Manila, Philippines en route to Corpus Christi, Atlanta U.S.A.
Past few days have been relatively quiet, No sign of Career calling me up and saying that "Its Time". For the moment based on what I had read on the website "CAPE TALLIN" is on the united states and will probably take a month of travel to reach Europe, If my rough estimation is correct there is a possibility that I might join there given the fact that career has upgraded my SCHENGEN Visa (European Union Visa). For the moment I could not exactly figure it out whether it is in Netherlands at all or some country in the European Union, But what I am sure of is it is in the some country in Europe.
As what I mentioned earlier, the days have been quiet since my last log in this journal. I had been busy doing some other stuff in the house, playing video games, taking care of the sick kittens and making rounds like a vet and such. Aside from that I also optimized the Ubuntu Linux Operating system on my laptop making it more stable and safe haven for storage on "sensitive" data, plus I have to add some extra features in it and rewriting all the accounts on one computer program interface.
One best feature I liked about Ubuntu Linux is its all-in-one Interface, which mean that I don't have to open multiple programs for connection - In Ubuntu I simple only open one computer program (Gwibber) and that's it, all my accounts in Face book and yahoo are all connected in one program - Simple as that. Worse part of Ubuntu is its EXTREMELY UNSTABLE and a person using it must have a formidable backup program against glitches and bugs (which often do happen a lot). Fortunately my current LG laptop has a formidable restore program although it's a bit cumbersome to do a backup every now and then, and worst normally takes an hour to do a back up on the system. If only Ubuntu could be as stable as Android operating system (OS for tablets and phones) , I wouldn't mind at all using Ubuntu for a full system usage on my laptop. For now I only use it as a secondary operating system to hide my sensitive files away from prying searches of Windows based operating System.
In other news….
Weather in now improving here and there's an occasional rain every late afternoon to cool off the summer heat, personally I'm glad that weather has significantly improved compared to last month were I have to literary hide away from the sun just to avoid the summer heat of 42 degrees Celsius. Now the next problem I'd be facing now whenever I leave the house is rain and flood ,since I think rainy season here in the Philippines will be starting early.
In the past few days, local elections were held here in the Philippines and from the looks of it, It's the greatest show on earth (being sarcastic here). From what I'm seeing on the local advertisement in T.V. , Politicians are throwing everything but the kitchen sink just to get votes. They proclaim or vocally announce to everyone that they have all the answers to almost everything, nearly saying something like their the savior of the human race blah blah. Generally I find Filipino politicians to be it pathetic, worst normal Filipino citizens follows these kind of people. Good thing I don't vote (nor even a registered voter), for me suffrage is simply a "useless right, and have no direct impact on my life" . As long as Filipino's listen to politicians and prefer politics as an answer to everything, make no mistake the Philippines will always be a poor decadent country.
Anyway speaking of which, I heard "Angkla" party list failed to win a seat in congress. I always joked about it and call it a moniker "PTC" party list , given that this political party is formally backed by a shipping company called Philippine Transmarine Carriers. Sadly what is left n angkla is just a waste of man power and resources , apparently "Angkla" didn't tried hard enough to get a seat or maybe it wasn't that popular enough to non sailors out here. In spite of the failure, I'm hopeful that maybe I'd be seeing angkla again somewhere in the future, (assuming it doesn't get disbanded anytime soon) or some sort of sailors political party in the next three years again. Who knows maybe AMOSUP will be a political party one day.
In Career related affairs..
On the date of 17th may 2013, Career shipping gave me call on my hand phone informing of my schedule departure for work , according to the my flight was scheduled for the following morning and I have to call them back in 9 am , Thinking that this was "For Real" I hurriedly called my sister and informed her that I might need some money and that career shipping is badly rushing me. My sister said that it wont be a problem and she will take of it.
