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Published: December 17th 2006
Well much has gone on since I last put something up. It's getting harder to get access to the internet as they are starting to place me/us on jobs now which gives me little time onshore in the office. But before all that the offshore survival training was awesome. We had to do an underwater helicopter escape in a controlled environment which involved the helicopter turning upside down starpped in then getting out of there. We found it so much fun, the instructors took us through how the pilots do it as well. The fire fighting was wicked as there were three hoses/teams fighting a wall of fire about 3 feet from the face of it.
I just got back from my first job yesterday morning. It was retrieving and then deploying current meters off about 12 hours off the coast of Abu Dhabi. What was planned for 2 days turned into 6 because of the weather and the ability of the divers to get seasick in some very flat conditions. The crew was primarily Egyptian with an South African surveyor on there as well. It went pretty smoothly but when the divers found the first frame it was destroyed
with all the nuts and bolts corroding in the 30 days it was underwater. The other two were in similar states. Since we were in port for the first 3 nights we went to the pub (not seen in Sharjah) and went and played golf under lights. Now that was fun. The crew was great and very accommodating the whole time and I was told I struck it lucky with that crew. I will soon find out if I did on my next job coming up.
Yesterday I was briefed on my next job. An Iranian oil pipeline just off the coast of Iran is leaking so I being sent with an engineer to position the ship over the leak and position the anchors so as the repairs can be made. This is going to be interesting as I seem to be in charge of the operation, and only on my second job. Coupled with that, it will be on an Iranian ship so don't really know what to expect. A few guys from work including Bailey are coming to help mobilise the ship (install all the equipment etc) tomorrow and then will be offshore for about 10 days
"enshala". I have found this to be an frequently used phrase in aribic on the boats, what it means is "God willing" or "if it be Alah's will". I even started using it and the crew were impressed.
The rain is continally pouring down over here, it is very unusal but is welcomed by everyone as is doesn't happen often. People stop work to go outside to watch it and sometimes play.
Must push off but would be good to hear from some of you as to what everyone is up to and whats going on back home. Until next time!
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