WHAT HAPPENED BEFORE

August 02, 2013 Friday ON UNEVEN GROUND

St. Rose, Louisiana USA terminal.

July 28, 2013 Sunday 2038 HRS

Immediately after the mooring operations I was dead tired and sweat soaked on my coveralls , and needed to have at least a drink of water. Upon going to the locker room I managed to see and caught BOSUN AMICAN dressing down and escaping work, The lazy prick have the nerve to even slam me with sarcasm after the accident I had (please read my previous entry "THE ARRIVAL") saying "How does it feel being whiplashed with a wire" . I made an emotionless reply and said " Not bad at all" and hurriedly left the dressing locker room.

Took a rest for only two hours , made a shower and set my alarm clock (the one I bought in BOTLEK Store) and then again I'm back on my working shift which is 12 midnight till 6 in the morning. Good thing that my work partner there is A.B. "Patrick" so the fatigue on work is lessen when I'm working alongside with my friend here, for the moment on work we are currently on standby as "Vetting Inspections" might start anytime in the morning or afternoon, For now the midnight work till morning is pretty much safe from it.  So what did we do in those 6 hours of cargo watch ? Honestly nothing much and nothing important at all and we just made the usual rounds on work, me I had to check the gangway if its properly secured every hour as well as check also the manifold area for any leaks that would be occurring.  A.B. "Patrick" on the other hand checks on the forward and aft mooring ropes and adjust them , he also checks the pump room every hour. Later on our watch we adjusted the wooden step for the gangway , so I wont get crushed by the weight of the aluminum gangway later on.

After the watch, I took the usual rest on my cabin and noticed that my laundry is already piling up not a pretty site to be honest. I couldn't wash them as it’s a ship (and probably a company policy) that whenever were at port , all laundry rooms are closed for the time being.

When I went back for my afternoon shift, I found out from O.S. Hall that vetting inspections have already started at 9 am and still on going. One incident happened on the Vetting, although minor,  I was only not wearing my helmet for a couple for seconds ,(which I ran hurriedly back again after realizing I was not wearing one) Unfortunately 2nd officer R. O. Olis saw this and lashed out on the radio saying it is not an excuse that I forgot my helmet and in addition said a lot of hurtful words. A.B. "Patrick" did as much as to defend me against the bastard 2nd officer over the radio and I thank him a lot for sticking out with me on this.

After the working shift, I went to the crew mess to eat my breakfast. It was there that I saw again 2nd officer R. O. Olis, He shouted and scolded me again , repeating the said issue, I fought back and said that he shouldn't say those things over the radio and its very rude and ill mannered to say things like that, we had a furious stare at each other , and I was ready to draw my Wenger swiss army knife on my pocket in case this situation would escalate to a full fight, But I stand down and decided to play it cool, I just kept it as an option if ever he jumps at me, if he does - then that’s the part were I'd slice him with my blade. I lost my appetite on the heated conversation and hadn't eaten anything, I went to my cabin and slept hungry and furious over what happened. That fucking bastard !!!! Should haven't bought a blade but a Flash light taser instead or a pepper spray.

I realized on that incident that non-lethal defensive weapons are really a must onboard (Aside from having a real blade), especially when working on a cargo ship as the nearest threat is not from outside but from the inside of the ship.

July 31, 2013 Wednesday

*Picture shown above is the actual UTI taking ullage levels, On the video is A.B. "Patrick"demonstrating the actual use

With permission from A.B. "Patrick" , I had along my Samsung cell phone with me during the cargo operation and managed to record on video the knowledge "Patrick" will teach me in using a U.T.I. device (Ullage Transfer Interface), I figured that its important to record it as this knowledge may serve me in the years to come if I decided to pursue the job of being a sailor. I was fortunate that someone here like "Patrick" understands my situation that I need to record this knowledge despite having a device on deck that is not intrinsically safe at all, I am fortunate to have a real friend here like "Patrick".

In other news everybody here is talking about captains slabada's reliever, most of the other replacements have already arrived but it seems that this ships new captain didn’t arrive at all and went A.W.O.L. , everybody is still figuring out what happened to the new captain.

At early morning cargo watch, I'm sadden that two good men onboard this ship have already disembark and finished their contract, Chief Engineer Servgey Il'yantsev and Electrical Engineer Koba Tsiskaradze. "Patrick" is also sadden that these good guys had to disembark and they had already finished their contract, But that's life here onboard. A mariner's life will always have changes, each working contract a sailor will get to meet new friends (and enemies) and you'd interact on a lot people - some are good people , some are bad.

August 01, 2013 Thursday

Unmooring operations went exactly at 9am in the morning, For the record this is one of the most difficult unmooring operations I had as the weather at this day was definitely unfavorable. I was terribly feeling weak on the fact that I haven't eaten anything in the morning and only took a Centrum tablet and vitamin b complex as a kick start to give me at least an energy. To make the situation more complicated I was suffering from heat exhaustion, I was working sluggishly at that time. Some of my co-workers are also having the same problem as mine on heat exhaustion, like A.B. Malorca. On the other hand A.B. "Patrick" was already on the brink of a heat stroke during unmooring operations on the aft.

