Pico

8th September 2024

Travel day!

9th September 2024

Everyone arrived and the organisation wasn't as bad as we all thought it might be. We were greeted on arrival as expected and ushered through immigration in a timely fashion. We were taken to a nearby Ibis Hotel where we were able to get some breakfast and use the facilities.
Then returned to the Domestic Terminal for the onward flight to Port Harcourt, via the heliport to register for our Nigerian version of a vantage card.
All the time being shadowed by 3 armed guards with AKs, seemed a little over the top to be honest and our drivers just bullied their way through traffic in some kind of motorcade style arrangement.

The drive from Port Harcourt airport to our hotel was entertainting, it was like something from Crazy Taxi. Got to see a little of the city on the drive, seems much like any other developing region where progress and profit outweigh the environmental impact they are having. Mounds of rubbish everywhere, half-finished buildings, abandoned vehicles, trucks spewing clouds of black smoke. Our vehicles seemed pretty new, everything else was old, rusty, dented and barely holding together.
We are being picked up from the hotel at 8am tomorrow and taken the workshop/warehouse where we are going to be working. Hopefully everything has cleared customs and we can knock out everything we need to do in a timely fashion.
The Hotel is okay, it seems lost in time somewhere around the 70's. It is in a reasonable state of repair and we have a suite on the top floor with 3 large rooms all with ensuites. Beds are hard, but things seem clean.
Food allowance in the Hotel is ₦15000 per meal, which equates to about £7.50. Money goes a pretty long way in the hotel restaurant though and I don't think we will have much trouble keeping fed. What we've eaten soo far has been good, and the menu has many other things we can try.

10th September 2024

Good sleep.
Picked up at 9:30am and driven to the warehouse. We had a little induction this morning and planned our space in the warehouse, but the kit is still in Customs waiting for the dangerous goods to clear.

11th September 2024

Waited on notification that the equipment had cleared customs all day, but it never came. The container arrived at the warehouse during the day.
Updated this evening that dangerous good have cleared customs and will be delivered tomorrow. We will get picked up in the morning at 10am.

12th September 2024

Got to the warehouse before 11am, waiting pretty much the whole day for the equipment to arrive and being very bored. It finally arrived at about 16:45.....then we found out the 2 forklifts were broken. So, one lorry was unloaded with the gantry crane and the one with the vehicle was parked up in the compound. Apparently, mechanics are arriving first thing to fix them and we can finish offloading and organise the space ready to start working.

13th September 2024

Friday the 13th....
Mechanics came early and then left to get parts for the forklift. Everything was eventually unloaded by around 2pm and the warehouse organised ready for the morning. This means we can start building the batteries and get the cabin sorted first thing tomorrow morning.

14th September 2024

Live music and bad stomachs overnight, not a happy team this morning.
Catering on site is a little hit and miss, I think my problems were caused by lunch yesterday and today was a single pizza between 8 of us...not really enough, but I am sure we aren't going to die.

Got power to the container, less said about that the better. Found 2 of the monitors have been smashed during transit, Ameenu is going to try and find us replacements, either this evening or on Monday.
Managed to get 2 of the batteries built up and we should make short order of the third tomorrow morning. Got the SAC and "Reports" PC setup, and the working monitor setup. The plan for tomorrow is working 9am to 3pm, as Sunday is traditionally a non-working day here in Nigeria.

15th September 2024

Another day of dysentery for all.
Built up the second battery and installed it in the pod, charged to 50% which is good. Got the PDU stacked and tidied up in the control cabin a bit. Everyone is a little under the weather so we left earlier than planned, hopefully everyone will be sorted for tomorrow.
Tomorrow we will hopefully the get new screens, get them mounted and start testing the vehicle!

16th September 2024

Pizza for lunch and a delivery of bananas and oranges, the mood is slightly better as a result.
Fadfae wanted to change out the consumer unit, so we got kicked out of the control cabin around lunchtime. This was still on going around 2pm, meaning we were unable to do anything on the control cabin and decided to cut the day short again. They were cutting, grinding and welding on top of all our electronics, without even thinking about it. So tomorrow morning we will have to vacuum and clean everything before we turn any kit on, hopefully nothing has been fucked.
The replacement monitors got delivered around lunchtime and has not fitted yet due to the ongoing works, but hopefully first thing tomorrow that will be done.
Fadfae survey team are coming tomorrow with the R2sonics, USBL beacon and survey computer, basically the missing pieces to our puzzle. Once they are fitted it's really only deck testing the vehicle and sensors left to do....oh and the garage that doesn't sound like its going to be fun.

