Monday, November 1, 2010

Wasting Away Again in Boganville

Over the last 2 days we’ve been on standby. It’s not bad being on standby, we’ve been going to the gym, the pool, and I’ve been watching the World Series wrap up while eating Doritos and Tim Tams (an un American chocolate candy that tastes too good to pass up). I went to go by some hotdog stuff for game 5, but I could only find the wieners. Apparently the buns are hard to come by in this country, what a shame. Not sure exactly why they have cancelled the blasts, but I’ve heard that divers have been in the water trying to clear away some chargers that failed to detonate. Not I job I would want to have; I hope they get paid well.

Just to re-familiarize you with the Mackay job I’m working on, it’s a blasting operation aimed at breaking up the bedrock and allow for dredgers to come in and clear a new channel for charger ships to berth and stock up on coal, which is brought from the mines by train, and carried along the trestle to the ships by a series of long conveyor belts (about 3 km of conveyors in fact). In the photo, you can see the jack up rig which drills the holes that the 24 dynamite charges are packed into. The drill rig then pulls up its spuds (legs), and uses winches and anchors to move off the site where the charges are detonated. We, the MFO’s, are located at 5 different stations; 2 people on the South Tower (where the photos were taken), 1 on the North Tower (to the north obviously), 1 on a boat anchored 1500 meters from the blast site (in this case the Delphi, the limit for turtles, dugongs, and dolphins), and 1 person on a boat anchored at the 2000 meter mark (usually always The Gun, the limit for whales). If whales are spotted within 2000 meters, or if turtles, dugongs, dolphins, or any other wildlife within 1500 meters, the blast is postponed until we give the all clear.

If 30 minutes go by with no marine fauna sited in the zones, than the charges are triggered, and the ocean boils with mud and foam followed by a load BOOM! The loud boom is the cue for the crested terns perched on the morning lines of the charger ships to come in and pick up pieces of dead benthic organisms and any fish that may have been going about their business in the water column above the blast. We then observe for another 30 minutes for any dead animals that may surface. So far we’ve only spotted a large dead fish, possibly a Dorado.

Tomorrow will be my last day doing this job, than I’m off to a different job in Western Australia living off a cruise ship and working on a dredger. So that’s what been going on, a whole lot of nothing. Flying to the Gold Coast on Thursday for a few more days of surfing, then to Perth for more inductions.

Denise, send my photos of Reef please. Congratulations to the Giants, I think I will rout for you next year.




2 comments:

  1. Great picture of the blast site. Yey Giants! My favorite player is Buster Posey. He will go far in the years to come. Hope you have a smooth transition with the new job. Take care, Mike.

    ReplyDelete
  2. I think Ryan loaded the pictures wednesday night so I'll send them to u Thursday when I wake up. I'm super excited the giants won. Next year we will go to many games. Again. Buster posey is definately a hottie. Both with his baseball skills and appearance. Hopefully your new job is more eventful. Can't wait to see you.

    ReplyDelete