Thread: Last Trip on a Semi-Sub Drilling Rig

well this is the last day offshore for me...an end to an 11 year career that has seen me work in places ranging from the Southern part of the Irish Sea to Inside the Artic Circle...

When all's said and done I think Im gonna miss it a wee bit, the cameraderie of the crews, the humour in the smoking shack and off-shift hi-jinks, all things necessary for making the time away from home more bearable.

Of course its not all good sometimes conflicts come up but they have to be resolved or they get in the way and can put peoples lives at risk due to the nature of the job.

I will miss the 30 minute dinners, 20 minute coffee breaks and inbetweenies where you drink coffee and chain smoke....lol.
Another miss will be the feeling of knocking off, covered in drilling mud, grease and pipe dope and the scrub up before dinner round the big sink where we tell jokes, give each other hassle for fun and talk about the trials of the day, and then off to the galley to all eat together.

Some of you will understand this and some of you I guess will wonder how we could do a job like this, but we all drive cars, motorcycles, wear products that contain oils etc, so someone has to do it...

I think what Im trying to say is that although Im going to my family at Xmas ,Im leaving a family behind that I share my work with and to a certain extent Im going to miss them too.
The characters that make you laugh, the ones that wind you up and the ones you can just sit and talk too and the ones who are just plain interesting.

Ok enough of being sombre its off outside to pull ALOT of pipe out the hole, about 6 kilometres of pipe to be exact think its about 2 or so miles worth and get it done

regards,simon

Simon,

I sort of know how you feel. After ten - eleven odd years as a police officer and leaving earlier this year I still miss the mateship etc as you described

The best part was that I got to leave all the shit behind and keep the mates

Best of luck to ya, you kilt wearing thing you

Onwards and upwards Simon.

Best wishes for your new life. Oh...and I'll be working on the blade for yer.

Gary

I know a little about what you're talking about - I did 5 seasons in one of the North Sea oil patches (EKOFISK) back in the early '70's - boy, is that dating myself or what - hard to believe it was 30-odd years ago.

Long, hard dirty hours - but the guys were great - the work and the environment pretty much weeded out the ones that did'nt belong

good people in the 'awl bidness'.

-whatever

-Lou