Does the pilot captain have to climb completely to the top of that or are the doors lower down?

he should make use of the helipad

Definitely no doors on the hull. Helicopter is likely but also can transfer from a smaller ship via the accommodations ladder or rope ladder. Offshore they'll also use frogs or billy pughs (baskets) to pick you up with the main crane and set you on deck. I've done transfers all four ways and they're all pretty exciting in rough seas.

Here's a picture from when I did a ship to VLCC transfer for in an inspection in Newfoundland. This VLCC is actually owned by the same company as the Anne and is a very similar design. On the left is the rope ladder I had to climb up because the seas were too rough to use the accommodation ladder which is up on the right. That white ladder can lower down to whatever the water level is. Note this VLCC is almost full, you can see the red line is the max draft. If this was at ballast draft I would have had another 9m or so to climb up.


Here's a gangway at a shipyard I spent a few months at working on this old VLCC to get an idea of how much of a climb it is if the ship is at ballast draft.

Why do they spray/pour water off the front of the ship?

Ducks4brkfast said:

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Why do they spray/pour water off the front of the ship?

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I always thought that was just the bilge pumping. Third Coast needs to get on this thread so he can answer questions.

Discharging ballast water

**** that.

sunchaser said:

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Lol. Where did you get that? It's on the wrong side ...

It looks HUGE there.

Ducks4brkfast said:

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Why do they spray/pour water off the front of the ship?

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That picture it is discharging ballast seawater. It's in port and going to be taking on cargo soon so it is starting to let out the ballast water it had in it's tanks. Ballast water must also be exchanged before it gets within 200 miles of shore so any aquatic life it picked up in another country doesn't make it to shore in the new place.

If it's a smaller stream of water coming out of a ship it's probably cooling seawater that was used to cool equipment on board.

This is a cool thread.

Thanks everyone for the pictures and the expert insight.

Furlock Bones said:

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Brush Country said:

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Thanks. I'm guessing it wouldn't be able to clear the existing bridge (one of the reasons they are building a new one).

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correct.

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Doin they still need to deepen the channel or has that work been finished already?

Kenneth_2003 said:

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Furlock Bones said:

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Brush Country said:

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Thanks. I'm guessing it wouldn't be able to clear the existing bridge (one of the reasons they are building a new one).

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correct.

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Doin they still need to deepen the channel or has that work been finished already?

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they have not deepened the channel yet. the plan has been to dredge it to 52 feet. but, this may push them to go even deeper. this would really put the Corpus area back on the map.

Marauder Blue 6 said:

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That big girl is the size of a nimitz class aircraft carrier. You make the island a bit smaller and move it to the side and you can start landing jets on her.

Furlock Bones said:

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Kenneth_2003 said:

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Furlock Bones said:

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Brush Country said:

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Thanks. I'm guessing it wouldn't be able to clear the existing bridge (one of the reasons they are building a new one).

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correct.

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Doin they still need to deepen the channel or has that work been finished already?

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they have not deepened the channel yet. the plan has been to dredge it to 52 feet. but, this may push them to go even deeper. this would really put the Corpus area back on the map.

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If you want to load VLCC size ships something like the LOOP in Louisiana is a cheaper and safer solution. Basically you have a pipeline go from the oil terminal to offshore in deeper water that terminates into a buoy. Tanker pulls up to buoy, work boat transfers mooring lines and loading hoses from buoy to tanker. Tanker hooks up to buoy and loads/offloads it's cargo which is transferred to/from shore.

i know all about LOOP.

Furlock Bones said:

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Kenneth_2003 said:

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Furlock Bones said:

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Brush Country said:

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Thanks. I'm guessing it wouldn't be able to clear the existing bridge (one of the reasons they are building a new one).

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correct.

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Doin they still need to deepen the channel or has that work been finished already?

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they have not deepened the channel yet. the plan has been to dredge it to 52 feet. but, this may push them to go even deeper. this would really put the Corpus area back on the map.

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And they are also going to widen it and add barge shelves.

sunchaser said:

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WOW!

I didn't take that....

Cool thread

Company I used to work for fabricated some calm buoys for pemex that were for a similar purpose as the loop. You could anchor them offshore then run a pipeline from th buoy to shore and instantly eliminate the need for a deep water port. When looking at dredging and raising bridges I would think offshore transfer would look a lot more appealing.

schmellba99 said:

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Ag_07 said:

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Somewhat off topic but I worked on the environmental work for that Oxy facility a few years ago when they bought the place.

