Category: Guest Contributors

Tom | Flickr

TomD

Here are a few more boats that work the Gulf of Mexico oil fields.

The ubiquitous tug boat. These aren’t the largest, sexiest, awe inspiring or most anything when it comes to work boats. But they have one thing going for them, it doesn’t work without them. They’re everywhere because they are needed everywhere.

This one wasn’t a work boat. It’s an ex-roro (roll on- roll off) ship that carried cars for delivery all over the world until bought by Jeff Bezos and brought to Pensacola to have all of its superstructure cut off except the forecastle. This in preparation to operate as a landing ship for space launch vehicles. It would have operated similarly to the Space X barges. Bezos’ Blue Origin wheels ran off or something happened and his plans crashed. At the moment of this phots, the ships name was Jacklyn, for his mother.

Global 2000, another heavy lift work vessel used for building and dismantling drill platforms.

Deep Blue, makes pipelines for carrying crude from where it is drilled many miles out in the Gulf to onshore refineries. I’ve never thought it through but I wonder if the pipelines need intermediate platforms with booster pumps? I can’t imagine the needed initial pressure to push a viscous oil through 50-100 miles of pipe.

I don’t know how I missed getting photos of it but the USS Oriskiny was brought into port here to be prepared to be the largest man-made fishing reef about 200’ deep in the Gulf. It sits about 22 nautical miles (25 regular) on roughly a 150 degree heading from the mouth of Pensacola Bay. I’ve fished it a number of times but you have to be there when it isn’t covered up with dive boats. I’ve never caught anything anywhere there were a bunch of divers in the area. Can’t get too upset, I used to be a fanatic diver.

Tom | Flickr

TomD

I’ve lived near Pensacola, Fl since I early retired and fled the traffic in my native north Atlanta metro. Though the local traffic seems to be building rapidly due to intense and rapid development, even the worst traffic here is almost laughable compared to the 24/7 nightmare of Atlanta.

One aspect of Pensacola in that it is on the coast of the Gulf of Mexico and has an excellent deepwater harbor. It’s deep enough that, up until the early 90’s, aircraft carriers were commonly based out of NAS Pensacola. The civilian Port of Pensacola has a marine refit and repair facility that attracts a fair amount of business repairing and refitting highly specialized vessels that support the many hundreds of oil and gas platforms throughout the Gulf. We see some seriously weird vessels that are tied up for as much as a year while they are being reworked.

The vessels are extremely specialized, some are pipe line layers, some heavy lift with huge cranes used to build or remove oil platforms, some made for carrying pipeline materials, some are supply boats, some are floating hotels. There was one boat owned by Jeff Bezos which had all superstructure was cut off and removed in preparation for landing spacecraft on its deck. I call these vessels boats but not as diminutive, some of them a huge, 800 or more feet in length.

I shot most of the boats in port but on occasion I would be off shore in my 24’ fishing boat and see one on the way in.

Another ship that I’ll later do a post on is the sailing vessel Juan Sebastian De Alcino. Pensacola has a strong Spanish heritage and was ceded to the US by the Spanish in 1822. The JS De Elcano is owned and operated by the Spanish equivalent of the US Naval Academy and is used as a training ship for the midshipmen. Each summer,  the largest sailing ship currently in operation in the world goes on a world cruise, hitting ports on the way. It stops in Pensacola for a couple of days once ever 3-4 years. I spent a few hours climbing around on it a few years ago. That will be a future post.

Below, I’ll post a few pictures of some Gulf work boats.