A to P 8: OSVs

Any guesses on the ID of the building with the massive curve?  Answer at the end of the post.

A lot of Offshore Supply Vessels (OSVs) anchored off Amador.  By appearance, I’d wager a vessel like D. Oceano once worked in the Gulf of Mexico.  OSVs “sold foreign” can likely be found in numbers in places elsewhere in the Caribbean and Gulf of Guinea.  How about the Caspian?

These have the same basic design.   Of these, all I can identify is the 1982 Diamond Sea, whose previous names were Coastal Moon and Geri Tide.  Their purpose is likely to transport large floating fenders.

Big Dolphin provides confirmation of the design/build:  this site says she comes from Thoma-Sea in Lockport LA in 1982, although it’s my sense that Thoma-Sea didn’t exist yet at that time.  Her previous names are Patricia Bruce, Grady Allen, Maple River, Viveros V, and Great Darien.

It’s Panama Responder I (1954?) in the middle and –the blue North Sea trawler conversion to the right–Gamboa Express.

Above to the left and below . . . I don’t know.  Might she be used to collect slops? Notice Gamboa Express to the right.  I could do a post on her.

Meyers Gustav here is way at the limits of my zoom.  Built 1963 in Port Arthur TX, she has previously sailed under the names Lafayette, Beverly B, and Galapagos.

Bocas Mariner (1981 and ex-Rebel Brio and Gulf Fleet No. 303) and Burica Mariner (1982 and ex-Arcemont Tide) also have that US Gulf  look.

 

Orion XX,  with Algab in the background, appears to be an oil pollution vessel now, but her life began as YOG-77 built in Bremerton WA in 1945.  Since then, she’s also been Bob’s Boat and Northern Orion.  She was once a twin of a vessel that ended up in the “Graves of Arthur Kill.”   See other YOGs here.

Victory is definitely NOT an OSV, but she was anchored near us.

Schlep is all I can identify here, and I include her here because of the Yokohamas alongside.

The photo below I took in early December 2014, Intl Defender near LaRose, LA, along the Lafourche.  So besides Panama, where has the excess OSV capacity gone off to, particularly after the Gulf oil slowdown?  Here’s a post I did back then.

All photos by Will Van Dorp.

And that curved building . . . who is it associated with?  Answer here.

Finally, I have a request:  Show me your seat.  What I mean is this:  I’d like to do a post on captain’s and/or pilot’s chairs.  I’m looking for the luxurious all the way to decrepit or basic.  Email me a photo of the chair and identify the vessel.  I appreciate it.

Along Bayou Lafourche Again

Over a week ago I felt all the symptoms of impending illness, Gfever.  I suffer from that affliction quite a lot, as you know if you follow this blog.   It starts when I can’t sit for more than 15 seconds, atlases–paper or interactive electronic–beckon, the ear worms in my head are all about travel .  .  .  the only cure for this fever . . . Gfever  . . . is a gallivant.  And in this case, a Bayou Lafourche gallivant was the only remedy.  So from the airport any direction was fine as long as it was south.  Let’s cross this lift bridge and go . . .  farther than we did last time here.

Of course, bowsprite came along and sketched hither and yon . . . and who could pass up Intl Defender!

There . .  beyond the copse of backup rigs . . . it’s the boom town of Port Fourchon.

And rather than understand first and write later, I’ll just put up a sampling of vessels I saw. . . .  Here’s off the bow of Delta Power (127′ loa) is Dionne Chouest (261′ loa).  A random assortment goes on with

HOS Red Dawn (268′),

Dictator (140′), Candy Bear (156′), and Candy Stripe (130′),

the venerable Stone Buccaneer . . . ex-Eastern Sun.

the brand-new 202′ Capt Elliott,

a cluster that includes from l. to r. . . . HOS North Star, Seacor Washinton, C-Endeavor, C-Fighter, and Miss Marilene Tide.  The stern-to vessel in the foreground . . . I can’t identify.

Looking like they’re aground and on the grass . . . it’s HOS Black Rock and HOS Red Rock, recent builds and each 278′.

There are more and more . . ..

in Port Fourchon, as seen here from the c-store looking over the trucks, the single-wides on stilts, and the vessels beyond.

Many thanks to our guide, Aaron of Crewboat Chronicles, a blog I look forward to read all of. We knew Ben was around too . . . but in a short time, you can’t meet everybody.  Ben . .  catch you later.

All photos by Will Van Dorp.  Let me know whether you’re interested in another post from Bayou Lafourche.