17th September 2024

Interesting morning, power wasn't finished yesterday and took until 9:15am. Teo then noticed arcing between the container and workshop floor, we measured 80vAC container to ground...less than ideal. So we have stopped the job while the site electrician investigates, had a meeting with the office about all the safety concerns. Nothing actually seems to have been done about it, so tomorrow might be a little bit of a bust.
Rearranged the containers ready for the arrival of the garage, again sketchy information on this, but should be this week.
The survey team did turn up, but only with the survey computer and beacon. Apparently R2sonics should arrive by Friday, basically the last piece of kit we need on the vehicle.

18th September 2024

Email late last night about from Bright about electrician coming this morning. We were going to have a slow start and arriving closer to 9:30am, but we rushed and got here 08:45am. Surprise, he wasn't here waiting....when he did arrive it was closer to 9:30am 🙄. He seems to be more competent than the guys who setup the container and has rewired the majority of the control cabin in such a way that the guys appear to be happy. This does mean that we have once again had a full day where we can't progress inside. Tomorrow we will get the last of our things installed inside, all being well, and tidy up all the cables. Rumour has it the garage and R2sonics will arrive tomorrow.

19th September 2024

Electrics have been sorted, so we are back up to full speed in the container. Pretty much finished in the control cabin and stores, things have been tidied as much as possible. Obviously things will need to be made safe for transport down to the vessel, after which things can be finally tightened down. The PDU is also together and can be tested tomorrow. On the negative side neither the garage, nor the R2sonics arrived today. So we are a little behind in that respect, things don't move smoothly in Nigeria and everything is delayed for some reason or another. Most of the day was just tidying up after the mess the guys made with the rewiring, tomorrow should be a better day.

20th September 2024

Well, neither the garage nor the R2sonics arrived today. Massive rain storms this afternoon was blamed for the R2sonics not making it, we have been assured they will be here tomorrow. The garage on the other hand is all down to customs, Bright said if it doesn't clear tonight we will likely not receive it until Monday at some point. We have tested everything else on the vehicle and done deck checks today, so I think we are in a good position. I just need to sort some kind of data backup thing for the guys to run every evening and I am done.

21st September 2024

Garage didn't arrive today, but the R2sonic did. Few problems with networking on the survey computer, I pressed the "Diagnostic'" button when the network wasn't connecting and that seemed to reset everything to DHCP. Once that was sorted they worked, just need to sort settings out on Monday. Tested PDU and umbilical comms and everything appears to be working.
Just waiting on garage now, and as nothing will happen on a Sunday we are having a hotel/paperwork day tomorrow.
Matt didn't come with us today, he has been under the weather...both ends...But I think the rest of us are over the worst of it now and have discovered the safe food.
Matt surfaced in the evening, seemed a bit better and had some ice cream.

22nd September 2024

Sunday is a day of rest.....We have taken the day off, the garage hasn't arrived and there was no point going ot the warehouse.

23rd September 2024

Came in this morning fresh from our day off and hoping that there would be good news regarding the garage, we were assured the garage would clear customs and be delivered today. Just before 5pm the garage turned up, the heavens opened and before we left we only managed to get the top half out of the box. The 2nd box was still on the truck and with light rapidly fading we were driven back to the hotel.
Sorted all the network niggles I caused jabbing buttons on Saturday, so R2sonics are working satisfactorily.

24th September 2024

When we arrived at the warehouse this morning and the final piece of the garage was in the warehouse. We spent the morning fitting the AUV in and testing how it hung from the lift point, everything went smoothly and required no fettling. We then waited around for the additional ballast and for spares to be shuttled to the 20' container, nothing happened so we came back the hotel early.

25th September 2024

Arrived 9:30, transported some equipment to the 20' container and waited on the arrival of the ballast. Informed just after lunch that we weren't likely to get them today, so rather than sit around doing nothing we left around 2pm. If they arrive tomorrow we will get that sorted and transport the last of the kit to the container, giving us Friday off and Saturday transport down to the vessel.

26th September 2024

Arrived at the base, transported the rest of the spare kits to the container. The Ballast weights arrived, were test fitted and then returned to the machine shop to be threaded or something? Garage was split, vehicle stowed in its stand and made ready for transport. Ballast should arrive tomorrow and be fitted, then we will make the container ready for transport.

