Back in Subic Bay

SidewaysTA said:

Hello Everyone,

I'm in Subic Bay, Philippines, working in the Keppel shipyard dry dock. Basically the ship has to be dry docked every five years for inspection. I was here five years ago for the last dry dock and now I find myself here again. Actually I've been to Subic Bay about five times now, we come here often for down time (tie ups) but dry docks are special and I tried very hard to avoid the dry dock portion of this down time period and come out after the ship was wet. Due to unfortunate circumstances, that didn't happen. Right now everything is FUBAR'd and SNAFU'd.

Originally the plan was the ship would go into dry dock, get inspected/repaired etc and be out in 2 weeks. That was before the shipyard blocked the ship with inadequate/inferior wood and dropped it about one meter. The wood crumbled and splintered under the weight and the hull and other parts of the ship sustained damage. Luckily, no one was under it at the time, no one was injured. Now we are going to be in this dry dock for several more weeks while the damage is repaired.

Dry docks are not fun because you are working on a ship that has no cooling and little electricity. So it is very hot, humid on board. Right now it is monsoon season so it is raining all day every day. The only good thing is, it is not as hot as it usually is here but it is still hot and of course very humid. We do have a sanctuary on board that is air conditioned which is much better that what we had five years ago.

So every day we commute about 45 minutes to an hour depending on weather and traffic from the Freeport Zone, where our hotel is, to the shipyard. Go to work for 12 hours and then go back. The hotel is nice, we are staying at the Lighthouse resort and I'm eventually going to go to my favorite restaurant here, Texas Joes House of Ribs. I love that place. I haven't been there yet this time but I will. I'll post pics when I do.

For now here are some pics of the dry dock and a coworker shot some video of our drive in to the shipyard.

So here is the JR in the dry dock, post block failure. Basically the shipyard screwed up and blocked the ship for 11,000 tons when they should have blocked it for 16,000 tons.
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The prow of the JR. In this pic the anchors are still in place but have since been removed for inspection along with the chains.
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Here is a nice side shot with a couple of men down there for scale. As you can see we are sharing the dry dock with two other ships. This dry dock is huge, not the biggest in the world but it is quite up there. These three ships take up maybe only the half to two thirds of the dry dock. There's plenty of room left.
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Another angle.
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Down in the dry dock.
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Here are some pics of just some of the damage caused by the drop. That's one inch thick steel.
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Here's a shot looking up from the bottom of the moon pool. The center structure is the lower guide horn which is where the drill pipe comes out. The second pic is the outlet of the lower guide horn.
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SidewaysTA said:

They're not bad. Not smoked or anything, probably more Chili's-like. But still pretty good for Subic Bay ribs.

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ZX9RCAM said:

You mentioned stress cracks in the screws, I'm guessing you mean in the thrusters you pictured? Didn't realize that was the only propulsion it had.

Also, compared to the ship, those chains sure appeared small.

More great pics, thanks...


ETA: I thought that the thrusters were just used to hold it in position.

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SidewaysTA said:

You're right, the thrusters are only used in DP mode. When I say screws I'm referring to the two main shafts. They have a dual role, they maneuver/propel the ship while in cruise mode and work in tandem with the thrusters to keep the ship in position while in DP mode. I don't have any pictures of them yet but I will post them when I do. I'll post more details once the big bosses have made announcements about what we are going to do.

I'll have to get some close up shots on the anchor chains and anchors. We just got our sonar dome back from the machine shop so we'll be down there re-attaching it to the bottom soon.

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ZX9RCAM said:

I thought as much, but you didn't include pictures of them, so I wasn't sure.

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SidewaysTA said:

One of "our" tasks here is to remove and inspect/service our sonar dome under the ship. Here are some pics of it being removed. It weighs up to six tons depending on how much water and barnacles are in it.

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A lot of rain. It's one tropical storm/typhoon after another.

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If you've never been to the Philippines then you may have never seen a Jeepney or tricycles. They are a major mode of transportation around here. Tricycles are pretty self-explanatory. Originally Jeepneys were originally made from military surplus jeeps hence the name. Now I think they are made from trucks but a lot of them still resemble jeeps. They are stretched to basically become a mini bus and are decorated as the owner sees fit. Really cool looking. There are hundreds, maybe thousands here (not sure, definitely hundreds tho) and they run up and down the roads picking and dropping off passengers.

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Tricycles do their part to. Sometimes they look sketchy but that is how it gets done here.

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Traffic can be a problem sometimes.

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Lots of rain...

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Here are the videos. In one you can see the big gantry crane of the dry dock over the hill, the JR is parked a bit behind that.

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AustinN4 said:

Sounds like it is time for some cold San Miguel.
San Miguel Beer refers to San Miguel Pale Pilsen, a Filipino pale lager produced by San Miguel Brewery. Established in 1890 by the original San Miguel Brewery, it is the largest selling beer in the Philippines and Hong Kong.

That and a LBFM or 2.

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rman said:

You haven't done the PI until you've jumped onto a moving Jeepney.




Start off with Red Horse (mad by San Miguel). It's their Malt Liquor and though it's been 15 years, I remember it being delicious. Then polish off the night with an 18 pack of San Miguel Pale Pilsen. Don't forget to return your bottles.

Pick up a beynte nueve (29) while you're at it
Never measured, but I assume it's 29"
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Sent from my SIG Sauer

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SidewaysTA said:

I agree, Red Horse is better than San Miguel.

I'd love to get that blade but I traveled light this trip and didn't bring a bag that would fit it.

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SidewaysTA said:

Six days to go. This has been a long one.

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