Same shit, different ship

[armstrong]

And you are completely correct Shutree.

All this talk about chocolate motivated me to loom at my Easter egg more closely and it's like a Tardis egg. I can't believe how much stuff they crammed in... and yes Shutree, I repacked everything and taped the egg together.



FYI, that 'Kvikk Lunsj' bar is an exact rip off of s Kit-Kat, the 'Japp' bars are exactly the same as a Mars bar and the 'Stratos' bars are no different to an Aero. I don't know how the Norwegians get away with these direct copies, I would have thought there would be some kind of copyright or something.

One of the trainees gave me that yellow egg on the right which she told me is full of creamy stuff... so a copy of a Cadbury's Cream Egg but without, it seems, the yolk. The daughter can have that as well... probably.

And as you can see I also picked up a Polar Bear and a Norwegian Husky from Tromsø airport. The daughter has done well already this trip.

And if she gets good marks in her Science project I may also give her the spare Emirates teaspoon. I think case closed on my generosity!

My dad once spent an entire year working offshore in the USA and all I got was a Green Bay Packers t shirt.

And daddy issues.

[Headworx]

The daughter can have that as well... probably.

[Edmond]

My dad once spent an entire year working offshore

Will have to remember that one.

Ohhh, I gotta job, yeah 12 months I'll be away in the middle of the sea. I wish I didn't have to do a 12 month stint, but hey....Okay, see everyone in 12 months time.

[OhOh]

Unless there are major obstructions on the seabed such as a wreck, unexpected outcropping bedrock or dumped munitions,

although we have a specialist on board for the munitions detection

I assume you or others are monitoring the route ahead constantly. If any "obstructions" are spotted ahead how long does the ship, time and distance, take to stop and the "specialist" to arrive?

This is what I meant by working for a nice company... everyone on the vessel received a Norwegian Easter egg yesterday.

A sign of a thoughtful company.

[armstrong]

Will have to remember that one.

Ohhh, I gotta job, yeah 12 months I'll be away in the middle of the sea. I wish I didn't have to do a 12 month stint, but hey....Okay, see everyone in 12 months time.

If you could at least bring back a present not to do with an NFL team I've never heard of that'd be great.

[armstrong]

And by me I mean your kid. Those daddy issues still ain't fixed

[bsnub]

The daughter has done well already this trip.

You are not really going to mail all that back to LOS? IT would seem more logical to just give your daughter a few bucks to buy whatever she chooses.

[CalEden]

Mendie concerning look out for WWII mines. Have you ever seen one and how frequently do they turn up? Do you have any photos of the mines? Are the mines the traditional round spiky things?

Your work trip threads are very interesting. Very surprised that you flew a no booze airline going to a country with extremely expensive booze.

[Mendip]

^ Cal, Emirates has booze! The Norwegian prices affect me not since it's dry offshore. My next pint will be at an airport on my way home.

It's surprising how often mines turn up during surveys. Trawlers often snag them in nets and the mines get trawled up against pipelines where they get deposited and we find them during pipeline inspections. Many are of the spherical, spiky type, about 1 metre diameter but they vary a lot. German WW2 mines are often flat and cylindrical with segments of explosives, looking a bit like a cut pie. And then there's depth charges that look like small drums and a myriad of shell shaped munitions.

One thing we look for in the side scan sonar is a lineation of strong targets... the mines were laid from the back of a mine layer and occur in straight lines. Two targets together is typical, the mine and the mine sinker. The mine sinker is what the mines were tethered to... a metal box with a reel which sank to the seabed and then un-spooled the mine to the correct depth below the surface. The mines had an outer casing to make them buoyant but this has long corroded allowing the mine to also sink down to the seabed, often alongside it's sinker.

This is a mine... easily mistaken for a spherical boulder. If needs be we have equipment (magnetometer) which can detect ferrous targets but usually we rely on visual inspection.



And from the opposite angle. Here you can see that the outer casing has corroded away leaving the charge visible.



A mine in better condition with the detonation spikes visible.



And another covered in anemones. A few spikes are visible.

I assume you or others are monitoring the route ahead constantly. If any "obstructions" are spotted ahead how long does the ship, time and distance, take to stop and the "specialist" to arrive?

OhOh, we can't monitor ahead of a route. We survey a route and can only report on the status at the time of the survey. Our surveys are done a long time before a pipeline is laid and any obstructions (which may be identified a long time after the survey during post-processing) are reported on and then the Client will take appropriate actions.

Before a product is laid there is a legal requirement to carry out a pre-lay survey within 30 days of lay to ensure that no new obstructions have been dropped or trawled onto the proposed route. If something is then found it can be a a bit hectic to remove said item if the lay barge is approaching on the horizon.

