Same shit, different ship

[DrWilly]

Ah, they’ll shove all the sick and crippled into one cabin. Feck that!

[dirk diggler]

Muckle Brute means Big Beastie.

Massive.

[Mendip]

I’ll take the lergy for a 1 man cabin!

Get yerself a job in Norway and you'll get your own cabin AND have solid bowel movements.

It don't get better than that!

Actually, with the dredging crew and associated riggers and shift supervisors this is a very busy boat at the moment with a POB of 70, which is about full capacity. Consequently a lot of people are sharing cabins, but not yours truly who is on as a 'senior' this trip.

We usually have around mid 50s POB on here when everyone gets their own cabin.


Despite being 'senior' in more ways than one, this industry can still surprise me.

We've recently carried out what they call a 'rig entry survey', to ensure the seabed is free of obstructions before a drilling rig moves in to spud and start drilling. Part of this survey was a visual with magnetometer survey to detect any buried metallic debris that could cause an issue. I noticed a fishing lure on the seabed and just made note of it out of personal interest to see if it would cause any blip in the maggy data... to see how sensitive the system is.

Anyway, the clients have included my fishing lure in the list of debris and boulders to be recovered from the seabed before the rig moves in.

You've really gotta wonder at times... but anyway, I have bagsied it for my office 'rocks and memorabilia' shelf at home. I may even take it down to Koh Chang next month to see if I get any luck with the pink snapper.

[Edmond]

You're the same as my family, liking to keep souvenirs from places we've been, things we've done. You too are fully of prime Italian stock?

My mother has little glass jars/vases of sand from different places she or her children have been to. Red sand from Petra, sand from the pyramids, Phi Phi island, Bondi, the Sahara etc.

It's probably a bit late now, but would probably be nice to have a little bit of sediment from all the places you've surveyed sitting on your Leo table next to Yogi's nutsack when you decide to hang up yer caked-solid socks.

[cyrille]

They seem like souvenirs with sedimental value.

[Edmond]

How did I not think of that.

Syb wins the day.

[Mendip]

I hate these geological puns, they're schist.

Just not gneiss.

You're the same as my family, liking to keep souvenirs from places we've been, things we've done. You too are fully of prime Italian stock?

I've been called a few things in my life... but a wop?

Not one drop of eyetie blood do I have, but I am a bit of a sentimentalist, I must admit.

But tonight I was thwarted.

One 'gneiss' thing about this job these days is that we now have good navigation. When I started, GPS was just coming in and was used as a tertiary, contingency navigation back-up. We used to get navigation jumps of tens of metres which made repeatability rare, and finding something small for a second time very difficult.

But now the nav is spot on, and if a geo has reported a good position...

Tonight we are clearing the drill rig site of 'significant' debris.



They found my fishing lure immediately, but alas would not bring it back to deck for me. The ROV guys were worried that it would fall through gaps in the bottom of the basket at the front of the ROV... and potentially get snagged in something important, like a thruster for instance.

Spoil sports.



So they just removed it from the site, and dumped it.

To be honest it looked like a pretty shite, homemade lure anyway, but I would have still liked it on my shelf.

But all said and done, this lure created around 20 minutes of vessel work time, and I don't reckon you'd get much change from 100k Sterling to hire this vessel for a day with it's present spread... so potentially the most expensive fishing lure on the planet, apart from antique ones!

[DrWilly]

£1,389

challenge accepted.

Asked my friend and though partner, GenAi

Yes, there are definitely fishing lures that cost more than £1,389! Based on my search, I found several categories:

**Vintage/antique collectible lures (the really expensive ones):**
- The 1853 copper Giant Haskell Minnow sold for over $100,000 (about £79,000) at auction in 2003 (https://www.outdoorhub.com/stories/2...res-existence/) - making it the most expensive fishing lure ever sold
- Various other antique lures have sold for over $10,000 [![Fishgame]

[Mendip]

^ You win, antique Green owed!


Yesterday we finished up at Gullfaks, declared the rig entry site clear of obstacles and discarded fishing tackle, and moved on to pastures new.

Bye bye Gullfaks, my annual visit now over.



Next stop is the Mikkel field at Haltenbank, north-west of Kristiansund and way oop north... a 20 hour transit from Gullfaks.

The Snorre A platform is just north of Gullfaks.

And I don't know why my camera keeps doing photos like this, maybe just to annoy me. I think a phone upgrade may be on the cards over the next couple of years.



But anyway, we passed closer and I got a decent photo without all that grey.



In between the more urgent work associated with active projects on the vessel, I am working on an old project for the Snorre field, a route survey for a power cable from shore. Equinor are currently electrifying their platforms in a huge greenwashing exercise so that Norway can pretend to have minimal emissions while exporting gas all around Europe. It creates a lot of work.

The Snorre platform is a TLP (Tension Leg Platform), meaning that it's a semi-sub anchored to the seabed by means of cables under tension which attach to huge suction anchors on the seabed.



But anyway... onward to the north.



After dredging ops at Mikkel we go into Kristiansund, demob the dredging machine and the myriad of associated personnel, depending on time have a crew change, and then head even wayer oop north.

My crew change is currently planned for Hammerfest, at the northern cape way up in the Arctic Circle. That's a two day transit north even from Kristiansund.

We've been having regular sunsets the past few weeks which can be quite beautiful at sea...



And I show that because as we head northward there won't be many more sunsets, not at this time of year. I'll be spending midsummer way up there with the midnight sun and all that good stuff.

