Another lockdown… another commute

[Mendip]

^^ That's OK... I'm glad to change the subject to be honest!


Good question OhOh... nice to get away from my past indiscretions.

First... it's an ROV. An SUV is something you use to drive your kids to school in Chelsea.

For a route survey, or any kind of work away from platforms, the ROV will fly along a specified route and the ship will follow... called 'follow sub' mode. The ship is positioned by satellite, from which the ROV is positioned by acoustic navigation. The ROV position is then broadcast by a transponder or responder and the ship's navigation system is locked into the ROV position. The ship's thrusters are computer controlled and can hold the ship's position to metric accuracy.

On a typical route survey there is very little to spot online (in real time). The ROV may fly 10 to 15 metres above the seabed acquiring multibeam echosounder, side scan sonar and sub-bottom profiler data. We'll survey a swath of seabed, from which a route can be decided on. We check that all data has been acquired before leaving a location but processing/interpretation can take many weeks. For example the data I am currently working with was for a route/site survey in the Barent's Sea acquired in July (coincidentally for the same project I worked on last year with a different contractor).

We like to have at least one survey line directly along the centreline of a proposed route since the shallow seismic is acquired directly below the vehicle. Other data may be collected at ranges of maybe 50m to 200m either side of the vehicle. We usually collect data along several winglines, making sure of good data overlap and sufficient density, to survey a corridor maybe 200m to 500m wide. Much of that depends on how much the client is willing to pay... each wingline takes time and costs money.

The ROV doesn't go off course from planned routes unless there has been a problem... a navigation run-off or maybe particularly strong water current. The client doesn't pay if we're off course and surveying a random piece of seabed. Survey lines are fed into the navigation system and much of the ROV piloting is automated. AUVs (Autonomous Underwater Vehicles) have no umbilical and are becoming more common for survey work... using these, the survey line coordinates, survey altitude, etc are fed in, the AUV is launched and completes the survey lines before being recovered. Their main limitation is battery life.

Of course there's many variations on the theme. For visual pipeline inspections, the ROV will fly along a pipeline at an altitude of maybe just a couple of metres, and hopefully anything significant, maybe a mine, will be noticed in real time, in which case we'll stop the survey to take appropriate steps. Final phases of route surveys may also require visual surveys along a decided route, but by that stage anything significant should have been identified during previous surveys.


Edit: She wasn't a Grandma... she was just older than me and I was very young at the time. Also, I distinctly remember stating that I wasn't going to say how the evening turned out.

Let's keep this to work questions!

[malmomike77]

I imagine the seabed has been mapped to death using various instruments, recording depth, obstacles, topography, composition et al but presumably as its a kind of moveable feast that data cannot be relied upon for long hence there will always be job to do.

[helge]

I wasn't going to say how the evening turned out.

Let's keep this to work questions!

Did you give her the works in the morning ?

Nah

[Edmond]

Is the work in the Black Sea for the same company that you just did the work for off Norway, and do they own the boat/ship?


Or are they 2 different companies, and they lease the ship and crew off a separate company that owns the ship and uses agents to hire the crew?

(all inhouse, or different companies that lease the ship to do specific jobs)

[nidhogg]

Edit: She wasn't a Grandma...

That is what they all say. But we are not here to slut shame you Mendip.






















No matter how big a perv you were.

[helge]

Sailing the Med and the Black Sea on full pay

Did he bring shorts, deckchair and sun cream ?

[Looper]

Also, I distinctly remember stating that I wasn't going to say how the evening turned out.

Did you meet her in that boozer with your mugshot on the wall?

'Dikselen Karasnopolsk' - Norwegian for 'The Smashed Starfish'

Liquor in the Front... Poker in the rear

[Saint Willy]

I'm only here because I can no longer work in the Norwegian office due to Brexit.

Sounds like you and your countrymen should have voted to remain, eh? Why didn't you think of that?

[Saint Willy]

Let's see if they can find it first

Very true. *And Mendy, that's not a comment directed at you. 'tis about the Italians and Albanians.

[Saint Willy]

I see mendip has neatly diverted attention from "grandmagate"

#grandmachocolatestarfishgate

He can divert, but we won't forget.

[armstrong]

Early January 1973, my very first night in Arctic Norway. It was a Saturday, and the nearby village had a dance on in the village hall. The only source of alcohol was a cafe attached to a petrol station on the main road, and (very) expensive beer only. Of course, we had our 'instant party kits' with us, holdalls with duty free spirits and cassette players. Anyway, I trapped a lady and went back to her place, another village about 30 kms away. She had an apartment in the basement of a typical Norwegian wooden house, and in the morning took me upstairs for a breakfast of cheese, bread and strong coffee. What was unusual was her mother and father joined us, which in my experience wasn't the norm for a 'one night stand'. She had to leave that afternoon to return to Bodo where she was training to be a nurse. Never saw her again.

I once had breakfast one morning with her kid sat at the other side of the table. That was weird.

[Mendip]

^^ For the last time, she wasn't a Grandma. She was just a bit older than me... and I was in my early twenties so even a 30 year-old looked old to me back then.

I think the fact that I'm now a respectable family man tells you exactly how I conducted myself that night.

I imagine the seabed has been mapped to death using various instruments, recording depth, obstacles, topography, composition et al but presumably as its a kind of moveable feast that data cannot be relied upon for long hence there will always be job to do.