[Mendip]

My dad once spent an entire year working offshore in the USA and all I got was a Green Bay Packers t shirt.

And daddy issues.

I'm sorry about that. You are more than welcome to the little hard licorice chewy things out of my daughter's selection? I can't... I mean she can't stand them.

Will have to remember that one.

Ohhh, I gotta job, yeah 12 months I'll be away in the middle of the sea. I wish I didn't have to do a 12 month stint, but hey....Okay, see everyone in 12 months time.

My wife fully understands that this is a four week trip, that could get extended to six, or even eight weeks at short notice!

You are not really going to mail all that back to LOS? IT would seem more logical to just give your daughter a few bucks to buy whatever she chooses.

Even more logical mate, would be for me to stick them in my bag and take them home with me!


We're back offshore now and this was my last view of land. I sit in this chair for half an hour or so after shift to watch the news.



The Norwegians always say that they are completely different to the Swedes and find it a major insult if you call them Swedish... but they're all the same to me. The Norwegians even have Ikea yoghurts which you have to assemble before eating.



No problem for an accomplished wood worker like meself of course, but it's a hassle I could do without before breakfast.

[david44]

Great stuff buddy , being dry was one of the few pluses of the Magic Kingdom, so sober and saving. I cannot imagine what driving would be like in Riyadh if grog ever became legal.

P.S.

Do these mines get dealt with by Norwegian UXB ordinance forces or just located and left ?

[CalEden]

^ Cal, Emirates has booze! The Norwegian prices affect me not since it's dry offshore. My next pint will be at an airport on my way home.

It's surprising how often mines turn up during surveys. Trawlers often snag them in nets and the mines get trawled up against pipelines where they get deposited and we find them during pipeline inspections. Many are of the spherical, spiky type, about 1 metre diameter but they vary a lot. German WW2 mines are often flat and cylindrical with segments of explosives, looking a bit like a cut pie. And then there's depth charges that look like small drums and a myriad of shell shaped munitions.

One thing we look for in the side scan sonar is a lineation of strong targets... the mines were laid from the back of a mine layer and occur in straight lines. Two targets together is typical, the mine and the mine sinker. The mine sinker is what the mines were tethered to... a metal box with a reel which sank to the seabed and then un-spooled the mine to the correct depth below the surface. The mines had an outer casing to make them buoyant but this has long corroded allowing the mine to also sink down to the seabed, often alongside it's sinker.

This is a mine... easily mistaken for a spherical boulder. If needs be we have equipment (magnetometer) which can detect ferrous targets but usually we rely on visual inspection.



And from the opposite angle. Here you can see that the outer casing has corroded away leaving the charge visible.



A mine in better condition with the detonation spikes visible.



And another covered in anemones. A few spikes are visible.






OhOh, we can't monitor ahead of a route. We survey a route and can only report on the status at the time of the survey. Our surveys are done a long time before a pipeline is laid and any obstructions (which may be identified a long time after the survey during post-processing) are reported on and then the Client will take appropriate actions.

Before a product is laid there is a legal requirement to carry out a pre-lay survey within 30 days of lay to ensure that no new obstructions have been dropped or trawled onto the proposed route. If something is then found it can be a a bit hectic to remove said item if the lay barge is approaching on the horizon.

Thanks! Very interesting. In the 80's when I worked in Aerospace, we had a division that had a contract with the US Navy to fabricate steel mine housings. These marine mines actually looked like torpedo's, primarily because they were meant to be ejected from Submarines. But also, could be dropped from aircraft. These mines were quite large about 9 feet long and 1.5 feet in diameter. The Handling mines (logistic practice mines) mine cases filled with Vermiculite Concrete weighed in at about 900 pounds. The curing concrete generated so much heat the steel casings became too hot to touch with bare hands.

These mines were meant to lay on the sea floor and could be triggered many ways, ex magnetically, by acoustic signatures etc. The explosion wasn't meant to directly destroy the target vessel, the massive pressure shock wave, massive under water mushroom shaped air bubble carried out most of the destructive forces to the target vessel.

[Mendip]

^ Interesting Cal. I'm guessing that magnetic mines wouldn't be of so much use off Norway where there's deep water close to shore. The fjords can easily be 2-300m or more in depth right close to land and I imagine that a mine on the seabed would have little effect on a ship passing over.

Many years ago we found a mine on a pipeline route and a team from the Norwegian Navy came out to deal with it. The mine lay on the seabed in around 500m of water and we were told to stand off 2km for detonation. When it was detonated (or blown apart, more like) the shock wave hit our vessel as a heavy thud (even from that distance) and it broke the seals around the prop shaft. Sound waves certainly get propagated well through water.