On the one hand it's nice to see, but on the other, my journey home from Hammerfest to Korat will be one hell of a long one. I usually break up the travel with a stop-over in Bangkok to rest up and sort out a few things, but not this time... the daughter has her end of year school 'Prom' on the Friday of my crew change week, so I'll have to do the journey in a oner to get home in time. She'll need someone reliable to help out.

[david44]

Lured to the norf , lovely account and photos plus Cy's zinger who could ass for more

stop-over in Bangkok to rest up and sort out a few things

Bangers will always be there for another time of holey Basil.

[HuangLao]

Safe journey, Mendy.
Keep on keeping on.

[Edmond]

that be some nice clear sky.


Any signs of the norther lights when you're skiving off yer night shift?

[malmomike77]

with a POB

I've been a POB quite a few times and quite a few were in the southern oceans, not every POB can hack it down there

[Mendip]

Any signs of the norther lights when you're skiving off yer night shift?

I'm too busy to look out the win... port hole.

Besides, it doesn't get dark any more.

Bangers will always be there for another time of holey Basil.

Yes I hope so... the sacrifices we make for kids.

Speaking of which, it's the daughter's 14th Birthday today, and this has taken me back 14 years...

I remember exactly where I was 14 years ago today... I was in Aberdeen for a crew change to join the Acergy Petrel. June 1st 2011 was a Wednesday and I had flown over, arrived Aberdeen Tuesday afternoon, bought a load of strong cheddar cheese, and then called my mate Tosh from Stonehaven and we got pissed up in the Old Blackfriars at the top of Marischal Street.

The wife called me early on the Wednesday morning (Aberdeen time) to say that she was going into theatre in Bangkok Hospital (Korat) for an emergency Caesarean and that she may lose signals because she was about to be wheeled into a lift... and then the line went dead.

To cut a long story short, the wife called again after a few hours to say that our daughter was born and all was good. She was born six weeks early with no problems, the offshore manager wouldn't allow me to crew change and sent me home after my day trip to Aberdeen, and I met my daughter for the first time in Korat on the Thursday evening (with a big bag of mature cheddar cheese).

The best laid plans and all that... I was on four week rotations back then, so the daughter's birth should have been bang in the middle of my next leave time but you can't plan for a birth six weeks early.

[malmomike77]

^ When did Jess progress from pureed peas to solid peas?

[BLD]

I've just jumped on the bathroom scales and it indicating I am a muckle brute. A big beastie. Indeed a large mammal

[malmomike77]

^ I bet you still float

[BLD]

Of course

[dirk diggler]

Similar nostalgia for me yesterday, as my youngest turned 6.

6 years ago I had a 6am chopper to the Elgin/Franklyn Platform for a N2 Leak test job with Halliburton. Sat there all day waiting for fog to clear while photos of my Son kept coming through, thinking just bump us til tomorrow so I can have 2 pints to celebrate. Then they managed to fly us out at 9 pm. I was gutted.

I must admit I’m absolutely gagging to get home after this hitch as I’ve been away since Mid-Jan. It’s been a smart career move but it’s not easy.

He was fair trickit with his new tablet though.

[Edmond]

Fair play to ye guys going out and leaving kids that yer raising behind, for the greater good.

Reckon I could do the 12 hours shifts, long haul flights, and Randy The Filipino BJs4Chillies rort etc, but would seriously struggle with that aspect of it.

I guess it's a lot easier nowadays with daily video calls etc, which must make it a helluva lot easier than in the 80s/90s etc.

[malmomike77]

^^ Good to see you insisting on standards with the young lads shirt Dirk

[dirk diggler]

And it wasn’t even a school day!

[malmomike77]

Class does not care about days, i always made my sons wear shirts when they weren't doing anything that meant they'd get dirty, well muddy, they always manage to attract dirty and stuff They still wear shirts a lot but moan about me creating expensive habits....... i said look at your birds, hoodies and Tees don't attract them

[Mendip]

^ I pretty much always wear long troosers and a shirt with a collar once I leave Isaan.

I think it's important to look smart and presentable when walking around Sukhumvit.


At the end of my shift yesterday lunchtime we were still heading northward, in thankfully flat calm seas. It's a strange light at these latitudes.



I knew we were nearing location when I saw the first of the cluster of Haltenbank platforms... I am pretty sure this was Njord (horizon, left of centre!).



The Mikkel development is subsea, tied back to Asgard. This is good news for me because I can go outside to take a picture without wearing PPE. When we work within platform 500m safety zones PPE is mandatory but I left mine at home so generally sneak outside when no-ones around to keep this thread updated.

Tonight we were dredging away. The moon was up and the sun was just below the horizon...



... at midnight.

In fact, it was just after midnight - unusually my watch is keeping good time at the moment - and I was late for my shift to take the stupid pictures for this thread (although I had already done a half hour handover a while before).



I was surprised at how light it was at midnight... there's still three weeks until the longest day and we're at 64.6 degrees north, still a way south pf the Arctic Circle at 66.5 degrees north.

We're north-west of Kristiansund, and looking at a map we're not even half way up Norway. In a couple of weeks we should be working north of Hammerfest, way oop there. I've worked in the Barents Sea off the Northern Cape a few times, but never (I think) during mid-summer. I'm interested to see how high up in the sky the midnight sun will be on the 21st June.

[DrWilly]

Can’t be too cold if your wrists and hands are bare…