I’m coming back. I’m working on trying to fix all the problems that popped up while I was away.
I have no idea what happened. Does anyone else have these random problems with their blog? Blog disappearing from the web? Widgets not working right? Not able to update the site?
I just went to a site called “fixmysite.com” and looking to get their help to fix everything. I’m hoping they won’t ask much of me since I have no idea what they were talking about in the confirmation email they just sent me.
It’s been a long time. I’ve debated just giving up and letting the blog go, but when the renewal notice came in recently I decided to keep it.
I haven’t been blogging because I haven’t felt like writing. I haven’t felt like doing much of anything at all. It’s been really, really hard for me to get motivated to do anything. If you’re been following me for any length of time, I’m sure you can guess why.
One reason I started this blog was to try to build an audience for my work. My writing, photography and art. Another was to ‘meet’ people online, from all around the world to have interesting conversations.
I haven’t had much success with the first goal, I’ve never made a dime from anything to do with my blog. I have kept on hoping to find a way to earn some income here, whether from directly selling a painting or photo to someone who sees something they like, or someone likes what I’m writing and gets in touch to see if I can do anything for them, or even figuring out how to put some relevant ads on here (instead of the ridiculous crap they’ve been putting up- I’m pretty sure no one here is really interested in those ads for skin creams or the diet pills that ‘really work’).
I’ve had much better luck with the second goal: to meet interesting people around the world and learn from each other about all kinds of things. I really was hoping for more back and forth discussion, but maybe a blog is not the right place for that? Facebook seems to get all of that sort of action.
I don’t want to scare off anybody, but I’ve decided that sometimes I do really want to just go at it on here. I want a place to express my thoughts and not have them censored. Facebook and Twitter are getting to be really bad about that sort of thing.
So. I hope if you’re still hanging in there, following me and looking forward to seeing whatever I may post, that you won’t get scared off by what I’m fixin’ to do.
I managed to get back offshore. I’m actually on a drill ship off the coast of Guyana (South America). I’ll write more about that soon. As usual, I don’t have a lot of time or internet access to be able to blog much from out here, but I will try to post more often than I have been lately (that shouldn’t be hard at all). 😉
Please comment and let me know what you’re up to and your thoughts on this. I’m really hoping to get back into the online community (I still miss the old wordpress).
I’ve been at work the last couple of weeks (finally), so I haven’t been able to get online much. We just got back in to the dock and my phone started working again. Things have slowed down a bit now, so I’m taking the opportunity to check out the blogosphere and found Cee’s Flower of the Day challenge for today. So here’s my orchid shot…
I always enjoy these photography challenges whenever I see them. I love to see the beautiful photos everyone posts, and I like to share mine too. 🙂
Here’s the link to this week’s challenge- Leading Lines.
And here are a few of my photos.
#Vernadsky Station, Antarcticainterior of the Cathedral on Plaza de Armas, Santiago Chileboardwalks leading to the ‘tents’-Mpingo Ridge Tanzaniathis one’s leading right out of the photo 🙂 Cancun, Mexicogazebo on Lake Ponchartrain, at Fountainbleau State Park LA
I hope you like my photos, if you click the links in the captions, you can find out more about them. 🙂
Here’s my entry for Cee’s B&W Photo Challenge: Hot or Cold Things. I was very lucky this year to go on a trip to Antarctica. I’ve been dreaming of a trip like this for decades. I had a fantastic cruise on the MS Roald Amundsen with Hurtigruten cruises. Here are a few photos. It was definitely COLD! 😉
We were very lucky with the weather so far. It was very changeable, but most of the time so far was pretty nice. Sunny without much wind. This was our first real meeting with “authentic Antarctic weather” according to our captain.
The weather eventually got better and it was more enjoyable to hang around and watch these funny little guys. More on that later…
When you’re 90 years old, what do you suppose will matter most to you? My health, and especially my mental state. I would hate to live to be 90 years old and too sick to get out and do any of the things I enjoy. I would rather be dead than lose my mind (or the use of my body).
What’s the best way to spend a rainy afternoon? Reading a good book.
What is one thing you don’t understand about yourself? How do I manage to accomplish everything I set out to do (eventually) EXCEPT lose weight?
