Thursday, November 27, 2008


These pictures are from the summer of "07 when I was working for Constellation Maritime. we were setting the buoys for the offshore LNG facility in Massachusetts Bay. Ships discharge their cargo directly into these buoys, which are connected to the pipeline on shore. http://www.excelerateenergy.com/northeast.html
It was a very interesting job. we had to hold the buoy between our two boats and pass a wire to the large anchor handling tug so the could tie into the anchors which were already set on the ocean floor. That yellow line you see on the big boat is a six inch diameter cable encased in a protective coating. There are eight of them for each buoy, arrayed in a circular pattern- picture a wagon wheel with the buoy being the hub and each wire leading to an anchor like the spokes. You can see the buoy in the top picture being lifted off the ship. It reminds me of the space capsules that the astronauts used to splash down in. When it's all set in place it actually sits about 50 feet or so under water.

Wednesday, November 26, 2008

New Job

I'm starting a new job on friday at McAllister New York. I don't know what boat yet, or what I'll be doing - ship assist or towing- or even what the pay is. The truth is, I can't be too picky right now, I just have to get back to work right now, so I'm kinda' signing on blind so to speak.
The Holidays are here and I just spent all my money on S.T.C.W. classes (more on what that is at a later date) only to find that the boat I was working on was being sent to Africa, so I'm a little bit of a pickle money-wise. Yea, they still have a job for me, but it's on a boat that's in the shipyard for the next few weeks and I can't afford to wait for it so here I go again.