Maine - Subsea Cable Installation

In early November mama headed back to Maine to oversee the start of her 7-mile subsea cable installation operation. After months of planning and coordination, including the trip to Norway, the cable had arrived at the Project Site, the equipment was mobilized, and all subcontractors were on-site and ready to start work!

The cable lay barge and tugs. 

At 190 x 60 it was a large barge although the size of the 2500hp tugs make it look small. 

 We lucked out and had beautiful weather the majority of the operation. 

Mama snagged this sweet vacation rental in the off season. 

 It was cozy, rustic, with outstanding views, and had a multitude of hiking trails along the coast line.
Including a trail to this great little sea cave.

 Maine has crazy moss! So thick you sink nearly 6 inches as you walk across. 

 The supermoon caught us off guard. 

Although beautiful it created some access issues due to the extreme low tides. 

 For those interested in the cable lay. The cable was delivered from Norway in that large blue steel basket. The basket was set directly onto our barge and the A-frame with cable rollers was mounted over the top. 

 The cable is threaded up through the funnel, travels down the roller chute, and into the cable engines which help control tension. 

 It exits the engines and travels into the Plow which is positioned on the seafloor. The plow uses 200psi water to jet a trench into the seafloor and deposit the cable at the bottom, approximately 1.5 meters below the seafloor.

As the barge moves along the cable route it deposits the cable in the trench. 

It took approximately 10 days to traverse 6+ miles. We hit some hard digging that slowed things up but on our best day we covered nearly a mile. 

 And of course, Turtle was there to supervise.