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I *nearly* had an incident at work.
12 years ago
General
Let me tell you what happened to me this morning.
At my new job, a catamaran shuttle that transports technicians out to an offshore windfarm, we have one lady Tech. From the rest of the crew I've Heard that she's more than a Little bit of a bitch, but I've never had any indication of such things, other than she doesn't talk to me much.
Today I found out that there is some merit to the rumors.
Let me explain the situation a bit first. These windmills open up at the top, and they have cranes up there to lift equipment up off and down to our ship. The top of the windmills can also rotate, moving the center-line of the crane-chain over our ship so the cargo just comes right down on our deck. My job when they do this is to reach out/up and grab the cargo while it's still a few feet off the deck and pull it in more to the center, where the Techs have their equipment container, unhook it, then signal them to retract the chain.
Also, a month ago the land cable from the main transformer station stopped transferring power from the mills, due to a internal fault I think, so now we have a few diesel generators standing on the mills to provide power while the Techs are working on them that we move around from time to time.
Okay, background done. Here is where it gets interesting.
Me and the skipper have just dropped off the last of the Techs and are heading to the windmill the lady Tech is on to drop off some equipment bags that are waiting for delivery on the ship. As we approach we can see the chain is about 3/4 of the way down, and the skipper checks the wind and current, then calls the mill to inform them that they need to rotate the top to get the chain right over us. The lady Tech come on the walkie-talkie, telling us that the hydraulics work very poorly running on just the diesel generators and that it's going to be a problem to turn it correctly. Both me and the skipper look at each other at that; neither of us had ever heard such a thing Before.
We get up to the mill and I go out on deck, whereupon I see the chain dangling in the air *outside* the ship. This is unheard of in my 3 weeks on the job and I call them up on my walkie to tell them to rotate the top more. Lady Tech come on sounding irritated as she tells me that would take too long and tells me to grab it with a boathook. I check the chain; it's about 7ft out and 4ft above me, so yeah, I'll need the hook for that. But that is also more than a little likely of me ending up in the drink, so I call the skipper over the walkie and tell him I'm going to go get my lifevest (we usually only wear those when we go on to the mills, or when there's an obvious risk of falling in). Now Lady Tech calls and asks what I need that for, sounding even more impatient. I press the call button and tell her in no uncertain terms that this is a risky situation and I am *not* taking any chances since she's not rotated the top.
I get my lifevest, grab the boathook and get up to the edge of the ship rail, hook the chain, pull it to the bags to be lifted and hook them on.
Now, some more facts. Those of you who are good at physics have probably already spotted the potential problem here, but I like to be thorough. When you have a rope or a chain attached to a high point, and the lower end is lying on the ground a bit to the side, and you pull up on the top of the rope, the end is going to move both up and towards the centerline of the top of the chain, i.e right under it.
Now picture the end of the line being attached to a bundle of bags that weighs a fair bit over 200lbs, I'm holding on to the bundle to try my best to minimize the swing once it's free of the ship, and the centerline is *outside* the ship.
Yeah, this is not a riskfree situation.
Now I call ahead to the Techs to pulse the crane (since it's electrical and only has one speed) because I don't want to be pulled off my feet. Instead of pulling directly alongship as it's usually done, with this situation the bundle will be pulled diagonally off the side, and there is more than a little stuff in the way. But nope, Lady Tech (or whoever else was running the crane) just went full speed right away, and I'm shuffle-stepping along, leaning back while holding on to the handles and doing my level best to make sure it doesn't get caught on anything that'll rip the bags apart, or trip me and sending my ass to the metal deck.
While this is going on Lady Tech comes on the walkie talkie and telling me to hold on to the bags so they don't swing or get caught. My hands are busy doing just that so I can't reply, but the skip calls back "He already knows that." (they could both damn well *see* that I'm doing that at this point). I am now being both pulled and lifted by the bundle, and I'm doing my damndest not to fall as I climb over everything that's in the way.
Now the railing is coming up, and about 2ft from the edge I figure "Fuck it, any more and I'm going over the side", and *just* as my hands open and the bags swing free, my feet about a foot from the side, I hear Lady Tech go "Apparently not." over the radio.
There were a lot of curses going through my mind at that point that I probably would have gotten fired for if I'd spewed them over the radio.
