All good things must come to an end, and after a nice bit of time over in Spain, I finally had to return to the real world. Before I could rejoin the ship I had to attend a few courses to enable me to work around the oil and gas fields of the North Sea. For this I had to head to Norfolk, and the Petans training centre.
The first course on the list went by the name of BOSIET, and was 3 days of general offshore safety, including the joys of escaping from an upturned helicopter in a swimming pool. Not an enjoyable experience, but at least it is done. No pictures of the exciting bits of the course, as I was too busy worrying about drowning to remember my camera. So the best I can offer is the lifeboat training platform.
Next on the list were 3 courses in a row dealing with helicopter operations. First on the list was the emergency helideck team members course. This was great fun, involving 3 days of pretend helicopter crashes and lots of fire fighting.
Then after dealing with what happens when things go wrong, I moved onto 2 courses which enabled me to gain my helicopter landing officers certificate. This was a more theoretical few days of radio procedures and the rules and regs for helidecks and their operation.
So with the courses now out of the way I rejoined the RRS Ernest Shackleton in Kristiansund, Norway on Monday. As I write we are about 1000m from a large oil rig collecting mud samples from the sea bed.
Its great to be back onboard, and even better as the weather is very nice, and the work not too hectic. The slightly worrying thought for the day is that the first time I see an actual helicopter approaching the ship it is my job to be in charge of landing it! North Sea helicopter pilots beware.
Many thanks to Greg for the use of the photos.
