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We were working at first around the Elgin/Franklin field 150 miles east of Aberdeen before moving up to Dunbar, NE of the Shetland Islands. The first 3 images were taken around 0500 at sunrise on 2 consecutive days in the vicinity of Elgin. The 4th is a daylight image of Dunbar.
We made a short port visit to Lerwick between jobs to drop off personnel and pick up some equipment. This is Lerwick harbour and sea front at 4 am.
The weather had got gradually worse during the job but I was not prepared for being woken at 3 am on our way back to Lerwick by things flying around my cabin. We had sailed in to a storm and were beam on to some pretty horrendous weather (at least to me as a 'newbie' it seemed horrendous). I ventured up to the bridge and wished I hadn't as the seas looked huge, even in the dark. Anything loose on the vessel was now on the floor and to prevent further damage we spent several hours facing the wind at very slow speed. I went back up to the bridge after daybreak to try and capture the drama but by then the seas had calmed a little and I didn't really manage to convey the ferocity of the waves.
We eventually made Lerwick after 19 hours to a beautiful evening. This Banff fishing boat was just making its way out to sea as we berthed - you couldn't pay me enough to be on a boat that small in bad weather!
And finally, this had been 'home' for the past 3.5 weeks - the Ocean Observer.
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