Sunday, March 9, 2008

BIG DAY IN PORT KLANG.

Up, up and away....

This is the size of a small house




The Project Engineer





The Project Engineer absolved himself of any responsibility at this point





The Chief Officer (First Mate) Organizing Lifting Cables




Some of the spectators




Some of the other spectators




Making the deck ready for cargo




It makes the boat look smaller




inch worm, inch worm, measuring a mountain block...




Easy does it....




Do you think we're going to make it?






A port employee



































We made a small detour to Port Klang, the port for Kuala Lumpur, to pick up a piece of equipment measuring somewhere between 55 feet and 60 feet tall,the size depending on who the Captain spoke to. This is large even for us.Rickmers sent a representative from Germany for the occasion.
During the overnight passage I was awakened by a spectacular display of pyrotechnics in the distance. I was witnessing a typical (I'm told)tropical storm. Sheets of lightening turned the night sky into day every 5to 10 seconds. Occasionally a prolonged flash would backlight the clouds and the result was startlingly beautiful. This was followed by torrential rain and I now understand why parts of Asia experience such devastating floods. We handled a lot of water in a very short time. The storm brought cool, dry weather. The following evening Mal and I found ourselves on deck marveling that, as close as we were to the equator, we were enjoying springlike weather.
The cargo didn't arrive until this morning, and it was indeed huge, the size of a small house. Mal and I disembarked to get a better view of the operation and found ourselves standing next to the Project Engineer. As the cranes inched the equipment off the truck he turned to us, with obvious relief, and said, "Well that's the end of my responsibility." This opened a conversation. The equipment is destined for an off shore oil well in china.It will be used to remove sulfur compounds from the seawater pumped into the wells to maintain the well pressure. These sulfur compounds, if not removed,would emulsify the oil and clog the wells. We also learned that some of the components were manufactured by Victaulic in little old Pennsylvania!
The total cost of the equipment, $250 million.
A logistics company was hired to transport the equipment from the plant to our deck. It took two of our cranes, working in tandem, to lift the 360 ton structure and there was a little breath holding as it swung from truck to ship. The local media and yours truly, were present to cover this rather tricky transfer.

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