• Welcome, Guest! We hope you enjoy the excellent technical knowledge, event information and discussions that the BMW MOA forum provides. Some forum content will be hidden from you if you remain logged out. If you want to view all content, please click the 'Log in' button above and enter your BMW MOA username and password.

    If you are not an MOA member, why not take the time to join the club, so you can enjoy posting on the forum, the BMW Owners News magazine, and all of the discounts and benefits the BMW MOA offers?

This thread is going to be stale and unimaginative, don't look.

You think you're doing nothing? I've been on this boat for work for 2 1/2 weeks and we've only been able to work for 2 shifts. We're sitting twiddling our thumbs for 12 hours a day 7 days a week.

What kind of boat are you on as in what is the intended purpose of said boat?
 
Ok, because you asked I'm going to give it to you. The boat I'm on is the Thialf, google it. It's the 2nd biggest crane boat in the world. The job is for Exxon Mobil to decommission 7 oil rigs around Sable Island. Google that.

This is the first rig we're starting on
IMG_2883_heic-L.jpg

This boat is about 220 meters long and 88 meters wide, this 30+ ton crane looks like a dinky
IMG_2915_heic-L.jpg

It can carry up to 750 people therefore it has 12 lifeboats
IMG_2922_heic-L.jpg

Here is one of the 2 big cranes that can lift 7000 tons! That crane block is like 10' big!
IMG_2920_heic-L.jpg

This is the crane base, the man door gives you the scale
IMG_2917_heic-L.jpg

This is the gangway to access so you can see why sea states and wind dictate being able to go to work
IMG_2918_heic-L.jpg

this basically shows you what we're into
IMG_2919_heic-L.jpg

the first job my team is working on is removing the wedge clamps, (centralizers), around the vertical pipes, (conductors)
-L.jpg

A couple of guys down inspecting the lifting points for the centralizer
IMG_2890_heic-L.jpg

Here are a couple of the guys cutting one out
[video]https://photos.smugmug.com/Other/Anything-elsee/i-Xr9h8kv/0/37361d88/640/IMG_2895-640.mp4[/video]
 
Ok, because you asked I'm going to give it to you. The boat I'm on is the Thialf, google it. It's the 2nd biggest crane boat in the world. The job is for Exxon Mobil to decommission 7 oil rigs around Sable Island. Google that.

This is the first rig we're starting on
View attachment 78543

This boat is about 220 meters long and 88 meters wide, this 30+ ton crane looks like a dinky
View attachment 78544

It can carry up to 750 people therefore it has 12 lifeboats
View attachment 78545

Here is one of the 2 big cranes that can lift 7000 tons! That crane block is like 10' big!
View attachment 78546

This is the crane base, the man door gives you the scale
View attachment 78547

This is the gangway to access so you can see why sea states and wind dictate being able to go to work
View attachment 78548

this basically shows you what we're into
View attachment 78549

the first job my team is working on is removing the wedge clamps, (centralizers), around the vertical pipes, (conductors)
View attachment 78550

A couple of guys down inspecting the lifting points for the centralizer
View attachment 78551

Here are a couple of the guys cutting one out
[video]https://photos.smugmug.com/Other/Anything-elsee/i-Xr9h8kv/0/37361d88/640/IMG_2895-640.mp4[/video]

WOW! :clap
 
You think you're doing nothing? I've been on this boat for work for 2 1/2 weeks and we've only been able to work for 2 shifts. We're sitting twiddling our thumbs for 12 hours a day 7 days a week.

By your follow up post I am guessing this isn't a minimum wage job!

Weather and waves been fighting you guys?

I assume you must get paid whether you work or not considering the situation. Still sucks to sit on you thumbs all day.
 
Yes thankfully we get paid, 8 hours a day for isolation in the hotel with the 8 being based on the pay rate for the 12 hour day rate we get paid for on the boat. It's oil & gas which typically is the best $$ for my trade. Nowhere near minimum wage thankfully.

It's looking good to get back on the rig sometime today but looking outside the wind is still up a bit. Our cutoff for rope is 25 knots so we try to keep it to that unless it's something critical where we might push it.

I'll definitely have more pics as we keep going. It's nice on this job as no-one gives a damn about us snapping photos anywhere. I work a lot of places where cameras are verboten but as you can imagine I still take shots. Sometimes I have to be very careful that there is nothing to identify where the picture is taken.

Yeah "wow" it's quite the boat and the crew is mostly either Dutch or Malaysian, good folks and friendly which makes life better.
 
I've been on some tankers, yes this compares. Anyway after a week of 12 hour shifts on weather hold doing nothing we finally got to go to work today, so far this morning I have done 2 drops with welders cutting out steel. Beautiful day out there. One of my guys got some pics, I'll try to post them later.
 
I've been on some tankers, yes this compares. Anyway after a week of 12 hour shifts on weather hold doing nothing we finally got to go to work today, so far this morning I have done 2 drops with welders cutting out steel. Beautiful day out there. One of my guys got some pics, I'll try to post them later.

Do you operate one of the Cranes?
 
Not a chance! My trade is rope access, across the pond they call us abseilers which is French for rappel.

This was today, I'm the guy in the white lid backing up the welder who's cutting that steel ring away.
IMG_2934-M.jpg

He's cutting here, the supply boat is doing close standby for us as we're considered over the side here. Luck for him it's a nice location with somewhere to stand and work. If he was hanging it would be a lot harder. I'm sure that's coming on this job.
IMG_2929_heic-L.jpg

Here you can see pieces cut out, one more then 4 sections ready to fly out
IMG_2937-L.jpg
 
The last week would fall under dull and boring but then again I don't get bored. I just keep reading and for the week I was averaging a book a day.
 
Just another rainy day here in paradise.

Things are looking up for Monday and Tuesday though, 80's and no precipitation forecast.
Now, If I can just get out on the bike before SWMBO finds me a project life will be good G R E A T !!!
 
After a good day yesterday and a good night of work the weather came up again and our boat pulled back fro the rig again...we'll see what tomorrow brings. Did I mention they'd allotted 21 days for weather? I've been on board for 3 weeks now and we're 13+down days already.
 
Last edited:
For lack of any other thread to pop up a few more pics I'm back here. It doesn't really look much like a boat.
IMG_2960_heic-L.jpg

a couple of the lads heading down to pull the last centralizer
IMG_2941_heic-L.jpg

the sparks fly when they're cutting
IMG_2954_heic-L.jpg

when that was done the boys got to move to the flare tower and do a little gouging prior to welding in some deadweight supports
IMG_2972_heic-L.jpg

then we got called in to drill a few holes
IMG_2974_heic-L.jpg

it's a bit of a climb out, the structure on top and the walkway have been lifted out now
IMG_2973_heic-L.jpg

They pulled off the top half of that last structure: the wellhead so we had to get to the process part via Billy Pugh basket
IMG_2983_heic-L.jpg

if you don't like heights you wouldn't like this, I'm guessing we were up about 200' swinging across
IMG_2984_heic-L.jpg

I shot a wee video
[video]https://photos.smugmug.com/More-random/n-RwwH3T/Stuff/i-fjT39Gv/0/c354f847/640/IMG_2986-640.mp4[/video]

That's all for now, I'm booked home on Monday for 2 weeks self isolation home then back to the hotel for 2 weeks isolation before heading back to the boar for 4 weeks. Gonna be a long summer of nothing exciting.
 
Skibum69_ You say were 200' above the water?
My work only took me 120' above the ground, three times in 35 years. It was like being on the end of a fishing pole and I was the worm!:thumb
 
Back
Top