Newsletter

Kim Leth Andersen spent
53 days at sea. The average
speed was 9 knots.
and estimated time of arrival. As Kim
had been issued with a handheld
satellite phone, three weekly calls to
Maersk Endurer’s rig manager were
also on his agenda.
“On top of that, I did daily potential
dropped objects-inspections on the
rig in order to prevent potential
dropped objects from presenting a
hazard to the Chinese crew. An older
rig like Maersk Endurer starts to behave
a bit differently when it is lifted
out of the water and onto the deck of
a heavy lift ship that is moving with
the waves. It was also my duty to
observe and prevent any components
starting to fall off. The ship’s crew
was shuttling back and forth to the
foreship, so a dedicated route was
worked out. ”
According to Kim, it takes a lot
of discipline to cope with idle days
that continue for such an extended
period, so it is necessary to set a daily
agenda.
“So not long into the voyage, I
challenged the officers to perform
celestial navigation using the sextant
and other methods which seem to
have been dropped from daily bridge
activities. The sextant was damaged,
and we had to adjust the mirrors. So
we did that, and during the voyage
we maintained daily observations
by “shooting the sun”, and during the
late dusk, the stars. It was fun to get
reacquainted with the stars Pollux,
Deneb and Castor.”
On arriving in Zhou Shan on
September 3rd, Kim disembarked
and left for the hotel, where he met
up with the Tow Master, Morten
Halkjaer. Throughout the voyage he
had been maintaining weekly contact
with Morten regarding the planning
and the offload procedures, as well as
preparing for the latter.
“It was a very nice feeling to arrive
at the downtown Hilton Hotel, and
to stand in the lobby thinking ’We’re
finally here!’.”
Heavenly feeling
Sitting in the restaurant the same
evening, he ordered his first meal
following his rebirth as a landlubber.
It consisted of a large plate of sushi, a
mixed green salad, and various other
side dishes.
“It was a heavenly feeling to experience
once again the variety of tastes
which I had almost forgotten during
the long journey,” he recalls.
Early on the morning of the 5th
of September, the Maersk Drilling
crew sailed out to the heavy lift ship
in order to offload Maersk Endurer.
At 08:10, the mighty Maersk Endurer
was officially handed over to the
recycling facility by the Tow Master,
Morten Halkjaer.
The voyage from Equatorial
Guinea in West Africa to Zhou Shan
in China, which had covered 10,790
nautical miles in 53 days, was over. It
was time to go home.
“To leave Maersk Endurer for the
last time and see her disappear as we
sailed shoreside made me feel kind of
sad. For the past three years, I have
worked with the finest, most loyal
and most dedicated people, who were
a part of the transition from the difficult
year of 2013 into the successful
one of 2014 in terms of both safety,
performance and the attainment of
set goals. I am proud to have participated
in these achievements,
and — not least — to have
been a member of the
Maersk Endurer team.
This was a different
assignment, but
a great experience.”
Maersk Drilling Newsletter 02·2015
19