Few days that went by was relatively quiet, despite its quietness trouble is brewing. A.B. "Patrick" was displeased to hear and learn that 2nd officer R. O. Olis told the new chief mate that he wants him to be replaced on the night watch at the bridge. The new Chief Mate was puzzled why 2nd Officer Olis wants him off the hook and asked  why , To the new Chief Mate's surprise 2nd Officer Olis could not give any clear answer on it. Anyway the Chief Mate had no other choice but to put "Patrick" on the 3rd mate G. Corales night watch schedule, and warned that if 3rd mate refuses to accept "Patrick" then he's going to tell Captain Slabada about this issue.

"Patrick" has my sympathies, and I think its not fair for him to be treated this way. He is being heavily discriminated on this ship by his fellow Filipino's. I'm really disgusted that this is happening to him and on the situation that "Fellow Filipino's fight off fellow Filipino's" . This is the real evidence that Filipino's will never ever get to work together, On "Patrick's" case he is always being pick on by his fellow Filipino's here . P. Dondonilla doesn’t deserve that kind of treatment , he should have been treated fairly and without prejudice. On my part I feel powerless that I'm only limited in providing him information on what the enemy thinks of him and give him tactics on what to do on situations and not fight directly alongside with him, Despite my limitations here I am willing to help my friend here in anyway I can.

My friend is living miserably here and he took all that crap for 8 months now, I will not stop him or be in his way if he wants justice and vengeance over what happened to him. In fact I'm in favor that he should seek retribution over what happened to him.

Guatemala, Central America, August 06, 2013 Tuesday (2 months, 2 weeks, 5 days)

80 days onboard Cape Tallin.

This ship is now currently in the Guatemala area, and we had a good rest on Friday and now the new chief mate gave a few job orders to do on Saturdays and Sundays. On Saturday we had to clean the drip trays on the manifold area from oil residues , wasn't an easy task as Sea Clean (By the way I found out that its primary ingredient is Naptha, very toxic by the way) and Cold Wash had little effect on it. I was with O.S. Hall in cleaning the drip trays while BOSUN Amican, A.B. "Patrick" and A.B. Homer were cleaning the deck area in the accommodation block.

At 3pm the maintenance work was all over. While on work there are a lot of rumors why the new Chief Mate had job orders given on Sunday. One rumor says that a Technical Superintendent might be boarding this vessel in time for its long awaited Dry Docking repairs, or some rumors just plainly say that Captain Slabada is just hurring up for his reports.

This ship spent a few days at anchorage in Sto. Tomas area in Guatemala, The weather here is inconsistent and extreme on both sides. During the mid-day the heat from the sun reaches scorching temperatures enough to soak a coveralls with sweat, and during night time its chilly  breeze and most of the time occasional heavy rain showers enough for people here in anchor watch to don a rain coat and boots.

In other news….

I had made computations on my calculator in my PC and found out that I have now lasted 80 days out of the 276 days intended working contract on this ship. I'm relieved that I had now reached close to a third of the numbers and hopefully - I'd be able to walk out of this ship. To be honest working relations here onboard are not that good as to what it was during my previous ships (Bow Ophelia), for some reason people here think that working is more like a competition rather than a cooperation. Bottom line here is that Its no longer fun working in Cape Tallin and that I'm now facing serious issues both on harmonious working relations and normal maintenance work, I'm now totally feeling dissatisfied on how thing are working out here for me. (I'd continue this topic on my next journal entry)

August 07, 2013 Wednesday EVERY MAN FOR HIMSELF

Mooring operations that went a few hours ago in early morning was the one of the most difficult (and exhausting)I had faced so far in my whole sailing career. Difficult in the sense not because of the mooring arrangement ( 2-2-2 is easy believe me) but because of the inconsistent weather in Sto Tomas , Guatemala. Literary it was raining heavy and worst part was that I don’t have my booths and raincoat with me, resulting in me doing all the manual labor of dragging those heavy heaving wires in wet clothes. It was no easy task as even my Co-worker A.B. Malorca was having difficulty as well on the situation.

Aside from the hard situation, BOSUN AMICAN and 3rd Officer Corales wasn't a big help and was not helping at all, instead they mock and ridicule me and A.B. Malorca in not having to drag the heavy heaving wires fast enough - they never realized that me and Mallorca had been already dragging several of those wire and are already exhausted from it. Even the incoming 3rd officer "Byron" is not spared from their arrogance and cocky behavior, they say in tagalog that "Byron" , this white guy doesn't have any idea on work and is stupid when It comes to mooring operations . Good thing for them "Byron" doesn't understood tagalog words or else I would be wondering by now on how "Byron"  looks like when his furious. These fucking two bastards are so arrogant and cocky that I had thoughts of throwing these people off deck and see how they fare well in swimming. BOSUN AMICAN and 3rd Officer Corales are one of the worst people I had encountered so far in working as a sailor. They think that every mooring operations is a "competition" rather a cooperation, Bastards !!!!

