Same shit, different ship

[malmomike77]

^ with your swarthy looks and lingual fluency if you defuzzed a bit i reckon the Filipinas with be throwing themselves at you.

[Mendip]

^You would have thought so, wouldn't you.

It's just not happening.

Great stuff Mendy I he VFS cooperate considering what they charge.

David, I heard this morning that VFS will hold the passport for an extra five days, so not only will I be staying onboard for six weeks but now I can also book flights to the UK this summer.

I'm looking forward to a few Inches already!

[malmomike77]

I can also book flights to the UK this summer.

Itinerary?

[Edmond]

Itinerary?

With 8 weeks of daily threadmill and no booze, the first stop will be a shop selling 32 inch waist jeans.

[cyrille]

I'm looking forward to a few Inches already!

I daren't ask...

[Mendip]

^

[Mendip]

Itinerary?

A bit early for that yet Mike.

The first step will be to find out the daughter's school holiday dates and then book flights.

We'll be based at my mum's in Somerset and so far Lyme Regis is on the list again.

[malmomike77]

^bit of island hopping IOW or Jersey?

[david44]

Thatch natch from Somerset should be your basic or is Land's End up Mudgeley still going, spent some fine time up there

[Edmond]

Mendo, do they have a skipping rope in the gym?

I highly recommend getting into as part of a weights set.

They won't recognize you when you back Rain-land.

[malmomike77]

^ As a nipper we used to pop in to Tuckers Grave for a drop of dry quite often

[armstrong]

Mendo, do they have a skipping rope in the gym?

I highly recommend getting into as part of a weights set.

They won't recognize you when you back Rain-land.

A couple of years ago to promote a fitness week at school the teachers were asked to skip for 1 minute in assembly.

The whistle blew and everyone set off skipping like a boxer in a movie.

Then there's me skipping like a fat 6 year old girl.... The memory still wakes me up at night.

[katie23]

you nearly went full OhOh there

Lol. Nobody beats OhOh in KGB/ FSB type of interrogations. I'm a rookie compared to him.

@mendy - thanks for answering my questions re: the ROV. Re: Randy, I'm kinda disappointed in him. I haven't seen SPAM in the ship's breakfast spread.

Btw, salamat = thanks. If you want to up your game, say "maraming salamat" = many thanks.

[DrWilly]

Selamat is used as a greeting in Bahasa Indonesian and Malay. Usually precedes the time of day, so selamat pagi for good morning or selamat malam or good evening etc.

[BLD]

Ok, I am sharing an office. The comment about being given my own was a weak attempt at humour with Dill after he suggested I wasn't popular.

I wish I hadn't bothered now!

After that jolity I promise to get serious in a minute with some food pics.

I got it. And had a chuckle. Its all good

[BLD]

Not at all. I'm practicing total abstinence this trip.

Starting tomorrow!


We've left the Gullfaks field for a while now and are heading in to an offshore base close to Bergen for a crew change. Just a couple of things from yesterday...

The Askeladden jack-up drill rig busy drilling the new satellite wells around the Gullfaks field centre. Templates will be installed close to the new wells and product transported by flowline back to the Gullfaks platforms for some processing and then transport to shore by export pipelines.



The wind turbines I mentioned that now power the Gullfaks field, and maybe several other nearby fields as well.



The Gullfaks field is up on the edge of the North Sea Plateau and a common fishing area. Yesterday there were a couple of pairs of trawlers, pair-trawling around the field.

Off the stern...



And off the port side...



These guys work in pairs and drag a trawl net between them. They have good sonar equipment and often target the subsea pipelines where the fish try to shelter... and then the fishermen complain when they snag their nets on the pipelines. They even get compensation.

Below the water it looks something like this.



The nets drag along the seabed being kept down by huge metal trawl boards and a string of nets... and destroy everything in their path. The seabed is churned up killing all the benthos for months to come... fish, shell fish, gastropods, bivalves, annelids... all killed. I've read that 4kg of marine organisms are killed for every kg of fish caught.

The majority of the seabed across the North Sea is just a lifeless underwater desert... apart from around the platforms. A 500m exclusion zone is in place around all offshore installations and as we survey a pipeline we don't need the navigation to know when we've entered a platform safety zone... the seabed becomes alive with mussels, shrimps, fanworms etc etc and there are so many fish we often have to stop the surveys. In my opinion the platform safety zones are the fish population's last chance to avoid complete collapse... and yet Greenpeace vilifies the oil industry without a murmour about the fishing industry. Bastards.

OK, so there have been a few major events, but the occasional small leakage or spillage is a drop in the ocean compared to the hydrocarbons that naturally seep and bubble out of the seabed. Vessels in the oil industry are modern and without fuel efficiency and low emissions, wouldn't even get on the bid list for work. One small spillage is subject to countless reports and there's no hiding anything. Compare that to the unregulated, ancient, rusty fishing boats belching out black smoke and leaving a trail of oil in their wake...

And don't get me started on the huge amount of dumped fish we sometimes find rotting on the seabed having washed up against pipelines...

But anyway, nothing will change.

No work thread would be complete without a pic of our survey ROV... this is the beast that wins this company so much work. Seabed mapping can be carried out at 4 kts (2 m/s) and pipeline inspection of trunk lines at 1.3 m/s (resolution of digital video is our limiting factor there). I could go on, but a picture will do.