When was the last time you tried something to look ‘cool’ (hip), but it ended in utter embarrassment? Details? I’m trying to remember the last time I tried to ‘look cool’. I really can’t. It’s been decades since I’ve tried to do anything to impress anybody that way. I can’t even remember doing that when I was young. I never really thought that way. Always just “take me the way I am, or screw it”. Too many people in the world to worry about acting to impress.
And I like this one from last week so will include it here…
If you’d like, please list five things that are priceless to you. Freedom, liberty, friends, ability to travel, books.
I had another photo challenge come up in my Reader tonight. This one is the Tuesday Photo Challenge hosted on the Dutch Goes the Photo page. This week’s theme is: Overhead.
I took these 3 photos in Paris last winter. This first one is the ceiling over a stairway at the Palace of Versailles just outside Paris.
Hard to believe they spend so much time and effort on a ceiling, big contrast to modern times, right? The next one is also at the Palace of Versailles.
And, looking up at the Eiffel Tower. I spent much more time looking at it from this angle than I spent at the top. The line was hours long. I’ll never make that mistake again. Totally NOT worth it!
Head on over to the challenge and see what everybody’s come up with. 🙂
I meant to get this done earlier, but a lot’s been going on the last couple of days. I found this “Friendly Friday” blog challenge last week and made a post for it. This week there’s a different host and a different subject.
It’s already Thursday so they’ll probably come out with something new tomorrow. Check out everybody’s posts for sunrise this week. Here’s mine…
I was able to fulfill another bucket list fantasy- ballooning over the incredible landscape of Cappadocia. We floated silently around rock spires and canyons, with only the occasional burst of the burner to give us more height and the clicks of the dozens of cameras.
We headed out before dawn so we’d be in the air to see the sun rise. it was spectacular. My photos don’t do it justice at all. We slowly drifted down where the ground team met us in a dry field to pack up the balloon while we had a champagne toast to celebrate our morning.
Here’s something a little different. It’s a song about the British Navy’s battle of Trafalgar with France and Spain off the coast of Spain. I’ve been reading some of my Sea History magazines and they sometimes write about stuff like this.
I wonder how many Brits will know this song? Spaniards? Any readers out there heard this one before? I’m not that much into military history, but even I remember hearing about that battle, cool that they wrote a song about it. 😉
Farewell Shanty On the twenty-first of October, before the rising sun We formed a line for action, boys, at twelve o’clock begun. Brave Nelson to his men did say “The Lord will prosper us this day. Give them the broadside; fire away, on board a man-of-war.”
Chorus: Let him die in Peace, God bless you all, On board a man-of-war. Let him die in Peace, God bless you all, On board a man-of-war.
From broadside to broadside our cannonballs did fly. Like hailstones, the small shot, around the deck did lie. Our masts and rigging were shot away, besides some thousands on that day Were killed and wounded in the fray, on board a man-of-war. Chorus
May heaven reward Lord Nelson, likewise protect his men. Nineteen sails of the combined fleet were sunk and taken in. The Achille blew up amongst them all, which made the French for mercy call. Nelson was slain by a musket ball, on board a man-of-war. Chorus
There’s many a brave commander, with grief he shook his head But yet their grief had no relief, for Nelson he lay dead. It was a fatal musket ball that caused our hero for to fall. He cried `Fight on. God bless you all’, on board a man of war. Chorus
Let’s hope this glorious battle will surely bring a peace, And that our trade in England may flourish and increase. Our ships from port to port go free and turn the hearts of our enemy. To Nelson’s death and victory, on board a man-of-war. Chorus Let him die in Peace.
“Odd Ball Photos are those great photos that you take which really don’t seem to fit into a common category. We’ve all taken them and like them, because we just can’t hit delete and get rid of them. If you have any of those type of photos, this challenge is for you.”
Check out the link, see what everyone’s posting and join in the fun. 🙂
Cee has more challenges this week. I saw this one and had to jump in. Here’s the rules from Cee…
“This week the topic is Close Up of Flowers. Any flower will do. It can be a natural flower, artificial, or even handmade. Just get as close as you can with your favorite camera, and lens, if you have an interchangeable lenses. Macros are allowed too.”
A single waterlily, details are beautiful
Take a look at Cee’s blog and see what everyone’s posting. There are some real beauties. 🙂
What happened to all my bloggers? I was looking back through some of my old email and noticed I used to have quite a few cool blogs delivered straight to my email. I really used to enjoy seeing them pop up every day.
