End of Passage

End of  Passage, the traditional end of the voyage, has arrived for me at Farstad. After two years in the Offshore Industry, I am preparing for a change of career and role. The brutal downturn in Offshore Oil and Gas has seen Farstad Shipping survive, but in a merged persona with Solstad Offshore and Deep Sea Supply. The voyage continue after I have signed off at the end of March.

In April 2017, I'll be heading west with another mariner for a one month motorcycle road trip - ''Around Australia Lite'. Our route will take us to the Red Centre of Australia to Uluru (Ayers Rock), Alice Springs, Mt Isa, Cairns in tropical Queensland and then home via whatever route is available in the time remaining.

I'll be riding my Triumph Trophy and my riding mate Bruce will be on a BMW F800ST. With tents, camping gear, tools and extra fuel we'll be tackling a planned 12,000 km trip through the extremes of Australia's diverse climate and topography. Our longest day between populated centres will be the 387 km Tablelands Highway between Cape Crawford and Barkly Homestead in the Northern Territory.

Preparations now are the purchase of the BMW, servicing and outfitting the bike for a month's reliable service, adding luggage capacity and assembling gear.

Internet coverage willing, I'll blog the trip and best of the scenery. The road trip will draw a line between what was not to be and the next leg of my personal voyage.

Stay tuned.

The Antipodean Mariner
March 2017

Farstad's 731's Down Under

I'm still getting my head around the Offshore Industry's use of design types to describe ship. In bluewater shipping, ships may be of a class or series or named after the first ship built, but offshore vessels are described with the mathematical precision of a Mercedes Benz or BMW model.

Farstad's largest and most modern anchor handlers are known as the 731's, or their full title of UT731CD. The Norwegian-built 230 tonne bollard pull, multi-engine direct and diesel-electric drive anchor handlers capable of working in water up to 3,00 metres. We currently have four 731's under our management in Asia-Pacific, 'Far Senator' being the latest addition after conversion in Singapore to provide fire-fighting duties.

Good fortune had three Farstad 731's lined up at Dampier, West Australia yesterday - and no, this picture has not been PhotoShopped. Left to right: Far Saracen (Chevron), Far Senator (Woodside) and Far Sirius (Woodside) courtesy of the Dampier Port Authority's Pilot Boat crew to whom I thank and acknowledge permission to use the photo. Far Shogun was out at the rig earning her keep.

Times are tough in the offshore industry but shots like this are a testament to the investment in technology by their Owners and the professionalism of their Crews operating large, complex and sophisticated vessels just metres away from rigs.

The Antipodean Mariner

Heading Offshore

This last week I have the privilege of spending 24 hours on 'Noble Clyde Boudreaux' in the Timor Sea, drilling the production wells for Shell's Prelude Floating LNG project.

Noble Clyde Boudreaux: Noble Corp

The trip was organised by Shell for the major contractors supporting the project, primarily to show how safety is actively managed aboard the rig between the 148 crew and their specialist roles.

To be able to fly out to the rig from Broome, I had to complete a two day basic safety and survival course which included HUET - Helicopter Underwater Escape Training. To be able to fly offshore, trainees need to successfully complete eight evacuations from a submerged, inverted helicopter. No-one particularly enjoys this component of the training, which thankfully is valid for four years.

The helicopter ride out to the rig was uneventful until we descended over the patch and a whole tableaux unfolded. Within visual distance of the helicopter were the rigs Jack Bates (INPEX), ENSCO 5006, Noble Clyde Boudreaux and construction vessel Aegir along with their support fleet of supply vessels  - no photographs permitted unfortunately, all cameras had to stowed in our luggage.

Once aboard the Noble Clyde Boudreaux, the size and complexity of the rig was astounding. Crew and contractors undertaking the physical drilling, mud analysis, locating where the drill bit was located in relation to the gas reservoir, ballasting the rig, loading and unloading stores...

As dawn broke on Tuesday, our PSV 'Far Skimmer' was close alongside under the port crane discharging drill string and back-loading empty equipment containers. As a Farstad employee, I was proud to be able to point out the vessel's features and describe how she maintained station in Dynamic Positioning mode only 20 metres of the rig's submerged pontoon hulls.

Far Skimmer close alongside NCB: BigFella

My thanks to Safety Coach BigFella - a fellow Kiwi - for hosting us aboard NCB and for the photos of Far Skimmer.

Back from the rig in Broome, I had two days visiting 'Far Skimmer's sister 'Far Sitella', also supporting Noble Clyde Boudreaux and our Anchor Handler 'Far Strait' supporting the INPEX rigs in the same patch. A good week, back to reality on Friday.

The Antipodean Mariner

Reactivating the Blog

After a long absence from the Blog, I found that it's been 'hijacked' by re-posted feeds from some Oil and Gas site - damned if I know how that happened, deleted them all!

After some deliberation, I'm 'outing' the Antipodean Mariner. I'm Stuart Scott, a Kiwi and Australian, living in Melbourne, Australia. 2015 brought a new role in a new industry, and I joined Farstad Shipping in January as Chief Operating Officer for the APAC region.

Farstad Shipping have just delivered their first Subsea Offshore Construction Vessel 'Far Sleipner'. Here's a link to a beautiful fly-over clip shot with a drone in Aalesund, Norway.

Sill plenty of stuff left to post over the coming months of my past and present 'loves'.

Stuart, the Antipodean Mariner