Awhile back, Maersk, who I’ve worked with before, sent me down to the Gulf of Mexico to shoot the new deep drilling ship ‘Maersk Valiant’. It is one of the most advanced of its kind in the world and fully automated, which means it comes equipped with cybernetic driller's chairs with joystick controls for key topsides equipment manipulation, and automated pipe handling and automated tripping systems.
The morning of, we flew out early in the morning and spent a whole 24 hours on the ship. Because of the depth they were drilling there was some security aspect we had to apply to. Clean shaven. This is because of H2S toxicity, if it is released and you are unable to get your gas mask on securely in time, it can become deadly. For the last 10 years or so I had a huge beard and I had to shave it all off just for this trip. It was so weird to suddenly see my own chin again! Since I knew I had to do this I thought it would be fun to shave some of it off and have a good ole trucker beard for a few days and yes, it got a lot of attention. So I convinced my client on the way to the hotel that he should shave his beard in the same style and then we could go check out New Orleans out like a couple of cool roughnecks from the offshore oil industry. But things don’t always go as planned... We were met with very nice smiles from everybody but especially other men. And that’s when we realized that The French Quarter in New Orleans is a big gay community. It was hilarious, so sorry Peter...
Below you can see some pictures from the trip. I included a few from behind the scenes, our beautiful beards and of course my clean shaven face.
