Story
On land, at sea and by helicopter
Jean-Pierre Beeckman (employed 1979-2014)
In 1994, the Ministry of Public Works placed a new measuring post in the North Sea, on the Westhinder sandbank: the MOW7. This pole served not only to alert ships to the location of the sandbank, but also to collect hydrographic and meteorological data.
The National Geographic Institute was tasked with accurately measuring the position of the pole using GPS. On a calm weather day, two colleagues and I were flown to the measuring post, over 30 kilometers off shore, in the famous Sea King helicopter. From the helicopter, we were lowered onto the pole with a hoist to conduct our measurements.
We spent the entire day in conditions I had never experienced before: strapped in a harness to a vertical ladder, deep in the shaft of the pole, to just above the sea water level. After this first measurement in 1994, we regularly returned to take new measurements. This was done by boat, a challenging trip which took four hours there and four hours back. A real adventure!
Photo: The measurements in 1994.
