Waiting!

It's confirmed. I'm leaving the rig Monday.

That will be 4 weeks and 3 days offshore. It doesn't beat my record for working in Wyoming for my previous 5-week stretches, but the difference between land & offshore is strongly felt. One cannot leave an offshore rig to go grocery shopping or to just travel around the Rocky Mountains if they're not drilling that day. Out here, my daily routine is limited to my cramped trailer (4 bunk beds in a room, and just barely enough room to squeeze between), my cramped office-box, the helipad where I sometimes take a circuitous stroll (circumference: 120 paces), and the galley for meals. I could sit in the TV room to while away a few hours, but I'm not so interested in the near 24-7 showings of NASCAR and NFL. Just about anywhere else requires me to wear steel-toed boots, hard hat, etc, and not meant for leisure hours.

Needless to say, I'm eager to head home in the appointed 72 or fewer hours. So thus begins the interminable wait until departure. Now that the date is set, I cannot help the countdown dancing through my head, nor the visions of Mardi Gras celebrations in New Orleans (which I will make it back JUST in time for), nor plans for my upcoming vacation next week to England...

In other news, today I had to skirt the fine line between giving the client what he wants and surpassing the bounds of what I'm willing/capable to do. He wanted me to take our directional data and estimate where we'll end up when we've drilled to our final depth, which is typically a Directional Driller responsibility, and in fact is something that I am completely un-trained on. I was at first pretty uncomfortable doing this (I don't want to hand them a projection that looks rosy and then have them blame me if it doesn't turn out that way), but luckily my manager back at the office took that burden from my shoulders. And I gave our client a ROUGH estimate in the meantime to keep him happy. Yay me!