Change topic for my journal as this upset me even more in discussing these kind of people.

For the moment Guatemala seems to be a backward kind of country and I had never been here before quiet honestly. Even their port facilities are not that advance as what I see in Europe or in some parts in Asia, and we had to use the pilot gangway onboard as a form of an accommodation gangway and had to adjust it every now and then as this ship is now loading cargo.

In other news on my equipment for the moment I am hurriedly trying to dry up my only spare coveralls as the other spare one was badly damage when I washed it up on the washing machine recently. This is the only working coverall I use for dirty work and that the other coverall I had is the clean coveralls , which of course is not suitable for "Dirty" deck and cargo works. I try to hasten the drying of my coverall but unfortunately I think it will take another few hours or so for it to be properly dried up as laundry facilities here in Cape Tallin are always closed whenever we are at port.

In other matters the crude oil cargo that will be loaded on this ship is just only half of the total capacity of this ship. In other words the ship will only be half full loaded of crude oil then it will be heading off to Texas U.S.A. again

August 07, 2013 Wednesday, Afternoon Cargo Watch

Though I'm dismayed that A.B. P. Dondonilla will no longer be joining me on the work shift because of the recent protest he received from 2nd officer Olis, It doesn’t necessary mean that we can't talk to each other. We still talk and share a laugh every now and then, though now it'd not that often. Honestly I blame 2nd Officer Olis for this obstruction.

On Cargo Watch , I could say that my experience in work isn't really that good - in fact it’s a shitty day and let me start. On the start of my afternoon working shift, a few crew members 3rdmate G. Corales , Oiler D. Roger, Chief C. Peneranda , Ordinary Seaman X. Hall went on to the typical shore leave - problem is that they didn’t came back in time for work and I was left hanging and being on duty for 10 hours straight (instead of only 6 hours during cargo ops). They came back onboard very late (close to 10pm), very drunk and had a lame excuse that the reason they came late was because O.S.  Hall said to me the taxi driver robbed them off 100 U.S. Dollars.  JESUS H. CHRIST !!!! Am I supposed to believe that - you fucking maggot !!!!! What I think the truth is on what I think is that they went ashore to drink , get some whores and had sex with them and attend work very late leaving they're co workers all fucked up being on work for 10 hours straight.  Some of the people onboard here are also furious on them, One such example is Mess man F. Penera whom apparently complains to me when I visited the crew mess at 6pm saying that the chief cook is one bastard son of a bitch and abandoned me on work, I'm the one who cooked served and even washed all the duties for him. Another example is the Junior Officer (and incoming 3rd Mate) "Byron" who says over in the CCR via Radio and ask us over if there is any information about the crew who went to shore leave. (good thing that British people can maintain their composure even under pressure).

These bastards don’t have any fucking idea on the sense of RESPONSIBILITY AND DUTY -totally careless bastards, I was sitting there doing work for 10 hours straight from 12 noon till 10pm late at night and I had been on work for the total of 19 hours since yesterday. Worst is that this is a civilian Ship carrying cargo not some fucked up military vessel, so there's no necessity of working on terribly very long hours.  It’s a good thing that I bought along for the trip a few medicines that I would take to combat fatigue.

AUGUST 08, 2013 THURSDAY

At very early morning the new captain of Cape Tallin arrived , I haven't seen personally the new Captain but based on what I heard he's a bit short when it comes to height and I'm not exactly sure if this captain is a good or bad one , but the new pump man knows who is and isn't exactly telling if he's a good one. I only assume this captain is a bad one.

Much to my dismay I was again woken up early at 4am by A.B. H. Mallorca, most likely because Bastard O.S. Hall couldn't keep up to his word that I should rest till the command "On standby for Unmooring arrives" . It’s a good thing that my rest was sufficient at that time and 6 hours sleep isn't bad at all compared to none. I went to work for only two hours 4 to 6 am, then after wards I went to rest again until unmooring operations started which is around 9am till 12 noon.

Unmooring operations went smoothly since it was only a 2 -2-2 mooring arrangement although A.B. Mallorca had a minor split up when his hook slipped and hit Oiler Donald Reyes Roger in the crouch area. As for the rest it was a smooth operation.

There was of course an incident after mooring operation, in which BOSUN AMICAN shouted over the radio to the Captain that the Pilot ladder is already ready. Apparently based on what I heard from A.B. Patrick (which was at the bridge at that time) the new Captain was caught in surprise that he was shouted out by the BOSUN , and after the shouting on the radio the new Chief mate and the New Captain spoke Russian to each other probably talking about BOSUN AMICAN. On my end on the deck area I saw with my very eyes that BOSUN AMICAN did it unprovoked and intentionally to the new captain. It's was very disrespectful to be honest that he acted that way and I think it will not be long till the New Captain (or the New Chief mate) does something on his character problem.

