Trans North, North Sea

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Genoa

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In the next 2 years I will be sailing from Sweden to the Orkneys. I have been looking at all the oil fields and am wondering, how easy/ difficult is it ? What is the density of support vessels etc esp at night. What special precautions would be advisable and any other thread drift you’d like to contribute.
 
Oil platforms are invariably well lit. They have radar and since the safety boats have nothing much to do so they will probably spot you and if you get anywhere near they will ask you to go away.

The standard of seamanship on board North Sea support boats is pretty good but one thing to keep in mind is that they will often perform evolutions that are downright peculiar, as part of their work, so its best to leave them some room.
 
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dot dot dash will keep you safe, as well as a large standby vessel, of which, one of the it's tasks is to keep other vessels away.
 
davidej said:
I have been within about 100 yds of a gas platform at night.

No alarms ringing,VHF messages, guard boats chasing me off, etc

Were they all asleep at the time?
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maybe it was unmanned
 
Depends where you plan to cross from?
Mandal/Egersund > Peherhead/Wick

or Stavanger/Haugesund> Shetland?
The Norwegian side is quite quiet rig wise - big gap north of Ekofisk, the UK side seems busier. As quoted - there are usually standby boats who will chase you away if you go too close, and supply boats buzzing about. They are well lit so there is no real excuse for keeping clear.
 
Thanks for some good input folks. It was the erratic/ peculiar movement of the support vessels mentioned by Minn that I was thinking about. I guess I can miss the rigs themselves. The trip will probably be late summer Kristiansund towards Orkney if it works out.
 
The exclusion zone is 500 metres. All vessels working there are 24 hours efficient, in that they won't have a 'dozy watch' filling in at night. Communication would be expected were you to be getting within a few miles. If it was me, I'd have an AIS beacon so that nobody has any surprises, and a ready reckoner of masthead lights, as some vessels might be undertaking complex underwater ops, which might cause you concern! Ask me how I know etc.
Kristiansund is a good run ashore, and I'd recommend Onkel's Bar for food and wine; Total Oil kindly 'sponsored' me there for several weeks, a few years ago. :encouragement:
 
jamie N said:
The exclusion zone is 500 metres. All vessels working there are 24 hours efficient, in that they won't have a 'dozy watch' filling in at night. Communication would be expected were you to be getting within a few miles. If it was me, I'd have an AIS beacon so that nobody has any surprises, and a ready reckoner of masthead lights, as some vessels might be undertaking complex underwater ops, which might cause you concern! Ask me how I know etc.
Kristiansund is a good run ashore, and I'd recommend Onkel's Bar for food and wine; Total Oil kindly 'sponsored' me there for several weeks, a few years ago. :encouragement:
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Are we talking about Kristiansund (north) or Kristiansand (South)? . The latter is a more credible part of a passage from Sweden. (Actually Mandal is a better jumping off point coming west)
 
pagoda said:
Are we talking about Kristiansund (north) or Kristiansand (South)? . The latter is a more credible part of a passage from Sweden. (Actually Mandal is a better jumping off point coming west)
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OP did say 'Sund' in the North, which is where Onkel flogged us very good wine. Just had a check on Google Earth, and was surprised at the difference in distance being only 40nm(ish); I'd have thought it a great deal more. It is SW down to Orkney though, which might be a pain?
 
jamie N said:
OP did say 'Sund' in the North, which is where Onkel flogged us very good wine. Just had a check on Google Earth, and was surprised at the difference in distance being only 40nm(ish); I'd have thought it a great deal more. It is SW down to Orkney though, which might be a pain?
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So it seems :)

Bergen/Haugesund to Shetland makes more sense distance wise. We did that in 2017. Only about 32hrs sailing, just under 200NM. From Kristiansund is >300NM and not a very favourable direction to get at Shetland/Orkney.
 
jamie N said:
OP did say 'Sund' in the North, which is where Onkel flogged us very good wine. Just had a check on Google Earth, and was surprised at the difference in distance being only 40nm(ish); I'd have thought it a great deal more. It is SW down to Orkney though, which might be a pain?
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My Mistake -- Kristiansand (only ~1000 miles out! hope my actual nav is better, but at least I will know where I start from... I hope
 
Boo2 said:
Dot dot dash ? I know it's Morse for "U"...

Boo2
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Standard signal for offshore installations, including moored semi-sub rigs. Both light signals at night and fog sound signals- which are remarkably common in the North Sea -any time between April and October.
 
pagoda said:
Standard signal for offshore installations, including moored semi-sub rigs. Both light signals at night and fog sound signals- which are remarkably common in the North Sea -any time between April and October.
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Usually when I'm due to crew change in fact...:rolleyes:
 
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