Cape Tallin enroute to Houston, Texas U.S.A. , Some where in the Atlantic, time zone is UTC -03:00
Was off the hook in cleaning the distilled water tank located on the steering gear room and instead was put on the task in helping out the new pump man in changing the isolation valves for the COW IGS machines (a.k.a butter wash machines) and replacing the old gaskets, For the moment where still in the 3 wings area (cargo hold area no.3 port and starboard side , Left and right for short). One thing I find funny on the said task is that I'm cutting out gaskets in Teflon plastics sheets, Honestly I don't see any point on why am I making Teflon gaskets and making that much effort , I mean during my previous ship we don't exactly "Made" Teflon gaskets at all and instead buy them from IMPA and received them via the provisions. I guess Career and CSM Management is very stiff when it comes to its crew eh ? Oh well anyway it doesn't really matter at all if that would be the case, I'm just disappointed that we have to "make" them instead of ordering one. Hopefully I only get to sail with this company for two ships only and after that I'm moving on, regardless of the situation.
In other news we recently had a fire drill and familiarization here at cape tallin , the drill isn't exactly a "Drill" at all and that its more like a re-organization of sorts and we were informed by our Russian Chief Mate of our new task whenever if there will be a fire. As to document or record what a fire drill is onboard , I slipped in my spy pen camera to record it on video. Everything was going fine and I was recording it when Mess man Ferdinand notice my spy cam and told a few people that I'm currently recording, I told him to be quiet but he kept on mumbling and as a result 3rd engineer Cranz and the New Pump man discovered that I have a spy pen as well. Not a very good sign really and to avoid further discovery from other people I just made an alibi that my spy pen ran out of batteries to 3rd engineer Cranz , The New Pump man and Mess man Ferdinand and hid it under my right pocket.
One thing I really hate about having Filipino's onboard is that the word "Confidentiality" is poorly understood here and that sooner or later some big mouth guy will spread something of what he knows and in my case I'm annoyed that Mess man Ferdinand cramps my style and that he should have kept his mouth shut about me having a spy pen. Honestly I'm the kind of person who values confidentiality and privacy , I dislike people that have big mouths.
In other news around onboard , I'm still continue the gym program "Patrick" gave me with and being at the gym really helps on my strength and stamina (though I couldn't say if my muscles will ever get built up) , I do my gym every other day as not to injure myself and even have my very own gym gloves ( the one I bought at TOBY's sporting store 2 years ago and brought it along). I plan to do gym exercises late at night to avoid prying eyes from some of the crew, unfortunately one gym session had me going to the gym a bit early as in 6:30 pm and as result 3rd mate Corales saw me doing gym sessions. To avoid any more further questions I hurriedly finished the gym session.
Going back to matters on the deck ….
I admire the pigeon that always stayed near the paint room , and even thought at the moment were currently in the mid Atlantic area it was always there and stays on that area, it never flew far off and was always staying there patiently. Some of the crew gave it food and water , and took it as a "Pet", the pigeon is very friendly and doesn't get startled when people are around - probably it indicates that this pigeon is already domesticated and is already used to having interactions with humans for some time .
Believe it or not it relieves stress seeing a pet around the deck area and having it as a pet, Unfortunately I should know better that we can't keep and take care of the pigeon on the long run and sooner or later this bird has to go. Its ok for now to keep the pigeon until the trans-Atlantic transit.
In other news on deck….
There has been a rumor that this ship will not yet get to go to the ship yard for repairs (Dry dock) and said that there is a possibility that after Houston this ship will be at Valenzuela and probably to Asia (best bet is china, since this is a Chinese made ship). For the moment I don't know the exact details but what I did heard from Patrick is that this ship will be in a "lightering condition" In Houston to remove some of its cargo as its overloaded from Houston standards . Expect another ship to ship operations in Houston, only this time its unloading and not loading.
