The best laid plans........

Todays Blip was going to be completely different from what I ended up taking. Just happened to see these guys tied up as I was walking past, it's unusual as normally they appear at night.

These Indian fisherman tie up to the anchor wires of the rig. They come here to sleep and have their food without having to worry about their boat drifting somewhere untoward.
They spend days at a time fishing from these small boats and you can see the drums of fuel and water needed to keep them going. There is a "mothership" that they offload to but it's not often we see her. No idea what the fishermen earn but it can't be much.

Their boats are usually colourful with red, blue and orange being common.
I always feel a sense of sympathy with these guys as I spent 16 years fishing in the North sea myself.

We are not supposed to allow them to tie up to the rig but there's not much we can do to be honest and at the end of the day they were here a long, long time before we arrived.