Friday - September 02, 2005

Most Ridiculous Item Of The Day

Did you know that there is a 200 ton houseboat blocking 18% of our nation’s much-needed oil from getting in? No, I am not making this up. It’s too ridiculous to be fiction ....

(WASHINGTON POST)—PORT FOURCHON, La., Sept. 1—At 4:30 a.m. yesterday, Davie J. Breaux had a big problem. A really big one. Breaux is director of operations at Port Fourchon, a facility at the southernmost tip of Louisiana that provides key support for offshore oil rigs in the Gulf of Mexico. In normal times, about 1,000 tractor-trailers reach the port each day via a two-lane road, hauling in goods and equipment critical to the import of about 18 percent of the U.S. oil supply.

But no trucks are coming through. The oil rigs are not running. Electricity is out. And Breaux’s big problem today: Blocking that key road is a 200-ton houseboat blown by Hurricane Katrina some 200 feet out of the water. The repairs Breaux and his crew must undertake are a prime example of what must be done to bring the U.S. oil supply closer to full capacity.

So Breaux, 46, whose grandfather and father each worked 30 years for Texaco on offshore rigs near Port Fourchon, came up with a solution: soap. His plan was to put five gallons of liquid soap on wooden boards, slide them under the houseboat, and use five or six large cranes to swing the front of the 100-foot-long barge to the side of the road. “Apparently everybody thinks I’m crazy,” Breaux said after one of his workers chuckled at his idea and reminded him of how heavy the barge is.

Wait. Don’t soap the boat down, the owner insisted after Breaux explained his plan. His insurance adjuster was on his way, and he wanted to hear ideas on how to move the hunk of metal. “I ain’t slept in two damn days trying to figure out how to move that bitch,” the owner said.

Barely an hour later, as Breaux went around and checked on his crews of workers—some of whom were prisoners from the local jail on work release to help clean up sand and marsh grass and pull boats upright—he got a call from the owner. Solution found—if Breaux and Falgout would agree, that is.

The insurance adjuster said he would have the boat moved using cranes in the next two to three days. A crew would tear out the wet wood on the inside and do a controlled burn. The only problem: A special burn permit would be necessary; port officials get nervous with fire around so many oil storage containers. The insurance company said it would then take the boat apart and turn it into scrap metal—a boat that at one time could sleep 50 people and was worth about $1.5 million, according to the owner.

Posted by The Skipper     on 09/02/2005 at 05:48 AM   
Filed Under: • Insanity •  
• Comments (13) • Trackbacks(0)  Permalink •  

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It's been a long strange trip without you Skipper, but thanks for pointing us in the right direction and giving us a swift kick in the behind to get us going. Keep lookin' down on us, will ya? Thanks.

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