Episode 4 The Harbour

Aberdeen Harbour.

You can pick up to a speed of between five and six knots, please.

A multi-million pound business

at the cutting edge of maritime technology...

On the move, Bob. Roger. On the move, guys.

..where everyone works together...

I can't slap these guys. I'd like to!

You've got to be on the ball, got to be alert.

..in the most challenging conditions...

If your feet get caught in that, it'll drag you over the side.

(BLEEP) What happened there?

..to keep the harbour running...

LAUGHTER

Oh, my God!

Get off. Come on!

..every single day of the year.

You are looking good on starboard side.

Glad we don't drive a submarine.

Aberdeen Harbour - the epicentre of marine operations for the oil and gas industry.

Not just in the UK, but across northwest Europe too.

And it's always hectic,

so dive support vessel the Bibby Sapphire

has had to berth in Montrose instead.

Brr, that's cold!

What happened to summer? It was here last week. You missed it.

Hugh Jones, her captain, is preparing to catch the mid-morning tide.

Aberdeen gets very busy, and we've been in port for six days now.

Doing some maintenance on things, and Aberdeen don't like us in that long.

OK, that's us on the way, and we're off to UKCS.

Start swinging it around, then.

Just steady the ship up.

Are you ready?

OK, take control forward.

Yassick Vijinksy is the chief officer.

It's the first time he's taken the ship out of Montrose.

Yassick's steering, pilot's guiding, and I'll just keep an overview on things.

I hope I'm still in employment in half an hour's time.

Five knots now. Good. Thank you.

Keep her coming to port.

You can come a little bit more quickly, please.

The wind is one challenge.

Getting pushed by the wind? Yes. OK.

The varying depths of the harbour another.

This is the shallow bit we're coming up to now.

Come back to zero 85, please. Zero 85.

Keep driving. I'll see you guys the next time.

Pilot away.

There he is.

Pilot away!

The Bibby Sapphire is heading for the Joanne oilfield,

a journey that'll take about 13 hours.

It's nice when you're going out to blue lumpy stuff, but this is grey lumpy stuff, isn't it?

North Sea.

Billy Duguid has been a boatman at the harbour for the past 16 years.

You can go through a wee bit more, if you want.

RADIO

Sitting in an office just wouldn't appeal to me,

unless I was surrounded by a bevy of beauties, you know?

Then I would change my mind.

To hell with this crap.

He's on shift with Gary Morris,

one of the harbour's newest recruits

whose attitude is very different to the old timer's.

My mates think I'm super-lucky because

I get to watch TV and stuff, so my breaks are a lot better than their breaks.

Back at the bothy, Billy's dog is waiting.

That's my travelling companion - Duke.

Fierce Border Terrier.

Kills for fun.

But while Billy spends his downtime with Duke,

the younger boatmen have other pursuits.

Oh!

And Billy doesn't approve.

He hides the PlayStation 3 controllers, and stuff like that!

He hates us.

It's Billy's job to train up the younger guys,

not that they're always receptive.

If they want to sit and play that, they're not listening to that,

as far as I'm concerned, you know?

I don't play that. My radio's on all the time.

And I'm tuned in, you know.

I expect THEM to be as well.

That's the job.

This.

It's not like the old days.

When I was a young lad, and I didn't listen,

you know...you got a slap, you know.

Aye, and you knew you were doing wrong, you know.

I can't slap these guys, you know. Assault! I'd like to.

Wouldn't I, Duke?

Barmaid Val Morrison is admiring a recent purchase.

I like going to charity shops, and it's a jug I bought today.

It's old-fashioned stuff. It's needing a clean.

Look at that, but I still think I'll get 20 quid for it.

Her house in Torry is an Aladdin's Cave of charity shop finds.

I've got tables, I've got cutlery sets,

I've got vases, I've got this nice iron.

Fancy iron. It's a Swan iron.

I've got a brand-new lime kettle.

I don't know who I got the aftershave for, but I must have bought it.

And she's got a keen eye for a bargain.

Look.

Is that nae lovely?

I got the whole lot for ?4.

I actually bought the doll's house in a charity shop for ?6.

My chum Shirley says to me,

"What are you doing buying a doll's house?! You're 62."

This bit opens out, and I cannae really open it out... I can! NOW.

Look. Is that nae just lovely?

And then this all lifts up.

Oh, it's my candles! My money box!

But she's running out of space,

and she's having a big clear-out before having new wardrobes installed.

All this stuff's to go to the car boot sale,

and I've just decided I'm coming home with nothing.

The Bibby Sapphire is more than half-way to her destination.

And it's time for the divers to go into saturation.

Can you reinforce that for Brownie?

That's unfair. I've lost weight.

I'll come out lean and mean.

For the next few weeks, these chambers will be home.

When you've done it for so long, it's just an everyday job, basically.

Martin, there's your ear drops.

Another day at the office.

Hello. We're all in, ready.

OK. I've got two using five.

Mick, you're in two, yeah? Roger that.

Getting the clipper board going here.

Jeff White's the life support supervisor.