27th September 2024

Came in this morning, the ballast for the garage was there....which was shocking. They have finally fitted a goose neck to the container, and once that was done, we tidied everything away and called it good for transport. Unsure when everyone will move down to the boat/jetty, but they are now standing by in the hotel until at least Monday.

28th September 2024

Waiting on Fadfae.....don't hold you breath. TB & PH travel home

29th September 2024

Waiting on Fadfae, latest is Tuesday 1st October the equipment is going to be picked up.

30th September 2024

Wating on Fadfae, Now Wednesday 30th October!

1st > 4th October 2024

Waiting on Fadfae. Equipment transported on the 3rd and crew on the 4th to the Vessel....

5th October 2024

ALL STOP called on Manta personnel operations on the vessel, concerns raised over the quality of the mezz deck welds and lack of engineering/welding plans for its construction.

6th October 2024

TB travels back to Nigeria!

7th October 2024

Arrived on the boat about 2 pm, after basically no sleep. Vessel seems okay, no worse than the Azerbaijan one I went in.

8th October 2024

Work is still on going on the mezz deck, the office is sending a report of recommendations on the issues and what they want to see happen before the All Stop is lifted. But in the meantime, we fitted the latch spacers, conducted the trim checks, received a generator and tested the computers & UPS and given dimcon data to the survey team. Hopefully see some movement on the issues today once Fadfae see the report.

9th October 2024

Got power to the container today, so being on the quayside has become slightly more tolerable.
Nothing much else to report, still waiting on a resolution with Fadfae and the welding. The document with recommendations was sent this afternoon and Fadfae have replied saying they are going get an outside company to oversee and advise on the issues, plus have a dedicated mob manager on site.

10th October 2024

Started the day doing some procedural stuff, but this was cut short when Fadfae turned up. Most of us left, but Paul and Matt, stayed talking to them and the DNV inspector they brought with them. They said they were pressing the DNV guy and also admitted to not following any approved plans while constructing the mezz deck....
He is going to inspect all the welds and write a report on what needs to be done to bring everything up to code.
As something to do we tested the TSS660, unfortunately it didn't work and we determined that there was no power output from the vehicle. So at least this gives us something to do tomorrow, if it doesn't rain.

11th October 2024

Crane didn't turn up until almost 11am, it was requested for 8am! We relocated the vehicle and lifted out the pods. There was a blown fuse in the pod, hence no power to the TSS660. Once this was replaced we got power and comms restored. It has been very hot and humid today, working outside was horrible.
We had a good luck at the mezz deck and have seen some more terrible welds, can't wait to see what the outcome is!

12th October 2024

Today we have cleaned and refitted the harnesses to the vehicle, and done a set of deck checks. TSS660 has continued to work, which is good news, but the test will be does it continue working once it goes in the water as we still don't know what caused the problem.
That is pretty much all we have done today, a message from Anth says we aren't to load equipment onto the vessel until thye have seen the report from BV and things have been satisfactorily rectified.

13th October 2024

The welders arrived this morning and are replacing the short and bodged beams, which is much welcomed by us all. Hopefully these guys are good and everything is now going in the correct direction.
We also had a meeting with the Shell rep who is sailing with the vessel, quite stern and quite demanding. None of it was directed at us per se, the brunt of it was directed at the vessel and especially Fadfae. He said he was missing documentation from Fadfae, checking the vessel had enough stores for the duration of this project. Looks like they don't want to crew change at any point once the project has started.....which means some of the guys may go home early and I may stay longer than I was really wanting to.
The crane turned up to take away the lifting beam we used to raise the pods, proceeded to piss oil everywhere and nobody seems to give a shit.

14th October 2024

The morning started off with a little excitement, yesterday when Paul & Stew left but they had some issues getting through Immigration at Port Harcourt Airport. They were told that the work VISA expiry date printed in their passport was the when they had to leave the country and they were hassled for a while about it. So, this morning we had to send copies of our VISA in and get things doubled checked. We've been told that like all other VISA the expiry date is the date by which you have to arrive in country and after which we are allowed to stay for a period of 60 days. We assume they were either looking for a bribe or were incompetent, I guess we will find out when we try to leave in the coming weeks. The rest of today has been a bit of a none event, we hung around waiting for the imminent arrival of Steve from Shell. There were meetings, then we had a show & tell of the vehicle.

