#The lesson here is “Be nice to turtles. They are gentle creatures. And many are very endangered.”

[poorly-drawn-mdzs]

Turtle Takedown Teamwork.

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[tracybirds]

The Aquarium

This one is technically written for @gumnut-logic‘s Sensory Sunday: Touch, but I began it over a month ago and slightly forgot what I had planned for it ahaha... I mean... I totally knew what I was doing, all along :DD I suspect it does not fulfill the prompt as well as the original but oh well :D

Gordon continues to explore the ocean, this time at the aquarium on a school trip :D

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“Gordon, stay with the group!”

The warning pulled him back into the pack of school kids, resisting the lure of the underwater tunnel that lead into the depths of the aquarium. Mrs Anand had already called home once this month and although his Dad had turned an interesting colour as he listened to her, Gordon wasn’t keen to find out what would happen if he pushed his luck.

Hie jaw dropped as they walked into the exhibit. Brightly painted walls stood out  between glass tanks containing creatures big and small. A large smiling shark propped up on his tail welcomed the class to the Eugenie Clark Discovery Center.

Eagerly, Gordon wormed his way to the front of the group, eyes wide with anticipation.

“Woah.”

The word was whispered with a reverent awe as he spied the open pool in the centre of the room.

Dark rocks surrounded the sharp corners of the glass, the clear water filled with all manner of animals, like a perfect cross section of a rock pool.

He stretched his hand out towards the glass, eyes full of the gently waving fronds of the anemone.

“Gordon, don’t touch!”

He whipped his hand behind his back and stared up at his teacher innocently.

“Well now, that’s one he can get his hands into,” said the cheerful guide, winking at Gordon with a grin and ignoring the dirty look his teacher sent his way. Gordon grinned back at him.

“Welcome everyone, it’s nice to see so many happy faces. Have we been looking forward to this trip?”

Gordon’s voice crowded out the excited chorus. He’d been waiting weeks for this moment, ever since they’d been told the topic for the term would be the Oceans of the World. When the rest of the class was practicing multiplication, he’d been skip counting schools of fish; when they wrote in their journals about family memories and pets, he’d told stories about his dream of living underwater. He’d lapped up every ounce of information on the subject, skidding through page after page of supplementary data on marine life as his teacher droned at the front about the difference between sharks and dolphins.

“I’m Ben, your marine educator for the day, and I thought we’d start by introducing my favourite creature here at the Eugenie Clark Discovery Center.”

An excited whisper rippled through the class as they edged closer.

Ben brought them to the far corner where a tank three times his height stretched from floor to ceiling.

“Any guesses as to what’s inside?”

“A shark!”

“A turtle!”

“A squid!”

“No, but that last one was close,” said Ben, smiling at Gordon. “I’ll give you a hint, it has eight–”

“Octopus!!”

Gordon jumped up and down as he shouted his new answer, drinking in the delighted laugh of their guide. His teacher’s warning glare to rein it in barely registered as Ben offered him a high five.

“Good job, little man,” he said cheerfully. “What’s your name?”

“Gordon.”

“Well, Gordon, do you want to come up and hold the shrimp for me?”

“Yeah!”

Goosebumps ran up his arms as he held tightly to the ice-packed bag. Condensation ran down his arms as he craned his neck to get the best view of Ben coaxing the octopus into the light.

A gasp rippled through the crowd of eight year olds as the first tentacles creeped from the shadows.

Gordon’s eyes widened. He hardly listened to the brief Ben was giving to the class, too full of the sight of the Giant Pacific Octopus that lazily pulled itself forwards with its tentacles, strutting to and fro’ with billowing webs as though it enjoyed the attention. Every now and then, Ben would reach out hit hand and Gordon would pass over a handful of shrimp for the octopus to feast on.

“They’re really intelligent creatures and they need a lot of stimulation.”

One of his classmates, Carina, gasped as the octopus vanished from view.

“Where did it go?”

Ben smiled and beckoned her towards the tank. He crouched down and pointed at the tank floor.

“Look carefully,” he said. “Can you see her?”

Carina peered into the apparently empty tank.

“No, I – oh, wait! By the rock!” She shook her head in confusion. “Wait… it is the rock?”

Gordon had seen it too, the slight flicker of movement that betrayed the octopus’ near perfect camouflage.

“Good job, you found her.” He raised his voice slightly, looking back at the class. “Alright everyone, come up a few at a time and take a look. Stay quiet though, she does know you’re there and will start showing off again in a few moments. And then you can have some time to explore the other displays.”

The class shuffled eagerly forward and Ben stepped back and stood next to Gordon.

