The Orkney Islands

Hi Folks

I am now back at work and we are up in the Orkney Islands.  The ship I am on is called the Sovereign and we are installing some enormous power cables.

There are two different areas in which we are working, the first is off an island called Eday and we were installing cables for a Tidal power generating system that utilise the strong tides in the area.  While on this site we notice rates of up to 6 knots at times.  So they certainly picked the right spot for it.  The second  site we worked on is a wave site off the west coast of the mainland in a place called Billia Croo, were wave power pushes against another contraption and also generates power.

For more info on how the projects work and what is being done check out the European Marine Energy Centre website.  There is loads of information here and a couple of really interesting videos showing the work being done and the area we are working in.

Our work started by running a cable to the shore.  We call this installing a shore-end.  For pictures of the process have a look at the gallery under work and then the Orkney Islands folder or click HERE.  Once the cable was floated safely ashore all the buoys were cut off and we moved the ship off laying the cable as we go.

More to follow on this topic.

Pete

As a PS to this story an article was run in the local paper featuring the Sovereign and our exploits.  Click here for the link.