Worklife - Return to Sturrock Dry Dock

Good day everyone! Zak here from a sunny Cape Town, South Africa. I am standing in the noisy dockyard adjacent to the Sturrock Dry Dock.

The HVAC crowd is back on site to change some old and obsolete controllers.

So what is in the picture above?

Best way to explain it, is that it is like a Drill-Bit. That Bit gets attached to pipes that get lowered down to the seabed and turned, scraping loose sand and stone. This is then sucked up through the pipes you see on the side of the shovels on either side.

The gravel gets pumped to the ship, which processes it for Diamonds.

Truly massive stuff!

The issue with old controllers and older vessels... This Vessel is called the !Gariep, the Namibian registered mining vessel.

But before that it was a Japanese vessel, possibly a cable layer or a fishin vessel called the Shinto.

On this controller above there is a controller that still has the Shinto's name on it!

The Shinto was built in the 1950's so yes this ship is at least 70 years old!

Below is all the scenes from the area around the Abnormal Load to bring the drillbit to the vessel. Roads need to be closed...

... walkways on the site need to be closed and people kept away from the ponderous vehicle.

The site is almost always tight and chocked. I would hate to have to be this driver. Not only is carrying a massive load, he is using a Truck and Trailer. I hate reversing with a trailer!

In the distance you can see... TWO cranes. In front there is a yellow crane that is your standard 50-120 Tonne, depending on how they load the counterweight.

However behind that is a black structure that looks like a massive tower... that's the Crane arm of the Mamoet. I do not know what it is rated for... but it will be Hundreds of Tonnes!

Marvels of engineering abound but unfortunately the average worker on this site needs to be reminded to wear his safety glasses and how to use his Grinder correctly. Thus the daily safety meetings, safety permits and all the safety officers running around.

There are around 60 active contractors on this site at this moment. Some of these companies have more than one Safety personnel. Then there is the Quay Fire and Safety Observers and their officers, which I guess is around 25-30 people.

Thus there are around 100 people on this site whole sole duty is to look after the health and safety of the others that are working on the vessel.

And this is done with multiple layers, some more effective at preventing the accident that might happen, other layers of safety exist to prove to any court of law that due diligence was being exercised. If someone gets injured, the insurance companies and the government audit needs to find that all the controls were in place, with supervision and training and physical prevention methods.

At this point I am doing a lot of scanning and filing. So enjoy YOUR day!

Thank you for reading!

Cheers!
@zakludick

Hive South Africa