Morning came in and I called to the shipping office just to confirm about my flight , The person whom I spoke with said that the flight was cancelled and that it is scheduled again for tomorrow (the following day). I was very relieved to hear it and had time to prepare my things even if its just only 24 hours, aside from that I had to finish the so called CAV certificate for my C.O.C. (certificate of competency) . Delaying it was a big help. On the afternoon I took the opportunity to go to Taguig and go to the tesda office and finished getting the CAV once and for all. Suddenly I received another call again on the office and said that my flight was 8 pm TODAY, I hurriedly got my CAV certificate in TESDA and by the time I was in the shipping office, the receptionist told us that it was a false alarm and they were just handling out the plane ticket for us. From the briefing I only got to find out that there was seven of us travelling as a team , from which I already saw personally who's going to be my BOSUN and another able bodied seaman (A.B.) to be. The receptionist also added that the luggage carrying capacity that we will be carrying is only at least 23 kilograms and only one bag , nearly only half of the actual intended luggage that i should be carrying. After the briefing I collected my uniforms coverall from the Uniform booth , intended to get my cash advance and leave pay to the Cashier booth in career. Unfortunately it was Friday at that time and It was already past 5pm which meant that the banks in the Philippines is already closed.
I went home as soon as possible to inform my sister and to the least buy some toiletries supplies , when I arrived I resumed on working in taking off the extra luggage and fitting all the uniform coverall issue equipment that was given to me. Fortunately for me all of the equipment that was issued fitted on my bag , although in the sacrifice of my winter clothes and an extra miscellaneous working shoes. In midnight I was fully restocked , thanks to my sister who lend me some money needed, I said to my sister the flight details and that my flight will be 9 am in the morning.
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| Meal time in ANA Airlines |
Good thing that when we arrived on NAIA terminal 3, there was at least an hour and a half more before the scheduled flight and we checked our bags early to the checking counter and have them weighted, It was here that I also found out that career shipping office made another mistake and that we could indeed carry at least 2 bags and 40 kilograms of luggage , it was very contrary to what the receptionist said in the shipping office. Honestly I'm very furious on what happened to me on that day and if I don't double check every information that the receptionist told me I would have ended up being in a disaster, now the big problem id be facing will be the winter time in the northern Atlantic since I lack the proper clothing due to misinformation.
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| In a hurry to catch up the plane , due to wrong information given |
During the transit some of my co workers were a bit selfish in the sense that we never did go on a group, we only went as an individual as a result me and AB Malorca and Messman was left behind in during the transit from Houston Texas to Corpus Christi in Atlanta. Good thing and by the stroke of luck Cape Tallin Ship went on some major delays in discharging its cargo.
LIFE IN CAPE TALLIN.
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| Worried sick when the plane bound for corpus christi was left behind |
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| Spending my time in the waiting area on Atlanta USA for the next flight to corpus christi |
Cape Tallin is enormous compared to both my previous ship (STOLT Strength and Bow Ophelia) So large that you could drop off Bow Ophelia on either side of this ship and nobody could have noticed it. When I arrived in Cape Tallin, The ship was very different in the sense that although it was registered as a Oil / Chem Ship , it is in fact in reality a dedicated Crude Oil tanker ship. Chemical cargoes are not suitable to this ship as it may damage the piping system of this ship. There aren't numerous pipes showing around the deck compared to a typical chemical tanker and that cargo tanks are just limited to 12 very huge holds filled with crude oil.
For the mooring arrangement, I could say that mooring is a bit of a challenge and I find myself starting all over again with this one. The mooring lines used here are all High tension steel cable, Not the synthetic nylon ropes used which unfortunately I am most familiar with. Worse part is that Steel cable wires takes more effort in winding and un winding them on the winches, not to mention all the lubricant grease that is put on the cables.
In uniform and supplies , In Cape Tallinn it is a big issue and I just found out that Career only issues 2 coveralls suits for the whole duration of my contract (9 Months) . Soap , laundry soap and other working related supplies are in short and I have to scrounge what ever I can find in the months to come by. Water is also a big necessity here and rationed water at the crew mess hall is not enough to quench the thirst of water every now and then. For the moment the only solution to the problem is buy mineral water to the bond store since after all I'm now an O.S. and purchasing power has widen compared to my Deck Cadet years.