August 09, 2013 Friday Eidul - Fitr

The next task of work following the departure of Cape Tallin from Guatemala was washing the whole deck area in the accommodation block. Me, A.B. Patrick and Alexi (the Ukrainian Deck Cadet) was put on the task in doing it. As with the usual procedure we hauled off the long heavy rubber hose from the workshop (Main Deck level) all the way up to the bridge Deck level and connected it to the fire hydrant outlet. We waited for about 30 minutes until the fire pump engine starts, during the wait the three of us had a small talk.

After the washing , I was put on the task of collecting and painting the scupper plugs with color orange and "Alexi" also helped me out. During the painting him and I had a small talk , and found out that Ukrainian language is a cross between Russian and Polish , aside from that we talked about the difference on the education system of the Philippines and Ukraine , specifically on the maritime education system. Based on what I found out the Ukrainian government even sponsors (and shoulders the cost) deck cadets on companies just to see them finish college- a big difference in the Philippines, here as soon as a deck cadet is finishes his studies in school , he is left out to fend for himself and after finishing the one year sea going service , the deck cadet even has to pay the school a fee to process his diploma and degree.

In the Philippines , the system of education for a deck cadet is "Every man for Himself".

Late at night I went to the gym, I missed going there since I've been out on work for a few days now.

August 10, 2013 Saturday

In spite anticipation that work will be only half day (which meant only four hours) , I was very much surprised to hear from BOSUN AMICAN that work will be from 8am to 3pm for unknown reasons. Had no idea why work hours has been extended on Saturday and that it’s a usual practice here onboard that every Saturday work hours are only half day.

A.B. "Patrick" was dismayed on what he heard about, and found out later (From O.S. Hall) that the main reason was that BOSUN AMICAN and the new Russian Chief mate had an argument and as punishment (or probably retaliation) he was ordered to do work until 3pm. Well serves BOSUN AMICAN right for his arrogance and insulting the new Chief mate, The problem with this bastard is that he doesn't know authority and respect to co-workers and has a nasty attitude problem - glad for him somebody here onboard this ship teaches him a lesson.

The work for this day , is washing the deck area again minus the accommodation block which was washed yesterday. "Patrick" and I used sea clean chemical in removing those grease left behind during the previous mooring and unmooring operation. I also removed the excess mud from the anchor and winches (the stuff that got caught when  the anchored was pulled out before the mooring operations). Later on work I was washing the deck area all by myself now and I could now handle it.

By the way this is the first time I saw the new captain , Captain Igor's slabada's successor in cape tallin. Seems to be a bit old but jolly person, Honestly for now I could not make any decisions yet about him and that most people (or almost all sailors) are ok from the start then later turned to homicidal bitches after two to three months later. Truth is I haven't made up my mind yet about this New captain and I still keep my distance over it just to be on the safe side.

August 11, 2013 Sunday

Finally it was rest day , Just spent the whole day sleeping and modifying and fixing some personal equipment , a regular maintenance and up keep thing. I also washed the new sets of gloves I collected , thanks to the chemical "GRESOL" which totally removes all the grease that was stained those gloves.

Word came from "Patrick" that this ship will be arriving at the U.S. by night time , around 10 pm and will be anchoring soon.

Late at night, this ship arrived in U.S. waters and I was immediately put on standby for the anchoring. Weather in Texas is as usual warm and hot even during at night time, I donned in my usual gear during anchoring (facemask, helmet, gloves, coverall ) . For obvious reason I didn't use my head flash light for my helmet.

Gresol The wonderful anti oil chemical

It was me , BOSUN AMICAN and O.S. Hall that went to the forward part of the ship as usual, the two other new faces showed on the forward part of the ship. It was "Byron" and "Alexi" -  They joined in to observe and see how anchoring operations takes place onboard this ship.

We prepared the anchor winches for the anchoring, and removed the lashes, next was  we lifted the safety bar on the hawser and press the switch on button located on the entrance of the BOSUN's Store.

all of my equipment's in check and ready to go

I just listened on their conversations and the bragging of BOSUN AMICAN, about some shit he worked on several years ago in a Japanese fishing vessel. They also discussed that maybe (just maybe) internet will be installed here on this ship after (or during) the dry dock. Honestly I highly doubt that CSM Career Ship Management will ever do that., given on my experience with what I had on this company presently - I don’t think that CSM will get even to bother installing one on their ships. Internet onboard this crappy ship !!! Ha ! That will be the day.

