The IBSV Pacific Endeavour

It might be common sense to state that, where there is water there is a boat of one sort or another! Taking this one step further each of those boats differs from the other, each have their individualized cultures, each have their very own grouping of misfits and each comes with its own set of problems and stepping stones to complete the task that it has been set in life!

The Moliqpak Platform seen Through the Mist
Photo Copyright © Ieuan Dolby, 2006

The IBSV (Ice Breaking Supply Vessel)Pacific Endeavour is one of those boats; in fact it is just another boat doing its business in yet another stretch of water in another part of the world. As with any boat the Pacific Endeavour has been given a task to complete, other boats might have the job of shipping containers from New York to Japan or Oil from Saudi Arabia to South Africa but this vessels task is to supply the rigs owned and operated by Shell and Sakhalin Energy in Eastern Sakhalin, Russia and to maintain an open route from the supply base at Kholmsk to those rigs! In other words this vessel is an IBSV, an Ice Breaking Supply Vessel that was designed exclusively for the often harsh weather conditions found in and around Sakhalin Island, North Eastern Russia. The vessel would simply fail in any other task and so everything about it, every feature that it possesses and all those who sail on it are aware of the job that the boat must do and so a life and thus a culture is formed!

Oil workers preparing to depart up to the rig
Photo Copyright © Ieuan Dolby, 2006

To supply a rig is not as straightforward as it sounds! Many people ashore assume that when a rig reaches its location it just sits there and drills for oil. Well, it would be nice to believe that this was true! A rig needs far more than just the occasional top up to their food stores, a couple of week old newspapers and the welcome sight of something appearing over the horizon, if only for that! It needs fuel, it needs fresh water and it needs an amazing array of chemicals, cement and drilling fluids to keep the bit turning in the ground below. Pipes and drill pipes, casing and drill bits are commonly found on the back deck of a supply boat as are many containers filled with anything from a new chair for the manager's cabin to explosives! A supply boats job is never done and when one cargo is off-loaded to the rig(s), the tables are turned and the rig offload's what it no longer requires to be shipped back to the port.

The Moliqpak, the Production Platform in Sakhalin
Photo Copyright © Ieuan Dolby, 2006

Some standby boats find themselves shuttling backwards and forwards between the rig and port like a ferry during the summer season. Other boats find themselves circling the rig like a dog around the grave of its owner, waiting perhaps for days for one container or simply waiting until an order is given. Supply boats are also used for standby, a safety net incase the rig has problems and needs to be evacuated or used for its ability to fight fires! Standby work can be monotonous; it can stretch for weeks if not months. Sometimes if the weather is good the anchor can be dropped and the engines given respite, but if pipelines lie on the sea bed, the weather is bad or if the rig just simply don't want then the boat will just have to steam up and down in lines, on the move but with nowhere to go!

Life onboard can be tough, the boats are often small with minimal space to stretch ones legs or to escape for a moment on ones own! If the weather is rough the motion can cause frayed nerves to overspill and arguments to boil over or to remain barely contained. But life goes on, with each small crew comes an amazing ability to respond to a multitude of tasks and to overcome or solve problems with ease and combined input that would leave many ashore hardly leaving the starting post.

In the Basket to the Platform
Photo Copyright © Ieuan Dolby, 2006

The Endeavour might be different from the thousands of standby and supply vessels out there today! It is for starters brand new, far larger than the usual boats at over 90 meters long and has far more power than it needs on an average day! It is also fully manned by a complete Russian Crew from the Captain down with four advisors of varying nationalities who basically maintain the owner's interests in the vessel. The most outstanding feature of this vessel though is its ability to break ice up to 1.5 meters thick, an asset that will be essential in the winter months and a task that will require most of its 22,000 horses!

For supply work the requirement to break ice is a relatively new feature but one that makes allot of sense. The fact that rigs have been towed to or purposely built in Northern Sakhalin waters and that they will remain there for the rest of their lives means that they will work 365 days of the year. This therefore clearly provides the requirements for a supply route to be maintained between to the supply port and the rigs and to do this the formed ice will have to be broken up. Here the Pacific Endeavour will come into her own! She will through thick and thin maintain an open route to the rigs, continue to supply whatever that rig may require regardless of whether the sea is one massive ice rink or not and she will do it with the vigor and energy that she was given when the naval architects first put pencil to paper.

She will complete her task!

Ieuan Dolby
Author and Webmaster of SeaDolby.com
Copyright © Ieuan Dolby, 1st September 2006