I don’t usually get the chance to work on my blog when I’m offshore, but I can almost always check my email so I prefer to sign up and get my daily dose that way. I saved some of them in my email when I thought they were really good, something I might look at again.
The Daily Post, Harsh Reality, The Culture Monk, Sass & Balderdash, Bucket List Publications, SFoxWriting’s, Southern Fried Science, Northierthanthou, Don Charisma, etc. What happened to them all?
I don’t see them any more. I don’t see most of them in my WordPress Reader any more either (the ones with the links are the only ones I could still find when I searched). I wonder what happened? Are they all still out there somewhere? Some of them were very busy, they had hundreds of thousands of followers and lots of posts and interactions.
Did all those bloggers just get tired of blogging and give it up?
I found another photo challenge thanks to Cee.She has compiled a whole list of them. This one is a ‘photo adventure’ from the Little Pieces of Me blog. It’s going on for a whole month. You can post once, or as many times as you want. This month, the theme is…
bo·keh/bōˈkā/nounPHOTOGRAPHY
the visual quality of the out-of-focus areas of a photographic image, especially as rendered by a particular lens.
I usually try to get my subjects in focus. I get blurry photos a lot more than I’d like. The point with bokeh is to leave the background (usually) out of focus. Sometimes, even the whole photo out of focus looks good.
I’ve been trying lately to practice doing this. I don’t really know what I’m doing with my camera, so when the photo turns out good I’m always happily surprised.
I usually use a point and shoot camera. Just because it’s easy to carry around with me. I usually keep it in my pocket all the time when I’m out and about. Some people can take really great photos with their phone, but my phone is not one of those.
When I know I’m going somewhere I will be taking a lot of pictures, I take my good cameras with me. I love my Sony NEX-5R even though it’s old and should probably be upgraded. It’s much lighter than my other cameras and takes great pictures, even in low light.
Here’s my entry to the challenge. I took this one with the Sony camera.
I may be able to come up with more later. 😉 If you want to join in and see what everyone else is doing, click the link here.
I don’t have any asparagus around the house to photograph, tho I do have some out in my garden. It’s not nearly ready to harvest yet, and it doesn’t match the color swatch anyways. I’ve looked through my photo stash and this is what I’ve come up with for Jennifer’s Color Your World Challenge for this week- Asparagus…
Most of what I found were of some type of plant/vegetation, but some were man-made. I found this display of tiny dinosaurs at the Houston Museum of Natural Science.
This asparagus colored plate (with delicious entree) was served to us at the Lemala Mpingo Ridge Camp in Tanzania.
I always enjoy these challenges. It’s fun to try to come up with something to enter and to see all the different ideas people have to play along. If you want to see the rest of the Color Your World series and see what’s coming up in the future, click this link.
I’ve been stuck at home since my last job got cut short (again). I get antsy when I’m not working for months at a time. I start freaking out about money and bills, then start feeling trapped and depressed and don’t feel like doing much of anything at all. Since October, I’ve only had 5 weeks of work and it’s looking pretty slim for the next few weeks as well. 🙁
I’ve been trying to keep busy. I go see a movie to cheer up if there’s anything decent playing. I’ve stopped going to my usual (entertaining and interesting) Tuesday night political meetings since they’re just so frustrating now. I go to art class on Tuesdays (this morning was the last one for a while- the teacher is taking a break). I may start going to ‘open studio’ instead. It’s on Wednesdays, or Monday nights.
I’m getting around to doing things I’ve been putting off: I was working in the yard til it got too hot, working on my taxes, re-reading books I’ve been saving before deciding if I can now bear to get rid of them, uploading some photos to the stock agencies.
Here are a few examples…
Herd of buffalo in the SerengetiLilac breasted rollerPalace of Versailles from the rear Pair of pink tulipsFresh, organic vegetables at a farmers market
Stock photography- like the blogging, was supposed to be a side gig. A way to earn some income when I wasn’t able to get offshore. I hate to say it, but neither one has worked out that way. Both take a hell of a lot of work to keep up with. So far, I’ve earned a grand total of $7.83 on Bigstock and $6.46 on Dreamstime. A big, fat $0.00 from the blogs.
My thought was to sidestep the editors. To get my work out in front of the public where I figured at least some people would like it enough to buy something. I know it’s possible to earn an income from both blogging and from photography. I know people personally who are doing both.
