Clockwise or Anti-clockwise?

This seems to be the next hot topic on our barge this days, as we struggled to remove the twist in the chains of the morring legs.

After punching in the nine 35m mooring piles, 15 meters deep into the seabed, we carried on to deploy the ground chain, pretensioned it to the design load (250T) then we laid the excursion limiter load chain (Basically its a length of chain with 12 huge blocks along the chains.) followed by the top chains. After completing one cluster (We have three cluster, three legs each) i was back home before they carry on with the next two. This time i am back to see the next pharse which is the hooking up and the installation of the Mid Water Arch (MWA) and finally the riser installation.

When i return to site again, they jus about to commence the hook-up operation. So the FSO was towed in. That is quite a sight as we get to see the FSO positioned 30m to the rear of our barge. We actually took quite a bit of photos. :P

Now we have all nine mooring chains stopped off at the turret top. The next thing to do is to verify that there is no twist, or rather the twist is within the limitations of the design of the turret and chains. The plan was to pull all nine top chain up to the turret, check on the twists, followed by tensioning it to the required tension and approparite angle. This is to make sure there is even tension throughout the chains even if a storms come in or if we have to abandom the site. But jus when we were heaving the second last chain, the chain got stuck. We proceed to the last one and it was stuck too. And a forecast of 5-6meters waves is imminent hence we pick up anchors and got ourselves approximately 300meters away from the site and standby for the bad weather.

Turn out, the anticipated bad weather didnt come. After waiting aimlessly in the middle of the ocean, we decided to deploy back to site jus at the dawn of Depavali. Turn out, there was an miscommunication with the little tugs boats we had, and they only arrived around 5pm. The set up took away the rest of the day light and we started work right after dinner.

First they got the tugs to assist in removing the jam in the the turret top. After that they got a few riggers to go down on a small boat to attach a tugger to it and coil around the chain, in the required direction to untwist the chain. After they hook up the tugget to the chain, they will pull n try to reduce the twist. After which the ROV will swim along the chains to inspect the twist. For one chain, we need to inspect at least 3 times. That is bascially wat i was required to do at this point of time. Approve/unapprove the twist and the riggers will remedy it if necessary. This untwisting went on for another 20hrs. Inbetween it, we managed to untwist and pull in 4 chains. So there is another 5 more to go.

At this point of time, i am already without sleep for more then 32hrs. Already feeling quite zoombie around but they keep on anticipating that the job would be down soon, as a matter of fact, my work is going to start again coz the ROV have jus been instructed to do another survey on the chains. Chain #4, which is our 5th chain. Yeah!

Oh... I totally went off the point!

Wat i really wanted to post was the discussion we had about the twisting of the chains! Well there was quite a confusion about this twisting of the chain. Basically when the ROV swim from the bottom of the seabed to the surface, should we determine that there is a twist in the closkwise direction, we need to give proper instructions to the people in the turret to retify the twist. But the problem is;

1.) Its is determined that the if u see the twist from the ROV swimming upwards (from the bottom of the sea bed to the surface) the direction of twist would be different when the ROV swims from the surface to the bottom of the seabed. Try to visualise it if u are not sure.

2.) Different people have different perspective to the direction while viewing the twist from the ROV point of view. i.e. You could be thinking of a clockwise twist but the other party could see it as a anti-clockwise twist.

3.) The two operational guys already have a perspective that if a clockwise twist is found, they will remedy it with an anti-clockwise twist. But this is only to the agreement within the team and the ROV. On the client side, TPOT rep and me did not have any understanding in coherence with them. Hence when the first twist was found, we took more then an hour, trying to argue the fact that its a CW or anti-CW...

4.) Further more, there was another TPOT rep who is particular fussy about all the comments made thru. And he yaks and yaks over the radio so many times that it have pissed off the contractor already before hand. As he tried to get himself involved in this mess, he jus makes things worst.

5.) But that is not the worst! Last thing we need is an operational supervisor with a very high self esteem, and always feels that he is right. This time when we view this twist, people on the bridge conclude that there is a 1.5times twist. But he practised the corrective measure wrongly and in the end, starts to pull of some excuses that its our fault! And the more we tried to explains, we are making it worst. He simply dun listen, end up we all gave up and didnt bother to comment...

Well, i guessed it quite a bit of a post. If not a messy one coz i feel i am not in the right state of mnd to blog. Coz i have been up for more then 32hrs without sleep... Still cannot sleep... OMG...

Wat a holiday...

Guessed everyone will be enjoying the long weekend starting today. But i am going to be stranded in the middle of the sea... Sigh... Sianz...

