December through Now.

December I was working with Ozzie on the American Star for three different jobs. This boat opened me up to the fact that a Lead Tender doesn't have to be breathing down your neck to get the job done. If your confident enough to do things without being told, just do them. I was 2nd man for one hitch and it felt good to be working my way up the chain of command. I earned white hat status on this crew. December was a verycold month, in the low 30's with a humid wind is a very bad combination.

New Years day night I was headed to the atlantic barge (above) in location Eugene Island 266 to salvage a blown over platform. Little did I know we were about to stay up for 32hours straight. Left the shop via crew van at around 1245 am, got to the barge in Port Arthur, TX around 4 am. It was a 30 hr. tow from a tug boat to location, 4 hours to set up anchors. During the 30 hr. tow to location we had to scrub every inch of the sat system. DDC, HRC, TL, & the Bell. Get everything ready for a month of diving, and get the rotation going for the SAT betty.

My rotation lasted two weeks, we were also down on weather for 5 days of it. The Atlantic was a lazy-mans paradise most of the time, the only things we had to strain on was getting the sonar back on deck and figure-8ing the jet hose. Other than that the Atlantic was a cake walk.

Currently I am working on the pacific barge. (Above) One of CalDive's Biggest vessels. I have never see a 300 ton shackle before, they are just massive. Rated for 600,000 lbs, using 4 of them to lift the top package of a platform rated for 2,400,000 lbs. Some massive rigging. Luckily I am part of the dive crew so I don't do a whole lot of rigging. We have to use a small crane just to move the rigging around on deck, these slings and shackles are not liftable by human hands. The Pacific's crane is rated for 850 tons, 1,700,000 lbs, just massive. This thing is like a 50-60 story building. Great learning experience out here.

I am on shift writing this, we are currently down on weather for the entirety of the week due to hight seas swing our massive crane around. I should remain on this barge for around 3 weeks. I might even have a chance of going to the Bahamas job if I stay on after these 3 - 4 jobs.

Till later,

Ryan Wierzbicki A.K.A. "Wierzbic"