Farewell Peru

Well it was finally time to take my leave of Peru, and what better way than the Airline that is the Pride of Holland - KLM.
If you are vertically challenged, or under 12 years of age, then this is the Airline for you, as they have tailored the seat size and knee room specifically for Persons under 4' tall and sylph like i.e. its non existent. It was to put it mildly, a pretty miserable flight. You first get a hint of what is to come, when you go onto their website a few days before your travel so as to "manage your flight". Here you will find an amazing amount of options for seating, all of which come at an extra cost, for example  a seat in a row of 2, that will be an extra 96 Euros Sir, thank you so very much, or maybe a seat at the emergency exit with some legroom, as opposed to no legroom ? certainly Sir, please stump up 125 Euros. If you don't fancy getting ripped off, then its just the standard seat for you, and you better show some gratitude for that as well.

Air France, who allegedly have KLM as a Partner, used exactly the same Aircraft ( a 777-300ER for those who are even slightly interested), on the way to Lima, which had a seating plan in Cattle class which reads 2+4+2, where the Budget Airline partner KLM has a seating plan 3+4+3, and has more rows....Hmmm, even with my rudimentary understanding of Maths that did not herald glad tidings for the journey to come !

Once onboard, and shoe horned into your Seat beside....now how can we delicately put this....a Fat, Sweaty, Smelly example of the Human Race, who promptly put the seat back to recline before we had even taken off, KLM then assaults you with their Food. I can honestly say, I have absolutely no idea what I was served with, in fact, I would have preferred sucking the little hand towelette that came with the meal, and in retrospect, maybe I should have, as a) it had more taste (lemon!), and b) certainly more nutritional and calorific content, than the crap that was hidden under the foil of the plastic tray, actually, come to think of it (and I really would rather not), whatever that offering was, was stuck more to the underside of the foil when I peeled that back, than in the tray itself....oh yummy !
Amsterdam Schipol Airport could not have arrived soon enough, even the obese Object beside me must have thought so, as immediately upon landing and the Aircraft turning off the Runway, he wanted to crush me, as he tried to get out of his seat and open the overhead locker as the Plane continued to head towards the Air Bridge. It took 2 cabin staff to wedge him back into his seat while trying to explain to him in words of no more than 2 syllables that the Plane still had 2 miles of taxi way to traverse before coming to a stop....Knob !

Taxi Coming

So the moral of the story, is don't travel by KLM unless there is no other option, they really are the Pits. I would probably prefer to stick pins in my eyes before experiencing the quality of their service again !

As you can see from the photos, Crew change day was welcomed with a wonderful sunrise, smooth seas and baking hot sun, as we headed into La Cruz on our small Crew Change Boat. Once at La Cruz, it was a 2 hr bus journey to the airport at Talara, heading down the Coastal plain (see the last picture), before flying to Lima, and then back to Europe. Unfortunately as the day wore on, more and more haze became visible, so many of the Photos taken from the bus journey will need some post processing to make them reasonable.

Speaking of Post Processing, I use Capture NX2 for any touch ups I may do to my images, although I am now seriously tempted by this new version of Lightroom (4), as Capture NX2 is getting a bit long in the tooth. I am still struggling with Adobe products though, as I do not find them particularly user friendly, so I would be interested in anyone's opinion of LR4 before I waste any time and effort looking seriously at the 30 day trial on offer that Adobe currently do.
Have a good Easter for those of you who celebrate it, and for those of you who don't (Myself included), then have a great Holiday.

Barnacles ahoy

Well its been another, lets see how best to phrase this...."interesting" week in Seismic, or as the French would say eloquently, "merde". The main issue being not the Fishing Boats, but the fact that we have been, what is fondly refered to, as barnacled.
Balanus balanoides, or Barnacle to you and me, is a very successful little Beastie, often found in surf zones on Rocks and sea cliffs, and on the bottom of Boats, where it attaches with something akin to superglue, and then starts filter feeding, growing and reproducing madly (Not a bad life, come to think of it). The upshot of this, is that it creates a lot of drag and weight on whatever its attached to, which if its a rock is neither here nor there, but if its on our damn streamers....well that's a different story all together.

Insane Noggie

 If you let the little Buggers keep growing, then you will find that the tension on the streamer increases pretty dramatically, the upshot of which, is that you could find that you start the day towing 10 streamers and finish with, lets say 3 dangling behind you, and at 1.5 million dollars a streamer, that's an awful lot of money to have dropping off the end of your Boat, and heading deep six.
Seismic companies throughout the years have invested in many ideas on how to tackle these little rogues and prevent them from pulling off our streamers. Some of the ideas they have come up with, are more amusing than effective ie covering our streamer in a stocking type of material (kinky, and completely ineffective), slapping an anti barnacle gel on the streamer (fairly kinky, but it proved to be a barnacle attractant), and painting the streamers red !! I mean which bright spark came up with that last idea ? Barnacles have colour vision, and are warned off by the all things red ? That's got to be clutching at a fairly large straw to think that that's going to work.

Trainee !

 The previous company I worked with, came up with a power washing contraption which you put in a small boat, the idea being that you would lift the streamer with its offending barnacles to the surface, drape the streamer into a box with these power washing heads on the Boat, and then drive along the streamer happily washing away the barnacles to your hearts content. Great idea in theory, and absolutely bloody useless in practise. Firstly, even with headphones on you would be practically deafened by the sound of the power washer on its full wash cycle, and secondly bits of barnacle would be blasted everywhere, to such a point that for 2 or 3 days following a sortie, and with every shower you took you would look down at your feet and still see barnacle parts floating around the shower tray, and wonder to Yourself where the hell they had come from !

