I should be careful what I wish for!

Every morning my inbox receives a complicated Excel spreadsheet tracking the schedule of rig operations over the course of the entirety of the job. This keeps track of how much time they expect a task to happen, how much time it actually takes, and how much "Non Productive Time" (NPT) accrues.

I have always kept close track of the schedule, for it will give me a pretty good indication of whether I'll be getting a good night's sleep, whether I'll have days of prep work for the next run cramped into a few short hours, and whether my day hand is going to be in a relaxed mood, or in an off-the-wall stressed-out mood.

I've been keeping a closer eye on it lately, and wishing with every other breath for any delay that might stretch it out further. Due to a complicated string of "ifs", I will likely be able to take vacation when my dad comes to visit me in June if we finish drilling this well AFTER this coming Monday. As it stands, we only have one section left to drill, and with tools already in the hole as of this morning things were not looking so optimistic on that front. Don't lose hope for me, though, for even if we finish drilling before Monday I'll still *probably* be able to take the vacation, it's just not so assured.

When I woke up this afternoon I was buoyed to learn at the evening meeting that a problem was found with some part or other. This required us to pull the entire drilling assembly out of the hole to inspect the part. That would take us at least another 24 hours to get back to where we were before the problem was discovered, so that put me closer to my goal of Done Drilling Monday.

We were about 1000 feet from being out of the whole and I was mentally calculating and reviewing possible timelines when my entire unit started shaking violently. This lasted about 7 seconds, and I quickly went back to surfing the internet and generally killing time.

We later learned that the driller had accidentally "Crowned Out". This means that he let the TopDrive hit the Crown Block. The TopDrive is a huge piece of machinery that holds the hundreds of thousands of pounds of drillpipe, lifts it up and down, rotates the entire drilling assembly up to 200 RPM, and basically is the motor that controls the whole drilling operation. The Crown block is the fixed block and tackle at the top of the derrick over which the drill line is run. "Crowning Out" in my unofficial explanation, is like driving a truck into a load-bearing structure.

Luckily nobody was hurt when debris rained down on the drill floor from the 100ft high impact. The entire derrick was immediately cordoned off and two crew members were even stationed outside my unit for a few hours to make sure nobody was hit with any subsequent debris (of which there has been none). The drilling assembly is still 1000 feet below the rig floor level, and it will be staying there until a full inspection can be done. They are not moving a thing until it has been deemed safe to do so.

And then there's the repairs. They won't know how extensive those will be until they've performed the inspection. Current estimates have this entire process taking at least 4-5 days. I have already been informed by the Company Man that since I am an "extra" employee, I'll be going home on the next available helicopter.

I guess Wednesday the 13th turned out to be a lucky day for me, in a rather unlucky way. Perhaps I should start a new superstition!