Thats very interesting. Like in the mining industry you cannot please everyone. Everything is mined. Start with the plate you eat your dinner from.( made from clay) Your knife and made from metal. The pint glass made of sand. Everybody drives a car etc runs an aircon ? So why the mining and oil industry considered nasty?.

[Mendip]

^ Exactly. We're only responding to demand.

Mendo, do they have a skipping rope in the gym?

I'll check tonight.

Re: Randy, I'm kinda disappointed in him. I haven't seen SPAM in the ship's breakfast spread.

Btw, salamat = thanks. If you want to up your game, say "maraming salamat" = many thanks.

I'm not sure they even stock SPAM on the boat, would you believe. I don't think it's a staple of the Norwegian diet.

I'll ask Randy about it tonight, and then I can say "maraming salamat"! I think I'd better write that one down on a piece of paper.


I've had quite a stressful week because the wife went into hospital on Monday with some kind of infection she reckons she picked up during her up-country Songkran sojourn. To be honest I'm not that surprised knowing the shite she would have been eating. She's no hypochondriac and has been on a drip for a couple of days on anti-biotics but I've tried and failed to discover exactly what the issue is. But this has meant that the daughter has been home alone which is far from ideal for an 11 year-old. Thank God for the gardener... he's earnt his crust this week. It's not been easy sorting out getting ready for school, meals and God knows what else over the phone and with Whatsapp messages and I've been up late and had little sleep and sadly missed a few gym sessions. The daughter has coped admirably and I'm very proud of her. Lola has played her part as well, keeping the daughter company in bed at night.

This must be the biggest problem with working offshore when you have a family. I considered getting off the boat and getting home, which this company would have accommodated, but I'm glad I didn't. I guessed correctly that things would work themselves out... the wife is being discharged tonight and I didn't lose a month's work. Now, instead of getting some much needed sleep I have to wait to pay what the insurance won't cover and it's taking an age...

There's always something.

While I'm waiting... we had a crew change today at the CCB offshore base a few km north of Bergen.





Three years ago during Covid this place was crammed with laid up equipment, boats and rigs due to the lack of work but now it's deserted, a testament to a booming industry.

There's a couple of drilling rigs across the sound.



At the back of the base, up the hill there's a petrol station with a bar attached and in years gone by the nightshift would head up there and get pissed during crew changes.



My 12-12 shift was ideal... finish shift, a bite to eat, up the hill and then sink as many pints as possible until around 4pm while the crew change was going on. We usually head back out to sea late afternoon... so straight to bed and up for the midnight shift with a hangover. Great stuff.

I don't even bother getting off the boat these days... zero tolerance and all that.

But crew change days are still OK... a couple mates from the UK joined today and I made full use of them. A nice little haul to take back to Korat!

[DrWilly]

Just dont squeeze that paste onto your cheese!

[malmomike77]

^^ hope for a speedy recovery for Mrs Mendip

[Edmond]

to take back to Korat!

The 3 tonnes of cheese will be lucky to see morning, never mind fuxing Korat.

[Mendip]

^ Thanks mate, she's on her way home. It must have been nasty cos she has to go back every day for a while for an anti-biotic drip.

I'll sleep better tonight knowing the daughter isn't in the house with just Lola for protction.


^^ Edit. The cheese will go to Korat along with the daughter's Easter chocolates.

I reckon.

[david44]

Lovely vignette of cabin fever and the little luxuries from home that make all the deferens.
Reminds me of very welcome parcels from home when amongst the heathen hordes.

What is your job title in Norwegian, Bottom Explorer?

[Reg Dingle]

Why wouldn't you just get all that at Villa Market on your passport runs instead of taking back a load of sweaty cheese from a long haul?

I guessed correctly that things would work themselves out... the wife is being discharged tonight and I didn't lose a month's work. Now, instead of getting some much needed sleep I have to wait to pay what the insurance won't cover

Have you left the wife with no money?

Get well soon Mrs. Mendy

[helge]

The majority of the seabed across the North Sea is just a lifeless underwater desert... apart from around the platforms.

Oh; back to the good old oil industy whitewash !

OK, so there have been a few major events

Surely the oil and gas industry has the biggest footprint concerning emissions and pollution and an undisputed record in suppressing fact, numbers, stats of their dirty deeds.

but the occasional small leakage or spillage is a drop in the ocean compared to the hydrocarbons that naturally seep and bubble out of the seabed.

They are hard to plug

One small spillage is subject to countless reports and there's no hiding anything.

Surely you are joking ?

Chemicals of all 4colours are leaked, let out and at times also with permission.

Small fines are even written

Compare that to the unregulated, ancient, rusty fishing boats belching out black smoke and leaving a trail of oil in their wake...

Or countless oilworkers pendling around the world looking for their daily bread

And don't get me started on the huge amount of dumped fish we sometimes find rotting on the seabed having washed up against pipelines...

Yes, scandalous, but the kvota kings has friends and lackeys in high places just as the oil industry has.

But anyway, nothing will change.

You are right

Not as long as greed rules the world.

Good that you and I won't have to answer our great grandchildrens questions about "what the fuck we were thinking ?"

[baldrick]

became a series of questions,

there are schools for this in the Philippines

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