Now the bags are free and going up, swinging a fair bit, but definitely as little as could be helped in a situation like this, and I knew there was little more I could have done to prevent it under these circumstances.
Now Lady Tech comes over the walkie asking why I didn't use the boathook to hold the bags steady. There are 3 ways that could have gone.
1) The bags could have been held so that the swinging would be held to a minimum, then the boathook would have been detached and all would be well. This is not very likely as the bags were going both up *and* away from me at an uncomfortable speed, leading to most likely,
2) The boathook catches on the bags, getting yanked out of my hands and into the drink, or
3) The boathook catches on the bags, and I get pulled along, leading to me either going overboard, or dangling from the bags. Neither of these are good situations in any sense of the Word.
Two out of Three outcomes ending badly = Fuck that noise.
We had one more load to ship up, but that one went smoother (thank the Powers That Be) since I knew what and how to do it.
After that, me and the skip moved to the next mill. During the trip me and the skip discussed what had just happened (seems he missed the "apparently not" comment). I just concluded that the rumors had some weight behind them. Skip was a lot more succinct, and his line essentially boiled down to "fucking bitch".
This was only exasperated when we called ahead to the next crew, telling them that they would also need to turn the top of their mill to get into position, and all we heard was "No problem". Me and the skip just shook our head at that. Lady Tech is apparently the only uncooperative Tech in these Waters.
The cherry on top for this situation is that now, a bit later when we've dropped off the last of the gear and are just drifting, one line attached to mill to keep us in place, Skip suddenly starts laughing. I check to see what's so funny. Looking where he's pointing, I see Lady Tech's mill, with the top *now* rotated into the perfect position for what we asked for.
*facepalm*
At my new job, a catamaran shuttle that transports technicians out to an offshore windfarm, we have one lady Tech. From the rest of the crew I've Heard that she's more than a Little bit of a bitch, but I've never had any indication of such things, other than she doesn't talk to me much.
Today I found out that there is some merit to the rumors.
Let me explain the situation a bit first. These windmills open up at the top, and they have cranes up there to lift equipment up off and down to our ship. The top of the windmills can also rotate, moving the center-line of the crane-chain over our ship so the cargo just comes right down on our deck. My job when they do this is to reach out/up and grab the cargo while it's still a few feet off the deck and pull it in more to the center, where the Techs have their equipment container, unhook it, then signal them to retract the chain.
Also, a month ago the land cable from the main transformer station stopped transferring power from the mills, due to a internal fault I think, so now we have a few diesel generators standing on the mills to provide power while the Techs are working on them that we move around from time to time.
Okay, background done. Here is where it gets interesting.
Me and the skipper have just dropped off the last of the Techs and are heading to the windmill the lady Tech is on to drop off some equipment bags that are waiting for delivery on the ship. As we approach we can see the chain is about 3/4 of the way down, and the skipper checks the wind and current, then calls the mill to inform them that they need to rotate the top to get the chain right over us. The lady Tech come on the walkie-talkie, telling us that the hydraulics work very poorly running on just the diesel generators and that it's going to be a problem to turn it correctly. Both me and the skipper look at each other at that; neither of us had ever heard such a thing Before.
We get up to the mill and I go out on deck, whereupon I see the chain dangling in the air *outside* the ship. This is unheard of in my 3 weeks on the job and I call them up on my walkie to tell them to rotate the top more. Lady Tech come on sounding irritated as she tells me that would take too long and tells me to grab it with a boathook. I check the chain; it's about 7ft out and 4ft above me, so yeah, I'll need the hook for that. But that is also more than a little likely of me ending up in the drink, so I call the skipper over the walkie and tell him I'm going to go get my lifevest (we usually only wear those when we go on to the mills, or when there's an obvious risk of falling in). Now Lady Tech calls and asks what I need that for, sounding even more impatient. I press the call button and tell her in no uncertain terms that this is a risky situation and I am *not* taking any chances since she's not rotated the top.
I get my lifevest, grab the boathook and get up to the edge of the ship rail, hook the chain, pull it to the bags to be lifted and hook them on.
