Same shit, different ship

[Edmond]

Bloody auto-correct.

Always changes Baltic to Barents...

True.

I just ordered a barent from the Indian.

[baldrick]

Forza

forza in malagasy is slang for ugly - from the word forza ulana , which are the freshwater crayfish that live in the rice paddies

[Mendip]

^ You live and learn...

[Mendip]

This was all very familiar...



Back to it, with some old work mates on a decent boat.



I like to think they were trying to woo me back with a nice, single cabin with a big window (portholes are round, so I'm OK calling this a window). But it was more likely that the new medic didn't realise I was freelance and mistakenly gave me a 'senior's' cabin.

The next deck up are the skipper's and senior ship's officer's cabins. I've finally made it!



Nice view...



I soon unpacked and settled in for the next four weeks...



Hopefully the start of a regular rotation for the rest of the year.



This is the Sleipner Platform. It doesn't look much but the gas from the Langeled Pipeline passes through this platform, transported from mid-way up Norway from the Ormen Lange Field on it's journey to Easington. This pipeline supplies around 30% of the UK's gas requirements, and with Labour's decision to shut down the UK oil and gas industry the gas flow through this pipeline will only increase. The UK still has the requirement, only now they will be importing more gas at increased price and increased emissions due to the vast energy required to transport the gas thousands of miles. The UK further loses energy security while being responsible for an increase in global emissions... but of course they can say they are striving for 'Net Zero'.

Or maybe I'm missing something?



Labour's strategy is good for Norway of course, and good for oil and gas workers established in Norway... so mustn't grumble.

A problem I've discovered with having a fancy cabin with a big window up on Deck 5 is that the movement is much greater in bad weather than with the cabins down on Deck 3 where the riff-raff are billeted, and also it's impossible to block out the afternoon light from the cabin during my sleep time... I'm on my favourite midnight to midday shift.

Also, there can be a distinct loss of privacy...



This is the Draupner Platform. Gas export pipelines to Zeebrugge, Emden and Dornum originate at this platform. The Norwegians really have got it made and are steadily increasing output to replace Russia's European gas supply.

You've gotta draw the curtains if you want a bit of 'me time' in this cabin!

[DrWilly]

Also, there can be a distinct loss of privacy...

You've gotta draw the curtains if you want a bit of 'me time' in this cabin

TMI Bendy Mendy.

[Joe 90]

Nice cabin and view!

You've landed onnuour feet there.

I doubt there are peeping toms with binoculars on that rig but you never know, strange bunch out there.

Your window has a black out roller blind and curtains.

Will you get 5 star food as well as a room.

[bsnub]

Nice cabin and view!

A big upgrade over the last boat for sure.

Will you get 5 star food as well as a room.

Five-star food is above both you and Mendys pay grade.

[armstrong]

A big upgrade over the last boat for sure.



Five-star food is above both you and Mendys pay grade.

Have you ever done a decent day's work in your life

[Reg Dingle]

I like to think they were trying to woo me back with a nice, single cabin with a big window (portholes are round, so I'm OK calling this a window). But it was more likely that the new medic didn't realise I was freelance and mistakenly gave me a 'senior's' cabin.

You sure it weren't down to the complaints from your previous ship mates about your last session of 'Me Time'?

[Mendip]

^ FFS, this is a bit much.

But I've gotta say, Nike Wank Socks... that's class.

Your window has a black out roller blind and curtains.

The 'black out' blind is pretty ineffective and the curtains are even more threadbare than my wicking boxers. Some of the guys tape up the blind to the window but it seems a shame to lose the view permanently. I may never again again get a cabin like this.

Five-star food is above both you and Mendys pay grade.

I can't disagree with that... three star food with a portion of peas is perfectly good enough for me. Three-star hotels as well. I'm not flash!


Evert day I get these photo notifications from One Drive, showing pictures from this day from 1 year ago, 2 years ago, 5 years ago, etc. Today it included these pictures from this day, 20 years ago. I seem to remember that we were supporting the Stena Apache during a pipe lay and one of the guys on the Apache sent over these pictures.



Coincidentally, I was working for the same contractor as I'm working for today and the Edda Fonn was also operated by the same shipping company as the boat I'm on today. All a bit depressing, to be honest.

I had my last drink offshore on the Edda Fonn on New Years Eve 2006 at the Aasgard Field, Norway. I remember I shared a small bottle of whisky in the cabin of the same guy who I meet up with at Fitzgerald's on Soi 4, 20 years later. Another coincidence.

I was young and daft back then... no way would I risk the job for a shot of whisky these days.

[baldrick]

Edda Fonn

looks like she is enjoying some DP

[david44]

Is there pipe laying at the mermaid?, I heard they keep ther limbs tightly together under them fishnets.

