Jumping Off the Deep End

Writtin Nov 12th

Feeling like a small tuna in a big ocean once again. It’s easy to get comfortable with your life and forget what it’s like to take a risk and try something new, and all of the complicated emotions and uneasy circumstances that follow. This is especially true for someone like me who lacks confidence and becomes immediately guarded around unfamiliar faces. And man the ocean really is a big place.

This Gorgon natural gas project that I’ve signed onto is by far the most intense undertaking I’ve ever been a part of, and I haven’t even started work yet. I’ve spend the last 4 days learning about how important natural gas is to the global economy from presentations by Chevron, how they are striving to show that industry and nature can coexist in harmony, how Barrow Island represents what mainland Australia used to be before non-indigenous humans invaded, why it’s important to quarantine all items coming over from the mainland to the island, and what my role will be as an MFO for the next month. So needless to say my brain feels like an incased mass of slop at the moment.

I made it through quarantine after a long search for the correct terminal at 4:30 in the morning, the taxi drivers in Perth can’t seem to tell their ass from the Grand Canyon. Eventually I made my 6am flight from Perth to Barrow. Flying into the island was stunning; the landscape is like nothing I’ve seen before. It looks identical to the classic photos of the Australian outback, dry vegetation caked with rich red dust. The landscape is riddled with huge termite mounds, up to 6 feet tall. The red structures not only house the termites, they act as a storage facility for the plant material they gather, a burial site for fallen soldiers (which are stored at the base of the mound), a nursery for up and coming wood eaters, and of course a sanctuary for all sorts of small mammals, reptiles, birds, and insects that use the mounds for protection from the oppressive rays of the relentless sun. All of the fauna on the island are nocturnal, so I hope at some point to spend some time on the island at night (although they have strict regulations about who is allowed to leave the base). There are apparently 24 species endemic to Barrow, including a small type of kangaroo.

Upon disembarking the plane, we were herded onto which taxied us to a port on the north side of the island, where we were then loaded onto one of the transport vessels the Sea Stryder. A choppy 25 minute ride took us out to where the Finnmarken, a mortified cruise liner, is moored. I then met up with Dan, the MFO that I will be replacing, who ran me through all of the ins and outs of the ship. It’s equipped with a dining area and 24 hour snack bar, coffee in several locations, a gym, pool, spa, lounge, offices, lockers, movie/entertainment room, and observation platform. I also get my own cabin, complete with TV, shower, and toilet (all you need really, although the TV is arguable). At 4:30 I have a formal intro to the ship. I will complete my first day with a rundown of report writing and who to send them off to, assigned a locker, go out to one of the dredgers for a another ship induction, dinner, and at some point hopefully sleep. The boat I’ll be working on is still offshore doing cyclone drills, and may not be back for a few days. So hopefully with any luck I’ll have my first day of work off.

If you want more info on the Finnmarken and other vessels used in this project, try Google searching Finnmarken, Gorgon LNG Barrow Island, and Chevron Barrow Island. I’ll bring some documents home with me too.