Friday 10 May 2013

Back to being the FiFo wife again ...

It's that time again, Adam is heading off to work on Sunday. So it is back to being the Fly in Fly out wife. My hubby has been home since the end of January when the 1st stage of the Darwin project was completed. Adam has been a fly in fly out worker now for about 2 years and the swings vary on different projects.


This is Ad in his sexy hi-vis and safety gear, I'm sure the HSE (Health Safety Environment) guys would have been stoked, Bwahahaa! Ad standing in the bucket of the excavator on the Baldur.

It was a bit tricksy at the beginning well pretty bloody tough actually. Especially for Madison, the first six months was hard until the girls got the idea of how it was going to work. It wasn't just hard for the girls but for Ad and I too and is still hard from time to time. Exciting though, this kind of work was very different to what Ad was doing here on the coast.

Ad was working a 6 day week with 12 hour days in a quarry and having one day a week family time. Only problem was he was so fatigued that he would either sleep or surf, not much quality family time there but work is work right. Due to other factors and some very unfortunate circumstances we were at a cross roads and hence here we are living the FIFO lifestyle.

This new kind of life style has opened up a whole new world for us and we do like it, a lot. Adam see's it as though he is only working for half the year then home the other half. Although in saying that, he works damn hard. A 84 hour week with overtime thrown in, 7 days a week for the whole swing, No days off unless there is a cyclone or some other major weather event. Seriously, the boys work hard! We wont talk about the mischief they get up to cause most of the time, I just don't wanna no!!

So here is were I really need to get the technical bits right or it will be off with my head Alice in wonderland!

The first project he was on was over at place called Barrow Island in Western Australia. He was on a 5 week on and 5 week off swing. Adam was operating a 130 tonne triple boom excavator placing 14 tonne x blocks to create a 16 metre break wall. This is actually quite impressive but don't tell him I said that ;)






This is a different machine, a 70 tonne long reach doing slope work. All those x-blocks took a while to place, it's like a big jigsaw having to get them in the right spot.


When that project finished he was then fortunate enough to go to a place called Onslow in W.A. This is where he first met the Baldur and started to work out on the ocean. The Baldur is a non propelled backhoe dredge which is a 550 tonne excavator on a pontoon barge.

Did I get that right babe? Yep, I am on fire with my machine knowledge ...
 
Adam is one of the operators of the excavator. The Baldur was digging a trench for a gas pipe on the ocean floor. This was a 5 and 5 swing too although we had a few extra weeks thrown in there at one stage so he was away for 8. That really sucked!


This is the Baldur and there is Ad's office with the big bucket swinging off the end of it!



The barge in front of the Baldur that is being loaded is a split hopper. It takes 5000 tonne and is 80 metres long. It take the material that's being loaded out to sea and it splits in half to dump the load.

From Onslow it was then up to Darwin were the Baldur was digging a birth pocket for a gas plant in the harbour. This was a good roster it was 4 weeks on and 4 weeks home. The second stage of this project will start around Christmas time. So he has been a very busy boy up until the end of this project.


This is in Darwin and that is Ad's brother Russ if you can see him, it's a bit of a where's wally pic :) The boys are changing out a ram cylinder on top of the boom of the excavator. 

It is a start of a new project and this time the destination is Mumbai, India. Exciting right and I am bit jealous but so good for Adam, it's very cool that Ad get's to travel with his work. 

It has been a long time having the boy here at home with us. 15 weeks in fact, well there was a week that he went back up to Darwin for work, it was a bit of a mudfest and mozzie ridden adventure but I'll post about that another time cause there are some cool photo's and video footage.

The girls and I have gotten very comfortable and use to having him home now and I see tricky times ahead. This past week I have had that tight feeling in the pit of my stomach and a hint of, oh shit, it's just us girls again running through my mind. Come Sunday morning I will have two very teary girls and most likely one teary mum! Ad will leave at 5.00 am and it's going to be a really long day of travel for him.

It's kinda funny Ad is doing fifo work as he actually hates to fly in aeroplanes. The crazy man loves to watch all of those air crash investigator shows too, what a nut!! He will jump out of them, planes that it is, he just doesn't like to be on them with out a parachute, haha.

India, I've got to say, I think will be amazing and an eye opener. Ad is under strict instructions for lots of photos and video too. He has his survival pack of malaria tablets, electrolytes, Imodium, and the tablets to stop the throwing up. I am a little worried about the food thing, if I make a mild curry he sweats under his eyes, haha! They have a cook on board so it shall be interesting times ahead.

Good luck babe we are going to miss you like crazy but your going to have an amazing time even if you have to work too.

Maybe I should be saying good luck to India as they seriously don't know what there in for with the Boskalis crew, behave boys!!


Steph

x

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