Nomad Mariner

No man will be a sailor.

"No man will be a sailor who has contrivance enough to get himself into jail; for being in a ship is being in a jail, with the chance of being drowned."

 

"A ship is worse than a gaol. There is, in a gaol, better air, better company, better conveniency of every kind; and a ship has the additional disadvantage of being in danger."

 

"Men go to sea, before they know the unhappiness of that way of life; and when they have come to know it, they cannot escape from it, because it is then too late to choose another profession; as indeed is generally the case with men, when they have once engaged in any particular way of life."
Boswell: Life

Don't tell my mum.

Some parts of the world you really just don’t want to go near!

It is very rarely mentioned in the modern news but piracy is alive and well on the worlds waterways. Three times a week we get a message on our Sat C terminal outlining the latest attacks throughout the Asia/Africa region and they do not reassure a sailor. Attacks are getting worse and more violent as people in various parts of the world become more and more desperate to survive.

These reports do serve a purpose in keeping us alert to the possibilities of an attack and definitely help in emphasising our drills etc. For a list of the latest attacks in my region click here.

I have included below two that are particularly note worthy they really keep us awake at night.

NIGERIA
Violent attack, on anti piracy watch keeping crew, reported by vessel at anchor. Masters advised to brief their crews on the risks associated with patrolling the decks at night and impress upon the crew the need to be vigilant and report anything suspicious. Keeping in mind hours of rest Masters should consider increasing the number of watch keepers to the maximum available, thus enabling them to work in pairs.

SOMALIA
Masters advised to exercise caution while proceeding to render assistance to dhows / fishing boats while approaching / transiting the Somalia coast. Reports received have indicated vessels as far as 390 nm from the Somali coast are called up by drifting dhows / fishing boats requesting assistance.

A moments reflection while at the office

Its not a good hour to be writing, well for me anyway, as it is 0100 and I have already completed my hours. However I have no choice we are alongside the drilling rig Stena Clyde and the second mate, while he is experienced as an officer, has not had much experience driving vessels in the offshore. He is sitting in the aft bridge controls driving, keeping the vessel stationary and a few meters away from the side of the rig. I am up to make sure he does not have a panic attack and make a serious mistake. In the long run this will be better for both of us as he gains the knowledge and I gain confidence in him so allowing me to sleep easier when he is by himself. We have been asked to give the rig Bentonite and drill water. The rig has just started the hole and is losing drilling fluid fast at present so we are in to top them up. Why at this hour? I don’t know but that is the name of the game in the offshore.

We transfer product to the rig by 5” inch hoses that are always to short, one end is lowered down to our vessel by the crane and our crew connect it to the manifold. The big thing is that the vessel is held in position by using the ships engines. We don’t anchor or tie up to the rig. This means constant attention by the driver to keep the vessel in position and ensure that we don’t strain the hoses or run over them.

Always nerve wracking for the master to stand and watch someone else drive. You know that it would be so much easier jumping into the chair and doing it yourself but that is not the way for others to learn and so you have to bite your tongue and let them run with it.

Earlier on my watch I was able to make a connection with my mobile broadband modem and down load emails to my laptop. Modern technology is pretty amazing these days and to have such communication available is exciting. One of the emails was saying that a friend had posted a comment on my wall at facebook. Facebook is one of those amazing websites where people can get together with like interests from all over the world. It caters for all sorts of groups and for most of the groups any one can join. I am a member of several but the one I interact mostly with is the Concordia class of 94-95. I was the second mate for the first half of that trip and mate the second. Now some of the students have formed a group and I am now, after all these years, back in contact with them. I must confess it is a great medium and I really enjoy being in touch with these people, after all the years, progressing so well.

For the year that I sailed with these students we travelled almost around the world. Starting from the west coast of Canada we sailed west finishing on the east coast of Canada, so almost a circumnavigation. I can still recall vividly the day the students first came down to the vessel. We were in Vancouver at a park where an official ceremony was being held to commence the start of the year. The ships crew were aboard in their best gear and the students were all dressed in their school uniforms. It was all very formal and to someone like myself a bit over the top. The students came aboard with their parents and were shown about the vessel, I kept thinking Oh boy these are just kids still hanging on to their parents! At the end of the year I recall that day again as we sailed into Sydney, Nova Scotia the end of our voyage. Those same kids were a lot different from when we first met in far away Vancouver. Somehow they had matured five years in the one. No longer did they require their parents, they were independent, motivated and self reliant. I knew that there would be massive readjustment problems for not only them but their parents in the role structure at home. I also had thoughts that they may have difficulty with readjusting to their friends as they had matured five years and had such a broad education. Where as their friends were still doing the same thing that they were a year ago. I always wondered if friendships waned or strengthened on reunion and how did parents react when is such a short time their children became adults?

