Hi all, I had these on the computer so they'll get posted first. Just a few different shots of us in action from the North Sea before we left for the Suez Canal and some from Sakhalin Islands,Russia.
Wow, those were some serious waves! Reminds me of my brief experience on a 65' Dept. of Fisheries & Oceans trawler in winter. Looks like Secunda Marine colours - I'm sure I've seen the Venture Sea in Halifax. Bob
First photo is just outside Edinburgh Scotland, the Tanker burnt out it's windlass and had to cut it's anchor and chain free,they hired divers to locate it and then we brought it up onto our deck and then moored along side and passed it back up through their hawsepipe to them. The second photo is Vissligen(sp?),Holland, where we went for a 10 day drydock before leaving for Russia's pacific coast.The water has been pumped out at this point and you can see our dual bow thrusters. Third photo is myself on the aft deck of Venture Sea, in the background is the drilling rig Rowan Gorilla V, to the side of me you can see the load of drill pipe we took out to them. The fourth photo is the rig Safe Astoria,the reason we're working in Russia,we're the stand by boat(ie: babysitter) for that rig. Here we were just starting anchor handling operations after towing Safe Astoria from Kolmsk in the south of the Sakhalins up to the field.You can see some of it's anchors hanging off the side.We're backing in to hook one up and run it out. The fifth photo is us sitting at anchor off the Sakhalin Islands. The MOB boat crane is deployed down the port side,we were doing MOB(man overboard)drills and I was in the boat,thats how I got such a nice shot.
The last two photos is myself and Steve the bosun working on the number 2 anchor,at this point we had been setting/retrieving it for 27 hours straight and it would not hold tension,we kept having to change the angle of the flukes on the anchor. The crazy photo is not of the Venture Sea but a photo I got off the bridge computer. It's a Maersk Anchor Handler off the Grand Banks of Newfoundland taken from the Hibernia oil platform during rough weather. Bob, Yes the good old Secunda colors, the red racing stripe gives us an extra knot of speed....LOL. The Venture was on the Sable Island project and worked out of Halifax until 2004,when a 90 foot wave smashed out all the bridge windows and hurt the ship bad.It had to go into the yards and was reassigned once refitted. It's been in the Gulf of Mexico the last few years working out of Fuchon(sp?)Louisiana,it came back to Halifax in November,did one hitch at Sable Island,and then when I joined her on December 23rd we left for the North sea xmas night at 7pm. The Hebron Sea,Sable Sea and Panuke Sea are currently working the Sable Project so they would be a familiar site in the harbour.All Secunda boats are painted the same.
Bob A, Yes when we crossed the "pond" to Scotland the trip was suppose to take 9 days,we hit three huge storms that tore up all our wood planking on the aft deck,damaged or destroyed our main mast and electronics equipment and other misc stuff(lost all our life rings).When we finally reached Aberdeen we were in the repair berth for 2 weeks. It was my first time at sea where I actually got nervous but then again when your going down the alleyway and your walking on the bulkhead it's a bit un-natural.The Trip took us 16 days and our biggest roll was 47 degrees, but then again these girls are tough and built to take it.
I remember walking on Bulkheads and being on the BRIDGE during a storm that had 60-75 ft waves that tossed us high up and back dwn in another oncoming 60ft wave. I remember the anchor doors being ripped off, the housing for the 3.71 in gun being torn off it's mount completly. I remember seeing my first officer chuck his cookies on the bridge. I remember being in my chair heading straigt down the well to the OPS room head first with the chair. I rememer Frame 23 suffering collapse and well...you get it. Hey if you got more pics of rough water events post them. I love those shots.
I remember the 47 degree roll very well because it happened while I was off watch. I was in my cabin, in my bunk asleep(or as asleep as you can get when in rough weather), without my bunk board fastened over me. It's a very bad feeling to wake up and realize your in mid air half way between your bunk and the opposite bulkhead. Still have the scar on my leg where I landed on my desk. From then on my bunk board was fastened even if it was a little rough, don't want to experience that again. I'll have a look around Curt, I have tons of pics I took, problem with rough weather is you take the picture and it never looks as rough as it is.
At least you gave the anchor back. When I was down in the Carb back in the early 80's, I was in Gitmo when a Russian tanker cut in front of our carrier Coral Sea. Tore the tanker's bow up pretty good, it made it into Gitmo, and we repaired it enough that it would not sink. But we noticed one of the Coral Sea's anchors was sitting up on the tankers forecastle deck, and asked if we could bring over the 100 ton crane and lift it off. The Russians said no way, it now belonged to them, since the carrier lost it at sea. So here she was in our harbor, with our HT's carrying out emergency repairs on her for free, and they kept our anchor, to take home as a trophy.
Now thats quite the story,Makes me wonder what ever happened to that anchor, probably sitting on the captain's front lawn as an ornament.
You guys should just sail on submarines. When it gets rough out, you just go down a couple hundred feet underwater and it is smooth sailing.[] J