I think that most of the mines we find are British/Allied mines laid during WW2. Norway was occupied and many mine arrays were laid off the Norwegian coast to try to contain the German Navy (in Bergen you can still see bunkers hewed into the solid rock where the Germans kept U-boats.

As I mentioned before, we find the mines and the mine sinkers.



The box under the mine is the sinker which contains weight and also a reel of wire rope attached to the mine. When the whole arrangement hits the seabed, the mine is hydro-statically released and being buoyant, spools out from the reel of wire rope. If the length of wire rope has been calculated correctly the mine should lay suspended a few metres under the surface of the sea, waiting for a ship. After a few years the outer casing of the mine corrodes and the mine sinks to the seabed, landing alongside it's sinker, which is how we usually find them 80 years later. Many also get snagged in fishing nets and trawled across the seabed, often ending up against pipelines.

Do these mines get dealt with by Norwegian UXB ordinance forces or just located and left ?

I remember once, many years ago, when we recovered a mine to the back deck. It seems like madness now but those were different times before HSE took over. Maybe in this case it's a good thing that HSE have got involved?

Often now the mines are just left alone. The explosives are stable after so long in the water and there is no chance of them being detonated... I think. If we find a mine against a pipeline we may drag it away a few hundred metres, record the position and leave it. Whether the Norwegian Navy then deal with it I don't know, but I don't think so. More often that not we don't drag it away but just leave it be, the thinking being that they are best left undisturbed.

Years ago there was more panic and the mines were usually dealt with. Here is one we found close to a pipeline and we first dragged it away for some distance in a cargo net.



The net was then removed and operations were handed over to a Navy team. You can see that all that was left of this mine was the charge and a small part of the outer casing.



A charge was laid against the mine.



And it was blown up. My understanding is that the explosives are so old that they aren't detonated but just blown apart.

And the 'after' picture...

[CalEden]

I'm guessing that magnetic mines wouldn't be of so much use off Norway where there's deep water close to shore. The fjords can easily be 2-300m or more in depth right close to land and I imagine that a mine on the seabed would have little effect on a ship passing over.

Mendie, I'm not an expert in mines, I have "a little more expertise" in both liquid and solid propellent rocket motors (My Aerospace Job). The way it was explained to me by an engineer, the mine explosion pressure wave/super-fast massive air bubble ejects the vessel out of the water the keel has no support and breaks apart. A Fjord may magnify this effect by being in a confined space, much like a rocket motor, explosives ignited in a tube the pressure escapes through the only open-end creating thrust/lift.

[Shutree]

when we recovered a mine to the back deck. It seems like madness now

Maybe I am simply risk adverse, dragging up unexploded ordnance then keeping it on deck wouldn't ever have been my approach. I mean, what could possibly go wrong?

[Mendip]

^ Yeah, it does seem a bit odd looking back and I'm sure it raised some eyebrows and instigated a myriad of meetings. Vessels operated with a lot more autonomy back then, pre-internet and email.

Mind in saying that, and I have to be careful in what I say, there is a story from just a couple of years ago of potential dumped munitions being recovered to a vessel, whereupon a crew member tried to open a metal casing with a grinder to see what was inside.

I think that in some cases HSE is a good thing because some people really do need protecting from themselves.

[david44]

a grinder to see what was inside.

Always risly stick to Tindr

Great thread mate and pix , a Mine of info eh?

[malmomike77]

I think that in some cases HSE is a good thing because some people really do need protecting from themselves.

is he sill working with the company of did he fail the IQ test once they decided to check again

[Reg Dingle]

Mind in saying that, and I have to be careful in what I say

For fear of incriminating yourself?

[Mendip]

^, ^^

It wasn't me... and you have to do a lot worse than jeopardise the safety of a boat and it's entire crew to lose your job in Norway, but I'm sure he had a good talking to.


Anyway, we just passed the Goliat FPSO. For a long time this has been the most northerly platform in the world but I think the Johan Castberg FPSO is now in production and that's a fair way further north in the Barents Sea. There will be more to follow as well with all the development going on up here.



The Goliat is a 90m diameter, cylindrical FPSO, specially designed for the harsh Arctic environment. And for some reason my phone has started taking square photos.

[DrWilly]

What would be the output of a platform like that?

[Reg Dingle]

It wasn't me

A bit of a coincidence that year long holiday you've just had and your big toenail that fell/ got grinded off

[malmomike77]

^ he was quite handy at chopping up frozen black pudding too.

[Reg Dingle]

^ wasn't he just

[Topper]

whereupon a crew member tried to open a metal casing with a grinder to see what was inside.

Well, you're still being hired, so it seems HSE is a forgiving bunch.