Growing up, vacation planning started about 1 and a half years in advance and was tracked carefully on an excel spread sheet. About a year in advance, dad would make the key bookings and enter them onto the sheet and fill each column – location, contact details, price, website – as more information was known. As the months crept closer, dad filled in the details of each day – recommended restaurants, the activity of the day. And after each addition he would print out a new sheet and show it to Tesia and I. We would look at it, nod our heads in approval and wonder what exactly had changed (often it was the addition of a phone number or a price change).
Planning was of the essence (Dad we love you for all that planning).
Vietnam educated me in a more laidback approach to travel and seismic has taught me minute by minute flexibility is essential.
I thought this past crew change would be pretty normal – it would be my third time going to Angola, so I knew how it worked. A week before crew change I would get my flight details, 3 days before traveling I would get my visa. Once in Angola, I knew in immigration – go find the man in the white coat to show my yellow fever card, once through, I knew I would be herded into a waiting area while they processed by temporary 15 day visa, then transfer to the domestic airport for the helicopter. I was an old hand at entering Angola. As usual, I was supposed to travel on Saturday to Lisbon and then onto Luanda. On Thursday – I still had no visa. Friday morning at work – still no visa, so I started making phone calls. First, to our office in Gatwick, then to our shore representative in Angola. After a while I discovered that the Angola immigration officials had rejected my visa application because the scan / copy of my university diploma was bad. I found it interesting that the three times before when they issued me a visa this had not been an issue, but now it was. By this point it was about midday and the Angolan offices close at noon and then it was the weekend, so no there would be no action until at least Monday – I would not be crew changing on Saturday.
So the Angola officials wanted a good copy – I would give them everything I possibly could. First I sent them a copy of my transcript, then I faced the larger dilemma – I was in Oslo and my diploma was in Maryland. Luckily, my dad was able to take a picture of it, so that I had a color copy (the Princeton diploma is too large to put on a regular scanner). By mid afternoon on Friday I had all the necessary documents and emailed them off to Angola. Now I just had to wait. I couldn’t complain – the weekend in Oslo was fantastic – warm sun, a citywide music concert (versus being on the boat!). And the next week I just waited. Waited for news of a visa and finally it came on Thursday – I was given a visa and I would travel on Saturday (in Angola that you can’t enter the country until 3 days after the visa is issued). And so a week later I joined the vessel. Luckily it was raining that Saturday in Oslo, so warm and sunny Angola – here I come.
As for why it happened, many may chant “TIA” – This Is Africa as an excuse, others may point to the last minute nature of seismic. Me – while a Princeton diploma usually helps a situation, I don’t think Princeton’s decision to write their diploma in Latin helped.
Emerald in full glory. Immediately behind the vessel you can see the guns, spread out to the side are the cables. If you look closely you can see them trailing all the way back and out of the photo.
A close up of Emerald
An Oil Spill drill (the drill was pretending hydraulic oil was leaking from the crane). Can you find me?
Our end of trip helideck BBQ (again can you find me?). We had it in the evening and as soon as the sunset we were all huddled around the grill - in ANGOLA, only a few degrees south of the Equator!
