Member Info for asp2014

A little bit of China/RoC friendliness on the Guardian website tonight.

No idea if it has any bearing on what we'd all like it to though.

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China to donate vaccine doses to Congo and forgive public debt
China will donate 100,000 doses of Covid-19 vaccine to Congo Republic and forgive $13 million in public debt, its ambassador to the country said on Thursday.
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North sea diving vessels typically have 3 position reference systems working simultaneously. It's common for 1 of them to stop working temporarily (which results in no loss of position) in which case the diver is just called back to the bell quick sharp. Having 2 or more fail though, is pretty rare.

"The awk wrote :...."The jury is out regarding longterm 'medical effects'" Saturation diving is considered safer than it used to be, largely because the compression/decompression schedules are better understood and less aggressive than they used to be - time is money, but a cooked diver waving a lawyer around costs more! Google 'inpex Australia diving accident' for a recent cock up that has left quite a few lads in a bad way though. I can't fathom how it was allowed to happen. Someone asked a day or so ago how much they are paid. In the N.sea it's £600 a day for bog standard air divers and about £1500 for sat.

Tomorrow, not a chance. Sometime next week, very very slim chance. Late next week or early the week after that I reckon. Even that might be a bit optimistic.....

And that all those lovely wind turbines are anchored on massive concrete plugs. *** Nope! Overwhelmingly, they're mounted on cylindrical steel piles, driven into the sea bed. I think there were a few experimental concrete anchor turbines, but they've not caught on. Cheerfully, the farm we're currently building comprises 172 turbines - each requiring ~1500 tons of steel. There are 1000s more going up in years to come in the UK alone. Iron ore is here to stay for some time yet, IMO!

Whilst I am as hopeful as the next beleaguered LTH that Zoetic gets our SP off the ground - has anyone here any personal/2nd hand experience of using CBD or any insight to whether it works as variously advertised? I'm stood here in Holland & Barrett (UK health food store) and their CBD products are reassuringly expensive - so fingers crossed this all kicks off as planned.

Probably just something as simple as changing out a hydraulic control line etc. on the wellhead. I was once a diver on a vessel mobilised just to go and open 3 hand operated pin valves. Took us almost 2 weeks including weather. Costly stuff, oil & gas!

Does the ship drop the buoy and head for port if required to do so? *** Only in the event of a biblical 100 year storm or similar. In all likelihood, the AM will stay on station until Hurricane are finished with her.

Probably, yes. Choppers we use don't get grounded until the wind hits 40-50 knots.

Possibly yes. It's a vessel whose AIS radio is out of range, but is still transmitting AIS via satellite. Marinetraffic does put satellite data on it's maps, but unless you pay for it, it won't give you any detail but 'Tugs & Special Craft'.

There are plenty of other vessels quite nearby showing recent updates (like a few minutes ago). Draw whatever conclusions you like. *** I'm working on a renewable energy project (boo, hiss, I hear you say!) about 120km off Grimsby. All of our vessels, large & small, have AIS. Quite routinely, a vessel will drop off marinetraffic whilst another a few km away stays put. The data you get for free on marinetraffic is VHF based and requires line of sight to work best. After ~20km or so, losses begin to occur. Don't get me wrong, I like a good conspiracy theory, but I can't see the likes of BW switching off a compulsory safety system to hide something we already know they're probably up to. Maybe!

Nope, she didn't, hasn't, and never would whilst at sea. Poor coverage is all it is. Visit the 'coverage' section of the 'aishub' website to see on a map how few AIS stations there are that far north, and how the coverage drops off.

Well that'll learn me to get too excited..... Back to the dishes!

Please, check for yourselves. The member Laserdisc found a link to some maritime safety announcement service which clearly states 'aoka mizu FPSO installation complete'. It might now be weathervaning, hence the speed readings.

Successful installation confirmed by Laserdisc on 'the other forum' - pop over and see for yourselves. Onwards!

As far as I'm aware, guard/standby vessels are a requirement rather than a luxury for all offshore installations. Even the diddy offshore substations I work on have them. I wouldn't bank on the guard vessel disappearing anytime soon - unless we've sorted out a new one and the Maggie M is off contract? Happy to be set straight.

Oh definitely. I've got photos somewhere of the 7000 installing one of those substations, and it looks like it's swinging a conker, not a 7 storey 11000 tonne lump of steel. Proper big boys toys :-)

The Saipem 7000 is the 1st or 2nd (can't recall which) biggest floating crane in the world, with a lift rating of 14000 tonnes, and a day rate that would make your eyes water. It was used on the job I'm at to install offshore substation topsides, and is truly a sight to behold - but there is zero chance it'll be used for our stack, it would be like using a nuclear bombs to crack an egg!

They'll more than likely use a paid for service. I work in offshore wind farm construction and have access to Stormgeo, who issue an hour by hour 10 day lookahead that gets updated every 6 hours. The windspeed and wave height/swell predictions are surprisingly accurate. Sadly, the forecast I get is limited to our current worksite, so I can't tell you what it says about WOS.

To my knowledge, the reason Hurricane have come this far is by doing things properly. Why rush now? There will be other weather windows.