The Ryan Herold

December through Now.

2011-03-03T10:45:00.008-08:00

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"

Some catch up stuff

2010-12-07T09:52:00.002-08:00

December 6th 2010

So the last few months october and november I have been working on and off mostly just waiting for work. I was on the Sterling pony for 5 days, then I got crewed up on the CalDiver II for a while, I would say a good part of a month. The boat wasn't bad and I learned a bunch about how SAT systems work and how to take care of the divers in them. But being a SAT betty pretty much sucks. I was in the food industry, I'm not particularly fond of preparing food, unless its for me or people whom i've invited to entertain.

I also took a brief adventure back out west and then to Wisconsin for thanksgiving. During these times I had some questions on my mind I had to reflect on. Some fairly deep and pivotal considerations, to ponder. I have established the fact that I can not work in this field forever, considering all the risks and the physical toll it takes on the body. I will work this job as long as it takes to save up a considerable chunk of savings to fall back on for at least five years, I have devised several alternative plans.

September '10

2010-12-07T09:48:00.001-08:00

September 17^th 2010

A couple days ago I was summoned by the powers to be. Offshore, to another adventure. The American Triumph is my new crew at the moment. It is quite a change from the Midnight Star. There are good and bad differences, but overall this crew is a lot more friendly. Even though I am a red-hat still, I’m not picked apart from the crew every moment to pick up someone else’s slack. I am here to work and work damn hard too. It is hard to keep a positive mental attitude when someone is barking orders during your make or break moments, like pulling up the sonar solo, with 300 feet of cable out and a modified steel frame on it, instead of an aluminum one.

Basically my point is, I have a great crew right now and would like to stick it out on this boat as long as they let me. So far this job we have been replacing anodes on an Apache platform. Rigging, tending, prepping, running chambers. Hopefully in a few days I may get a dive. But for now I’m very satisfied with my crew and my boat. It was an fairly easy day today, we made two dives on our way back to port during a quick stop. Took about 4 hours and then the rest of the day we were under way to port for a de-mobe and a re-supply, due to bad weather, another tropical storm kicking up high seas. Oh, so we pretty much just got back to port when I got off shift, and I’m sitting in the galley watching T.v. and a mattress comes through the door. I got a new mattress for my bunk today, pretty frick’n awesome!

End of August '10

2010-12-07T09:45:00.000-08:00

August 27^th 2010 - 8/27/10

Today was pretty much awesome. No I didn’t get a dive, but half our day was spent sitting around waiting for weather and rough seas to blow over. We set an anchor a day prior and just hung around for a 20 hrs, for things to clear up. I am slowly growing my sea-legs. Even though we have a fairly large boat 211ft. It can still roll pretty heavy, about 15-20 ft in either direction. I bet it will look like I’m completely drunk when I get back on shore and try walk on flat ground.

Anyway I had 6 hours to fart around at the beginning of my shift, I filled out two Job Safety Analysis forms a.k.a. JSA’s. Then I started reading Catcher and the Rye, a book I purchased just for the occasion. I can’t sit on the computer every waking moment of my day. Reading is an essential to sanity. Likewise, so is music. Movies are just a bonus. Luckily I brought all three.

Anyway getting back on topic, I read for maybe 2 hours, then I fell asleep in a lawn chair on the bow with a slight cool breeze. Wow and that brings up a whole different topic. A slight COOL breeze. Unheard of sense I got down here. The entire month of August has passed, by just slaving away. I can hardly believe it, I worked the whole month away, 12 hr shifts back to back.

August 2010

2010-12-07T09:42:00.000-08:00

Aug, 26^th 2010

Today wasn’t too bad, we got to take a break from diving ops, and hang out on the bow most of the night and day. Still we were working hard. Almost every time we set the hooks, aka anchors, fyi 4 of them. We have to survey with a Sonar device. This device is set up on a pyramid frame and is attached at the top, we drop it down from a snatch-block off the bow by the wheelhouse. It is controlled strictly by man-power, it is around the 100 or so pound range. When the current is ripping and the boat is rolling hard it feels like 2-300 lbs. especially when you bring it off bottom 100ft+. Today we did 14 of these so called “Mezotech Drops.” My hands are very sore, feel like leather, and ache, but life goes on. The compensation for my work is well worth the pain.

As I type this the boat is rolling hard, at times we’re getting 10 ft swells.

Today during the early morning hours around 7 or 8 am, we saw about 50 dolphins swimming off our bow. A little while later we saw them aft, on the starboard side, jumping about 6 feet out of the water. Just those little moments can make your day, brings you down to earth. As overwhelming as it can be sometimes, with all the testosterone floating around, everyone loves to see sea-life.