After a few minutes the anchor was dropped and as usual, I was the machine operator on the winch. From what I heard on the radio the chain that was paid out was 5 shackles.  Deck cadet "Alexi" was curious on what's going on and asked how to operate then winches during anchoring,

August 14, 2013 Wednesday FROG FACE

Anchorage Area, Texas U.S.A. 90 days onboard Cape Tallin

As with the usual maintenance work schedule, The whole crew is still busy doing their work on maintenance and upkeep of this rust bucket.  For now I had been assigned to do work in repairing those garbage cans, and had been chipping the rust, removing the paint, and re painting it again. Sounds simple enough but isn't an easy task as I had to repair those ten oil sized drum in tip top shape before this ship goes to berth on the 20th or 21st of this month. Deck Cadet "Alexi" helps me every now and then on the work  but most of the time generally I'm all by myself doing this task.

For the moment, everybody is also busy doing their own task and BOSUN AMICAN is a sadistic bastard both off work and on work, That frog skinned bastard has a nasty habit of putting people on work early and then putting on coffee breaks (and even putting people on work) very late, He enjoys torturing people by working them to death, he's a megalomaniac shithead that cares little (or no )regard for others. This is the first BOSUN that I had encountered that is totally a sick old bastard - Hope this bastard gets a bad karma one day, thinks he owns CSM , Ha ! What a bastard !

Unfortunately for me I'm stuck with frog face for the next 5 months (Until after new year or worse case after Valentines Day) , Seriously it’s a big problem for me and there's nothing I can do about it but just deal with it. The only thing that I'm hoping for is that I wont see him again on the next ship.

Speaking of work related issues with "Frog Face" , every time I work - I always get being monitored and guarded by this bastard. One instance for example is when I was painting the whole floor of the garbage collection area , Can't believe this bastard is staring at me and looking at what I'm doing - as if he was like a jail guard looking and guarding prisoners on quarry work. Useless bastard prick ! stands like that he's the boss of some sort of jail facility and monitors people, I think CSM company isn't paying him money just to stand around and guard people, He's being paid to do work and help his co-workers in the manual labor since BOSUN  is equivalent to a Foreman in a construction job - Sadly this BOSUN falls short of expectations.

In other news,

Today marks my 90th day onboard Cape Tallin., Hard to imagine that I had already lasted out here 90 days in "The wild" , I thank God a lot that I have lasted this long and thanked that I had brought in a huge amount of supplies before going onboard here - it wouldn't be possible if I hadn't anticipated that condition here are very similar to a situation on being stuck on a floating island - I bought along everything I will need for the next remaining months ahead and believe it or not due to some fucked up misinformation I only brought in half of the supplies I need, Nevertheless I had to make the full use it. Anyway I'm relieved its my 90th day onboard and I still have at least another 180 days left to finish the task.

In other matter's

Currently living conditions onboard Cape Tallin, presents numerous challenges now compared during the time I first went here (or even compared to the work I do in a chemical tanker), One aspect is water , both the safe potable drinking water and the water used for washing. Water as of the moment is becoming scarce, For now according to the bond store water will only allow crew members to take 12 bottles of water(2 case) per week per crew member, they said that bottled mineral water is near running dry. Second challenge will be the laundry. The Captain here is just been around only a few days and has imposed a new oppressive rule that washing machines will only be open two days per week, Not a pretty news considering that Sailors are somewhat related to construction maintenance jobs and most of the time are filthy on work. In other words its hard to maintain cleanliness and with only limited use of a washing machine, worst part essential working equipment such as gloves would be difficult to washing without a washing machine.

A.B. "Patrick" said that I better look out for the new captain as this one is a total bastard and living conditions will get worse during the duration of this new captain., better be on my toes with this one. The remaining 5 to 6 months of my contract will be difficult and full of challenges.

August 17, 2013 Saturday WATER DISCIPLINE

"Water discipline" is still heavily imposed on this ship up to now, and I couldn't think of any good reason why it should be imposed in the first place. Even the laundry is not spared from this embargo, as cleaning and maintenance of essential working equipment such as Gloves, Coveralls, etc are put on a stand still and cannot be clean as soon as possible. I had been a sailor for more than a year now and yet this is the first time I had experience this kind of situation were water is simply being put on "suspended until further notice". Amusing that Columbia Ship Management / Career Ship management are big companies both internationally and locally in the Philippines and yet their management and welfare of their crew are very poor. Anyway what can I do on this kind of situation but adapt right !? Hope that this embargo doesn't escalate any further.

For the moment since washing machines are switched off and cannot be used, I had resulted in washing my laundry on my bath room. Just prepared a bucket of water, a few powder detergents, a stick and a deck brush. I put all my clothes there on the bucket with detergents and stirred the water using a stick to have a whirlpool effect kind of like that in the washing machine, I stirred it for half an hour with my clothe there and then I rinsed it, afterwards hanged them inside my cabin to dry up. Wasn't an easy task and never was, I was naked since I was taking a bath the same time as well and felt more like I was "Rambo" doing the laundry, wasn’t  easy stirring the bucket with a stick for nearly half an hour. This is so far the only method I use to wash off my clothes at the moment until this water embargo is lifted, For the drinking water I'm still figuring it out on how to get clean drinkable water , I'd write it down f I had already figured it out.