“Thank you for your help there,” he said taking the shrimp from Gordon’s arms. “Do you like octopuses too?”

“Yup,” said Gordon. “But I like the whales the best.”

“Well, you won’t see any of those here, I’m afraid.”

“I know.” He looked up at Ben and wrinkled his nose. “They wouldn’t be happy anyhow.”

“You’re right about that,” agreed Ben. He fell silent, watching the slow dispersion of students as they drifted away from the octopus tank in small groups, the chatter increasing the further they got from their starting point.

Gordon also wanted to talk. He was bursting with questions about octopuses, and whales, and sea cucumbers, parrotfish, sharks, crabs, sea snakes, and every other creature that floated into his head. But Mrs Anand had taken him aside that morning and told him, gently but firmly, that he wouldn’t be able to monopolise their guide’s time, that he needed to think carefully and choose only three questions to ask.

With so many to choose from, Gordon found he was struck dumb.

“Did you want to take a look at the Rocky Shore display, Gordon?” Ben asked kindly.

“No! I mean, yeah, but also…” Gordon took a deep breath, his eyes landing on the Touch Pool at the centre of the display Ben was indicating towards. “Does it hurt starfish if you touch them?”

“As long as you don’t try to pick them up and are gentle, it’s fine,” said Ben. “We only put the tough adults in the pool, and you can just stroke their back.”

“Okay then.” He ran off to the pool and plunged his hands into the warm water, feeling for the creatures with hands that were gentle and sure. His loud voice carried across the room, helping his classmates identify the animals under their fingertips.

Mrs Anand sidled up to Ben and smiled.

“He’s taken a liking to you,” she observed. “I’m sorry if he’s being a bother.”

“No problem at all,” assured Ben, still watching him. “It’s always more fun when you have kids excited about the ocean.”

“Well, he is that.”

“He reminds me of myself as a kid,” said Ben with a grin. “Never grew out of it and look at me now.”

She laughed. “You may find you have a virtual shadow then. Do you have any junior volunteer programmes? His father wants him to get more involved in extra curriculars, and this might do the trick.”

“Unfortunately not,” said Ben, shaking his head. “But I do run swimming lessons on Thursdays in the local pool, and as they get older we start them on their diving certifications. Maybe that would work?”

“I’ll let Mr Tracy know.”

[legggoes2qatar-blog]

First Offshore Job!!

I went for my first job on March 6th and stayed offshore until May 8th when I got to go back to land for the casing break (after begging the company man to let me go to drink beer) then I returned to the rig for the last section May17-28th. 

Here’s what I documented while offshore:

Day 1:

Arrived to the heliport at 5:30am. It is just like an airport but much smaller and no carry-on liquids limit! Watched a pre-boarding safety video, put on lifejackets and earplugs then loaded the helicopter. This was my first helicopter ride! I was surprised how gently the helicopter took off and landed, much more gentle than any airplane I’ve ridden. The platform we are working on for the next undetermined amount of time is smaller than I thought but from what I’ve gathered from other people this is a normal size except the accommodation is very, very small. I think the maximum number of people on here is around 200. I cannot see any land or buildings in the distance. However, it is quite hazy today. The water is a very pretty blue color and the waves today are bigger than I expected! Everyone has told me I will start hating all the blue soon but I am optimistic because blue is my favorite color. J

I am sharing a room with 3 coworkers. I am the only female on this rig. We share a bathroom with 2 other guys, 6 total. Due to the high capacity, there are no extra rooms to give me a private one but I don’t mind sharing so it’s a non-issue for me. Our room has bunk beds; I’m in one of the top bunks. There are curtains that go around the entire bed so you do have your own private area…kind of! The bed is comfortable except for the pillow, which is hard. There are constant PA announcements so it is not a little difficult to get a good night’s rest. The water depth here is only 12 meters so the waves don’t sway the rig, the drilling does. It feels like a small earthquake so I woke up twice confused because I wasn’t in California, haha! The food is very good! The water in the shower only stays hot for 2 minutes at a time so quick showers only.

So far I have enjoyed my first day offshore. The rig is still in set-up mode so we are looking at a possibility of not having anything to do for the next 3-7 days. I’m loving every second out here watching this operation!

 Day 2:

We still have no internet. There is not much more we can do until we are granted access to the rig internet. After dinner, I got to go up to the rig floor and stand in the dog house (driller’s cabin) to watch them make up the Bottom Hole Assembly (BHA). We are starting a new well so the first section will be the conductor pipe; water table protector, largest hole size. The tools used to drill the conductor are huge. I’ve seen big bits before but never a hole opener! **Note to self: find picture of 36” hole opener to post** We should begin drilling tomorrow if all goes according to plan!