The property was a deserted Naval base and Oxy purchased it and converted it to a terminal. The place already had the dock, offices, etc. They bought it, tore down a bunch of dorms and housing and put tanks on it. We saw some really cool stuff walking around a deserted Naval station.

Pretty cool to see it come full circle. I also hope someone gets pictures.

Wasn't the biggest platform in the Gulf (some Shell platform) assembled and sailed out of Port A recently?

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Don't know if it was the largest, but it was a big 'ol boy for sure. My older brother works for one of the companies that built it. Some of their sectional lifts were staggering amounts of weight - I think he said even Manitowoc stuttered a couple of times when they were discussing the lifts.

They have another one getting ready to be built that is about the same size. Can't remember if it's slightly larger or smaller, thinking smaller though.

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Does he work for Kiewit? I know they have a Peru big facility somewhere I the gulf cost.

RCR06 said:

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Company I used to work for fabricated some calm buoys for pemex that were for a similar purpose as the loop. You could anchor them offshore then run a pipeline from th buoy to shore and instantly eliminate the need for a deep water port. When looking at dredging and raising bridges I would think offshore transfer would look a lot more appealing.

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Prob true for liquid cargo, but like other Ports, the Port of CC handles a lot of dry cargo like grain and wind energy parts. They've also been wanting to get into the container game (recently had to scrap their container facility plans because they wanted to build the facility next to, and run a rail spur through, Portland TX and us residents have had enough already).

As far as raising bridges, the existing Harbor Bridge is pretty much at the end of its useful life anyway, so they say.

Coelacanth

You couldn't have taken that. I see you waving in the background.

....plus you knew I was in Flower Mound.

Ag_07 said:

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Somewhat off topic but I worked on the environmental work for that Oxy facility a few years ago when they bought the place.

The property was a deserted Naval base and Oxy purchased it and converted it to a terminal. The place already had the dock, offices, etc. They bought it, tore down a bunch of dorms and housing and put tanks on it. We saw some really cool stuff walking around a deserted Naval station.

Pretty cool to see it come full circle. I also hope someone gets pictures.

Wasn't the biggest platform in the Gulf (some Shell platform) assembled and sailed out of Port A recently?

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Shell MARS?

Wonder how it compares to the cruise ships in Galveston on size? See them all the time, and nothing I've seen come thru the jetties is bigger.

Shell's Bullwinkle in 1988......

Maybe these links will work if you copy and paste..

Cline's Landing, Bay Tree & Private Marina share the entrance to our respective slip areas. Over time we have lost about 2/3's of our Break Water that protects the marina due to ship waves etc. We are working thru a cooperative arrangement to repair and replace. From time to time I will see a ship suck up mud near the yellow house as you can see in this video.

We had a lot of people out and about with cameras. I was surprised as to the impact in the slip area especially since it was empty and seemed to be going pretty slow. I hope it heads back out in daylight...

http://vid299.photobucket.com/albums/mm289/brucewel/IMG_5002_zpsz70vm3hc.mp4

Try loading your boat in wave action like this from a tanker... We have had tsunami like waves goes over the boat storage area.

http://vid299.photobucket.com/albums/mm289/brucewel/IMG_0776_zps2mxbapny.mp4

tx4guns said:

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Wonder how it compares to the cruise ships in Galveston on size? See them all the time, and nothing I've seen come thru the jetties is bigger.

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Looked up Liberty of the Seas and she's 1,112' long with a beam of 128'. Looks like she's roughly the same dimensions, but her draught is significantly less at 30 ft.

tx4guns said:

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Wonder how it compares to the cruise ships in Galveston on size? See them all the time, and nothing I've seen come thru the jetties is bigger.

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43m longer x 18m wider than Carnival Freedom. Big SOB.

Brush Country said:

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RCR06 said:

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Company I used to work for fabricated some calm buoys for pemex that were for a similar purpose as the loop. You could anchor them offshore then run a pipeline from th buoy to shore and instantly eliminate the need for a deep water port. When looking at dredging and raising bridges I would think offshore transfer would look a lot more appealing.

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Prob true for liquid cargo, but like other Ports, the Port of CC handles a lot of dry cargo like grain and wind energy parts. They've also been wanting to get into the container game (recently had to scrap their container facility plans because they wanted to build the facility next to, and run a rail spur through, Portland TX and us residents have had enough already).

As far as raising bridges, the existing Harbor Bridge is pretty much at the end of its useful life anyway, so they say.

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like the blades for wind turbines coming from china and being trucked to the panhandle?

Going back out now.

Loaded that fast?