15th October 2024

We haven't done anything today, waited around because Bright wanted to chat about putting the Online Survey in the control cabin....turns out to be have been Shell thing mentioned in passing by Steve Keedwell and pounced on by the Shell Rep, Bright wasn't keen on it either.
Apparently the LARS is getting re-termed tomorrow, then it needs load testing. The office needs to review the documentation regarding the welding before we can load anything onto the vessel. Brights optimistic assertation that we will sail Sunday night seems highly unlikely. Tuesday/Wednesday seems more possible and during the day as requested by the Captain.

16th October 2024

We really did nothing today, still waiting on completion of the rectification works and the go ahead from the office to commence loading. We are expecting that to be Saturday-ish, but every time schedule always says we are 7 day from sailing. Who knows what to believe?

17th October 2024

Steve came back today, and we hid out in the control cabin in order to look less like we are just sitting around playing on our phones. Had a chat to him about what to expect, sea conditions and some general advise about the working area. The welds were MPI'd and the LARS load tested. We are still waiting on the report from BV and then the go ahead from our office....after they have reviewed and accepted the findings. I guess tomorrow will be more waiting, but we are closer!

18th October 2024

Up early and tool box talk first thing in Matts attempt at getting us onto an offshore routine. Turns out there was very little point, as we are still waiting and it has been confirmed that the guys are crew changing before we sail. Load test yesterday and MPI finished off today, the BV guy is working on the report and if what I overheard from Bright was correct the report is expected Sunday. Now we have to wait for the all clear from the office that everything is in order. That probably won't be tomorrow, but more likely Monday before we see any movement....only time will tell.

19th October 2024

Had our bloods pressure taken this morning, and I am not surprised that I was a little high....doesn't mean I get to go home though. The medic wasn't sure what to do about it, tried a couple of more times and now seems to have given up. Been waiting around for the BV report to be released, which as off 17:00 hasn't happened. So, we continue to wait. New rumour is that we will sail to bunker on Monday and then return on to finish off the mob, and not sure if the client is aware but also change out the guys.

20th October 2024

Sunday, we did nothing except watch films and sit around. Still waiting on the BV report to be published for review.

21st October 2024

Got about 40 minutes warning that we had to move along the quay and that we are going to go bunkering tomorrow morning at 0600...no other warning, the planning involved is frankly appalling. So we lifted the vehicle onto the deck, as no one will be around to watch it when we leave. I don't think the BV report has been issued yet, so it hasn't been reviewed and so the 'ALL STOP' is still in place.

22nd October 2024

Vessel left for bunkering just before 7am this morning, this is an hour later than we were initially told.....which is almost on time for Nigeria. Matt was called into the Shell/Fadfae morning mobilisation meeting this morning, for the first time in 7 weeks and without the office. Shell have given a deadline of noon tomorrow for everyone’s ducks to be in a row. Not sure what that means for us, but doesn't bode well for Fadfae I don't think. The BV report turns out to have been just a certificate, this has left us all a little confused and the office are going to discuss what their next steps are. We don't expect to have an answer before lunchtime tomorrow.

23rd October 2024

Another very boring day, lots of being in meetings and lots of Fadfae not really understanding what the office needed in order to lift the ALL STOP. OR they knew they didn't have the requested information and were trying cover it up?
Fadfae: "But you have the certificate, this proves everything has now been rectified"
Manta: "Yes, but we never received any information on what the issues were or how they were to be fixed....just saying it has been fixed isn't really good enough"
But at 16:30 this afternoon, after the office had some more meetings and talked to the inspectors the ALL STOP was lifted on . First thing tomorrow we will start loading equipment and doing the interfacing with the survey team.

24th October 2024

First day of proper mobilisation! The 8am crane turned up at 9:45am...so the day was already off to a slow start. Over the next few hours we loaded the control cabin and spares container, then landed the garage on the LARS. Things then went downhill, after the connection was made between the two, we performed some function checks with an empty garage. When the pressure was applied so the latches could be opened link piece parted, luckily the latches stayed closed and the garage stayed safely in the snubber.

25th October 2024

Trying to get things done here is very slow, I talked to the surveyors about how they want to receive the data and they all appear rather indifferent about it. No one has come to me and shown some interest in how it all works together, same from the PC as well and he is American. Tomorrow we are going to test the vehicle over WiFi, with the new pilot, and hopefully they will be more interested in whats going on. There appears to be no sense of urgency or interest, and I am finding it all rather annoying.
The guys managed to get the garage released and safetly back to the quayside yesterday and the investigation into the what happened is on going.

