Glenn
"MC" Call 
Weather in Morgan City, Louisiana / Longstreath Divers Discussion Group
Hi Folks! People ask me what Commercial Diving is. Here's a taste ... Shortly after hurricanes Katrina and Rita I worked in the Gulf of Mexico on the construction barge "Big Chief" hooking into a gas pipe for Bisso Marine. We were anchored about twenty miles off shore, just south of Pascagoula, Mississippi. The food was great and it was pretty fine working out in the fresh-air and sunshine. The barge constantly rocked with the waves -- it took three days back on land before I finally lost my sea-legs and the world settled down. |
Construction Barge - "Big Chief" as seen from the crew boat.
| Sleeping Quarters are pretty tight, but with construction going on a 24 hour clock, I wasn't here much. With all the fresh air and sunshine, however,I slept really well when I did get to sleep! |
| The
Dive Shack with weight belts. My belt is on the far right. Inside is where the Dive Supervisor sits in front of the Video and Communications consoles. The Dive Supervisor also controls air to the diver from here. |
This is a picture of me (arms folded) with Steve, the Lead Tender. In addition to the two of us, there were eventually two other tenders and seven divers. Note the size of the anchor. The "Big Chief" uses four of these anchors to maintain a secure ("dymanic") position over the work. |
Looking
aft from the Galley. The dive shack is under the big crane.
The green pipes
on the right were eventually hooked into the gas-line.
.
Speaking
of the crane -- here's a shot of Norris, the crane operator during a quiet moment!
This
shot is from the foot of the smaller crane, looking up toward the quarters and
the galley.
One of two dive compressors.
This
is the Decompression Chamber.
The work was at 60 feet for two hours at a time,
so Deco is necessary to avoid the Bends.
As
soon as a diver comes up, he gets out of his gear and jumps into this thing while
the tender "blows him down" to the equivalent pressure of where
he was (i.e. 60 feet of sea water).
The
diver stays at for 30 minutes on pure Oxygen.
and then is gradually is brought
back to surface pressure.
This tugboat -- the "Duard E" -- is moored downwind of the "Big Chief".
Among other things, it helps position the "Big Chief" and sets the four dynamic positioning anchors.
This is the "Crew Boat," the Nacis John Jr. we rode out to the "Big Chief"
This is the captain of the crew boat. Gotta love his seat -- it's an old barber's chair!
This is a "Semi-Submersible" oil platform sitting in the harbor for repairs.
This is a deck hand of the crew boat Nacis John Jr. standing by to help folks "walk the plank" to board the "Big Chief"
All
in all, there are about 30 or so men on board the "Big Chief."
This
includes the various specialst Riggers, Welders, Crane Operators and Divers.
Also, there's a whole crew just to run the barge: BR Men to do laundry and clean and cooks and clerks and so forth.
This
project finished up on the 1st of November.
After that, I went over to work
with CalDive.
(web page coming soon!)
I'm
now back inland, enjoying the relative serenity of cold waters.
With these
two projects done, I feel I've done my bit for the
Katrina / Rita recovery
and I'm happy to be back home for a while!
MC