 Day 3:

Still no internet—the struggle is real. We are able to call the base to talk to the Drilling Engineer and our Field Service Manager (FSM). Again, not much to do today. I learned a lot about running electrical cables and the sequence of the wires when using the crimping tool to change/add a head. We were supposed to start drilling today but it looks like we won’t start until early tomorrow morning. I am still enjoying myself. The SLB team that is with me is one other MWD Engineer and two Direction Drillers (DD). The DD’s are the age of my dad and the other MWD is 9 years older than me. All of them are very smart and funny.  Hopefully, tomorrow we get internet so I can do some studying on the tools we are going to be running.

 Day 5:

The mudloggers wouldn’t let us share their internet cable that runs from their unit, which is right next to ours, to the company man’s office in the accommodation and to the geologist’s office next to the accommodation. So, we had to run our own cable which required opening ceilings, drilling holes through walls and lots of zipties. It was a long process but, luckily, we have extra down time because there were some issues spudding the well. SLB won’t be running any of their MWD and directional tools until the 3rd section which was supposed to begin on the 10th of March but will likely happen around the 12th or 13th.

I don’t think I’ve mentioned how awesome the laundry service on offshore rigs are. You just put your dirty clothes outside your room and 3 hours later they’re back nice and clean. I think I would prefer staying offshore 24/7 if we got internet access. I’m still loving the ocean view!

 Day 6:

I slept so good last night! Best sleep since being here. At breakfast, I convinced the kitchen staff to let me have some of the company man’s strawberries…early win for the day! They are running conductor pipe today so nothing to do for us. Still no internet access, which is real annoying. The mudloggers got their internet access yesterday. l won’t be able to access the internet from the accommodation, but I can in our unit. I didn’t properly prepare for coming offshore. I learned I should have brought less clothes and downloaded a lot more books, I guess not that many lessons lol! I am very appreciative of my co-workers, we laugh a lot and talk a lot.

I’ve been doing a lot of studying during all this downtime. I will be going to school sometime in June and July. By then, I will be very prepared. Most people do this schooling with no field experience and I will have 5 months field experience. Because I don’t have internet access, I only have the first two school’s information downloaded and I have gotten through that material so I’ve begun bugging our DD’s about their job. I got a lot of the DD school information from one so I can start looking through that.

 Day 7:

Still no internet. In the accommodation room, on the 1st floor, there is a small collection of books so I won’t die of boredom after I finish the last 10 pages in the book I’m currently reading. I’ve also been collecting movies and TV shows from various people around the rig. I should have brought my big hard driver—another lesson learned.

This week has gone by fast. It is easy to lose track of the days. I’m excited to get to the section of the well where we start running our tools—it will be another big learning curve I am excited to learn but nervous about remembering everything in such a short time period. I will get to shadow during the 26’’ section and then be on my own for the rest of the well. Still not sure if they will keep me out here until Total Depth (TD).

Day 8:

We finally got internet access!!! We requested for 11 mac addresses to be granted internet access but they only gave us 4. So, to compensate we set up one of the laptops as a hotspot and now have wifi in the unit. But no one knows and no one should find out. It was so exciting to finally get on the internet and let everyone know I am okay. I had emails from people I wasn’t expecting and from people I wanted to contact to talk drilling stuff. The rig crew is installing to BOP so we aren’t neglecting work to play on the internet.

I was able to download two more books even though I already started a new book that I got from the Rec room.  Progress is happening! I think I will be out here from at least another 2-3 weeks.

Day 9:

We are finally drilling. Still not running our tool so I have more time to prepare for my job. The other MWD out here with me is leaving to go back to land and they are sending a new MWD on loan from Algeria. I’ll be switching to night shift tomorrow, hopefully things will be calmer during the night shift and I won’t have to talk to so many people (company man/manager/town). J

Day 13:

Time is flying by! I can’t believe I’ve already been here for almost two full weeks! It feels like 5 days. Night shift is really relaxed, partly because we still haven’t run our tool downhole and partly because most people are sleeping so no one is bugging us for data. I miss the sun because I liked looking at the ocean and watching the waves. Today we had TWO drills. Went to bed at 7am, woke up for the first drill at 10am, went back to sleep for maybe 5 minutes and the second drill started. Thankfully, I was able to go back to sleep. I had worked a double the day/night before so sleep exhaustion helped to get back to sleep quickly!