The ports and countries we visited were;

Vancouver B.C. Canada

Horseshoe Bay B.C. Canada

Victoria B.C. Canada

New Angeles, Washington USA

Hawaii USA

Marshall Islands

Nauru

Solomon Islands

Darwin, Australia

Bali, Indonesia

Christmas Island, Australia

Cocos, Australia

Chagos,

Seychelles

Mombasa, Kenya

Zanzibar, Tanzania

Durban, South Africa

Cape Town, South Africa

Walvis Bay, Namibia

St. Helena

Natal, Brasil

Belem, Brasil

Amazon River, Brasil

French Guiana

British Guiana

Barabados

St. Lucia

Guadeloupe

St. Kitts

St. Martin

Dominica Republic

Bahamas

Norfolk, VA USA

New York, USA

New Haven, USA

Boston, USA

Louisbourg, Nova Scotia, Canada

St. Johns, Newfoundland

Burin, Newfoundland

Sydney, Nova Scotia.

What an opportunity to learn and grow, I hope all the work that went in to running the ship and educating their young minds was worth it. I know for myself that the demand upon myself was considerable so that when I walked off the ship I was drained and for several months after could not do much except recuperate.

I think I take my job way too seriously which of course takes it out of me in the long run, probably why I am the master now.

Old news but great pictures

Its a few years now since the Dubai Dry dock disaster, and I have had this pdf file for some time. Now I would like to show my readers what can go wrong in a world where safety and money conflict.

Please click here for the Dubai incident.

Another significant disaster that had enormous potential for enviromental damage was the Petrobas Giant floaing production barge. There was a very good slide show put together which you can watch by clicking here.

Don't worry being at sea is not always full of disasters, its just the industry attitude that when things go right nothing is said but when things go wrong all hell breaks loose.

Tug boat under bridge!

Another classic oldy that is always worth a look at, truely amazing photos and when you think about what it must have been like aboard the tug, one truely wonders.

Enjoy by clicking here

Anchor away!

An oldy but definitely a goody, just a clasic case of being in the wrong place at the wrong time. I guess it points out the obvious that before you drop something look to where it is going to land, 2nd mate would have copped a caning on this one.

Enjoy.

Even More Video Clips

These I think are about the last I have with me so far.

This clip is courtesy of one of our training videos and has been produced by BP. it is a good series of shots involving miserable weather and procedures that are very out of date. The vessel is an old style platform supply type and is about the size of the William E. Bright and the Sam S. Allgood which is to be my next vessel in three weeks.
Again this is not how we do things in the modern industry but still interesting.

These next two are from the launching of a new ship for the company.

And from another angle.

This last video was put together by an ex Tidewater employee who was my Chief Mate aboard the Gulf Wigeon. Damien Took this little video and I was able to get a copy. The Gulf Wigeon was a small tug that I picked up in Dubai and sailed first to Singapore and then on to Darwin. The contract was as a Standby rescue boat for the Bayu Undan project. Very Boring.

Hope that you have enjoyed these short clips and will continue to visit my blog site as I carry on telling little stories about my life and some of the adventures that I have been on.
Which reminds me of a little story I will tell in another blog about Ventures and Adventures.

More offshore video clips

As requested here are some more short video clips of the offshore industry and yes it did get a new camera for Christmas. Just need to find a decent movie making and editing program to make these clips a little more professional looking.

Billy Pugh transfer.

I was master on the Osa Vigilant for a swing last year and we were involved with shifting the rig to a new drilling location. Before the tow could commence the masters were brought aboard the rig for a pre rig shift meeting and this video shows how it is done. The footage was taken by Captain Dave James who was in command of the Massive Tide and had transferred first. Hope you like it, it is quite the ride.

Working the North Rankin Platform.

And here is a good example of how the two seaman on deck work together. Note the container hitting the side rails, that is why we call them crash rails.

My video

Massive Tide.

This is a short life aboard Massive Tide video working out of the Port of Dampier NW Australia.

Again I do not know who took this and put it together.

There are a couple more small video clips that I have at home and will post later as time permits. Hope you enjoyed these and will give some feed back via the comment link.

Discharging at KBSB

My email and website have been down this past few weeks and it is all my fault. There I have said it and it does not make me feel any better.

So what have I done? Something really simple, I forgot to renew my domain registration! Now let me tell you, being at sea, it is a job and a half trying to find out why I am not getting email, then once I have that answer trying to renew my domain registration.

