c. June 2019
This is more or less a joint report with Slaya, whose pictures cover a lot more of her than my half a roll of Ektar plus phone snaps.
Like some of you I'm sure, we heard Pioneering Spirit was far out in the North Sea doing some heavy work and Bravo was coming back to shore for good a couple of weeks ago and got mega excited. Tracking her progress on VesselFinder, we arranged the soonest date we could with Maniac and Ford to go and study her. After a nice long drive in Maniac's coupe we arrived at the North East's finest waterfront at about 1am and pranced over.
I've said this to a few people with mixed reaction, but I'd like to know what others have to say about the statement "the era of the power station is coming to a close, but the era of the rig is just beginning". Thanks to Greenpeace's efforts to make noise about Brent Spar in 1995, acting as the tinder to eventually pass a bit of UK legislation that forbids all oil companies from basically 'sinking' their kit out in the North Sea, estimates as to the amount that need to come ashore for dismantling and recycling in the next 20 years range from loads to a hell of a lot. Hartlepool Quay Six is going to be one of several docks that will just keep and keep on giving. As such, even if Delta is public, I think keeping all of them under wraps hereinafter is going to be a really advantageous move for us in the long run. The Quay, as with several other 'rig hosters' around the UK is currently, considering the enormity of the wealth within them UE wise, dead easy to get into and sneak around in without any trouble, but that could all change when a few helmets start catching too much wind.
Much like the story of the CEGB and our old faithful power stations, the story of North Sea oil, its cometh decommissioning, and the evolution of the infrastructure involved is totally fucking cool. I need not point anyone in the direction of the relevant reading material, but surprisingly there are heaps of videos on ol' Youtube, many of which made by Shell's comms department, chronologuing what has been, is, and will be going on out there. I'd recommend starting here, here and here and seeing where you end up on that front. Bravo was as I understand the first out in the field and started pumping in 1975. It has some cool jet exhausts on the side of it too which make it stand out from the others (archive photo of them here).
As far as the explore or 'Zone Navigation' as I like to call it went when we arrived under her, seeing no stairs, we all had a fire up our arses to manage to find a way to climb onto her ad hoc with the little equipment we'd brought from Maniac's boot. There was a fair bit of old tat from Delta lying around, and after a bit of a trespassers' Scrapheap challenge, we'd constructed a mighty mechanism to climb and hoist all four of us onto her lower walkways without injury or casualty.
Men at work, stand back
Once aboard we made a B-line for the top of the flue stack, by which time is was about 2.30, and by the time we started to climb down at 2.45ish, predictably it was starting to get pretty light.
Oh and you know, I still don't actually own a tripod. A couple of hand-held/propped success in the darkness with the 35mm, but Slaya is definitely getting tired of me asking to borrow his tripod for a few shots and then having no idea how it clips on etc, haha.
Not wanting to be overly bait, we then headed to the helipad via the workers' quarters/cabin, as the sun basically decided to rise at 3.30am-ish.
These ones are taken by Maniac, channeling @clebby with my posture...
Getting back on my feet...
Slaya's pictures will showcase the absolute mint state of the internal realm you get after a rig's only been skidded 2 days prior very nicely, but I also decided i'd get my iPhone camera out and have a whirl as we perused through the many wares and pieces of literature in the locker room, sick bay, canteen, workshops, lounges etc getting nicely tanked up the 'Nox (I recently upgraded from a piece of shite old Android and am quite enjoying the ability to take a photo in which i can actually see the subject matter). (Edit: In fact, I'm going to leave the internals to Slaya, this looks really poor blown up).
On a side note, the smoking room, with the best part of 5 decades' worth of chain smoking build up from men in oil, grease and metal covered overalls, is amongst the top 10 most rank smells to grace my nasal cavities (even whilst having a massive cold and sniffing/blowing through the whole car journey, sorry lads).
Back on deck, at 4am it was basically broad daylight and we all decided we better scarper off. Using the same makeshift we got up with and then dismantling and stowing it under her legs, we made it back to the car ready for some cigs and the long drive back down south. I really hope the lid on her stays to an acceptable degree in terms of wanted vs unwanted attention from people that want to climb on her but we'll see.
Ta for now
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