Do not zoom onto the cabin tv screen, you will never unsee it.

[baldrick]

Do not zoom onto the cabin tv screen, you will never unsee it.

do not zoom in to any of reg dingleberries artistic creations - your wank sock will find it hard to forgive you and feel abused and ashamed

[david44]

Poor ole Munty, anna had a good rock n roll for hours, tossing and turning with the offshore second mate's rate meter running.

I hope they've told him he's in the sick bay and Big Erik may join him during the shifter change.

[Topper]

^ FFS, this is a bit much.

I agree, there's no way dolphins can jump that high.

[Looper]

I doubt there are peeping toms with binoculars on that rig but you never know

It looks like there is a walkway just outside the window where folk stand to have a ciggy so you probably don't want to forget those blinds!

This is the Draupner Platform. Gas export pipelines to Zeebrugge, Emden and Dornum originate at this platform.

Small world Mendy.

I worked in Bruges on the commissioning project for that pipeline over 30 years ago with my freshly minted Chemical Engineering degree.

It was a 40 inch gas pipeline from Zeebrugge to Sleipner with a 30 inch extension to Draupner if my memory serves me.

If you get any pics of it with your subsea rover I would be curious to see it.

[david44]

with a 30 inch extension

that explains your success!!

[bsnub]

Have you ever done a decent day's work in your life

By the time I was twenty-five, I had already worked harder than you have in your entire life. You are a fucking tefler do not tell me about hard work you fucking life loser.

I can't disagree with that... three star food with a portion of peas is perfectly good enough for me. Three-star hotels as well. I'm not flash!

I figured between your peas and chittys shoe leather steaks that I was not far off the mark.

[Joe 90]

Is your Deliveroo delivery of a dozen Krispy Kreme donuts for breakfast late again Snubbles?

[bsnub]

Is your Deliveroo delivery of a dozen Krispy Kreme donuts for breakfast late again Snubbles?

No donuts this weekend. Having a nice Caesar salad atm.

[Joe 90]

You on a health kick?

[Mendip]

It was a 40 inch gas pipeline from Zeebrugge to Sleipner with a 30 inch extension to Draupner if my memory serves me.

If you get any pics of it with your subsea rover I would be curious to see it.

Here ya go, Looper...

The 40" Zeepipe, present day...

In the Norwegian Sector we of course have a firm, clayey seabed with boulders, meaning that even after 30 odd years the pipeline still sits flush on the seabed with very little settlement. Boulders are an ever present problem... firstly we survey a route to either identify and clear away 8or re-route around) large boulders so that a pipeline doesn't get laid across them. Or, as in this case, trawlers regularly snag large boulders and drag them into pipelines creating quite an impact if trawling at 4 knots.



Things are better down in the Dutch Sector with thick, shifting unconsolidated sand allowing natural settlement of subsea pipelines. This is what we like to see and ideally the pipelines will completely self bury beneath the seabed.



A Dutch lobster.



Looper, your Zeepipe is but one of many large diameter subsea export pipelines that Norway use to export their gas across Europe. With this infrastructure in place it's easy to see how they can step in to replace Russia's gas supply... and also to keep the UK supplied now that Milliband has decided to close down our own oil and gas industry. Is it any wonder that Norway is such a phenomenally wealthy country?

I spent a season in the mid-90s on a survey vessel supporting the lay of Franpipe, which lies alongside Zeepipe before continuing on to Dunkirk.

Equinor have several thousand kilometres of subsea pipelines, all of which need inspecting on a cyclic programme. The contractor I'm currently working for has been given around 7000 kilometres of pipeline inspection this year... good work and guaranteed whatever the state of the industry. Even during the downturns, the pipelines still need inspection and maintenance.




Anyway, regarding the Edda Fonn in the post above that I was crew changing by helicopter on 20 years ago...

A few years ago it was refitted in Denmark...



And is now called the HMNZS Manawanui and was commissioned into the New Zealand navy in 2019.

Commissioning of HMNZS Manawanui - Ostensjo

A shame really as it was a really nice vessel to work on.

[david44]

Interesting, great pix as usual and the map, Why does it not show pipes to Netherlands or is it they have sufficient in their sector?

[Mendip]

^ The Netherlands has an offshore hydrocarbons industry, mainly if not all gas, as is typical for the southern North Sea. I don't know if they are self sufficient but there are also overland pipelines they could use to import gas.

Maybe the Netherlands had the common sense not to shut down their industry until renewables produce sufficient power, so they don't have to import gas at higher cost than locally produced?

[Topper]

A Dutch lobster.

Why is there a roll of toilet paper behind the lobster?