MAIACETUS: Re-cap of 2011: Safety drills, sunsets, fishnet tangles, Cairo riots and dolphins, January/February

MMO rotation offshore Egypt and transit to Cadiz, Spain

It is definitely nice when we get MMO contracts with more than one rotation; you get to return to the same country, the same ship, the same crew, the same routine and the same animals (or lack thereof!). After spending a lovely white Christmas with my family in New Brunswick (see previous post) I went back to the west coast for a few days and then I was soon on a plane back to Egypt to finish the job on the Ramform Valiant.

Although the companies we work for are constantly assessing travel safety in the countries we work in, sometimes unexpected situations arise. Myself and the rest of the ship's crew flew into Cairo on January 18th and were transported to Port Said to do helicopter transfers to the ship on January 19th. Then on January 25th, only 6 days after we traveled through Cairo, protests against government corruption broke out in Cairo. The protests were part of what is now called the Arab Spring, a wave of demonstrations that happened in early 2011 across the Arab world and resulted in the removal of rulers and re-structuring of governments in many Arab countries.

Thousands of demonstrators in Tahrir Square shortly after we passed through Cairo to go the ship

Source

Although it was considered unsafe by most to stay in the country we remained because we were self-contained and working many miles offshore, well away from protest activity. We were only slightly impacted when we lost internet communication; shortly after rioting began (which was coordinated using social networking internet websites like Facebook and Twitter) the government shut down all internet services in the country. Additionally, when our chase vessel attempted to go to Port Said for supplies and to bring data ashore for the client, they could not enter the port because the official port buildings had been burned and the military had taken over. See video of tanks rolling through Port Said here. Although most foreigners were fleeing Egypt at this time, for some reason, our project manager stayed in Cairo and while we were sending daily reports of our activities offshore he was sending us emails about tanks rolling down the street past his office!

When we completed the survey mid February the situation in Egypt was still unstable and, although the client reps and I were not needed anymore, it was decided we would stay for the transit through the Mediterranean to Cadiz, Spain. I wasn't entirely disappointed though because it meant I would get to travel through the entire Mediterranean from east to west and I was definitely planning to watch for marine mammals en route. In the end it was interesting how the sea life changed during the transit.

As suspected, our sightings of dolphins picked up the further west we got; the productivity increased as we entered waters with increased mixing from the Atlantic Ocean to the west. As a special treat at sunrise on Valentine's day we were passing just north of Tunisia (we could see the shoreline) with flat calm sees and had a lovely sighting of bowriding Short-beaked common dolphins (Delphinis delphis). Throughout the rest of the day we saw more groups of common and striped dolphins (Stenella coerule oalba) and five sightings of Loggerhead turtles (Carretta carretta). I was happy to have these couple days of good sightings because, as was somewhat expected, when working offshore of Egypt the other MMO and I had only four dolphin and no turtle sightings in 3.5 months!

Following are some photos during my time offshore Egypt and during the transit to Cadiz, Spain:

Testing the fire hoses on the helideck for upcoming helicopter operations

Following three photos: still not sick of the offshore sunrises and sunsets!

Workboat operations: some of the seismic crew like to give us MMOs something to look at especially when there are few marine mammals :)

My office - gotta hate my job, the worst office space ever!

...and that's even an old office chair :D

The helideck and pool - the pool had been emptied due to high seas

More drills - testing smoke flares and the helideck fire suppression system

Unlike those of us from colder climates the Phillipino crew prefer to cover up as much as possible when working in the sun!

Yikes! Now that was not a nice entanglement of fishing gear the crew recovered with our gear!

There can be a surprising number of bugs offshore: houseflies, grasshoppers, moths and even occasionally mosquitoes -I really enjoy morning watches with the call of grasshoppers from around the decks of the ship

View from the helideck, astern of the Ramform, to the bridge - the bridge wings on the Ramform Valiant are awesome!

Workboat heading in after another long day working on the cables...

...and the boat drives straight into the sling off the stern and is lifted back onboard

Short-beaked common dolphins (Delphinis delphis) bowriding

Taking the lifeboat for a test drive - all safety equipment must be regularly tested and inspected so we know it's functioning properly when we need it!