Now, some more facts. Those of you who are good at physics have probably already spotted the potential problem here, but I like to be thorough. When you have a rope or a chain attached to a high point, and the lower end is lying on the ground a bit to the side, and you pull up on the top of the rope, the end is going to move both up and towards the centerline of the top of the chain, i.e right under it.
Now picture the end of the line being attached to a bundle of bags that weighs a fair bit over 200lbs, I'm holding on to the bundle to try my best to minimize the swing once it's free of the ship, and the centerline is *outside* the ship.
Yeah, this is not a riskfree situation.
Now I call ahead to the Techs to pulse the crane (since it's electrical and only has one speed) because I don't want to be pulled off my feet. Instead of pulling directly alongship as it's usually done, with this situation the bundle will be pulled diagonally off the side, and there is more than a little stuff in the way. But nope, Lady Tech (or whoever else was running the crane) just went full speed right away, and I'm shuffle-stepping along, leaning back while holding on to the handles and doing my level best to make sure it doesn't get caught on anything that'll rip the bags apart, or trip me and sending my ass to the metal deck.
While this is going on Lady Tech comes on the walkie talkie and telling me to hold on to the bags so they don't swing or get caught. My hands are busy doing just that so I can't reply, but the skip calls back "He already knows that." (they could both damn well *see* that I'm doing that at this point). I am now being both pulled and lifted by the bundle, and I'm doing my damndest not to fall as I climb over everything that's in the way.
Now the railing is coming up, and about 2ft from the edge I figure "Fuck it, any more and I'm going over the side", and *just* as my hands open and the bags swing free, my feet about a foot from the side, I hear Lady Tech go "Apparently not." over the radio.
There were a lot of curses going through my mind at that point that I probably would have gotten fired for if I'd spewed them over the radio.
Now the bags are free and going up, swinging a fair bit, but definitely as little as could be helped in a situation like this, and I knew there was little more I could have done to prevent it under these circumstances.
Now Lady Tech comes over the walkie asking why I didn't use the boathook to hold the bags steady. There are 3 ways that could have gone.
1) The bags could have been held so that the swinging would be held to a minimum, then the boathook would have been detached and all would be well. This is not very likely as the bags were going both up *and* away from me at an uncomfortable speed, leading to most likely,
2) The boathook catches on the bags, getting yanked out of my hands and into the drink, or
3) The boathook catches on the bags, and I get pulled along, leading to me either going overboard, or dangling from the bags. Neither of these are good situations in any sense of the Word.
Two out of Three outcomes ending badly = Fuck that noise.
We had one more load to ship up, but that one went smoother (thank the Powers That Be) since I knew what and how to do it.
After that, me and the skip moved to the next mill. During the trip me and the skip discussed what had just happened (seems he missed the "apparently not" comment). I just concluded that the rumors had some weight behind them. Skip was a lot more succinct, and his line essentially boiled down to "fucking bitch".
This was only exasperated when we called ahead to the next crew, telling them that they would also need to turn the top of their mill to get into position, and all we heard was "No problem". Me and the skip just shook our head at that. Lady Tech is apparently the only uncooperative Tech in these Waters.
The cherry on top for this situation is that now, a bit later when we've dropped off the last of the gear and are just drifting, one line attached to mill to keep us in place, Skip suddenly starts laughing. I check to see what's so funny. Looking where he's pointing, I see Lady Tech's mill, with the top *now* rotated into the perfect position for what we asked for.
*facepalm*
Hope you will not have to deal with her to much in the future.
She wants you to risk yourself and the delivery just to be a pain in the ass? Really? It's one thing to be a bitch, and another to potentially get someone hurt because you're a bitch.
If she's going to endanger you and others just because she's too lazy to swing things further into place, and obviously doesn't care about anything beyond her own job, then she's a liability and eventually someone's going to get seriously hurt (or worse) because of her. You and the skipper need to report her.
I do hope you're doing well over there.
Wind farms, and the support staff who maintain them should be exceptionally professional and knowledgeable as the equipment being used and the environment they're being used in (very high heights, heavy equipment, high voltages.. ect, ect) can cause loss of life quite rapidly, and her attitude has no place in that line of work.
I'm glad your ok and it's quite fortunate nothing happened to you, but she should be written up for that episode before her attitude /does/ put someone's life at risk.
Lets piss around with enough power and mass that can rip the turbine apart and sink the ship without warning.