The Midnight Star

2010-08-25T11:17:00.004-07:00

On 7/13/2010, CalDive International decided to hire me. Prior to all of this there was an excruciating amount of pre-planning, organizing, re-organizing, arranging, re-arranging, etc. The beginning of July I flew down to Lafayette, LA from Central Wisconsin Airport. It took 4 airports and 10 hours to get to this heat haven. I booked a room at the Days Inn, at New Iberia, for 5 nights. I began reconnecting with all of my classmates who also got hired on with CalDive. Some of them were actually on shore for a bit. We had a blast in the pool a couple of nights in a row. Let us just say a beer or two and “Pass the Bail-out,” in the pool of course.

Later that week I started to get things lined up for my Interview. If you spend a considerable amount of time and energy preparing for something, it goes a lot smoother, trust me. The actual interview was really all the information we were told on the conference call a month before we graduated DIT. I was relieved. My Interview for Home Depot years prior was way more intensive than this. The following day I was sent off to start the “In Depth,” dive physical. Including a strength test, two UA’s and a blood exam, a respirator fit test, hearing test, hot/cold, sharp/dull, reflexes, Spinal MRI, X-rays, I could actually keep going but I will spare you.

After the rigorous physical, the week of training started. This stuff was basically the same info we learned in dive school, other than “Safe Gulf,” training. Just info crap. The only physical part of the training was seeing if you could jump in the water with a hat and run loss of gas drills. One of the first things we learned in school. Using our bail-out bottles and sticking the pneumo up in our hats. Cake walk.

I concluded my training and began working in the Dive Shop. This shop takes care of most of the gear and tools needed to keep a dive station up and running. I learned all kinds of stuff that I had no idea about prior. Like CP hose fittings, how to rebuild them, check them for leaks. Rebuilding umbilical’s CalDive’s way. Putting together third party job-boxes. Three weeks of this labor, adjusting to the heat and trying to out-work the old shop hands. Than my luck struck.

On a Friday afternoon I got a txt from our main office. It read “Midnight Star Mobes up, do you need the van?” I was thinking what in the hell does this mean? Puzzled, finally I asked my room-mate. Midnight Star = The boat, Mobes = Mobilizes, do you need the van = do you need a ride to Port Fourchon, because it is 3 hours away. I quickly replied. Later I got a reply saying Saturday, Broussard, 2000hrs, And that was all the information I needed. So I started packing my offshore bag.

I don’t exactally remember how I felt that first day of the very first hitch, I’m guessing a combination of anxious, nervous, tireless, uncertain. I mean it took a good couple of weeks just to warm up to the crew. I have never put myself in such a stressful atmosphere willingly. It took a great deal of adjusting. That first 20 hours I was awake. Three hours to travel from our office pickup location to Port. Another 5 hours to Travel to our destination from port. Then I began the night shift. Twenty straight hours. The only time I had done that was maybe partying or video games, never while sweating running around in steel toes and a hard-hat.

8/22/10 Today I got my FIRST Gulf of Mexico dive! As a red-hat tender! Yes, also on my first hitch. I must be doing something right. Even though I still get ridiculed, hollered at, cut down, and disheveled, my Lead Tender convinced my Supervisor to throw me in for one quick project. Climb under the stern and grab the down-line off the back of the boat. Simple, maybe, but have you ever seen the underside of an ocean-worthy dive vessel? I bet not. It was actually pretty simple, 30 ft. deep and 7 minutes of motivation. Serious, jaw dropping motivation. I didn’t even need to wear a wet-suit, it was bath-tub warm with 30+ feet of visibility, An experience never to forget.

7/23/10, today I messed up, first I attempted to start the jet pump, but the clutch was engaged. Then I got yelled at because I didn’t check the fluids in advance. Despite all that, we were in the process of retrieving our stern anchors from the tug today, one step is to tie a throw line to the pendant wire so the tug has something to catch when the wire comes back to them. It is also what gets thrown back to us, so we can retrieve this 1 ½ steel cable, that connects the anchor to the buoy. Anyway this whole process shouldn’t take more than a minute. But I missed the tug three times. I struck out as they say in baseball.

I couldn’t get the damn thing to land in the boat. There is a certain way to throw this stupid thing, and ofcorse I was ill informed. Never have I had to throw out 50 feet of ½ inch polypro line with a monkeys fist in the end. Of course there was a lesson in it for me.

Definitely wasn’t my best day thus far on my first hitch, but we had a lot of downtime, and that was ok. All in all I am making it by just fine. I just need to find it within myself to come to terms with everything. Roll with the punches and start enjoying what I do, no matter how mind numbingly difficult it may be. Rumor has it our contract with Shell is going to be done in 2 or so weeks, which means 2 more weeks of pay, and some well needed home time, oh glory! Maybe I can afford a real bed now.

So that’s the low down so far, till next time. Love me do. Ryan Wierzbicki