Ok, Now it is really cold.

So yesterday must have been some kind of heat wave or something. Today is has dropped to -15 degrees with a wind chill of -38 below. I did not feel very well this morning so I stayed in bed and skipped the morning meeting maybe my body somehow knew of the impending cold and was refusing to be subjected to it. After sleeping in a couple hours I felt fine so I went out to the substation to finally start working on what I was sent up here to do I had not been there more than a few minute and the temporary construction generator shut down leaving us in the dark. The emergency lights stayed on for about ten minutes then they too shut down seems there was also a power outage in the night and the emergency light batteries had already been depleted. I guess the generator does not like the cold as much as the rest of us. It is kind of a sobering thought that everything up here relies on power from a diesel generator and if it stops working we are pretty much abandoned to the cold.
We are back to cloudy conditions so the sky gets bright but you never see the sun itself. It is now getting dark around 3:30.
Well I was wondering how I was going to get away with sneaking away to watch some Alabama football so the lack of power in the substation must be a blessing. I can now use the excuse there is no power. Now I must slip in early to gain control of the remote. Roll Tide Roll

Friday, or at least that is what I was told.

Every day seems to be the same here. The other ABB guy that I was working with left today so it will just be me for a couple days until Roland arrives on Monday. It was a balmy three degrees today. The wind died down so it actually felt like the temperature. I am waiting again this time it is for a cable that will allow me to communicate between my laptop and the relays that I need to test. I have a cable at home and forgot it so when I got up here Roland gave me his. It did not work so I had to order one and have it shipped in. It is a good thing that it did not work yesterday, today about ten my contact here said that the engineer had sent new settings and not to use the ones he had sent the day before. If I was BP I would not trust anything from this guy he changes his mind every two days. Oh well, when my cable comes in I will use which ever revision is current at the time and if I have to do it over two days later so be it.

High Noon!

So the request has been made and the Lord has provided a clear day for pictures. Here are a few of the sunshine at twelve today. The top photo is towards the South the middle photo is also to the South with the sun shining through the rig. The bottom photo is toward the North.

Little Warmer Today

It warmed up a bit today, see photo. The wind picked up so it actually felt colder today than it did yesterday. The sky has cleared up so tomorrow stands to be much colder.

Weather 11-06-09

The wind died down so all you really feel is the temperature. It actually felt pretty good out today. I had to switch back to my light weight jacket as my big down coat was making me sweat and that is the last thing you want to do out here.

Afternoon Sky

Here you go Wes the afternoon sky at 3:36 pm looking towards the Southeast. Maybe I will be able to get one at noon tomorrow.

Polar Bears

A lone polar bear was sighted about two miles from camp today and warning came across the radio. I did some research online to find out more about the bears and their characteristics and found that they can maintain a gait of 3.5 mph for several hours. That in mind if this bear was to catch a whiff of something good to eat(bears can smell a seal over 1 mile away buried in the snow) and started heading our way it could potential reach the camp in less than an hour. Given these variables why do we not see more bears around camp? The only conclusion that I can reach is the food here smells so bad that the bears are not interested in it. Unfortunately visibility today was less than 1 mile so you could not see it from here. It was about 300 yards off the road and I missed a ride into town which would have taken me right by it because I was in meetings most of the day. Speaking of meetings, I read Death by Meeting by Patrick Lencioni last night. Great read. It could inspire anyone to overcome the mistakes that cause meetings to be boring and unproductive. I recommend it for anyone who finds themselves in a meeting once a week.

Disappointment

Well I had gotten all excited from a meeting yesterday they had decided to send me and a couple other guys down to Anchorage for a meeting. Now the word is that we are just going to teleconference in from up here. So I am stuck on this Island until further notice. Well here are a couple of pictures of the arctic fox I saw during my trip to town yesterday. It was directly in front of the Caribou Inn in downtown Prudhoe Bay. We had to wait for it to pass by before getting out of the truck as 80% of the fox population up here carries the rabies virus.

Another sunset on the Beaufort Sea

This has been the first day you could really see the sun. On previous days the cloud cover has been so great the the sun itself was not even visible.

Wind Chill

Okay cold has now been redefined. Negative 14 degrees wind chill is really cold. We are in what is called a phase I condition. The wind is so high that work is being confined to indoor areas only. Unfortunately or fortunately i still have no work to do so I sit in the office shivering everytime someone opens the open. Went to "town" yesterday not much there. Picked up a few items at the general store: Shampoo=$12.00, Case of Monsters=$69.00, Flashlight=$52.00, and a pack of AA batteries=$24.00. They do not have much up here but what they have they are really proud of.

It is bitter cold, only about 18 degrees but the wind is up about 15-20 mph. After about ten minutes outside my face is toasted by the wind. Thankfully my gloves arrived today. The one I bought when I got up here for some reason I picked up the wrong size and my hands barely fit in them. Now that my camera is here I will try and get some better pictures so far all the photos I have posted have been from my Iphone.