Local people (Co- Workers in general) residing in Cape Tallin seems to be benign and post no hostile threat of any kind, If there is anything I think I should worry about is the "Russians" ( Georgians, Latvian's, etc ) since in general I do not know what will set them off and their temperament.
Communication on the outside world. For now I cannot determine if servicing of Internet broadband connection is available and allowed here on this ship, It is usually to the captain of this ship is he is wants a constant communication around the ship. Rumor from what I heard is that internet connection is quite expensive here and cape tallin has not have a direct internet broadband connection of any kind. The only thing I have for the moment is the roaming prepaid phone for connection to the outside world.
"ANCHORED IN HOUSTON"
THURSDAY MAY 23, 2013
Anchorage Somewhere in Houston, Texas U.S.A.
Due to the restricted and insufficient communications here onboard cape tallin, and the lack of internet access. I will be sending my blog entries by bulk and without pictures to conserve memory uploads on LAN email. I will put pictures on my blog later on when I get back to land, for now the only thing I could provide is diary entries without pictures - it may be difficult to understand journal entries without pictures but id get back to it as soon as proper internet connections are available.
Been a day since we left the port on Corpus Christi, Atlanta. For the moment we are currently anchored somewhere in Houston awaiting berthing instruction, In the midnight of anchorage I was awaken by the BOSUN and knocked to my door saying that its time. I was knocked on the door on the fact that cabin here in cape tallin have no closed phone circuit and even wall clocks, a bit backward considering this ship was made during 2008. After waking up I hurriedly dressed to go outside and it was pitch dark, I could have brought my head light by I'm not exactly sure if what my fellow sailor would react on it. I proceeded not using the headlight and save it for the latter when I'm already the most senior crew residing in Cape Tallin.
Dropping the anchor on the ship is very like the same on my previous ship, the only difference is that the winches are not human size like my previous ships and are definitely hard to operate given their size, the operation is still very much the same. I just have to remember the Lock / Unlock , Engage / Disengage procedure and the control lever. Pushing the lever away from me means that its dropping the anchor and pulling it means its being recovered.
After a few minutes we unlashed the anchor and waited another more for the anchorage area. While waiting O.S. Hall Xerxes Balagso started a little monkey chat and mentioned something about A.B. Dondonilla Patrick Borres being obsessed with cell phone's and communication equipment to contact his wife in the Philippines. He also added something about A.B. "Patrick" biting off people like a zombie whenever he gets drunk. Bosun Amican, Zacarias La Torre said also something that he heard also such a thing about A.B. Patrick. I just kept mum about their chatter as much as possible.
After the successful drop of the anchor, We immediately went to the changing room area and changed clothes then went to the crew mess hall for a break. Inside there O.S. Hall, Xerxes Balagso gave me a few tips on how to log on the work sheet which is basically its equivalent is a "Time Card" on the land based job (a form of card or paper to record the working hours).
The following morning. It was the usual day work, (as I will describe it the usual day work onboard a ship is this. 7:45 am get dressed up, and wait for the BOSUN going out , 8am start of day work, Go back to the crew changing area and take a break from 9:50 till 10:30am, then go back to work until 11:45 am and return back to take lunch till 1pm, afterwards continue to work until 2:50 than take an afternoon break till 3:30pm then back to work till 5pm).
Unfortunately for me on my first day of day work nobody from my co-workers even bothered to tell us that its already the morning break and left me and A.B. Homer Malorca figuring out for ourselves that its already way past break time. Honestly I have no idea that the mentality here onboard was a "every man for himself" kind of attitude and no one will ever look out to you incase you get into trouble. The very same reason why me, A.B. Homer Malorca and Messman Ferdinand Penera got left behind on Houston airport to Corpus Christi. Anyway if the folks here act selfishly as like that then its fine by me, and don't expect me sticking out my neck for them just incase they get into trouble. I'm going to play this on their game.
For some reason O.S. Hall, Xerxes mentions that Chief Mate Tetrashvili, Gocha (Georgian National) hates seeing people taking off to work at exactly 5pm and prefers seeing people off to work at 6pm, an hour late of the usual work schedule.