26th October 2024

We powered the winch to power and tested (phases were wrong), connected the fiber and deck lead. The guys did some inspection of the garage and found some things that have been pulled out of round. We also fitted the fiber and tested TSS, FIGS, R2sonics and Edgetech...I had knocked a cable yesterday while setting up the TSS screen and we spent half an hour chasing our tails, I feel like an idiot. We weren't able to test data with survey, they were doing something with the electrics and had taken off the GAPS head.....none of this makes any sense.
We got an update late last night from Bright about the incident, as expected they are rushing the investigation and don't appear to be following a procedure. Derren immediately responded with a STOP, as requests for information hadn't been fulfilled.

27th October 2024

Some interesting emails back and forth today, between the office, Fadfae and Shell. Shell has backed what Derren has said and put Fadfae in their place, further meetings are happening today to make sure everyone agrees on a way forward. Matt and Jon where in a meeting all afternoon talking through the incident and trying to determine a causes, which must have been painful. Saw an email from Ahmed, basically .......

I had to deal with the survey team today, got slightly enraged as they seem a little slow and disinterested. There is one survey tech and the other guys didn't really help him when I was asking about outputs. It gets on my nerves, hopefully we will solve everything tomorrow and do a full set of decks to prove the system once more, but with survey involvement.

28th October 2024

Very slow day, Matt and Jon sent the most of it in safety meetings....snore-fest, and the rest of us were waiting for survey to sort themselves out. While they were at lunch today, I went into their container and fixed the MOXA, so we now have vessel position in the HMI. Now we are waiting for them to fix the GAPS, they are having issues with it. The biggest being they don't know what they were doing and how do they expect to be able to output a beacon position when there isn't on in the water.

29th October 2024

We have a moderately successful day, Jon re-torqued the garage bolts and I got USBL position into the HMI/Sprint. It wasn't working correctly first thing, after I had corrected their serial wiring, we managed to receive the data on the SAC com port.....but not accepted in the HMI. No idea, chased out tails and then after lunch it miraculously started working for some reason. I think they changed some thing, but they swear they didn't! The takeaway from this is, it works and I am happy at that. The guys finally got flight details, so they were all smiles this afternoon.

30th October 2024

Some more survey testing this morning, seems to be working okay as far as I can tell. Again, survey have been a little slow and not very communicative while they were testing, so I don't really know what is going on. They appear to have been having some issues, apparently they were working until 2am last night.....doing what I don't know. Testing this morning went okay, vehicle battery was down to 20% so I asked survey if they had everything they need, they said "Yes" and I thought we were done. After lunch the PC asks if we can turn the vehicle back on, the guys want to do some more testing?? I said we were planning on charging first thing tomorrow and then we will have plenty of power for whatever they need, their response was "Okay, so we are standing by on the AUV". Well, I won't stand for that after all the waiting around we've done for them. So vehicle was turned on and testing done.
Still lots of annoyance at Bright, regarding the repairs and rectification. I understand that they want things to go quickly, but they are clearly thinking about money and not safety/correct way of doing things. I think Matt is at the end of his tether with all of this.

31st October 2024

Waited around for the crane, but it was busy and then we had a thunderstorm. Evidently Nigerians don't work in the rain, so we didn't end up doing anything. A few small meetings with reps etc, and the Shell Lift Supervisor arrived. Hopefully things will improve, but I very much doubt it.

1st November 2024

Crane turned up at 11am and the vehicle moved next to the vessel. we charged the Vehicle to 50%, as we still think there might be a chance that things are going to go south at some point soon. Apparently, management have been in talks with a Naval Architect regarding the construction of the mezz deck and we are getting rumblings that the outcomes aren't positive.
Shenanigans again this afternoon with the garage load test, they didn't know how to rig it all up and we are very much taking a back seat....not to say it didn't get get Jon and Matt riled up and stop people asking them their opinion.