On the work related news,

For the moment the prospect of going into berth in Texas is still as far as on the 27th to the 29th of August, and currently this ship will still hanging out here for at least a couple of days more.  For the general work, people here are still doing the general maintenance work, on me I was busy painting those garbage cans and I was even ordered to paint the flooring with color green paint. Deck Cadet "Alexi" was a big help on my work and he on the other hand painted the bulk head side of the garbage collection area, "Alexi" was really a big help and reduced my workload nearly half, the only problem I could see in "Alexi" is the language barrier issue since English is not a native language of Ukrainian's (half of them speak Russian and the other Ukrainian - which is somewhat close to polish language) but nevertheless I praise "Alexi" for being a big help on my work.

Going back to the garbage cans, I had finished "overhauling" it on  August 19, 2013 Monday, and on the latter part was putting some of the garbage to the incinerator machine in the engine room (only paper and rags are allowed to incinerated here on this company)for disposal. 

As for work schedules, its always shitty and not getting any better. Work here starts as early as 7:45am and ends very late like 5:30pm (officially it should be 8am and 4:45pm), No thanks to the Neurotic egoist son of a bitch "Frog Face" BOSUN AMICAN. This bloody bastard seems to enjoy burdening his subordinates with long hours of work and deprives them of even standard coffee breaks (coffee break starts at 10am and ends 10:20am, only 20 minutes), he simply enjoys torture in making other people work to death and has little (or no) compassion at all in his co-workers. A sadist no doubt, well anyway I should look on to the bright side that this mother fucker has no license at all to be a commercial ship officer or else this is another Filipino homicidal Maniac ship officer.

After work I manage to see A.B. "Patrick" on the stairway going to B Deck, I had a little small talk with him and was puzzled on what he said about A.B. Homer Mallorca, he says something that "I shouldn't trust Mallorca" and that he over heard him back talking against me on work saying that "I'm a slow painter". A.B. "Patrick" said that I should be careful on A.B. Mallorca as he is one arrogant cocky son of a bitch.

On Saturday August 17, 2013.

Thank god that on this day it was only half-day work (8am till 12 noon), This time I wasn't doing any work on the deck area but was put to help and clean the crew mess, It had me to "Wash Paint" the whole area ( which basically just meant to wash the ceiling and wall of the crew mess with soap and water). Some of the other people on the deck are helping out in cleaning the crew mess such as O.S. Hall, A.B. Mallorca, the new pump man, And even Oiler "Donald".

The crew mess was in pretty bad shape and definitely quiet dirty as what you put it, The windows are badly stained yellow with some sort of tar coming from a cigarette the cabinets are all littered with paper and movie CD's from previous crew of this ship and the cabinets where the food was always put on was littered with mess from previous food. It took us a while to fully clean the mess room, By the way the New captain of this ship every day roams around to check on what other people are doing - this also happened while we were working on the crew mess I wonder why ???

In other news

Thank God that the washing machine opened up in the laundry and the captain gave a "green light" to use it, and immediately the result was the whole area was filled with buckets and buckets of clothes coming from other crew members all lined up to get their clothes washed. A total traffic situation on washing clothes, incoming 3rd mate B. Fourie said that he'd wash his clothes latter and wont try to compete on the long line of buckets.

Me on the other hand, the only thing I got to wash is the non essential stuff like coveralls and working clothes I use, and that I had already washed my personal clothes in a bucket earlier. Aside from that I'm not also competing on using the washing machine in the "B" deck area, I'd use the heavy duty washing machine located on the main deck area inside the accommodation - its much easier there and only a few use that washing machine.

Late afternoon I was hanging out on the crew mess when the new chief mate came in and said he is looking for crew members who are willing to go play basket ball., Unfortunately for me I was the first person spotted on the couch and worst is that BOSUN AMICAN pointed me and said "I'm the guy that would fit on the category" . Personally I hate playing basket ball, Wasn't good at it and definitely never will - and the only reason I came was because it was the chief mates request and nothing more, As expected basketball didn't went well for me. After the basketball session I hid on my cabin for an hour, then I got hungry and went out to the crew mess and got trap on the drinking session. I didn’t want to be rude and snob their invitation on the drink, So as much as it pains me - I took a seat and drank a few bottles. Good thing I'm not that talkative type of person even if I had a drink.