The following day , I did learn something on my day work that diesel fuel oil if very effective in removing grease stains. Unfortunately I couldn't say much the same on my coverall's because it was badly damage from all the grease stains. Aside from that I did learn a few other things onboard like the piping system and such on a product ship tanker.
Well other news also include for now is that no thanks to A.B. "Patrick", my previous back ground with the call center got also brought up. I have no intention of telling anyone that I came from the call center since it brought me a discrimination situation years before on my previous ships because of this. Anyway bad for me in the sense that I wasn't careful in hiding my pictures on my hard drive and got careless lending it to other people. I Just don't want my two separate lives get mixed up and my life here is very different from my life being a telephone operator. I'm never ashamed that I was a call center agent however I worry a lot about my safety whenever I work as a sailor especially the discrimination part.
"FINDERS KEEPER'S"
SATURDAY MAY 25, 2013
Anchorage Somewhere in Houston, Texas U.S.A.
Just had a familiarization drill a few hours ago and our Georgian (Russian) chief mate, he showed us a lot of things - well mostly safety and emergency equipment actually. First he showed us on how to operate the life boat here in Cape Tallin and lower it. Next was how to start with the emergency generator and the last was the "foam generator" in the foam room.
For the moment this ship is still currently in anchorage near Houston, waiting for instruction on what time will we berth. So far there are rumors that this ship might go at berth on Sunday in the afternoon, but its not cleared yet and the chemist inspector keeps coming back then and now from the shore to check the "h2s" factor if its low enough for loading cargo.
In other news
As a usual tactic of mine whenever I go on shipboard, I always scout my surroundings at nighttime to check and collect anything that might be of latter use. Scouting and scavenging as one might put up, and this has been an effective tactic of mine which kept me alive on my previous ships. Now in Cape Tallin since supplies here are a bit more scarce than my previous ships, my efforts in scavenging are more persistent and I do it on night time to avoid getting attention on what I'm doing. The result of my current "scouting and scavenging" tactic is that I got a few items, mostly cleaning items like a bottle of chlorine bleach, a pack of laundry powder soap, a bar of scope, a bathroom towel. Etc. which will be handy on my cleaning work.
Unfortunately for me since I'm no longer taking the job description of mess man during my previous ship, I no longer have access to the provisions chamber and ship officer rooms (which I frequently raid for supplies and medicines) depriving me of much needed and essential stuff. However despite the lack of sources for supplies , it doesn't mean that I can't scout and look for supplies.
"OFF WITH HOUSTON FOR NOW"
May 27, 2013 Monday.
Berthed at Houston, Texas USA. Loading cargo.
2nd Engineer Ards Jekabsons: "O.S. , you strap in helmet not safe. Strap in helmet dangerous and cut your head off if accident happens"
Ordinary Seaman (me): Seriously ???!!!
2nd Engineer Ards Jekabsons: Yes, Serious !
(Latvian 2nd engineer commenting on my customized "chin strap" of my safety helmet, during my watch at the gangway)
Finally this ship went to berth at nighttime of May 26th Sunday, I wasn't totally familiar on how this ship moors using high tension steel cable and had been definitely clueless on the mooring operations. During mooring I did find out that dropping steel cable takes quite a while and is done with at least two to three people at a time, its not the rush rush kind of thing and single handedly do like I previously did on chemical tanker ships. Another thing that I notice is that, having a hook like appliance metal stick is a must in mooring with a steel cable since holding or clamping it with leather gloves is dangerous. Good thing that 3rd officer German Jr. Tan Corales was kind enough to show me how exactly I use a metal hook in mooring high tension steel cables. I did have a few problems at the start but of course eventually I'd get use to the idea of using the metal stick hooks and not "Touching" the mooring cables later on.
