Al's big Tonka toy

[Al]

I know most of you that I've met in LEGS will know I'm Master/OIM on a drillship (ie. the Marine Captain and also the Offshore Installation Manager when we are connected to the sea bed drilling) but not many will really know what that looks like or how big so I thought I'd share this on LEGS as well as a post I've added in the General Random Video and Photo in the main section.  

 

She is 228m long, 42m beam, Operational draught of about 12.5m with our thrusters sticking out a further 6.5m below that.  The derrick top is 114m above keel so about 102m above sea level.  Displacement tonnage of 97,000 tonnes.

 

Okay so 

 is a drone video of my ship taken on Friday as we are sitting at anchor in Las Palmas, Gran Canarias.  First time I had seen one in the flesh and very impressed as well considering the breeze that was blowing.

 

If you want to see how we were built then watch https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AcravGAqDB8.  

 

Okay, well that maybe wasn't the full thing but how cool is it to have a proper Lego model of your own ship in a Lego box?  A bit like Gordon Masson getting a Corgi model of his S1 Esprit.  We all got one a couple of years back and mine sadly is still sealed in it's box.  There is actually a black market for them on Flea Bay. Must find the time to build it or wait for a grandchild I guess to be allowed an excuse.

 

The real shipyard build video is 

 

Until today I didn't now that the video I'm linking here was on U-Tube but found it when looking for the drone one.  When we did the Ice Bucket challenge last year we did it properly down in Angola!  No half measures of a bucket of tap water with some ice cubes in it getting a bit of a wet T shirt.  Oh no!  (well some of the early ones with the 4 guys in shorts were not that cold on day 1 but over 10 nights we perfected the torture!  We had dustbins full of water that were put in the walk in ships -18C freezers for many hours so we had ice formed on them!  We were breaking the ice before pouring from about 3m up!  We raised about £600 for the charity but in my case I auctioned off the right to soak me being "The Old Man".  I had 3 buckets poured not one and 3 of my loving staff paid over £120 for the privilege.  They love me really! - I think.   The shot of me at 3m 18s is after the 3rd bucket when I literally got brain freeze and was hyperventilating and couldn't breath.  The edit does not show me holding my head in agony as the full "ice cream headache" kicked in.  All in a good cause!

[Bibs]

Rumbled! 

 

[Al]

Caught.  It as fun while it lasted.

There is one of those training establishments in the UK.  Warsash Marine College near Southampton has one in some large pond up near a power station which dumps cooling water into this pond so it never freezes over or something.  Everything is scaled down so the big toys are a bitch to manoeuvre. 

[Fueltheburn]

CV is in the post  ....congratulations on your posting.