Exploring Galveston

By the end of our first week in Pearland, the weather had improved greatly and we were enjoying sunny skies and temps in the high 70s.  On my Friday off, we thought we would take advantage of that great weather with a topless drive to the beach on Galveston Island.

Our neighbors at the RV Park had given us some tips on things to see on the island, and we were glad they did.  Galveston is a much bigger island than Port Aransas, and we weren’t expecting that!

We were able to take Highway 6 from Alvin, and reached Galveston in about 30 minutes – we’re closer than we thought!

After crossing the bridge to the island, we drove all the way to the northeastern tip, where the Galveston Bay and the Houston Ship Channel branch off from the Gulf of Mexico.

We watched the ships coming out of the channel, and others lined up to go up the channel.

These two cargo ships passed by each other in the channel – from our vantage point, they looked so close together!

They made it!

After watching the ships for a few minutes, we drove back towards the old downtown area.

The downtown area is the old part of Galveston, with many of the buildings on the Strand dating back to the early 1800s.  It’s now the center of nightlife in Galveston, with shops, restaurants and bars bringing new life to the old buildings.

It’s a fun little downtown area, and the shops were fun with lots of cool beach gear and cottage-style decorations for the home.

One shop we went into had Nativity Sets from all over the world – they were very cool to look at!

Then there was fudge . . .

and taffy. 

We were just in time for the taffy-pulling demonstration, so we went in to watch.

He was having a little trouble though, and the taffy kept falling apart on the pulling machine. 

He had let it get too cool, and it was too brittle to pull.  A wasted batch . . . Bummer!

It was a fun little downtown area and we enjoyed walking around,

but now we were ready for some lunch.  One of the shops had given us a couple of coupons for restaurants, and one of them was right there at the port, so we decided to give it a try.

It was Friday, and still Lent, so we were limited in our choices.  Tom is always happy with seafood, and as long as I can get a nice salad, I’m OK, too.  My salad was good with the crunchy fried onion strings, but I let Tom have the deep-fried goat cheese balls.  He said they were good.

After lunch, we went up on the balcony to get a few photos of the harbor, including the tall ship, Elissa, and some of the commercial operation on the other side of the Bay.

From the restaurant we walked along the pier, to the Ocean Star Oil & Gas Industry Museum.  The folks back at the RV Park had told us that it was a nice museum and worth checking out.

The museum is on off-shore oil rig that was moved into Galveston Bay and renovated to highlight the history and technological advances of the oil and gas drilling industry.

OK, I’ll admit it . . . I had no idea that the oil & gas drilling process was so complex!  I thought they just stuck an oil rig out in the ocean, drilled down and pumped oil out.

Now, that’s essentially what they do . . . but there is so much more that comes first, involving a huge number of scientists and engineers.  As a company receives the rights to drill in a certain off-shore area, they first have to map the entire ocean floor to determine where pockets of oil exist, and how big they are.  There’s a whole science to that alone! 

Another interesting fact—we may think it’s just the car and truck industry that depends on oil and gas, but it’s much more integral to our lives than just through our cars . . .

Once they determine that there’s oil and/or gas to be obtained, they have to determine the best kind of rig to use, depending on the depth of the ocean and the depth of the oil pocket below the ocean floor.

In the last 50 years, the technology of off-shore drilling has expanded at an amazing rate!

The Ocean Star is an example of one of the first off-shore drilling rigs, a jackup rig, capable of operating in water up to 173 ft. deep. 

The three legs rest on the ocean floor and then the platform is jacked up to the necessary height above the water.  These units are moved from one drilling location to the next, and are still the most numerous of all off-shore drilling rigs in the world.

As the need to drill in deeper depths grew, the technology grew, also.  There are tower structures, like the Bullwinkle rig, that stands in 1353 ft. of water in the Gulf of Mexico.  It’s the tallest fixed steel platform in the world.

But, we needed to get into deeper waters . . .

Most of the rigs operating in the deepest areas are not fixed structures that reach the ocean floor.  They are designed to float on the surface, with the amount of the rig structure that is below the water surface depending on the design.  The rigs are tethered in place, and the structure below the surface acts as a counter-balance to keep the rig upright and stable – even during storms!

There are also Drilling Ships, which don’t have any structure at all below the surface but can perform all the same tasks as a permanent oil rig.

And that’s all what’s going on above the surface . . . below is another whole story!  These rigs don’t just drill a single hole into the ocean floor directly below the rig.  They are drilling in multiple locations, in multiple directions, for both gas & oil at the same time – it’s really quite a complex operation!

It’s really quite amazing, and the museum was quite educational and a little overwhelming!

There were more displays inside of the tools used on the oil rig.

Numerous types of drill bits – some for exploration, and others for drilling for the oil or gas.

Diving equipment

Outside on the platform, regardless of size, all rigs have many of the same components.

The series of valves that controls the oil and gas flow from the drill up to the rig is referred to as a “Christmas Tree”, and the drill is turned by the kelly at the top of the turntable

AS they drill into the ground, long sections of pipe are fed into the hole to create a tube for the oil and gas to flow through.

Looking up into the derrick.

The cementing unit is used once the appropriate depth is reached to cement the sections of casing together and protect the drilled hole.

Of course, there’s so much more to it than that . . . but my mind was starting to go blank at that point . . . like I said, overwhelming!

The rig workers live on the platform for up to 6 months at a time, and have many of the comforts of home in this little floating city  . . . but not really.  There are lots of safety provisions in place, including hyperbaric chambers for divers who have had to go down to great depths,

and escape pods, or lifeboats.

There’s got to be a way to escape!

During normal conditions, workers come and go by ship, and and this crane operated platform is used to transfer the men from the ship to the platform or form the platform to the ship. 

That looks like a scary ride to me!

We had a nice view of Galveston Bay from up on the platform,

and a cruise ship heading out to sea.

It was a nice museum, very interesting, and if you’re ever in Galveston and want a break from the beach, it’s worth checking out.

Some pelicans were hanging out by the ramp as we made our way back off the platform.

We had a pretty full day already, but before leaving Galveston island, we took a little drive along the beach, and even a short drive on the beach.

It was late in the afternoon by then, so the beach had pretty well cleared out.

It was a very full and enjoyable day!