Captain Iain MacLeod is a New Zealand-based Master Mariner. In late September 2017 he captained the 16,000 hp tug Terasea Falcon which, along with five other vessels, provided static heading control for a floating liquefied natural gas platform (FLNG) offshore Western Australia.
The crewing and day-to-day management of the vessels was provided by Programmed Marine Services in Perth.
Terasea Falcon was the first of four ground-breaking deep-sea tugs to be commissioned by Singaporean-based maritime company POSH Terasea, who aim to set new standards in international long-distance towing, positioning and salvage.
The Terasea Falcon was tasked with preventing the platform from ‘swinging’ while contractors connected the undersea pipelines and control cables to the platform.
Captain MacLeod then transferred the tug to the customer’s base in Darwin to offload equipment, and then onto Singapore. During the seven week operation, Terasea Falcon was located approximately 800 metres off the platform connected by a massive 83 mm diameter wire. Terasea Falcon and three other tugs were applying a constant load of between 70 and 120 tonnes in order to maintain the platform’s position.
The importance of accurate marine weather forecasts for offshore support operations
Pierre Foucaud is a marine weather consultant with MetraWeather, and one of the team of meteorologists providing marine weather forecasts for the site. He interviewed Captain MacLeod.
Contact