I wish I knew their secrets. It seems the main issue is how to attract attention? How to be found among the 81 million on Bigstock alone? Or the 500 million ++ blogs in the world?
Just curious, does anyone you know earn anything from either stock photography or blogging? If so, do you know how?
Here’s another of Cee’s photography challenges to join. This one is for the Flower of the Day- May 26th- Bearded Iris.
I just took this photo the other day. Couldn’t help pulling out my i-Pod at the grocery store and snapping shots of all the gorgeous colorful flowers. 😉
Cee’s Black and White Challenge’s topic for this week is: small subjects.
Here’s the kind of thing she’s looking for…
Black and white photography
Sepia tones (browns)
Selective color with the majority of the photo being in black and white
Desaturated – very little color tone left in your photo
So, here’s my entry…
I was up in Galveston a while ago. Wandering around town with a friend after dropping off some of my paintings at the From the Heart Gallery where I’ve been trying to sell some of my art. We were enjoying looking at all the historical buildings, taking lots of photos, and window shopping. I took these photos in one of the antique shops around the Strand. Just a bunch of little china statues of cute little buildings.
I took this photo at the Houston Museum of Natural Science. It’s labeled as a “sandstone concretion”. I really loved looking at all its twists and turns. I always enjoy this museum, they have a great exhibit on insects and a butterfly ‘garden’, and they have frequent very interesting lectures and presentations.
I haven’t been keeping up with blogging as much as I’d like lately. Part of the reason is I got some work last week and had very little internet access. The other reason is that it takes so much time to do a post justice (especially since they came out with the new WordPress style) and I just haven’t been able to get motivated.
I’ve been home for a few days now. My last job was cut from 3 weeks down to just one week. I’ve been able to rest up and now have the time to check into the blogging world again. First up in my reader was this post from Melanie and her sparksfromacombustiblemind blog.
Is it better to suspect something (bad or hurtful) and not know or to have your worst fears confirmed by sure knowledge? I would rather know for sure. I figure that way I can at least try to do something about the situation. Then again, there are so many things I just can’t do anything about. All the things going on in this country (and the world) make me sick! If I think about it, it makes me miserable. Sad, frustrated, angry, depressed, mean and just miserable. Sometimes I think it would be better to live in ignorance. I’m sure I would be much happier to not know all the things I do know. 🙁
What makes you laugh aloud? Crack up? Laugh until your sides split? When was the last time you had a great big belly laugh? Watching a funny movie, like something from the 3 Stooges or the Marx Brothers or Mel Brooks.
Here’s a screen shot of what gave me the last big belly laugh…
“Boat hack #117 – Form two Little Debbie brownies into a shit shape. Wipe toilet paper across it so the crime scene looks legit. Strategically place in head and sit back and watch your crew blame each other and argue over who cleans it up. Film and post if possible”
I saw that yesterday in a Facebook page I follow- Offshore Supply Boats & Crew Boats. Maybe you have to have some experience working offshore in the Gulf of Mexico to get it, but I cracked up laughing.
Maybe I’m just weird, and still have a juvenile sense of humor, but I really enjoy a good shit-fart-sex joke. The more disgusting, the better. 😉
Do you suppose Noah had woodpeckers in the ark? If he did, where did he keep them? Apologies to the Darwinians in the crowd…this is merely for fun, okay? Great question! I am a “Darwinist”, but have thought about stuff like this many times. One of the reasons I’m a “Darwinist” and not a follower of the Bible. If that story is true, he must’ve had some woodpeckers in there- all kinds of woodpeckers. Some of those guys can really do a lot of damage. I imagine they would’ve put a real hurtin’ on that old ark by the time the floods settled down. Maybe Noah fashioned a special metal lined cabin for them all?
Why is “Charlie” short for “Charles when they are the same number of letters? Another good question! Why is Billie short for Bill (or William)?
What happened in your world this past week that made you feel thankful, joyful or grateful? I am so thankful I got even that short week’s worth of work! It gives me at least a couple of weeks breathing time before I start really worrying about paying the bills again!
Here’s my choice for the Ragtag Daily Prompt. The subject is “bench“. I took this photo a couple of years ago on a trip to Turkey. I love all the history and beautiful art and architecture there. This is one of the courtyards inside the huge Topkapi Palace. The benches surround a fountain with rose bushes all around it.
People always come up with such interesting posts for these challenges. If you want to check it out, click the link above, or right here.