In other news related to ship work, While we were busy in the mooring operations, one of my co-workers A.B. Patrick Borres Dondonilla is in for big trouble as he nearly had Cape Tallin ran aground during channeling in Houston, Texas. As what 3rd officer Corales said he (A.B. Patrick) steered the ship towards starboard side (turn right) even though the Pilot ordered that its should be turned on port side (left side)- worst part was that the Russian Captain was also in the bridge when the incident happen. Some of my co-workers keep gossiping about the incident and even commented that "Patrick" will be demoted and is too dangerous to let him handle the helm during channeling. Well its seems that A.B. Patrick is getting a lot of bad rep lately around the crew, I hope it doesn't get any worse for him.
Honestly "Patrick" is a big talk around here in Cape Tallin and most of the crew mentions his name and his bizarre ways. They mention him being "Too obsessed" with communication devices like iridium satellite phone and high end communication device just to get in touch with his girlfriend in the Philippines - well nothing wrong with that but the main problem is that he is knee high depth in borrowing money from the crew around here because of those top up loads for the satellite phone.
In other matters, as of the moment the skin of my face currently still hurts. It feels more like I guess a sun burn from all the Texas summer heat in the U.S. , I didn't expect that the weather here in Texas could be this hot , and frankly my face looks darker and more oily from this summer heat. I hope this isn't anything permanent and just only temporary
MAY 28, 2013 Tuesday Midnight
The Position of Ordinary Seaman working hours on this ship starts at 12 midnight and end 6 in the morning and 12 noon to 6 pm during its at port. This midnight I manage to snag and see A.B. while changing shifts. This is what I heard on Patrick's side.
Patrick says that people around him are jealous and that they always push him around, a lot of times those people even talk about him when his not around. He also added that the 7 people whom we replaced are also the one's responsible for his ill-treatment here onboard. He's now relieve that those people are been disposed off now, and that the remaining people here with us will be disposed soon, for some reason I'm too timid to ask , A.B. Patrick really loathes 3rd mate German Jr. Tan Corales. Another thing he said is that he's never associating himself with them after all that has happened, he going to isolate himself with them as much as possible because this is the worst crew he has ever been in the recent years he's with career shipping.
After the brief chat with A.B. Patrick Dondonilla. I saw the engine crew was a bit busy with the manifold area, there were 2 Oilers, (Oiler Gian Silverio Ampong Escote, Oiler Donald Reyes Roger), a Fitter (Fitter Gil Dalisay Aguro) and the 3rd engineer (3rd engineer Cranz Magistrado). Apparently from what I say they were doing something called bunkering (Nautical Term for Refueling) and had hook up a bunkering hose directly to one of the pipes in the manifold area of the ship. They were quite busy on what they doing and was on watch for the bunkering process, While they were on watch I managed to have a little chat with them also and hear out their stories.
3rd engineer Magistrado says that he started out as an engine cadet and stayed until he's an engine officer now. For the two oiler's and the fitter, what I do know is that they're not the native crew in Career and that they came also from another company elsewhere although they had been around on Career Shipping for quite some time.
I did my usual stuff Guarding the gangway as much as possible (the entrance from port to the ship), and at about 4am early in the morning, all of I sudden I got weary and tired . It seems that fatigue had already kicked in. After my work shift I hurriedly went to my cabin to sleep.
"MIDWAY TO ATLANTIC"
Cape Tallin PLUS 13, May 31st 2013, Friday
En route to Morocco.
During the previous entry of mine, that this ship is still berthed on Houston, the ship pilot came in early in the morning and the whole crew was greeted with a loud P.A. on our cabins announcing that the pilot has arrived and the whole crew standby to mooring stations. I hurried got dressed upon hearing it and quickly went to the deck area were I saw the BOSUN securing a few equipment. A few minutes more the whole crew were already on standby for the mooring operations.
Mooring operations went smoothly and that I had no problem using the hooks even though I lack the muscle power in "aligning" those steel cables on the drum and tension drum. Mooring operations on a product tanker 20,000 GRT and up, using steel cables are very different from the chemical tankers 20,000 GRT below, using nylon manila rope. Equipment cable are very heavy even with tools such as metal hooks and lifting it on bare hands becomes ever more challenging , to make it more complicated the cables are coated with grease which unfortunately stains terribly my coveralls and my gloves. However despite a lot of disadvantages, there is one advantage that could be taken in opportunity and that is mooring operations are terribly slow with this one.