He can now take the divers, or blow them down to the depth they'll be working at.

We're ready to take a seal.

Just confirmed that you are pushing on doors 23,

11, and 13.

They've all had to hold the exterior doors, cos we're blowing down the main system.

On the surface, we breathe in a mixture of nitrogen, and oxygen.

Pressure on the door.

Going for it, fellas.

At depth, it's helium and oxygen which they're pumping in now.

Get any there? Yes. OK, John.

Take it through.

Looking good.

OK, we're looking good here.

Jeff toyed with the idea of becoming a diver,

but decided against it.

I mean, they're going in there, sealing themself in a bin.

For a month.

I think it takes a special person.

Torry Battery at the entrance to the harbour

is a favourite spot for Billy to walk his dog Duke.

Travelled a lot, but...

..you just come back to your roots.

He just gets off, does his own thing.

His first job was on a trawler, and he spent most of his life working on boats.

You couldn't envisage now

young lads doing what we did, you know, what I did.

You went away to sea.

Maybe staying for a day, shoot away the nets.

And then three hours later you're up out of your bed

standing on deck hauling nets in.

Gutting fish.

He was lucky to get his job at the harbour, because vacancies are never advertised.

Because I'm on the Lifeboat crew, one of the lads said there was a job coming up where I am now.

And I applied, and fortunately I got it, you know.

It's a good job.

Even though he has no family connections to the other boatmen

unlike half his colleagues.

They'll take in their sons, then their nephews.

I totally understand that.

You know, that is the way it is.

I would want my son to follow the trend, you know.

That's the way it is, you know.

Hey!

It's an early start at Thainstone Centre on the outskirts of Inverurie.

We've got a car boot sale today with all my rubbish.

It'll take maybe half an hour to unload the van,

because I've so much stuff!

There's space for at least 200 cars...

..selling every conceivable household item.

I dinnae ken half of what's in here, actually.

Just get everything out. You can't see anything for anything here.

A pasta perfect timer.

Aye. I dinnae ken what it's for, like.

Val's roped in her friend Stacey Davidson,

and Crown and Anchor regular Simon to help her out.

Don't sell these. I'm wanting to keep these.

She's come out at half past six in the morning to help her adopted ma.

She's only out to see what she can get, like.

This is what we're needing.

I've got a pretty doll's house up here.

The same doll's house Val bought for ?6, and is hoping to sell for at least ten times that.

If they want to, they can sort that, and I'll handle the sale.

I'm going to ask ?80, but I'll take it down to ?60.

I'm nae going to take less than that.

OK, I didn't pay much for it, but I'm nae going to take less than that.

The sale can attract up to 5,000 people,

all of them looking for a bargain.

Is there no face on it?

There's nae meant to be a face on. She's meant to be like that.

You can have her for ?4.

He'll be back.

Val, your green light. Just take what you can get for it.

OK. Thank you. Bye-bye.

But Val's sales technique is failing to attract any buyers.

Are you nae buying that, you miserable little (BLEEP)?!

LAUGHTER

That's what I like.

Hey, you're buying something off this stall.

You have to display things properly.

Oh, excuse me!

This is the second time I've done this for her.

She was supposed to get rid of her rubbish the last time she moved house, but she never did.

This is why we're back AGAIN.

Better get rid of it today.

Look at that doll's house, Mum.

The big doll's house, how much do you want? ?60.

?60?

Yeah, on comms, mate.

It's 5am on the Bibby Sapphire,

and they're launching the ROV, or remotely operated vehicle.

Bingo.

Supervisor Dave Gordon can now begin to survey the area that the divers will be working.

The vis doesn't look brilliant, does it?

No.

The poor visibility is caused by a build-up of sediment in the water.

Yeah, we'll just go along this side.

This is minging.

Something's coming on sonar now.

15m ahead.

The divers will be installing a flexible pipeline,

and tying it into a manifold,

a structure made of pipes and valves to transfer oil and gas.

Just see the top of the manifold... There you go.

Looks like a giant cauliflower. It's just marine growth.

So we're just going to make sure there's no scaffolding poles or debris

that's going to obstruct the laying of the line.

They won't see an end till they're on it.

You need a lot of patience for this job.

# Oh, what a beautiful morning...

Four of the boatmen are preparing for a job that doesn't happen very often.

Come on! Come on, boys! Wey!

We're going away out the channel now.

Headed towards a barge.

Barges rarely come into the harbour.

Once every 18 months or so.

There's a pilot going out to the barge as well.

It's going to be a challenging few hours for Gary.

This is his first time doing this, so we'll just have to keep an eye on him.

Make sure he's OK, like.

There's no real training for this, considering the guys I'm learning from

have only done it a couple of times.

Not a nerve in my body. Steady as a rock.

The barge is unmanned,

so the boatmen will be preparing the ropes they need to bring her into the harbour.

So we'll go alongside the barge.

We won't get a go at this barge now.

Russell Matthews is going with them as a second pair of eyes for the pilot on the tug.

Once on board, we've got to recover the towline.