Last week I finally went offshore to the Holstein platform to check it out. It's pretty amazing to visit the largest spar in the world. It's located 150 miles south of New Orleans in 4500 feet of water and houses 164 people year round. It's like being in a really nice hotel with really small rooms. I have about an hour worth of high-def video that I took of the whole facility with my new camcorder.
I took this as the helicopter was landing. 
Ray and me on our tour of the facility. The orange hard hats, which told everyone else to watch us to make sure we were safe, were mandatory.
Amazingly enough, blue water does exist in the Gulf. It is super blue and extremely clear. There were lots of barracuda and tuna swimming around pretty much all the time.
It was a LONG way to the water. A long way. 
This is the drilling rig that lives on Holstein. This rig is capable of supporting 1 million pounds. Seriously. While we were there, the drillers were trying to get a tool unstuck from a sidetrack they were drilling, so they would place the drill string under an enormous amount of tension, then release it. The whole spar would bounce a little bit. And this is a HUGE spar. It's taller from the top of the rig's derrick to the bottom of the spar's truss than the Eiffel Tower. Definitely something that has to be seen to be believed.
Also, for all you Rachel Ray fans out there, she's supposed to be hosting one of her cooking shows in the Holstein kitchen sometime in August.
2 comments:
Look at Jason with his sleeves rolled up!! Big No-No!! We are wearing fire retardant clothing... that's why we're so unfashionable. But Hasoon somehow manages to look good in almost anything... lucky bastard!
I've always wanted to know what those rigs looked like up close. Thanks for the post.
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