August 21, 2013 Wednesday 35 DEGREE'S AND UP

CAPE TALLIN, Still at anchorage in TEXAS, USA. 95 days onboard

The ships Garbage Collection area

Couple of days have been the usual maintenance work, I had been grinding glass and plastic on trash compactors , seeing that garbage is processed. Looking back there is a big difference on my previous ship and CAPE TALLIN on how they process garbage here, My previous ship is much easier and straight forward garbage disposal plan and not that tedious overall, at Bow Ophelia we just simply throw overboard the glass and paper garbage along with the food waste while plastics stay onboard to be received by shore reception facilities - maintenance was very easy and trash segregation is just only reduced to four types, blue for food waste, red for plastic, black for rags paper bottles cans and grey for ash.

CAPE TALLIN is very different when it comes to garbage and segregation is more than four types (I think its 8 types here), plus like I said garbage is being processed here differently. Paper, rags and wood goes to the incinerators in the engine room (tedious in dragging them) while glass and plastic gets grinded in the trash compactors and stored later on ( not thrown over board, watch out for the sharp glass.) . Honestly I don’t see any wisdom in it why I had to process trash before it gets stored , Why not just go directly in storing it in the trash cans and throwing them directly at sea - it would be much more easier on work and will do me a very big favor just like in my days with stolt strength and bow ophelia.

In other news

For the moment water here is still a big problem, and I haven't come out on a solution on how to deal with it, worst part is that I only had a few days left of water on my stockpile. I'm thinking of an alternate source of water but I'm not exactly sure if its safe at all to drink it. Aside from this one there's another problem that arose a couple of days ago, this time even the air-conditioning is kept at minimum temperature, So it means its not really that comfortable inside the accommodation block right now and temperatures a bit higher, (not a very good indication since its hot weather outside), the crew mess, laundry area, gym and even the cabins aren't now comfortable to stay with and its difficult to sleep with a warm temperature. This is my first time in a product tanker and yet I'm having a very bad impression about life in this kind of ship, this is the first time I had encountered this so called "Water Discipline" and now the reduction of cooling temperatures inside the accommodation block, - What the hell is happening in this ship ???

In other matter on work.

Mess man F. Penera's appointment as Ordinary Seaman has been the subject lately and has been thoroughly considered by Career Ship management, it is expected that after O.S. Hall disembarks on Nederland, Texas he will be the new O.S. and successor. On my end , it will be easier for me "To move" onboard this ship assuming that Mess man may serve as a diversion for me against the prying eyes of BOSUN AMICAN or any other people that would be a threat to me onboard on the latter. I don’t care if Mess man really gets promoted or not, as long as future threats on me gets diverted on another direction, Unfortunately rumors still circulate among the crew that Mess man's promotion gets thwarted as he lacks proper paper's to be promoted as Ordinary Seaman, maybe I'd find out later on if it was approved or not.

On work I'm still doing the same old maintenance work here onboard, grinding plastic on trash compactors and delivering rags and paper (and other materials) that could be incinerated on the incinerator. Lately I had done "Air brushing" steam pipes and the smaller air brush tool is much more powerful compared to the big bulky one, tools here in this ship is plainly rotten and not maintained well, The other steam pipe - much to my horror was painted early without even being "Air Brushed" . I assume "Stone Frog" is in a hurry on work (or perhaps even cheating) and ordered A.B. Bryan to paint it hurriedly, Could care less about this matter as this is not my ship and I only get to be with this bastard "Frog Face" for 5 months and that’s it. Aside from that I had been doing also removing the mud out of the anchor winches, that got caught during last two weeks ago and later on the afternoon , we washed the deck area with just normal sea water. Well its an easy job to be honest but the problem there was that the temperatures were so hot onboard that I wore my coveralls wet, worst was the deck area was giving off steam from the water were using to wash, I use the fresh water outlet to wet my coveralls and relieve me from the heat, even my boots there was filled with water just to cool myself.

By the way I managed to visit the engine room work shop and stayed there for more than 30 minutes, If some people think that being on deck at this moment and staying there in this kind of weather is hot enough - then they should get a load out on the temperatures in the engine room. The Engine room is totally a place of fiery temperatures , on the main entrance the temperatures go 35 degree's Celsius and inside it could be as hot as 40 degree's,

August 24, 2013 Saturday CONSTANT CHANGE

During A.B. Patrick's night time anchor watch duties, I managed to sneak by and visit him and had a couple of beer's together. I took the opportunity on the fact that its possible and very certain that "Patrick" will never be here again and he will disembark by next week. Could not miss the opportunity on tagging along with a real friend for a drink here on this ship, I am surely going to miss my friend now that he's going to disembark and leave the ship. He already finished his contract half a month ago and he's been long overdue. Seriously I'm not that "friendly personally" and don’t make friends easily, especially being a sailor - But I guess "Patrick" is one true friend I got here onboard and no one else, I could not entrust nor confide my frustrations, hopes and dreams to anyone here given that almost all of the people around here are chatters and gossiper's, It would be a terrible mistake to trust them as I had observed them for months.

