Thread: Random offshore pics

Originally Posted by Mendip

I've never been on one and I hope I never do.

There's a lot on YouTube about it and this video shows a bit of the boarding and disembarking.

A woman driver as well...

It goes a bit like this:



There's something you don't get at Universal Studios.

The 'Driver' is called a Coxswain, male or female.

When you're in the installation you will have to get in those things during your Induction to simulate a platform abandonment, and you may have to several more times during your trip. Usually a weekly drill and depending on the scenario that they make up to be be dealt with accordingly, it may be a boat drill.

Originally Posted by Mendip

I've never been on one and I hope I never do.

Don't know how you've got away with that over the years, maybe something to do with the regions you've been working in or client requirements, but I've done the training in them including free-drop twice and it's not bad! Admittedly, the drops were in training facilities and not very high. Would rather do 100 free-drops from any height than one HUET exercise though, put it that way.

Originally Posted by Headworx

Would rather do 100 free-drops from any height than one HUET exercise though, put it that way.

I don't mind the HUET part. That's the Helicopter Underwater Escape Training for those who don't know.

Come Do it in Songkhla next time, It's pretty slack, compared to Aberdeen or Perth, Oz.

I've done 3 full courses and 1 refresher now. Did you know, if you do the CA-EBS (Controlled Gas - Emergency Breathing System) course on it's own it will never expire, unlike if you do it as part of the BOSIET (Basic Offshore Safety Induction and Emergency Training) it will expire with it, and in my case, it is not offered as part of the FOET (Further Offshore Emergency Training), which is the 1 day refresher to extend your BOSIET for a further 4 years.

Explanations not for your benefit, obviously.

^To be totally honest Dirk I will never do offshore training again as I will never set foot off dry land in the industry again because of the training involved! No joke, I wouldn't be able to sleep for a week leading up to a HUET course without alcohol, it ticks multiple boxes that take me way the fuck outside of my comfort zones. I'm actually in informal talks right now to go do some land work projects later this year and the required training is a piece of piss (offroad driver training, first-aid, wildlife awareness induction, etc). Not a problem, going upside down underwater while strapped to a seat and hoping no bastard blocks the escape window is though!

My first Survival Course was in 1976, and it was held in a boat shed on the banks of the River Dee in Aberdeen. The instructor was Joe Cross, ex Royal Navy. I remember watching the film "Cold Can Kill", which I'd seen countless times during my Royal Marines service. It wasn't until a couple of years later that the HUET was added to the curriculum, I seem to recall a few instances of helicopters going down around that period, when the wearing of survival suits for all helicopter flights became mandatory. Numerous refreshers over the years, I think my very last survival course was with McMillans in Lafayette LA whilst I was working with Mobil in Houston and before deploying to Equatorial Guinea.

The "Cold Can Kill" video.

Originally Posted by Mendip

HW, I always work on vessels and have never seen free fall life boats on a vessel yet, although maybe some of the larger construction boats may have them now.

The 2 times I've needed to have certification for them were for Petrobras and Petronas and on both projects, we had no vessels with free fall life boats and used no helicopters but we still needed to do the training along with HUET and BOSIET if we didn't have valid certification! Fuck!!

Originally Posted by Mendip

I have a colleague on this boat who is considering retiring from this because his HUET is up again this summer.

Sorry to hear that but for some people, that whole HUET thing is their nightmare come true. Most people are fine with it of course, some do it begrudgingly as a necessary part of the job, and I've known people who actually thinks it's fun!

Originally Posted by Headworx

and I've known people who actually thinks it's fun!

That's me. At the IFAP centre in Freemantle, Perth, there are 8 scenarios that they dunk you with, then there is an optional 9th, blacked out goggles, no nose clip, full flip, 2nd person out.

I was all over that shit.

Originally Posted by Mendip

Besides, it's a good excuse for a few days in Bangkok!

Any excuse!

Originally Posted by dirk diggler

then there is an optional 9th, blacked out goggles, no nose clip, full flip, 2nd person out.

I was all over that shit.

Is 11:30 in the morning too early to start drinking? I'm having an anxiety attack just thinking about that you lunatic!!

It's 5pm in Fiji right now. Go for it!

Originally Posted by dirk diggler

It's 5pm in Fiji right now. Go for it!

Sorry to spam your thread but this bit of levity just popped in my head.

Originally Posted by Headworx

Is 11:30 in the morning too early to start drinking? I'm having an anxiety attack just thinking about that you lunatic!!

Just ask yourself, what would snubby or bld do?

Originally Posted by dirk diggler

That's me. At the IFAP centre in Freemantle, Perth, there are 8 scenarios that they dunk you with, then there is an optional 9th, blacked out goggles, no nose clip, full flip, 2nd person out.

I was all over that shit.

Optional? What lunatic would opt to do that shit? You seriously opted to do an extra scenario?

Originally Posted by BLD

Just ask yourself, what would snubby or bld do?

I am heading out the door to do a beer run.

Smashing tinnies mate!

Originally Posted by Mendip

I haven't been on a helicopter for over 10 years and hopefully will never fly on one ever again. In fact I'd consider turning down a job these days if I knew it meant helicopter crew changes. I hate the things.

I'm with you on that having flown in wocas, Bell 212's, Pumas, Seakings and Gazelles i consider myself lucky to have survived two auto-rotations and unless i need evac for some reason i will never set foot in one again.

