Captain McDuffie and his wife,
Eva
Sunrise on the Sea Hunter somewhere in the Gulf of Mexico
The yellowfin tunas strength and massive
size allow it to put up an unbelievable fight.
The escort service
A backyard bar-b-que on an overnight trip aboard the Sea Hunter somewhere in the Gulf of Mexico
The lights in the background are from one of the oil rigs
we often fish around when on overnight trips in the Gulf of Mexico
This guy has the best bunk in the entire Gulf of Mexico
This Blue Marlin hit a cedar plug. They don't normally do that.
Swordfish have made a tremendous recovery in our part of the Gulf of Mexico
Petronius Platform
A compliant piled tower design, it is 610 meters (2,001 feet) high, the tallest free-standing structure in the world (when including underwater structures -- otherwise it would be Canada's CN Tower). The multi-deck topsides are 64 meters by 43 meters by 18.3 meters high and hold 21 well slots, the entire structure weighs around 43,000 tons. Around 8,000 m³ (50,000 barrels) of oil and 2,000,000 m³ (70 million cubic feet) of natural gas are extracted daily by the rig.
Construction was begun in 1997 by J Ray McDermott with the seabed mooring system. The contract for the platform was budgeted at $200 million with total costs of around $500 million. The 4,000-ton North Module was installed in November 1998, but the attempt to install the slightly lighter South Module in December of that year ended with the unit on the seabed. A replacement module was built and installed in May 2000. The Gulf of Mexico is 1754 feet deep here. The compliant tower design is more flexible than conventional land structures to cope better with sea forces. It can deflect in excess of 2% of height. Most buildings are kept to within 0.5% of height in order to have occupants not feel uneasy during periods of movement.
Signs of success!
These photos
show why SEA HUNTER returns are such exciting
events. The following pictures are from one of
the first trips of the season in March,
2006.
The fish cleaning continued
into the night !
Alex McDuffie is still at it
!
The Mates
A typical day at the office during ling season
One of the first ling of the 2006 season