Well, besides the fact that i will be pratically wasting my time this weekend with games and outdated movies, things have not been going well for me over here. Work have not progress as expected. Was suppose to finish this hook-up of mooring legs this week but we drag due to equipment failures and unexpected delay in the use of the equipment causing us one whole week and still not even half the job done... A supposely 2-weeks job will turn out to drag for another one or two weeks... So i estimate we will only finish work around mid nov. T_T

Beside this bad news, i have been feeling extrememly FAT these days coz the chef really cook good food around. I jus had *Braised pork belly* Very oily actually but nice. lol. *Pan-fried dory fish* This time the chef cooked it really salty and kinda spoilts the taste. But, as usual, i dun waste food u know. lol. *Mix vegetables fritters* This time this is not hot n gets a bit soggy which dun taste as nice as before. Thats basically wat i had for dinner. Lunch i had *Modified KFC* with rice. No need to explains wats tat ba. :) Beside those, there was also nice beef slices with onion sauce which we had for lunch, and i didnt eat rice for that meal, but i ate a whole lot of 6 slices. :P Some more my client didnt help as he was eating jus as much. lol.

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Tried to post this a couple of times but the network is bad...

Any way i will try again.

This time with some photos that i took when i was returning to this barge.


This is Purnendu, TPOT rep, and I taking a photo on DARANG SARI, a supply barge, on the way to SMIT BORNEO. Check out behind is the CPP deck. My other collegue attended the float-over, which should be quite interesting.


This is one of the Lloyds register surveyor getting on to a Billy Pugh to go to DB30, another installation barge. Check out its huge crane! If i am not wrong, its capacity is 1500T!!!


This is a nice photo of all four KST tugs when we have a meeting in this barge before the positioning of the FSO.


This is Vincent Koster, one of the SMIT engineer, together with me when the FSO arrive jus 30 meters at the stern of SMIT BORNEO.


This is the workboat the deployed to retrieve the messenger rope from the turret so that we can connect the chains up. Check out the waves man... I wouldnt want to be in that boat sia!

Day 2 @ 0030hrsSu Tu Vang OilfieldFirst day back in SMIT BORNEO, I can feel that my presence was felt the last time as I have quite a bit people welcomeing me back, even those who I hardly talk to previously. :) Some how, I have this "it's good to be home" feeling but then again, it's kinda weird coz I suppose it should be dread rather then happy. Anyway, besides the people around, the food is pretty much the same. I missed those huge pork chops and I wish they are being served soon.Flight here was smooth. Reached Ho Chi Minh around 1335 n check out straight away. Only to wait for another crew who is going to Vung Tau too. Initially the agent told me to leave first as I might missed the ferry. But it only took me 10 mind before she called the driver to turn back. The other fellow came n screwed up my ferry. Turn out instead of takin the 3pm ferry, we had to take the 5pm ferry... N eventually reach the hotel around 8pm. Next thing I know, I have to checkin at 5am...

SGP - Viet (Ho Chi Minh) - Viet (Vung Tau) - SMIT BORNEO

This is the barge i am gonna stay for the nest few days, "SMIT BORNEO". Skipped lunch to survey the barge and end up by 5.30pm, the time it is due to sail, the work is not yet completed. End up i have to acc the barge out to the sea to inspect the work before approving the sail away of the barge.

Here are some photos of the barge.

There is cats on board the barge. lol guessed they are in for a trip to nowhere.

Took them one whole night to get the job done. In between, they still wanna smoke their way thru by fixing up the lashings with unapproved methods. I was quick to catch them doing it and reported back to the office and double checking if the method was allowed. So i walked over to th person incharge and wisper to the guy in charge, "I hope tat is not the way u are going to lash the equipment coz it not approved by our standards." I was expecting him to give me some explanations. but he jus shout across the worker to tell them to stop working, " Hey, stop working! Rejected by insurance party!" U should be there to see the faces of the workers then! All turning around and look at me, giving me the "wat the hell" look. i was pretty worried coz in the middle of the sea at late night, the wole lot of them can do anything!!! Eventually i state my stand in the lashing procedures and the foreman was quiet to my explanations. I guessed they know that it is not really a good idea but they wanna smoke me. They were short of the clips required in our standards, so in the end, they got supply from shore, which is another 2hrs wait... End up i left the barge at around 11pm... The barge sailed of the next day morning and due to arrive in another 5day in Vietnam.

So three days later, i am on the plane to Vietnam (Ho Chi Minh) to join the barge the next day.

The interior of the airport looks so much better then the Bangkok one.

Sights outside from my transport.

Took a afternoon flight to Vietnam and was picked up by my client before taking a 1.5hr boat ride to Vung Tau. Staying in Palace hotel, which sounds pretty nice, but sadly its jus some simple 4-star hotel. But i guess it pretty good for a hotel in such a country ba.

Some looks of the hotel. Notice the hotel pic is a photo as i haben step out of the hotel since i got here. Hopefully the heli trip tml is delayed and i got to explore this town tml.

As for now, gonna sleep soon. :)