I think that I am on to it and should have it sorted early this next week. So my apologies to all those who have tried to email me and have had it bounce back. Please try again in a few days time.

Not having email has not stopped people from commenting about my last blog with the cyclone footage. For those who are not aware there is a comment facility at the bottom of each blog. It seems that there are three young girls who did not think the footage was long enough or dramatic enough, I thought it was pretty good but I guess trying to please film critics will always be an impossible task. Some people have asked for details of the vessel to get a bit of a scale on the clip. From what you can see in the video, here they are,

The timber deck is 45m long by 13m wide, each plank is @ 3m long.

The barrier across the stern is 1.9m high.

The crash rails with the yellow paint on top are just under 3m high.

I have a short video of cargo operations on the aft deck and that should give some scale as well as answer why we call them crash rails.

There were also some requests for more video footage involving the offshore industry, of which I have some, and I will post these over the next month.

The last question was where the nomad part of the blog, email and website came from. For those who have been reading my little stories of my past, I am sure you would have realised that I have spent quite a bit of my time wandering around the world via the ocean. This has led me to be often named by friends as a Nomad Mariner (I think it is a play on Ancient Mariner). When I left the sailing ship world to start work in the Offshore Oil industry my wages increased 300% and so that is where I coined the Wealthy Nomad from.

Cyclone Melanie on William E Bright

Wouldn’t you know it I join the same vessel again! Only this time it’s as Chief Mate instead of Master, this surprised me but not near as much as the Master Mike who I met at the hotel in Perth. Both of us up to that point thought we were to be the Master. Once again my attempts to accrue sea time for my master one are thwarted. The upside was that we were to have a very experienced crew aboard and that always makes things easier.

On joining the vessel we find out that we have one more trip to the rig Nan Hai 6 and this is to be our last as we will then be working with the Rankin Platform which has a new drilling program. The trip to NW Cape was straight forward and gave us a chance to settle in to life back at sea. When we were finished with the cargo ops for Nan Hai 6 and the construction vessel Toisa Proteus we were ordered to steam to the Jack Bates, a drilling rig situated  about 115 nautical miles west of Dampier. It is drilling in very deep water, 1250 meters, just goes to show where the oil companies are looking for oil and gas these days, deep water is always a logistical nightmare.

Our only concern with steaming to the Jack Bates was the approach of Tropical Cyclone Melanie, which had just been named and was heading straight for the rig. Our Cyclone preparations were well under way with the crew lashing and securing the vessels equipment, covers were put on the fuel vents and the spurling pipes were sealed. Liferaft lashings were frapped up tight and generally the vessel made secure for a rough ride.

We were going to the Jack Bates to be standby vessel so that the rig could evacuate all their personnel. Of course that meant we had to stay until the last chopper and then make a run for it. By 0600 with the cyclone only 150 nautical miles away, making 6 knots, the choices were quite limited and we still had to wait for three more choppers. At 2000, with the sky a dull shiny grey, and a large lumpy swell coming in from the North East, the last chopper was off with out even a good bye, we quickly assessed the situation with the latest weather report and decided to head in a North Westerly direction. The Cyclone was predicted to head in a SSW direction and our thinking was that the cyclone will stay on that course and if anything recurve in to the coast. So a NW course would lead us out to the safe Hemisphere and allow us to circle back around behind the cyclone to return to the rig.

A NW course unfortunately took us beam on to the combined SW swell with a counter NE swell from the cyclone, very uncomfortable making sleep nearly impossible.

By Midnight we knew things were going to be close, the wind was up to 40 knots and the latest cyclone forecast had the Melanie’s path heading more towards the west than the south. At this point we would still pass ahead by about 60 nm but it would be rough.

At 0800 when I came back up on the bridge for my watch, I knew we were in the thick of it. The Cyclone had made a significant alteration of course to the west and we were no more than 10 nm from centre of the storm. We had at least 70 knots of wind, though it could have been more as the anemometer is not at all accurate with high wind speeds. The seas were very confused with spray being blown clean off the top of the swell and wind streaks running down the face of every wave. Visibility was down to less than 10 nm and the radar was next to useless for collision avoidance with all the clutter on the screen. Fortunately we were at this stage running away from the cyclone centre, almost on a reciprocal track. The wind and sea were sweeping over us from the port side and we knew we were going to be Ok, as every hour took us further away from the trouble. By Midday we were 50 miles from the cyclone center and the wind had dropped considerably. Our course continued to take us further away and we were able to start bringing the vessels heading more around to the east, so as to start circling back to the rig. At midnight the conditions were comparatively smooth and we were able to all get some good sleep.