I love a good photo challenge. Here’s one from Amy and The World Is A Book blog. Here’s what she says about it
This week, I am hosting L-A Photo Challenge. I hope you’ll join me and share what “less is more” means to you. Looking forward to reading your interpretation, e.g. how you focus on a subject when you take a photo of a landscape, building, person, or your pet, and perhaps how you simplify your life style. Make a link (ping back) here and remember to tag your post Lens Artists so followers/ readers can find you.
Here are a couple of my photos on the theme of ‘less is more’ or simplicity…
A single waterlily, details and patterns are beautifulnice linesentire parade was so busy-chaotic- details are interestingclose-up of daylily adds interesting textureinteresting expression and textures on this vulture
You can see I like to concentrate in my photos on the details. I tend to do that in life too. It probably works better in photography. 😉
If you’d like to check out everybody’s posts or join in yourself, just click the link at the top of my post, or right here. 🙂
In accordance with the idea of ‘if you don’t have anything good to say, don’t say it’, I haven’t been saying anything here. I’ve been sharing a few interesting posts on Facebook and Twitter, but that’s about it.
I’ve been at home since I got back from the DS-6 March 19. I’ve been home almost 6 weeks already. I accepted a job right after I got home that was supposed to start Apr 4 ending Apr 25. The start date got changed to Apr 11, then to Apr 16, then cancelled altogether. It looks like the promised upturn in the industry is still a long ways off. 🙁
Because I had accepted that job (and was on call to go offshore from the time I said OK), I turned down 2 other ones that would’ve conflicted with it.
I’m supposed to go out now starting May 8 and just hope to hell they don’t do the same thing again! I’ve already turned down 2 very good (better) jobs because of it.
With all the uncertainty (and major stress) I haven’t been doing much of interest: cleaning house, laundry, pulling weeds, working on taxes, doctor appointment, dentist appointment, look for work (including 2 job fairs), traffic court (fighting parking ticket I got while unloading my paintings at the art gallery- I lost), etc. So, nothing worth blogging about. 🙁
I’m home. I’ve been back in town since the 19th. It’s been almost 2 weeks already. It doesn’t seem like it. I’ve spent most of that time just catching up on sleep (jet lag) and doing all the things I can’t do from work: mail, bills, doctors appointment, dentists appointment, phone calls, meetings, etc.
I have made some progress. I’ve been able to go to my painting class and I’m working on 2 new paintings and 1 old one. I took my latest finished painting to the From the Heart gallery in Galveston. Too bad I got a parking ticket while I was inside hanging it. 🙁
I thought you were supposed to be allowed to park in front long enough to load/unload stuff. The people who run the place assured me you are. I’m still debating wether or not to fight the ticket. I have no reason to go all the way up to Galveston other than that. I have another few days to decide.
I haven’t been keeping up with this blog much lately. At work I just don’t have the time or access to the internet and at home it’s been hard to find the motivation. I’ve been putting it off for a while now. It’s not that I don’t have anything to blog about. It’s more that I don’t want to bore people and I just haven’t been doing anything very interesting lately.
I did go to a WISTA meeting at the Houston Maritime Museum last Tuesday. That was pretty cool. They’ve moved to their new (temporary) location. It’s much larger than their old place (with plenty of parking). We had a tour by one of the docents who was a real wealth of information. I would’ve liked to talk to him some more, but the presentation was starting (and a full house to see it). Captain Michael A. Morris of the Houston Pilots put on an interesting presentation about the port of Houston and the pilots- past, present and future.
I could write about work, or travel- those things are usually interesting- but I haven’t done much of either lately. I did finally get a job that didn’t get cancelled. I spent a month on the DS-6 in Las Palmas. I even got to get off the ship a couple of times while I was there. It was a nice change. I’m hoping they’ll call me back.
my ship is the one on the left in this photo
In the meantime, I got a call to go to work on April 4. Then it was moved back to April 11. Now it is supposed to start April 16 and I’m only hoping it doesn’t get completely cancelled at this point. Since it’s only for 10 days, it’ll help me get by but it’s not enough for me to actually be able to do anything with my time off (other than keep on looking for more work).
I am SO ready for this downturn to pick up! It’s been 5 years already! I can’t wait for things to turn around so we can all get back to work again. Real work, where there’s some kind of schedule and we’ve got some kind of benefits. Or else the day rates go back up again to where they should be to make up for the lack of those things.