Liberty Specs

Follow this link to find out the particulars of the Liberty Drill Rig.
http://www.bp.com/genericarticle.do?categoryId=4705&contentId=7054829

Sunrise 10-31-09

Sunrise over the frozen Beaufort Sea

The Office

Here are some photos of my "office" it is the red conex seen in the left photo. In the reight photo is the door handle, oh it reminds you of a walk in freezer as well. Good I was hoping I was not going crazy up here. It even has the pushbutton release on the inside. Fortunately it is designed to keep the cold out instead of in. Interesting enough I have not been able to find an outdoor thermometer around here. Possibly someone may have gotten rid of them all in an attempt to improve moral. Today's high was supposed to be ten and I could definitely feel the difference.

Polar Bear Bridge

Here is that view from yesterday that still had water in it well today it was froze over with six inches of snow on top. The Island is slowly being attached to land and yet there is no escape.

I LOVE MY WIFE

My wife, how can I put words to express how I feel about her. She is amazing, we have three young children that she cares for and nurturers. Julie homeschools the oldest, Allie, and is constantly concerned with having shared enough attention between them. Did I mention that she is 21 weeks pregnant. Julie supports me in everything I do, sure she questions me and has great council during decisions wee make but when I have made a decision she stands by me. I appreciate that. I am currently in Alaska about as far away from home as I can get and she has the strength to manage the household put effort into AMP and still do everything the girls need her to do. When I ask her what is bothering her at times she tells me that she is worried that the house is not clean enough or that she has not cooked enough dinners or that she may be behind on laundery. I just want Julie and anyone else she may interact with that while she does those things and she does them well, that is not her calling. She is the most wonderful mother of our children and the sweetest wife a man could ever ask for. Come to our house and you may see where the kids have tracked dirt in in the last ten minutes or so but overall the house will be clean, lived in yes but clean and sanitary the perfect home for our kids. She does a great job of giving our kids room to live and not be hindered by having to clean up before they are finished playing and balancing that with them having the responsibility of cleaning up after themselves. Julie gives of herself so much I hope she knows how much I appreciate her. She rocks my world. Never in my life would I have dreamed I could have found a woman who balances all of her responsibilities as well as Julie does. Her love for God drives me to new levels of commitment to Him and inspires me to be a better man. Julie I LOVE YOU. Please stand by me for the rest of my life.

Feng Shui

Imagine this and a mirror image where my roommate sleeps. Yes, I said roommate. These rooms are about 13X11 and have two beds, a desk, two armoires, and a sink.

SDI North Slope

Here are some photos of the Beaufort Sea from the staircase on the side of the stacks of temporary buildings that I live in. The bottom show what little bit of actually liquid water is left and it was considerably smaller this evening than it was this morning.

Where am I!!

Here is what Wikipedia says about Endicott Island

Endicott Island is a 45-acre (0.18 km²) artificial island located in the Beaufort Sea in the U.S. state of Alaska. Located 2.5 miles (4 km) offshore, 15 miles (24 km) from Prudhoe Bay, it was built in 1987 and is used by BP and ExxonMobil for petroleum production.

I am actually on a satellite island about three miles from Endicott. Liberty Island is six miles offshore. The Beaufort Sea is starting to freeze around us and water can now only be seen in one direction. The drill rig is designed to go down 4500 ft and then start turning horizontal approx. 3 degrees every 100 ft . Once it turns horizontal it can drill out 50,000 ft to the oil. This rigs is designed to move across the land and will eventually be used to drill back under the tundra and extract oil below the land reducing its environmental impact. This is the start of the Alaskan Pipeline. The terminus is in Valdez, AK which I had the opportunity to visit several years back.

They brought me up here on short notice to have me test protective relays installed in the switchgear here. Now that I am here they have let me know that it may be several more days before they have the settings for these relays. So we sit and wait.

Endicott SDI

Here I am on the largest land based drill rig in the world and so far it has been too dark to see it. I am also told that I am on an Island that information too is yet to be verified. I have seen the signs that warn of polar sightings in the area. I am wondering how they saw them in the dark. I spend more time taking off and putting on over clothes just to go outside for a few moments. For some reason in this place that is suppose to be so tough everywhere inside has a heater set on about 90 degrees leaving you no option but to take off your coat or sweat.

Alaska

After traveling 14 hours in a plane I checked into the Embassy Suites Midtown Anchorage(reservations made by host client). Was treated to a fabulous dinner of Asiago baked Halibut. Started the next morning with what was supposed to be a eight hour training course for survival and safety above the arctic circle on the North Slope of the Brooks Mountain range. Ten hours later I received my card stating that I was now qualified to make the trip and walk around without an escort and I could not have been less sure of that.