With my steel toes, hard hat and safety glasses in hand, I set off with the rest of our project team for Morgan City, Louisiana early Thursday morning. We all carpooled in 3 or 4 cars and for a 5 hour drive, it went by quickly enough. We reached the dock by 12:30 and ate lunch on the barge, known for having pretty good catering services. I'm not a picky eater, so I was fine with the lunch of baked chicken, mashed potatoes, veggies and mac-n-cheese. Far more impressive than the meal was the sheer amount of soft drinks, juices, coffees, teas, milks, desserts and snacks they have on hand at all times.
the barge at the dock
We got checked into our rooms by the clerk (I got my own room and private bath, all the guys had to share rooms). Then we went to the meeting room for the project kick-off meeting with us, the barge company, the diving company and several other third parties. It was quick and we were done in 30 minutes. Long drive for a 30 minute meeting! We headed out to the deck next, to see all the equipment loaded on so far, and we got to see a demonstration of a tool. It's a tool I had written about in my weekly reports to MMS for a while, so it was cool to see it in action. The even crazier part was that it took the 300-ton crane (that's capacity folks, how much it can lift!) and 5 deck hands to get the tool ready for use and only ONE diver uses it underwater. Insane on how skilled the divers have to be!
this is an example of a hot tap tool being used by a diver underwater, against the casing
We got to see the crane in action, the heli-deck, some other tools and the diving bell & hyperbaric chamber. The bell lowers the divers into their chamber where they live for 30 days - if I understand correctly, a diver spends 6 hours in the water working, 6 hours in decompression and 12 hours in the chamber to wait on going back to work. That could be totally wrong, but it's something ridiculous like that.
It felt like Satan was breathing down on us on the deck, it was incredibly hot and humid. I've never sweat so much in my life, and wearing boots, jeans and a hard hat didn't help. But once you see where I stayed the night, you can all appreciate why I refused to shower! The barge was actually very clean, everyone was very nice, etc. Just the bathroom grossed me out. I can't imagine living on that barge for weeks or months at a time!
My room for the night
One of two beds in the room
Bathroom, on the right side (toilet + sink)
Bathroom, left side (shower + toilet). You basically step up into this area and have to shut the door before showering. I guess cruise ships might be like this, but it was gross. The toilet water was dark brown and smelled horrible too. And I heard stories about diesel fuel getting mixed into the living water on a ship and showering in diesel. So - no shower for me!
The barge company took us out for dinner to a local seafood place that night, called Scully's. It was pretty good - I had fried catfish and white beans and rice. They guys stayed up playing cards in the TV room, but I hunkered down in my bunk and read a lot of my book. I actually slept fine except being absolutely freezing, so I was sore from sleeping in a little ball.
the project team after dinner
We met at 7am the next morning just to make sure everyone was on the same page, then I packed up and waited for someone to be ready to go! We left right at 9am, and 6 hours, a Whataburger breakfast and boudin sausage (it may sound gross, but that's some delicious Cajun food!) stop later, we were home. Two hours after I got home, I was on the road again with the Harbs and Jeremy on our way to Austin for the weekend. Lots of driving! But a fun post about Austin to come...
the barge at the dockWe got checked into our rooms by the clerk (I got my own room and private bath, all the guys had to share rooms). Then we went to the meeting room for the project kick-off meeting with us, the barge company, the diving company and several other third parties. It was quick and we were done in 30 minutes. Long drive for a 30 minute meeting! We headed out to the deck next, to see all the equipment loaded on so far, and we got to see a demonstration of a tool. It's a tool I had written about in my weekly reports to MMS for a while, so it was cool to see it in action. The even crazier part was that it took the 300-ton crane (that's capacity folks, how much it can lift!) and 5 deck hands to get the tool ready for use and only ONE diver uses it underwater. Insane on how skilled the divers have to be!
this is an example of a hot tap tool being used by a diver underwater, against the casingWe got to see the crane in action, the heli-deck, some other tools and the diving bell & hyperbaric chamber. The bell lowers the divers into their chamber where they live for 30 days - if I understand correctly, a diver spends 6 hours in the water working, 6 hours in decompression and 12 hours in the chamber to wait on going back to work. That could be totally wrong, but it's something ridiculous like that.
It felt like Satan was breathing down on us on the deck, it was incredibly hot and humid. I've never sweat so much in my life, and wearing boots, jeans and a hard hat didn't help. But once you see where I stayed the night, you can all appreciate why I refused to shower! The barge was actually very clean, everyone was very nice, etc. Just the bathroom grossed me out. I can't imagine living on that barge for weeks or months at a time!
My room for the night
One of two beds in the room
Bathroom, on the right side (toilet + sink)
Bathroom, left side (shower + toilet). You basically step up into this area and have to shut the door before showering. I guess cruise ships might be like this, but it was gross. The toilet water was dark brown and smelled horrible too. And I heard stories about diesel fuel getting mixed into the living water on a ship and showering in diesel. So - no shower for me!The barge company took us out for dinner to a local seafood place that night, called Scully's. It was pretty good - I had fried catfish and white beans and rice. They guys stayed up playing cards in the TV room, but I hunkered down in my bunk and read a lot of my book. I actually slept fine except being absolutely freezing, so I was sore from sleeping in a little ball.
the project team after dinnerWe met at 7am the next morning just to make sure everyone was on the same page, then I packed up and waited for someone to be ready to go! We left right at 9am, and 6 hours, a Whataburger breakfast and boudin sausage (it may sound gross, but that's some delicious Cajun food!) stop later, we were home. Two hours after I got home, I was on the road again with the Harbs and Jeremy on our way to Austin for the weekend. Lots of driving! But a fun post about Austin to come...
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