jwl

I got the new from Ski yesterday that the rig he works on got hit right on the nose by Rita. Something like 140+ kt. winds and 40+ seas casused her to break loose form the anchors and wash up on the beach 150 miles from her location. The rig had been abandoned for the strom so he and the crew are all safe but the rig has sufferd extensive damage. Damn, this rig is BIG.... and can't imagine the force it took to break it loose.

special tool

I can't believe it - I asked him about it after Katrina, I thought this one would be easier.

jwl

Yeah, it's hard to believe. Bad thing is that this rig was one of the premier semi-sub's in the fleet. Here's her specs
http://www.deepwater.com/fleetspecifications.cfm?ID=594

Ski

Back to the shipyard! well, after we get her off the pivot point of one thruster which is aground. 152 miles to the NNW, so the storm broke it loose, carried it on the east side - which is the worst side of the hurricane. The wire has a breaking strength of 1.2M pounds, the chain 976k, and who know where all of that is. It will take at least 6mo to even get the wire.

Divers will be out tomorrow for inspection of the hull. The stability calculation we do, the curves are only up to 120 kt winds with 60 ft seas. The surge of the water is usually what does it, as the vessel moves, the catenary of the wire/chain combe tightens but the surge of wind and water combined, when one breaks the others are sure to follow. At least we still have a hull to work with, unlike many, who have lost everything, including their life.

It has been a really bad year with the loop current in the GOM. This current comes in from the Yucatan, curves slightly toward TX, then along the southern states, down south to FL, then out the FL straits. This warm water is what has fed the hurricanes so quickly, turning the CAT 1 and 3 storms into CAT 5 in a very short time.

Tool, for Katrina, the rig was about 250 miles to the west, the buoys from NOAA barely got to 28' waves. Rita, landed on top of her about 4am Friday morning, stayed around till 7-8 and just carried it with her...almost. It did make contact with a Chevron production platform, one of our anchor cabs on the corner took out their flare boom. I'll get some pics when I get there Friday and post up - when I can depending on com's and satellite up links.

check out the link below. You can click on an area, then a buoy and get real time data every hour on the update. Some are manned, some are fully remote, operated by NOAA and USCG.

http://www.ndbc.noaa.gov/index.shtml

David Floyd

Hard to imagine the brute force it take to do such things.