After the mooring operations we proceeded in securing all the deck equipment for the long voyage and us the whole day in securing it. We started with the putting the loose ropes first inside the BOSUNS store (a chamber space located on the front structure of the ship called bow) using winches, wasn't an easy task and for some reason the BOSUN store is poorly ventilated and is a hot room. Second thing we secured was the oil Pollution equipment (S.O.P.E.P.) , was no big deal really and the second was the onboard gangway we have here on the ship. Last part was securing the pilot ladder , for some reason the pilot ladder here is different and difficult to handle , probably because there is no extra rope tide to the last step of the ladder which makes recovery easier (and less dangerous ) if it had one. Guess the only advice I could think of is never recovery the pilot ladder alone and let an A.B. go down the ladder to tie a rope to it. After recovering the pilot ladder , O.S. Hall and A.B. Caldona tied up the ladder and secured it pilot ladder storage located in the middle part of the ship.
Another thing we secured was the lashing on the anchor and from what I saw there are two lashings to secure the said anchor and both of them is somewhat dangerous when ever I'd put the steel wire inside the chain. Unfortunately for me I lost one of my Cardboard box cutters in the anchor hole in the process when it slipped on my front pocket and its now in the bottom of the ocean. After securing all the equipment, most of the crew had a drinking session. Though I don't drink but for the sake of getting along with the people around me and not also get on the "wrong foot" I drank as many bottles of beer as a could.
2 days later…
Things are doing somewhat normal here in the ship and maintenance is still very much the same, However I saw the usual trouble brewing around working relations here onboard such example is between A.B. Dondonilla and the rest of the crew back talking to each other and saying nasty to each other whenever either one is not around . Another example is my frustration being forbidden to wear a helmet, I don't see anything wrong why I shouldn't wear one but again for the sake of getting along with them I don't wear one in the deck area. Now my head is jeopardized in injury and I'm not used to wearing one. Hope they know what they are doing.
"IT'S PLAYTIME"
JUNE 1st 2013, SATURDAY
En route to Morocco.
Work done last Friday was fixing out the broken cable wires in the starboard winches, Honestly it wasn't really an easy task replacing it even though I'm not directly involve on the work. What I do know is that BOSUN AMICAN got a replacement steel tension cable at the BOSUN store and had it hauled off via using the winches. It really took us quite a while to replace it and had us 3 A.B. 's and 2 O.S. to work along on it. I'm the operator of the windlass at that moment and was just pushing and pulling the lever of the machinery to haul off the wire, The rest of the folks were greasing the wire.
The late afternoon work on Friday was all about "BALDEHO" , which roughly translates in English meaning "to wash off". We did wash off the forward and aft part of the main deck with steam hoses blowing sea water. Curiously funny that steam hoses are meant specifically for steam, but here we use it as a kind of water hose and quite effective to be honest and does the job of washing off all the grease marks on the forward area of the ship.
As for today ……..
Wasn't really good at playing basket ball ever since and I'm not into any sports at all. As far as I recall I only played basketball during college as P.E. Class and that I didn't handle the ball nor shoot the it because my role there was center and was a defensive player, Just raise my arm (have a good arm reach) and prevent the ball from going inside the basket and that's it.
On Saturday the whole deck department crew played basketball in the deck area just the right side part of the ship chimney. As expected I played horribly in shooting and dribbling the ball, though I faired well being a defensive player. Overall It was an embarrassing situation really, guess should have paid attention on basketball during my college years.
In other news I just found out that the local LAN email for the crew needs an employee ID number to gain access with. Unfortunately for me 3rd mate German Corales said that currently my Employee ID number is still being processed and for the moment email is inaccessible to me until my employee ID arrives.
