Last October a group of us were in Bull Arm to check out the arrival of the topsides for the Hebron oilfield production platform. The gravity base structure (GBS) was complete and floating in Mosquito Cove. The topsides were on shore waiting to be mated with the GBS.
Now, seven months later the GBS was ready to be towed out to the oilfield and were were back in Bull Arm hoping to see it pass by. However, ice offshore, as shown in the above screen shot from Environment Canada, cancelled the tow out but we went anyway to see the completed GBS.
We all spent a cold night in the tents and the day didn't start off very pleasant either. It was misty, cold and raw. Slowly we got on the go and ...
... left our campsite inside Masters Head and ...
... entered Bull Arm paddling north into a northerly breeze.
Clyde, in the orange, and I donned our cags that made the conditions more tolerable. I didn't anticipate the cold weather and didn't have a second layer of clothes so the cag was a lifesaver so to speak.
We stopped in Stock Cove to do a quick check of the archaeological dig establishing the presence of Paleoeskimo at the site. I spent more time here last October walking about and posted a blog entry with more information on the excavation so I'll just point to that post here.
We got our first view of the GBS in the distance. Mosquito Cove is a restricted construction site. We stopped just before the cove but ...
... slowly paddled and drifted closer and ...
... closer until we saw a launch approaching letting us know we were spotted.
The guys weren't heavy handed but were quite cordial telling us we were in a restricted area. We chatted for a while and before leaving Brian passed his camera over to one of the guys asking him to take a ...
... picture of all of us with the GBS in the background. Left to right we have myself, Gary, Cathy, Roy, Brian, Terry, Clyde, Hazen and Ron.
So, while we were disappointed the tow out didn't happen it was still interesting to see the thing. Especially I think for Cathy, Hazen and myself who were here last year.
Coming as far as we could, we paddled back to the campsite to break camp and then back to Chance Cove to the cars and the drive home.
Thanks to Hazen for doing the planning and organizing.
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