Beast outside the window

The Murdoch Platform.

A few minutes before we were almost within touching distance, but I couldn't fit enough of it in to be happy with the photo.

Quite unsettling to be on a 90m ship bobbing within 5m of a huge and very solid platform.

There are measures in place to avoid collisions; we're only allowed to approach from a position down tide and wind of the structure to ensure we drift away in the event of the dynamic positioning failing. There are also two DP systems running in parallel to give redundancy.

Even so, it's a delicate operation, especially with a remotely operated submarine (about the size of a small car) linked to the ship trying to get as close under the structure as safely possible to start surveying.