Today is vishu!!
For me it is like any other day. There is nothing special for me as I am out at sea on an offshore installation.
My vishukkani (the first thing I saw in this morning) was an underwear of my colleague. It was hanging near my cloth cabinet after a wash. I told him to shift it to somewhere else where it will not become my vishukkani. But that idiot doesn’t move it.
Later at work place, my vishukkani was a fishing vessel (dhow) under fire. A dhow (Arabic,داو) is a traditional Arab sailing vessel with one or more lateen sails. It is primarily used along the coasts of the Arabian Peninsula, Pakistan, India and East Africa.
One of our galley boys noticed it and informed to the control room. It was having fire and heavy smoke when we saw. It was almost 4 to 5 nautical miles north east from us. Soon we informed the oil production platform and boats which are close to my installation. They initiated the assistance by sending one of their tug boat and another offshore supply vessel.
We sent one of our offshore supply boats which were on anchor, to the scene for rendering assistance. But they could hardly do anything as the dhow became completely under fire by the time they reached the location.
As the platform people and the tug boats were all communicating in Persian language, I could hardly understand any. Even after four hours of fire, there seems no firefighting from the vessels assisting. The dhow was drifting with wind, with ball of fire and heavy smoke.
Since it dangerously drifting on sea , later, asked the platform to instruct the tug boat to tow the vessel on fire away to a safe distance from the oil production platform, which they did. After five hours later or so, the dhow on fire sank in to the shallow sea. The crew of the dhow abandoned the dhow and none of the got injured as they have been picked up by other fishing vessels in the vicinity.
This incident reminds me that we are working in a place where we cannot expect any assistance from any of the stand by boats in the event of a fire on our installation. None of them have the facility to do the fire fighting.
What a place I do work? Isn’t it?
We sent one of our offshore supply boats which were on anchor, to the scene for rendering assistance. But they could hardly do anything as the dhow became completely under fire by the time they reached the location.
As the platform people and the tug boats were all communicating in Persian language, I could hardly understand any. Even after four hours of fire, there seems no firefighting from the vessels assisting. The dhow was drifting with wind, with ball of fire and heavy smoke.
Since it dangerously drifting on sea , later, asked the platform to instruct the tug boat to tow the vessel on fire away to a safe distance from the oil production platform, which they did. After five hours later or so, the dhow on fire sank in to the shallow sea. The crew of the dhow abandoned the dhow and none of the got injured as they have been picked up by other fishing vessels in the vicinity.
This incident reminds me that we are working in a place where we cannot expect any assistance from any of the stand by boats in the event of a fire on our installation. None of them have the facility to do the fire fighting.
What a place I do work? Isn’t it?
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