2nd November 2024

Departed the Jetty about 0630 and made our way to the bunker barge, loaded for approximately 6:30hrs and were back alongside by 1500. While we were gone they apparently load tested the garage and surprisingly it passed. I don't think much else was achieved, we are now waiting for the pull and load test to be completed on the LARS. Then we can load the garage back onto the LARS and run function tests again.....except we are waiting for replacement bushings for the bullet! So, no idea what we are doing today 🤷‍♂️

3rd November 2024

So, the pull and load tests were completed on the LARS....the load bag had a leak. Derren has questions about the potting of the spelter socket, after concerns were raise about its quality. Now we are waiting on the bushings being replaced, which I don't think is going to be easy. We definitely don't have the equipment onboard to do it ourselves, plus we haven't heard anything from Bright about when they are going to arrive either.
A submersible pump arrived this afternoon and we now have cooling water to the winch!
Thanks to Keith we now have a new thing to be scared of...Nairobi Flies. They produce a chemical that causes burns when if agitated or crush on your skin.

4th November 2024

This morning was an eye opener, the Party Chief asked me to come talk to the survey team. Turns out none of them know how to operate the TSS660, including himself, so I was asked to give them a little demonstration and introduction on how to use it. WOW, I am totally gob smacked! Later on he even tried telling me that it is normally the ROVs responsibility to operate it, never in 17 years offshore have I seen the ROV set up and operate survey equipment. I call bullshit on that one. The responsibility for data quality and accuracy falls squarely on survey, as such it is their job to operate it and determine if it is working as intended.
As for the other rectifications after the LARS incident, still waiting on those bushings!

5th November 2024

Crew change day today! Matt, Jon and Teo have left the boat and are on their way to a hotel for the night, I do wish them all the best. So Marty, Taylor and Alan are here. They need a few days to settle in, right now I think everything will be a little overwhelming.
I think everything has been sorted with regards to the garage, so tomorrow morning the guys will start the garage integration. If the crane arrives at a reasonable time....we will see how far we can get during the daylight hours.

6th November

The day started with some concerns over the fire alarm system, it went off yesterday evening and wasn't heard in all of the accommodation. Last night we were told not to worry about it...but we did. This afternoon the vessel crew tested the alarms and have been seen replacing parts or taking them apart to fix, I assume there were issues after all.
They are all getting really pushy on here, we are waiting on clearance from the office that Fadfae have everything in place AND this comes after everyone had a talk from the HSE officer about work pressure and doing thing properly. With a fresh pair of eyes Marty has raised several areas of concern, pointing out electrics on the CSL container to the Reps "It's not you container, its not your concern" was the response he got....I thought safety was everyone's concern??

7th November 2024

The rep are being arseholes. Very pushy, highly agitated to the point of almost being aggressive, especially when you disagree with them on something. Yet his whole demeanor changes when he is talking to someone that could be considered of a higher station than him....like Olajide who is the lead on this project. That kind of behavior really annoys me, we should treat everyone the same regardless.
Nothing really happened today, meetings and more meetings. People getting excited!

8th November 2024

Alan is unwell today, and hasn't gotten out of bed. The other two have had the shits, but seem to be fairing well enough. We managed to get the garage loaded and started splitting it, minor snags but should get it sorted early doors. Tomorrow could be a good day for us, if load the vehicle and do all our deck checks then we could actually be ready to sail by the evening. Late last night Derren sent an email regarding the spelter socket, he said it wasn't acceptable and needs redoing....Bright responded saying it was fine and they wouldn't be doing anything about it. Ahmed sent a snotty email saying he will end the job if we don't finish mobilising tomorrow. The FRC that turned up yesterday didn't work and another was sailed down the river late last night. None of this was really reported to Shell!
Another issue is no heave compensation on the winch, Martin brought it up with the office and Anth contacted Bright. This is his responses, lies all of it.

9th November 2024

The mornings 8am meeting was interesting, Shell gave Fadfae/Manta 1 hr to come up with a solution regarding the spelter socket. After the time was up they had another shouting match and talks behind closed doors. The whole day has been us sitting around waiting for different management teams to decide on what they are doing. Fadfae still say everything is fine, the person was competent and therefore the socket must be okay....there is a certificate after all!! Manta are saying the provided proof doesn't satisfy the standards that are being quoted. It has been decided that Jude (Tilone LARS Operator), with Marty observing, should do it onboard and I think everyone is happy with this compromise. That is a lie, Fadfae are fuming!