I’m SO tired of spending so much time looking for work. Filling out applications that never get seen. Putting off doing much of anything in case I get called for a job. I should just shut up and quit whining. I’m one of the lucky ones. I still have my license and my ability to go to work. I could just quit and I would probably be able to survive…
But no. I will keep on trying. I don’t want to spend the rest of my life hanging around the house bored shitless. Keeping myself occupied is not a problem. I can do all sorts of things: pull weeds, work on my houses, clean my house, write, paint, work on my book(s), promote my writing (that’s the hard part- trying to find someone who will publish it). I would just much rather be traveling. I’m just bored here. I never, ever thought I’d still be here almost 40 years later.
I found a new photo challenge in my reader the other day. It’s hosted by Frank at Dutch Goes the Photo. This week the topic is ‘crawl‘.
I already posted once with a couple of photos of insects. I found a couple more of some sea life. Here goes…
I took all of these at the aquarium. This first one is a close up of a sea urchin (from underneath it). It was crawling slowly up the side of the tank when I got this shot.
This is a beautiful blue starfish, I wish my photo could show the true blue color, it’s really much brighter.
This little hermit crab was crawling around its tank for a while, he finally stopped and stared at me through the glass. I remember growing up on the beach in Florida when we used to see these guys all the time. I don’t see them here in Texas. I wonder why not?
Here’s another one of Cee’s photo challenges: Flower of the Day. This one is for “Anthurium“. I don’t see these around very often, but I did get a couple of shots a while back up in Houston.
If you want to see what everyone else is doing, or join in yourself, just click the link here.
I found a new photo challenge in my reader tonight. It’s hosted by Frank at Dutch Goes the Photo. This week the topic is ‘crawl’.
I have a few that will fit the challenge…
I took this photo a while ago at Moody Gardens in Galveston. I used to have a membership and so went fairly often. I gave that up a couple of years ago when I got laid off….
I took this one at the Houston Zoo. They have a ‘bug house’ with a couple of dozen terrariums with different kinds of insects. I believe this one is called a ‘blue death feigning beetle’ which is native to Texas (though I haven’t seen any wild ones around here).
I took this one at the Houston Museum of Natural Science. It’s a tarantula. Bigger than my hand (I’m estimating, I didn’t pick it up). I go there and to the zoo a lot when I get up to Houston. I have memberships to both so it doesn’t cost me anything. Both the museum and the zoo always have something new and interesting to see.
I went again last Friday night, hoping to spend a little while looking around the museum before the event I was going to (Biophilia). Sadly, they had the entire place blocked off so I just had to wait around, bored, for 45 minutes until they let us in to the exhibit. It was worth the wait.
The amazing creativity of the artist was incredible. The museum did a great job. They had a few tables set up where we could make our own art magnets, check out some of the insects they keep around downstairs, and talk to some of the docents. They also had free food (pulled pork sliders, chips, pecan breaded chicken skewers and cookies). Drinks were available too.
There was a pretty decent crowd, the tables were full of people eating before or after looking through all the beautiful artwork. I loved the bright colors and fantastic designs. I never would’ve thought to make something so beautiful out of a bunch of bugs. Even tho when you look at almost anything in nature close enough you can find beauty.
They’re having another event at the museum tomorrow, but even if you can’t make it the exhibit will be on display for a while. Don’t think you have to go only if you can go with someone from the museum. It’s definitely worth going if you like anything to do with art, nature, design.
This post is for Terri’s Sunday Stills. This week the topic is “fire”. I don’t have many photos of fire. It’s not something I see very often (and not hoping to see more of). I’ve tried to take photos of campfires and they turned out as just one giant glob of white against a pitch black background.
I have been trained in fire-fighting. So I have fought quite a few fires during that training. I’ve taken the basic fire-fighting course at least a dozen times since my first in 1978. I’ve taken the advanced class a couple of times too. The US Coast Guard recently decided we have to take both of these courses a minimum of every 5 years (another painful expense due to STCW). Now, I teach it sometimes. It’s very rare that I can get a photo during the classes.
that’s me- 2nd from the left, back row
I was still working full time during and after the Deepwater Horizon disaster. Luckily I was working as second mate/SDPO onboard the Helix Producer 1 (HP-1). I say luckily because President Obama declared a ‘moratorium’ which forced hundreds of boats into lay up and thousands of people to lose their jobs.