Aside from that the free issue of bottled mineral water that was given to me has already ran out, along with the case of coca cola soft drink I ordered at the bond store. Since my supplies has already run dry, I had to reorder again at the bond store of 2 cases of bottled mineral water and another case of Coca Cola soft drinks at the crew mess.
By the way just to give a definition, bond store in the ship is more like your typical local variety store you see on land. Think of it as much like a 7-11store version were they sell all sorts of stuff. The charge of the items a crew orders gets automatically deducted on his monthly onboard pay, ( see why its called "BOND STORE" get it ?). The menu on the bond store greatly differs on each ship, Here in Cape Tallin the menu is quite a bit extensive compared to the previous ships I've worked with, Aside from the usual smoke and hard drinks, they also sell toiletry items here like shampoo, tooth paste etc. and even socks - yes socks
"LESSON OF THE PAINT"
JUNE 3rd 2013, Monday
En route to Morocco.
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| for public information the paint used here Onboard cape tallin is the brand called international"" , they say this brand is much cheaper compared to "Jotun"brand |
So much for the One and a half days off and back again to daily maintenance, a lot of people ever wonder what does a sailor do when he's onboard a ship ? To inform the general public on what a sailor does when he's onboard, He usually works as a maintenance worker - Yes believe it of not a maintenance worker, similar to those you see in construction and maintenance on the land based like the ones in construction industry. We use Hard hat helmets, Coveralls, paint brushes , all the way to even broom and mops - everything is just basically the same minus the cement and concrete stuff. Basically It's a dirty and difficult job as one might put up and the only difference is that the pay is a big large compared to your typical construction worker in the Philippines. Even the ambiance and attitude of my co-workers are similar to those in our land based counterparts (construction workers), Crude and definitely lacking in proper manners. Hell does the general public knew that the college course Marine Transportation is very different in actual job practice and that the education of 4 years is just plain old paper work for a good show. Trust me everything a person learns in college in the nautical science course is exactly the opposite in practice, the grim reality is that "Seaman" (Sailor, what ever you call it) is a construction worker riding along a ship.
Anyway so much for the lecture, going to what happened inside on my work in Cape Tallin. Well I got a quick lecture on how to use a paint, actually mix a paint. Honestly I've already knew how to mix paint and BOSUN Arjona already taught me that during my years in Stolt Strength and Bow Ophelia, on what are the components involve on how to make a paint. However just not to get on the wrong foot, I tried to keep my mouth shut and let them do the talking. The thing that refreshed my mind is what ratio is to be put on the pigment against the hardener, some paints have 1 / 16 ratio and some have a ratio of 1 / 8, generally on a large scale paint - a large can of paint is equivalent to a small can of hardener and the number indicated on the can of hardener should match on the large can of paint (in my case number 990 admiralty gray and the ratio is 1 / 3 ). Good thing O.S. Xerxes Hall was patient enough to give me a quick hint and was very helpful.
Aside from the paint issue, the stencil procedure here is different on how the way It's done in Bow Ophelia. Back then we use a computer and a Xerox printer to print those stencils, It was quicker and definitely more "Customizable" to any object we get to stenciled with (we could make the lettering bend or circular) . The only problem we had there is how to cut out those stencil paper with a cutter. Here in Cape Tallin since this ship is quite backward on the process, I'm still using the only stencil metal plates for the process, then trace them out and cut them with a cutter, obviously a time consuming process, after that I had a problem finding adhesive tape for some reason here. Hmmm the most common item a sailor would typically see on almost every ship and yet it's rare and almost absent here in Columbia Ship Management managed ship called Cape Tallin, what the hell does CSM do in running this old rust bucket ??? Obviously a poorly manage ship and management.
In other news.
By the time this ship reaches morocco, there will be a crew change and the ones to be replaced by relievers will be Chief Officer Gocha Tetrashvili (Georgian), 2nd Engineer Ards Jekabsons (Latvian ) , Koba Tsiskaradze (Georgian), 4th Engineer Henerson Patino Gonzales, Pumpman Nilo Sarmiento Pastrana , A.B. Ronald Hiteroza Caldona, Fitter Gil Dalisay Aguro and Oiler Gian Silverio Ampong Escote. I'm not exactly sure if this will be on morocco but the memo hints that its in middle of this june.
