My 2nd (or 3rd - or 1st???!!) Home

For the past 2 years this place has been my home - in the middle of the sea, 178 kilometres off the nearest coast.

Some tips if you ever wanna work offshore (in a tropical country, not the North Sea or the Gulf of Mexico or Russia - I have never been there and so far have no inclination to work in those regions)

1) You MUST NOT have a fear of heights - space is a valuable commodity offshore so everything is built upwards - which means a lot of climbing and scaling of ladders. When I first got offshore I was holding onto the handrails for dear life - the entire place is open downwards to the sea. The first time I scaled the crane here I got jelly legs (repeat after me: don't look down don't look down don't look down........yikes!!), but now I am proud to say that it doesn't affect me anymore

2) For people who care for their skin - sunblock is a must. The sea reflects the sunlight, so skin protection is essential - to me at least. Of course one does not expect rough-and-tough guys to adhere to this piece of advice. But if you do care, then a heavy-duty, sweatproof, long lasting one is a must. I have no idea what 2 years of exposure has done to my skin - yet - will update in a few years' time if I do see any pigmentation)

3) You gotta learn how to not just work with all kinds of people - you gotta live, eat and spend most of your waking hours with them. There's no place where you can drive off to - we all live, eat and sleep in the same place so you have to get along somehow..work is home and home is work

Hmm...not much else I guess - except waking up at 5.30 every morning, of course. Offshore, the days start at 6 am in the morning and ends at 6 pm or later. I'm grateful for the fact that at least I have my own room with its attached bathroom - for the the guys, it's 2 persons to a room, 2 rooms to a bathroom so they have to take turns. As I mentioned, space is a pretty valuable commodity offshore.

As for waking up early, I have gotten so used to this that even when onshore, I sometimes wake up at 6 feeling hungry and I never get out of bed later than 8 am, no matter how late I slept the night before - there's an offshore girl for you!

So much for this post - here are more photos to share. We have a total of 4 platforms which make up our gas complex - all linked by bridge walkways.

One of the platforms at dusk

Our standby vessel coasting by

Another platform - bridge linked