The Deepwater Horizon disaster was the worst oil spill in the US Gulf of Mexico (but not even in the top ten worldwide). 🙁
for some it’s just another day in the oilfield- check out the guy getting his exercise walking the helideck!
I have read some of the investigations results, watched the movie, read a couple of good books, and I have my own ideas about what caused it. President Obama and his moratorium tried to come up with some ideas to prevent this sort of thing from ever happening again. Although they did come up with some ideas and some changes have been made, I don’t think they’ve actually done much to get to the root of the problem (and Trump’s revisions won’t make much difference either).
I was Senior DPO on the HP-1 throughout the major response to the Macondo incident. We were brought out to try and capture the oil that was spewing out of the blown out piping at the bottom of the ocean, about 5000 ft down.
HP-1 from the air
The HP-1 is a specialized type of ship. She’s a Floating Production Unit (FPU). Ordinarily she sits on top of location, stabilized by the use of a dynamic positioning (DP) system. She’ll be attached to a series of marine risers (floating hoses). Those risers are flowing raw product (crude oil) from various production platforms in the area. The risers come aboard the HP-1 through a specialized buoy. As the product comes onboard, it is diverted through the ships systems to separate the oil from the water and other contaminants and then sent back through the buoy to facilities ashore to further refine the product.
We succeeded in connecting up to the well. We were only a small part of a massive response to the disaster. There were entire fleets of boats out there working to contain and clean up the mess. It looked like a major city all lit up at night. It was pretty hairy sometimes trying to maintain position so close to all those other vessels, especially when the weather kicked up. The SIMOPS and the people involved were incredible!
a few of the vessels responding to the blow out
We sat there for weeks, bringing what we could of the flowing oil up to our onboard facility. There was another similar vessel stationed on the far side of the drillship Discoverer Enterprise (which was stationed directly over the well). On the HP-1, we took what we could, we separated the gas from the fluid and flared (burned) the gas.
#flaring the gas off the stern of the #HP-1
We did not have a whole lot of storage capacity on our ship (a FPSU- floating production and storage unit) would have much more. Instead of storing it ourselves, we gave it to a tanker. The shuttle tanker Loch Rannoch sent their hose over to us with the help of a couple of smaller boats. We would connect it up and pump over the oil and they would bring it in to shore for processing. They would go back and forth every couple of days as long as we were there.
Loch Rannoch getting ready to send over her transfer hose with the Seacor Rigorous
After they finally got the well capped and the oil stopped flowing, we were released, along with most of the other vessels that were still out there. We had to go to a shipyard (in Tampa) where we could get hauled out of the water for cleaning. We had been coated with oil all over our hull from the spill. Once we were all cleaned up, we went back to our buoy. As far as I know, the HP-1 has not had to leave it again since. I wish now I hadn’t quit that job!
I found another cool photography challenge in my WordPress reader. This one is by the Lens-Artists. They have a challenge every Saturday. The topic for this week is Landscapes.
I don’t usually take a whole lot of ‘landscape’ photos. If anything I take ‘seascapes’. I take more photos of ‘things’. Like animals, or plants, or flowers, or boats, or even people (tho I’m not real comfortable taking photos of people yet).
I recently took a long trip overseas. Part of it was a week long photo safari in Tanzania. The animals were amazing, but I have to admit I was equally impressed by the landscape. It was just so wide open. Miles and miles of nothing but the tall grass waving in the wind. Maybe a lone tree on the horizon. Or a herd of buffalo slowly making their way across a river.
I loved how everything seemed so wide open. There were so many miles of space with no sign of mankind (even tho of course we did see towns and villages full of people while passing through). The landscapes sometimes seemed empty, but if you looked harder there was always some sign of life. Maybe an ostrich popped up from under that lone tree. Or a lioness wandering by a herd of wildebeest, or a bird hiding in the grass or basking in a far off lake.
I don’t get to see so many wide open and interesting spaces around here. Even tho Texas probably has more of them than most. My neighborhood is on the wide coastal plains but full of homes, and businesses (mostly chemical plants).
I do have some wildlife around my house: raccoons, opossums, owls, squirrels, bats, rats, etc. We even see an occasional coyote around the beach. Somehow it’s not the same. Compared to the African landscape, the one around here is pretty boring. 😉