Fishing Boat at Mancora

 Anyway, to cut a long and dreary story short, we had to bring in all our streamer and basically scrape them clean by hand....not a quick job by any means, and after a few days an extremely smelly job as they all began to rot in the heat, no matter how often you washed down the decks and the Reels upon which our streamers are retrieved and deployed.
Right.... on to the Photos, and i should say I have an apology to make for the first 2. These were taken on a previous boat, with a Previous Company, and are included purely as a reference as to what these damn creatures look like in reality. The quality is not great, as naturally i was in a hurry to take the photo and then vamoose as fast as possible ! I also have to apologise for the quality of the Models that were used, but i don't have the big bucks of Mario Testino, and therefore Beggars can't be choosers. I can however assure you that the Model in the first picture really isn't insane, he's just Norwegian. I would however question the sanity of the Model in the 2nd picture. The T on his hard hat is to signify he is actually a Trainee, and not a Tit as you were probably all thinking.
The 3rd more normal photo is of one of the Fishing boats that are currently sharing the sea with us these days.

Till the next time....

Noodles

Well its been a week now that I have been onboard, and like most things when you get on a new boat, you feel a bit like a spare part, as you find you are continually walking down the wrong corridors to get wherever you thought your Cabin was, or you don't know where to find the simplest tool, or in my case, work out where the hell they hide files on their joke of a computer network....every boat is very different, and very individual.

Mancora Beach

Jetty and Fishing Boats..oh, and a Horse.

So its always nice to find a piece of continuity somewhere across every Boat you visit, and in my case the humble Noodle is that piece of continuity, which gives me that warm and cosy feeling of belonging, when I am offshore.
Noodles, are the staple diet in Seismic as far as i can gather, especially for those of us who work erratic hours, and miss meals occasionally. They are also the staple diet for the night shift who has to struggle to find any nutrition whatsoever, in the limited, and completely unoriginal choice of breakfast they are given each day half way through their shift. If you don't like Fried Eggs, you really should not be sailing on a Seismic boat and working nights !

Knackered Fishing Boats

However the noodle, to anyone in Seismic, is a serious dining experience. Firstly, they mainly come in little square fluorescent packages of loveliness, delighting in such names as "Mama Tans Noodle Plan", or on this Vessel "Sopa Maruchan !"; the colours of the packaging gently hinting at the levels, and quality of the E components found within. Secondly each Noodle pack contains up to 3, yes 3 small sealed packets of yummy chemicals, some powder, and some liquid, which when opened and combined with boiling water, produce complete gastronomic euphoria in the lucky individual who is consuming the said concoction. Finally, they are just so easy to make.....even Jeff my old Flatmate at college, who we once caught putting Corned Beef in the Oven to roast, could make a bowl of noodles, as all it takes is boiling water.

Pterodactyl

Fish and Chips tonight ?

 Anyway, enough of the rambling and on to the photos. These were all taken at Mancora, which apparently, so I have been told, attracts the Surf Dudes and attached Groupies, although I couldn't see a lot of wave action (or Groupies) for the short time I was there. What was there though, was some of the Fish Flinging Fleet, and plenty of Fisherman catching various bits and pieces from the shore, including one lucky fellow who had caught himself a Ray of some kind, and was happy to pose with it. Circling in the Skies above, were some fairly large birds, not unlike Pterodactyls, who would occasionally swoop down, and take off the Beach the odd Fish when the Fishermans back was turned, as they sharpened their gutting knives on the rocks. Unfortunately the light, although bright, was polluted with a general haze caused by the midday sun, so the Photos don't "pop", but they are a nice reminder nevertheless of the end of an interesting journey before heading out to the Boat.

Peru

Yup, I'm in Peru, and no, it wasn't planned, which all in all, is pretty normal to be honest in Seismic at times !

Piura Street scene

The week had started badly enough with me having to go through my very first tooth extraction, an experience which i would rather not repeat again in a hurry, and this was then followed by the fateful phone call asking me how long it would take me to get ready to travel to a vessel in Peru, rather than head off to the Office in Bergen. So here I am, busy sailing up and down the coast of Northern Peru for my sins, fighting with the local Fishermen who keep throwing fish at us (I kid you not), a fairly strange way of doing a discard me thinks !
Its my first time in Peru to be honest, and so far I am pleasantly surprised, even with the odd fish being thrown in my direction. Lima airport was amazing, very modern, very easy to get round, and very helpful staff....a real eye opener, especially as I had travelled from the delights of Paris, and we all know what a shining example of an Airport that is.... although I guess CDG must be improving slightly, as this time they had managed to send my luggage with me, rather than to Baku, or some other destination of their choice.
From Lima, I travelled to Piura, and then after a stay there, travelled up the Pan American Highway (sounds grand, but isn't) for 3 hours before eventually arriving in Mancora, whereupon I was picked up by a boat and sailed for the big nasty Seismic ship running the gauntlet of the Flying Fish from the local fishing fleet, who obviously believe they own this part of the Ocean, and consequently believe they have the sole right to sail and work in it. To be honest, its no different from dealing with Scottish and Spanish fishermen in the North Sea; minus the thrown Fish of course, as there is of course no Fish left to catch in that area, let alone waste throwing at anyone !

Rice Paddies

 Anyway....to the photos. just a couple this time, as I shall expand the story and post more photos when I am a little more organised. The first is just an early morning street scene from Piura, and the 2nd is taken from the window of the vehicle I was in when travelling to Mancora.......You would think you were in Vietnam with those rice paddies wouldn't you ?

More will follow.

Later.....