Ray Smuts
THE SONG "I'd like to get you on a slow boat to China' is furthest from master mariner Paul van Rensburg's mind as he finds himself on a slow boat from the Far East, towing a gargantuan oil production platform around the Cape to the west coast of Africa.
Factory on deck
The 343 000 deadweight ton Girassol will be one of the largest vessels ever to round the Cape. She was recently completed in South Korea and is heading for permanent mooring between Luanda and Cabinda off the Angolan coast for the next 20 years.
The US$300 million Girassol, known more precisely as an FPSO (Floating Production, Storage and Offloading Ship) is the largest of its kind in the world, offering a wide range of leading edge technology.
Unlike an ordinary oil rig, she is not semi-submersible but looks more like a ship, a colossal ship with an enormous factory built on the upper deck.
With a length of 300 metres, a beam of 60m and producing enough electricity for a town of 100 000 people, the Girassol will preside over 40 wells on the seabed. She can store two million barrels of oil and treat 200 000 barrels of oil a day.
Undertaking the mammoth tow, the biggest the Global Towing Alliance ocean pool comprising Smitwijs of The Nether-lands, Smit Pentow of South Africa and COESS of China have yet had to handle, are two South African tugs the John Ross (skippered by Van Rensburg) and Wolraad Woltemade, and Smitwijs Singapore.
Tugs and tow left Korea on March 30 and are expected to attain four knots in the best of conditions, reaching their final destination in approximately three months.
