Thursday 3 May 2012

Sheppard Offshore Dredging Survey (26/04/2012);


Our recent bathometric survey for Sheppard Offshore started with a nice afternoon on the Tyne calibrating the equipment with a cup of tea and high spirits. It ended at midnight soaking wet, freezing cold and with a distinct lack of moral.

The weather had picked up from a light April breeze to bone chilling 45mph northerly with sufficient rain to dampen even the highest enthusiasm.Our efforts seemed futile but we carried on for several hours collecting valuable data and correlating the depths with our GPS position. All I could think about was the Pot Noodle I had left on my car seat. Darkness soon fell and we decided to call it a day and return at first light to complete the survey in what we thought might be slightly better weather conditions.

WRONG, we were met with yet more unrelenting weather but this time we had a fresh pint of milk and a jar of coffee to see us through the morning. We drove for a further 4 hours along the parallel lines that we had laid out on the plotting system and finally after twice as long as it should have taken we had finished.

In any other circumstance we would have postponed the survey until the weather had moved on but the customer needed the results ASAP so we had to get it done, regardless. 

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