You be surprised at how stable the seabed is in the deep water across much of the Norwegian sector... many of the trawl scars we see on the clay seabed will be tens of years old. In the shallow southern North Sea there is a lot od shifting sand, but even so, the character of the seabed remains unchanged. Once a pipeline or cable route has been decided upon and any obstacles either removed or diverted around, that tends to be final. There is a legal requirement to perform a final 'pre-lay' survey along the proposed route centreline within 30 days of the product lay, just to ensure than no new obstacles have been dropped from a ship or trawled into the area.

If we're supporting a long pipe lay (which can be hundreds of kilometres), we concentrate on monitoring the pipeline as it touches down on the seabed behind the lay barge but will periodically nip in front and carry out a few kilometres of pre-lay survey.

Is the work in the Black Sea for the same company that you just did the work for off Norway, and do they own the boat/ship?

Or are they 2 different companies, and they lease the ship and crew off a separate company that owns the ship and uses agents to hire the crew?

(all inhouse, or different companies that lease the ship to do specific jobs)

The work in the Black Sea is for the same contractor using the same boat. These contractors have the boat on a long term lease from the shipping company. The contractors find a suitable boat and then kit it out with ROVs and survey equipment, and then charge by the day to a client. There is often agreement between the shipping companies and contractors and this vessel was purpose-built for this kind of work.

The Black Sea work is for a different client than the work in the Norwegian Sea. That was all for Equinor but has finished now... apart from completing old projects/reports which I am currently doing.

Sailing the Med and the Black Sea on full pay

Did he bring shorts, deckchair and sun cream ?

It's not a holiday Helge!

And besides, everywhere is pretty chilly after Isaan.

[Mendip]

I once had breakfast one morning with her kid sat at the other side of the table. That was weird.

What was weird... no Leo?

We'll be visiting your neighborhood later today Armstrong.


Voyage - Day 2

The ship's position hasn't been updated on the website I've been using so I had to co-opt Coco's help for today's report.



We have calm seas and are well on course to visit Great Yarmouth this afternoon. As I mentioned, we're not going alongside... they say to save time but I think the skipper is worried we'll get stuff stolen.

The calm seas meant I could get back into the gym tonight... there's still a few more days of September left for me to lose a bit more weight and claim Dirk's pie. I'm still using my old trainers as I reckon they'll last another couple of weeks before completely falling apart. Waste no, want not.


While there's nothing going on I thought I'd try and give a taste of life onboard a ship.

This is my personal en-suite toilet.



Apart from the taxi rides back and forth between Suvarnabhumi and Korat, showering is probably the most dangerous part of my job. In bad weather there is the constant threat of slippage either inside the shower or when stepping out into the cabin with wet feet. I have to be extra careful due to the state of my big toes... if I was to stub one now it could be disastrous.

Because of this you'll notice the handle fixed to the wall to grab hold of... yes, everything has to be done one-handed in bad weather. One hand for the boat, one for yourself.

I guess I'm lucky that my handle is configured for the left hand!

I've got into the routine of washing my gym stuff in the shower every night before shift. So long as I leave the underfloor heating on, it'll be bone dry a day later to use in the gym again. Life is all about routines on a boat.

[armstrong]

Give Jim Davidson a wave as you float by the pier.

[Reg Dingle]

the fact that I'm now a respectable family man

You spend less time with your family than the average traveling salesman/soldier/trucker/ submariner/astronaut.


A Yuri Gagarin/Dwight Yorke/ Wayne Rooney of a family man.

[Shy Guava]

Matelot Mendip, what is the energy source for the shallow hi-res seismic? Are energy source and geophone(s) both carried on the ROV?

[helge]

most dangerous part of my job.

Old folks use a chair

[armstrong]

You spend less time with your family than the average traveling salesman/soldier/trucker/ submariner/astronaut.


A Yuri Gagarin/Dwight Yorke/ Wayne Rooney of a family man.

We've seen your family threads Dillinger, don't be a dick.

[cyrille]

A Yuri Gagarin/Dwight Yorke/ Wayne Rooney of a family man.

Says the granny gang banger.

[Shutree]

She was just a bit older than me

I go away for a couple of days and return to a thread that reads like a Norse saga.

Being a bit older than you in your twenties she was probably at an age that I'd prefer these days. Anyway, they probably all look quite similar from that angle.

Doubtless she went home happy and still has fond memories of the evening.

[Stumpy]

Old folks use a chair

Was gonna say the same thing, especially big toe challenged people with little or no grip. You could always shower with your old trainers on.... When my parents had their sailboat and we would sail from SF to San Diego we showered using shower flip flops. Cheap ones with good rubber grip soles. Worked really well and in sailboat its mandatory or you will be thrown around.

[Stumpy]

Hey Mendy, How is the gardener doing around the place with all the rain? Bet he hasn't picked up a tool since you left. Pond nice and full?

[Shutree]

It's for my teeth.

FWIW, my dentist 40 years ago told me to switch to Sensodyne. Even then he said my gums were receding through over-energetic brushing. That surprised me, I don't think I have been an overly energetic brusher. He told me that most brushes then were too big and too firm, he said to switch to a softer, smaller brush, specifically he recommended Oral-B and I have followed that advice since, later switching to an electric toothbrush.

[armstrong]

9 out of 10 dentists agree to recommending brands in exchange for money.

[cyrille]

How is the gardener doing around the place with all the rain? Bet he hasn't picked up a tool since you left.

Doesn't tc supply enough camp innuendo for the entire forum?