The night DD is fun. He plays music and dances! He’s become like my second dad—very protective. He says he doesn’t like the other guys here asking about me and talking to me so whenever the driller calls for a survey print out I send Yuri up to deliver it. But if the company calls, I’m the one that’s sent. I’ve been put on a mission to figure out how the guys in the surface room are able to get on facebook when it’s blocked for the rest of us. My coworkers tell me I need to use my “woman power”. I just laugh. Disclaimer, no one has been rude to me, just Uncle Yuri looking out!

I’ve been assigned a mentor just 2 days ago. Turns out to be a Texas A&M alumn! I thought I escaped all the Aggies because I’m working in Qatar and not Texas! He’s been extremely helpful, kind and very intelligent. I’m very appreciative for all of his help and for all that he is teaching me! I need to figure out a way to thank him BIG for all he has done for me!

 Day 19:

We have been on standby for 6 days now because of a bad cement job. I’ve been gathering 3-6 movies from people around the rig every day so my collection is getting pretty good. In the mornings I’ve been going up to the helideck to walk/run (running gets boring pretty quick without music and running in small circles). I especially enjoy watching the sun rise, it’s so beautiful over the water. Yesterday it was a really, pretty pink sunrise! I saw a big, brown sea turtle, first sea creature I’ve seen since coming here!

My normal schedule has become:

16:30-roll out of bed, throw on my coveralls, put on socks and crocs, brush teeth, head downstairs to the galley for dinner

17:30-walk into the unit, get the update for current operations and what happened during the day, joke around, get the latest rig gossip (yes boys gossip a lot!)

18:00-start shift

00:00-go to the galley (if operation permits) for some soup

5:00-6:00-go have breakfast

6:30-go to helideck (weather permitting) and walk/run

7:30-go take a shower

8:00-read until I fall asleep

REPEAT

Day 21:

The new joke in our unit has become “are you speaking English?” any time anyone has to ask “what”. It started because the other MWD from Algeria and the day DD from India have a really hard time understanding my English because of “my accent”. I also have a hard time understanding their English but we’re making it work. I’ve been learning some Hindi, French, Arabic, and Indonesian. Just a few words, mostly naughty words.

 Day 23:

Today and yesterday have been long! We got H2S (hydrogen sulfide gas) at surface so we’ve had to muster for 5 hours total yesterday and so far 3 hours today. H2S is a toxic gas, smells bad at low concentrations but can’t be detected by smell at medium-high concentrations which makes it very dangerous. Our unit is located right above the shakers where H2S is usually located. Because I am working night shift, my sleep has been majorly disturbed. After waking us up throughout the day to stand at our muster stations with SCBAs on, when day shift went to bed they decided against having everyone muster and just have those working night shift to muster. So, us working night shift are getting screwed out of sleep. I’m ready to get this section over with!

  Day 30:

We are experiencing problems with the well. We almost got to go home because it was going to take longer than a few days to remedy the issue but town called with a new plan that requires us to stay. I was looking forward to going back to land but I was also kind of bummed because I wanted to work with a Rotary Steerable System (RSS) that we are running in the next section. Right now it looks like I will be staying, you never know though, decisions are always made last minute!

The night DD working with me found some real coffee, not the instant nescafe crap! We don’t have a proper coffee machine nor do we have filters but in Indonesia they don’t make coffee the way we do in America. You scoop the ground coffee into your cup, add boiling water, stir, let it sit for ~5 minutes for all of the grounds to settle to the bottom and enjoy! It was a little weird at first but it’s totally worth having good coffee.

FINALLY BACK TO LAND!

As soon as I arrived on land, I dropped my bags off at the hotel, changed into normal clothes and met the Oil Installation Manager (OIM), rig superintendent and the mud engineer at a hotel bar to celebrate finishing the section. How good beer tastes after so long! After spend a couple of days in base testing tools and a few days sitting by the pool, I returned to the rig to finish drilling the well.

It was fun returning to people I knew. Drilling only took us about a week, the geologist called early TD because we hit water (not what you want when drilling for oil). One of the tools we ran in this run is brand new, only three in the world and two were on board with me. I was very nervous going into this run because I hadn’t run the older generation of this tool, never ran a LWD tool so I had to do a lot of studying and research to gain knowledge about the tool to be prepared for any issues during drilling. PLUS it was even more important for this run to go well because the tool is in the field test stage. Inshallah, all went really well and only took ONE run to finish! This was SO unlike the previous section where it took 9 runs to finish. It was such a happy feeling when TD was called. After all of the problems experienced throughout this well, I didn’t think we would actually finish it.

 My first hitch offshore was great. Challenging yet rewarding. It was an experience I won’t soon forget! Now it’s time to prepare for school in RUSSIA!