"DAILY LIFE ONBOARD"
JUNE 6th, 2013, THURSDAY
En route to Morocco.
For the past three days, I had been doing maintenance work as ordered by our BOSUN AMICAN , Had been working along side with my co-workers greasing up Winches on both forward and aft part of the ship, all in all there are 6 winch machineries in Cape Tallin, Aside from it we also greased the cargo crane of this ship (Huge crane typically located on the middle most part on ships today)and O.S. Hall was the one who climb the crane to grease its sockets. I was surprised to see that the device used in greasing sockets was HUGE than the one's I've used on my previous ships, Well its portable but not hand held and definitely bulk and difficult to carry (we had a small trolley aside from it).
Well in other related news to work, BOSUN AMICAN figured out that the device we use to grease up winches was not exactly the device that should be used to it. From what I saw while he was cleaning the device , he said that this device was really meant to be used on paint jobs and not on greasing. He wonders why his predecessor used it as a replacement in the first place.
Another thing I did with work as the repair of the accommodation ladder for the lifeboat on the port side (left side) of the ship. Me along with Bosun AMICAN and Mess man Ferdinand Penera, Stiched and line up the huge and heavy ladder. Along the repair process we had a small talk about the scars on BOSUN AMICANS right hand, apparently on what he told us, he had an accident decades ago that nearly tore off his hand. It is evident on what I looked on his right hand that nearly 3/4 of his hand was sliced horizontally. He also said the he has other scars on his body aside from the hand and the doctor in the hospital was really good in "patching" him up (or more like on what he jokes Stitching his body parts back together again). BOSUN AMICAN survived the ordeal thought it left his right thumb in a deformed state up to now.
Overall the past three days, My General observation was work tactics is quite really different here in the product tanker than in the chemical tanker. The differences are mostly on the maintenance part, which up to now is I'm still trying to at least figure it all out. Some work tactics I had learned and mastered on a chemical tanker do not necessary apply on the product tanker , and even some of it are not even used at all. Equipments here on the 42,059 Product Tanker (Crude Tanker) are heavy and large, and it at least needs to have 2 persons to operate it. Compared to my two previous ships the equipment there can be wielded by only a single person and that even me who is not the "Physically Strong" can actually even carry it. Honestly I'm starting to feel that large ships are horrible for me and that I should stay out of it as much as I can, probably 20,000 GRT and below would be fine on me but not 21,000 and up. Maybe next time career would assigned me on a smaller GRT ship next time, Maybe I'd fair well on that kind of ship rather than here.
Anyway in other news…
Just currently received a memo note from our chief mate, It's not exactly a memo for a bad rep but an information memo telling me my duties and responsibilities onboard. In short it's a job description detail. Based on what I read. I'm accountable and will report to the BOSUN and Chief Mate on work.My responsibilities based on the memo are Upkeep and Maintenance work in the deck area and during mooring operations (tie the ship to berth) I am located at the forward part of the ship. Aside from that I'm part in cleaning two floor decks of the accommodation space. My working hours are categorized into three types. Regular Maintenance (during at sea) is at 8am till 6pm , at port is 6am to 12 noon and 6pm to 12 midnight. During watch at the bridge its 8am till 12 noon and 8pm till midnight (if required).
In other news ….
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| The Jack Knife I had found and repaired |
Currently I'm pretty busy scavenging any useful supplies here onboard, For now I had managed to get a few spare used up coveralls (needed for work) and Loctite (super glue, which I need to repair the jack knife), I also had my eye on the T-POL chemical (liquid detergent) on the paint room to wash secretly those used up gloves I collected - for the moment I'm planning to sneak secretly to the paint room and get at least a small amount of that chemical, The thing that complicates me from sneaking is that in the Atlantic ocean during summer time - daylight hours go up as far as 10pm, So I have to wait until at least near midnight or early morning (as in early) to have the cover of darkness.
