but its still the same but with the added hassle of around 40 spams a day.
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