"Work"  for me is literally money for old rope...For the last three and a bit years I was working on the Brent B in the northern North Sea, a rope access supervisor, sounds very grand, but it's not, however it is a pretty good way to pay the bills , and getting paid for using the climbing skills seems a good thing. Below are photos from various jobs I have had over the years....a few notable names are listed at the end....

Prudhoe Bay, Alaska.... in October !

Technicians refitting insulation to inspection areas on pipework

Jason the RT tech sets up a shot high in the piperacks

Then heads down to safety before winding out the source

Gets a bit nippy on the slope sometimes...

But in summer the fishing can be pretty good !

Couple of UT techs hanging out

Using tension lines to access inspection areas

Doing a bit of mag inside a 24 inch steam pipe - foolishness !

Pat Heath doing a bit of UT in a pulp mill vessel

Dave Blanchard transferring ropes inside a paper mill stack

Working in the breach of a smoke stack, Indiana

Steve Deathe lays another bead inside a power station stack in Indiana

Young Brook Trout rappels down a vessel in Albertas' Peace River country

This is me in a previous job

The happy bellman

Screwing covers back onto UT inspection cookie holes

Up in the gussets of some semi sub rig or other

Leading up a kiln stack in Alberta (A2 !)

Setting up to check torque on PROD boom bolts, offshore eastern Canada

Ascending the ropes from the end of a PROD boom run

 General view inside Irving fab shop at Dartmouth , Nova Scotia.... spools for South Venture project

Cutting off old anodes on a semi sub rig, Halifax, Nova Scotia

Sometimes you don't need to get on a rope though...

Here's Lee Scott happy at his work on the Brent Alpha

In Alaska we had a wee visitor most days... this is Spike, the arctic fox.

Over the side work on the Brent field, North Sea

And a bit closer view here...not quite in the splash zone

Here's a feller setting up for UT inside the leg

An RT tech heads back to safety above the Brent B mini cell

Setting up the magdrill to install a pipesupport 

Here's two of the lads working in the Brent B lift shaft...what fun !

 Here's me and McNicol cutting out some worn out oil line on the Brent B leg job

Having a blast...in Denmark...gritblasting the splashzone on a Mearsk rig...

Two of Salamis' finest given' 'er with the spitzner saw on the Brent B

Transferring a motor assembly under deck on the Brent B

Installing unistrut and cable trays up in the rafters

More transfers under the deck.... a two tonne HVAC fan comes out....

Here we are installing a pig receiver for some cell fill line replacement work on the Brent B

Midsummer sunrise offshore North Sea

Another day dawns in the North Sea...it's 2 AM in June....

In the above photo we are tying in a new tee piece to a cell fill line, the pig control umbilical can be seen coming out the back there, it's holding back about half a million bbl of oil !

An older pic from a pleasant job in eastern Ontario one winter.... inspecting sluice outlets on a dam on the Upper Ottawa River.

 

In training for the BP Schiehallion, using the plasma cutter.

 

 

Hall of Fame : Guys who have been inspirational or otherwise have encouraged me and helped me along the way...thanks & cheers !...no particular order....

Ken McKay, Jim Loy, Graham Mann, Neil Smith, Dave Crawford, Bob Town, Alun Hughes, Tony Collins, Angus Borland, Dan Thornton...& others I am sure... 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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