10th November 2024

Potting was completed this morning, people were actually working at 6am. Load/Pull test was complete at 1:15pm, and were straight on with garage integration.....which didn't go well. The provisions crane doesn't reach, so the garage can't be lift and more importantly the vehicle can't be loaded. This massively impacts the operations offshore if we have to get into the pods or in the event of an emergency recovery, we'd have to come back into port and use a shore side crane. I think this is hilarious and clearly shows their lack of experience, we should be using a proper offshore vessel and not something cheap. Which I think it ultimately costing them more money.

11th November 2024

Started off successful this morning, lots of meetings regarding new L&R procedures and crazy theories from Shell about leaving the vehicle in the water all the time. Using a shore crane we took the top off the garage, and landed the vehicle. Fitted the Transformer, comms through the tether worked but when the PDU was powered up it almost immediately went off. The transformer itself was hot and leaking oil afterwards. So, we removed that and the guys are going to be taking it apart this morning to see what the issue was.

12th November 2024

The morning meeting was fun, Ahmed kicked off when Steve Keedwell said "you have no experience with the launch & recovery of a vehicle". He is a very angry man. While all this was going on, the transformer was taken apart and tested, nothing was found to be obviously wrong and testing on the bench said everything was good. So buttoned back up and tested again...we are good to go. We got the vehicle in the garage, got the top section landed back on.....what an absolute arse of a job that was. None of the bolt holes lined back up, and we had to use a small chain block and also take some weight to be able to line things up. The wings were equally bad, had to lift the vehicle up slightly as clearances were so tight they wouldn't go on smoothly. That thing needs redesigning!!

13th November 2024

Did a test deployment of the garage with the vehicle for the first time, there is very little clearance between the FiGS and the A-Frame. There is a way forward and so, we might actually go to sea tomorrow. The guys are all sick, vomit and diarrhea, they really aren't in a good way....if I was them I would be requesting to go home immediately!

14th November 2024

We finally departed, at 13:05 without a word from anyone. No head count, no nothing. First thing we knew was the gangway being lifted and deck crew getting ready to let go of the ropes. HIRA and lots of waiting around. No idea what we are doing tomorrow, there is no clear plan and no one has produced a dive plan!! A shambles!!

15th November 2024

Not much to report today, we sailed yesterday and spent the night in deeper water. We were on site pretty early, first thing the sea conditions were a little rough, they improved throughout the day. Unfortunately, survey were having issues with the USBL and we were unable to launch....the issue isn't solved, so I don't know what is going to happen today.

16th November 2024

The morning meeting was interesting, the Rep didn't know that we had issues with the USBL for some reason. There seems a reluctance to report things back to the office, in case it makes them 'look bad' as if that's more important than doing the job properly. Lets be honest this makes them look worse if anything, they don't want report things to the 'Big House' as they refer to the office. Still no confidence in the PC, though after talking to his team yesterday I feel like they have been trying their best and have done everything I would try. A replacement unit has been found, unfortunately too late in the day to get into port. The security vessel has advised that we can't go into port after 1700 and we wouldn't make it at our top speed. We will be heading in first thing in the morning and probably leaving first thing Monday.

17th November 2024

These people here are unbelievable, the Medic said people were responding well to treatment and feeling better when asked in the morning meeting. Even after two guys went to see him this morning still complaining of problems, it's a nightmare. They just seem to want to hide things, not report what is going on and hope that things will just get forgotten or miraculously resolve themselves. I put a STOP card in yesterday about a lack of communication and planning on board, that seems to have disappeared. So I've put it in again.
We got into port at around 1220, and the replacement USBL system was there waiting for us. After it had been installed and tested, we did some tests to confirm it worked. My doubts about the survey team are growing, I noticed yesterday they didn't have any vehicle position in NaviScan and only USBL position in NaviPac. Considering we were about to start working a day ago, that could have been a big issue.

18th November 2024

Today has been a weird one. It hasn't turned out as I was originally expecting, I am currently in a hotel in Port Harcourt waiting until I fly home tomorrow. In the morning meeting Shell pointed out that on the 22nd (when I was due off) we wouldn't be close to EA field, so what do they plan to do? Fadfae/CSL had no response to that and Shell suggested I get off before they sailed, and I did. After the meeting there was lots shouting and finger pointing this morning, because we have complained about the food hygiene in the galley. Mubarak started shouting at me, saying things shouldn't go off the vessel and we shouldn't take pictures. I had to correct him that regarding our HSE policy, when we produce SOC card it is copied to the office. But considering I don't care what he thinks or does, the attempts at intimidation don't work and I just stared blankly at him.