Originally Posted by dirk diggler

The 'Driver' is called a Coxswain, male or female.

I am just realising that I may be a generation or two ahead of you blokes in the drilling game. In my day the coxswains were differentiated as cox'n and coxless. Wouldn't have mattered if it was the latter as they don't have to reverse the boat into the water anyway.

The first time I worked offshore was on a semi-sub called the Sedco 135G (might have been E) working offshore Darwin. I think it was late '69 or early 1970. They were drilling a relief well for one that was already on fire and had sunk a work boat with crew on board from the "aeration" of the water. The strangest part was trying to keep the sea on fire as a navigation warning and it kept blowing out.

I had been dragooned in as a Halliburton hand with another guy to set up a spread of kill pumps. They had towed a WWII Liberty Ship there to use as a huge mud tank. Saw and did a lot of stupidly dangerous, and sometimes funny things.

The training to go from working in deserts to offshore was zero and it never occurred to anybody that this was required. I don't recall any onboard induction either. The biggest danger was seen as surviving "boong night" at the Fannie bay Hotel on crew changes. Probably lucky about the training, as if they had told me about transfer from rig to supply boat in high seas on one of those stupid Billy Pugh baskets I probably would have bottled it. Survival depended completely on the skill of the crane driver. Do they still use Billy Pughs?

Times have changed, what?

Originally Posted by DrWilly

Optional? What lunatic would opt to do that shit? You seriously opted to do an extra scenario?

Ok, so the lunatic that wants a better chance of survival might consider that in a real scenario you wont be able to see shit underwater, you may not have a nose clip (very nice to have this when you get turned upside down under water) and you may have to wait for a massive fat braindead scaffolder to get out before you.

You're not going to die in the pool at the training centre. There are diver in the water ready to pull you out if you get in trouble. You are basically instructed to play dead and not panic and the diver will pull you out.

They don't just throw you in there and expect you to know what to do either, they teach you what to do, obviously, and each time it adds an extra step.

1. First they just dunk you in vertically with no perspex on the windows. BRACE BRACE BRACE, feet together, head back, one hand on seatbelt, one hand in direction of the exit. Take a last breath before being submerged, open seatbelt and exit through the window.

2. Repeat number 1 but with the window in place. pill the window seal then elbow out the window after being submerged and before removing your seatbelt

3 Dunk and flip, no windows

4. Dunk and flip with windows

Each of these scenarios is repeated with a rebreather, making 8 scenarios. The rebreather is a bag that you can breath into 4 or 5 times and recycle your own air. You activate it right after you take your last breath.

You will generally attempt at least 1 flip scenario where you are the 2nd person to exit.

Scenario 9, as above.

Originally Posted by Shy Guava

Do they still use Billy Pughs?

Times have changed, what?

Yes they do, and frogs too. We were doing 2 of each per shift a couple of years ago off Israel. It never bothered me, and you can get some cool photos.

In a previous post I mentioned Joe Cross, the survival school instructor at RGIT in Aberdeen. This is his obituary from 2014, quite an interesting read.

Obituary: Dr Joe Cross OBE | The Scotsman

^ good read. Its interesting how events shape peoples lives.

Originally Posted by dirk diggler

Ok, so the lunatic that wants a better chance of survival might consider that in a real scenario you wont be able to see shit underwater, you may not have a nose clip (very nice to have this when you get turned upside down under water) and you may have to wait for a massive fat braindead scaffolder to get out before you.

Yeah, I get it.

But, I hate water.

I hate cold water.

Originally Posted by dirk diggler

I hate cold water.

I have dived, suited up, in zero visibility in the English channel and I came up thinking it was a bit pointless, otherwise I was fine being down there.

Cold water, on the other hand, as mentioned already, will kill you.

We've were working at Statfjord C for a couple of days... moved on now.

While we were there the supply boats came and went...





And in case you've ever wondered what an underwater digging/dredging machine looks like when it's working...

Going down...



This was in sucking mode when it's just like an underwater vacuum cleaner.



And this is why you should always listen to a geologist. Yes, you heard it here first...

Originally Posted by Mendip

One thing I do know... some of the boulders I saw won't fit through that suction hose... I'll observe with interest.

Yes, that boulder was wedged tight into the suction nozzle!



The ROV was recovered and they fit a crow bar to the manipulator to try and prise out the boulder



But to no avail. Eventually the dredger was recovered to remove the obstruction.









And this is where it gets interesting.

As a geologist I laid claim to the boulder, saying it was important for the job. But of course I just wanted it for my rock collection.



That boulder was probably transported by a glacier down some U-shaped Norwegian valley many thousands of years ago, after which, at the end of glaciation, it probably drifted out to sea as part of an iceberg before being dropped onto the seabed next to the future location of Statfjord C. It then lay undisturbed on the seabed for the past 8000 years until yesterday, when everything changed.

My plan was for this boulder to continue it's journey to Bangkok with the help of Turkish Airlines and then to make it's final journey by land up Highway 2 in the boot of my taxi (after sharing my quarantine accommodation for three days of course). The boulder's final resting place was destined to be in my sala, sitting next to my piece of fossilised tree trunk.



I was really looking forward to adding to my rock collection and looking at the boulder while sipping a Leo and explaining it's history to my daughter.

Yeah... but bollocks to that. It can stay on the boat.