A pure peach of a day its been here in Aberdeen, right from the first moment the suns rays spilled through my window sometime after 6:00am. It seems a million miles away from Arnish on Raasay, just a couple of hundred miles away, the grass is six inches longer and the sun has real heat in it. OK, the towels are black with city dirt every time I take a wash and my ears are assaulted by the constant sound of traffic but at least its warm and I’m having a good time. Well perhaps ‘good time’ is a little over enthusiastic but the course is interesting and the company great 
not only that but I’m hammering the broadband connection here to death Tonight’s choice being techno legend Dave Clarke who’s streaming away merrily in the background as I type.
A ‘banging’ set from 12 years ago in Holland, which, along with a bottle of red wine gave me the enthusiasm to do my VAT return on time.
Probably not a good idea, my maths is rubbish when sober, let alone after two glasses of red on an empty stomach but ‘The Baron’ has just been announced to headline the EM-it tent at http://www.thewickermanfestival.co.uk/line-up/ alongside Justin Robertson and Meat Katie so it’s got me in the mood. My festival days are over until the house is finished but Dave Clarke, I could be tempted, again, ‘not a good idea’
Free fall
Anyways, after the sun awoke me and a nice healthy breakfast of muesli, dried fruit and yoghurt was downed I set off on the 20 minute walk to Petrofac with the rest of the ‘Hybrids’
Class got a little delayed as the ‘free fall’ lifeboat was getting launched at 8:30
so we watched that prior to a lesson on ‘boat handling’ prior to the 10:00am break.
After which it was ‘out on the river’ for a spot of training in the open lifeboat, both with ‘Mr Lister’ and the oars, a long session of ‘man overboard’ exercises and rowing.
and a very interesting place the river Dee is indeed, full as it is of oil rig supply vessels from all over the globe.
A shortened lunch break that had me sunbathing and was followed by pretty similar exercises in the TEMPSC, that will be Totally Enclosed Mechanically Propelled Survival Craft
One of those three orange submarine like objects on the left.
A kind of fibreglass sausage with doors on and an engine which allegedly can accommodate some 42 people
Though, most of us preferred the sunshine outside to the noisy interior
For there really was much to see out there in this busy port.
By the time we came in, around 16:00, the ‘free fall’ lifeboat was due for another launch, designed mainly for use from oil platforms, tankers and cargo ships that may need evacuating quickly these are very expensive and extremely spectacular.
Sadly it’s not on our course 
That was it really, I wandered back to the hotel past the multitude of ‘supply boats’ and a couple of ‘anchor handlers’ berthed alongside the various quays and docks.
Kind of hard to see in this picture but that’s an ‘anchor handler’ on the left and a ‘supply boat’ on the right, the left hand one having a clear rounded stern for shooting anchors and some frigging great winches for tensioning and recovering them.
the long days travelling was just too much for a tuechter 