Patrick and I had the same background and started out as a telephone operator years ago - the only difference is that he was already a sailor back then while I was still a telephone operator during that time. Nevertheless despite being a sailor I could still see inside him - deep done to the core that he's a reflection of the sterling qualities of a call center agent (good natured person even on pressure). On what I recall on what he said to me, that he was a CSR Agent from IBM Daskh Company (another well known BPO company in the Philippines) and that the account he handles was Sprint (American telecommunications company). At the first time I heard it that he was a telephone operator I was in disbelief that he was actually a "REAL TELEPHONE OPERATOR" turned sailor, I always thought before that I was Unique and the only one of my kind here - eventually I did found out that indeed he is a telephone operator and personally I'm glad that someone here has a more liberated thought.

When I first saw A.B. "Patrick" a few months ago he was frowning person and could see in his face that something was troubling him, Now I could see that he smiles a lot on conversation and doesn’t have anymore gloomy face. I thought him how to fight on what his rightfully his , the skills on how to deal with bastard people onboard and how looked out for each other as a friend and co-worker - Its team work and cooperation, not competition.

I am going to miss the days that’s we shared the laugh, had a couple of beers and chatter endlessly even on work. Most of our conversation are work tactics, on what to do on this task, sometimes he chats about personal life and ask for my advise on that stuff.

During the my recent visit on his anchor watch, I asked what's his next big plans after this ? He replied that he's going to take a vacation on a couple of months and then head back again on this company to continue on sailing. He asked me the same question as well and I replied that maybe after this I'd take a very long vacation and enjoy life., After my reply he said that I should try to take an exam and give it a try - find my luck there and before I "Retire" he said that I should be a ship officer first on the bridge because he could see on my eyes that I wasn't happy being a sailor at all. I don’t really know what to say after "Patrick" said that, I said to him that yeah I was seriously considering an "Early Retirement" option and it has been on my mind for quiet some time now (I never saw it coming that he knew what I was thinking about). I said to him "Maybe after Cape Tallin I'd figure everything out for myself, True I'm not happy on what I'm doing compared to being a telephone operator before and that's the reason why I guess I'm not enjoying work here to make it complicated were living with a bunch of monsters here, probably the fact is that I had imagined more on this company and ended up expecting less - I guess that's my disappointment is, I imagine more"

Patrick laughed on what I said knowing it was an honest answer, and said while raising the bottle of beer "Cheer's for being friends and war buddies in Cape Tallin". I did the same and said "Cheer's mate and Fucking A' "

Patrick said that after he disembarks , I'm all out alone here and that I should not trust anyone. Its difficult he added but it's the only way to make sure that I'd be able to walk out of this ship without any serious problems

I am going to miss those days like that, and that A.B. "Patrick" will be leaving soon. A lot of people might say that I'm a cold and quiet person but believe me it doesn't necessarily mean that I don’t care on friends. I'm going to miss my only ally here

August 26, 2013 Monday A BOX FULL OF CHOCOLATES

Weather is a bit cloudy , and I'm glad it is as it relieves the hot humid temperature of Texas temporarily. I think it would be better if its that way at least I could less worry of the heat exhaustion during mooring operations.

Speaking of which, The latest news I heard from the crew mess and from the Captain Valeriy Krasikov (new captain of Cape Tallin after Captain Igors Slabada) that after this discharge operation in Texas, This ship is heading off back again in Europe, namely Riga Latvia for the dry docks. In addition to what I heard this ship is going to travel a trans-Atlantic journey without any cargo at all, - hmmm Wow I guess CSM was pretty generous to have this rust bucket for repairs without any cargo at all, oh well its none of my business anyway and I never expected that a ship would be travelling on long distances without having anything on its cargo holds at all.

On work related news, since it’s a rainy day we were off busy doing all sorts of stuff. In the morning I was busy painting 2 crane boxes with machinery green color paint , I had to full coat it with paint. It was difficult painting those boxes on the fact of the weather.  In the afternoon I was busy putting those rusted wires stored on the deck store to the forecastle area (BOSUN'S Store), Fortunately I was helped by A.B. "Patrick" on the task along with O.S. Hall. Later on I was busy sweeping the forecastle area.

August 27, 2013 Monday.

There's a couple of news that got in it's way on the mess room this morning, first off it seems that mess man Ferdinand didn't make the promotion and he's not going to be an O.S. due to lack of proper papers. Second is that disembarkation for and joining of relieving crew members will be on the 1st of September.

Another thing that I find strange was that Career Company contacted my immediate Family and see if they're ok and doing well, I saw a piece of paper and written on it said that families of this crew have been checked out by career and were ok after the storm

Frankly It never occurred to me that this company would go to so much trouble in checking out the status of my Mom and Dad after a huge heavy storm passed by in the Philippines. Well at least that's one positive thing career did on its employee's - giving at least a "friendly face" - it’s the least they could do. Anyway According to the news - the hurricane submerged 80 percent of metro manila with flood water, and weather was so severe that school classes are suspended and office workers (Government namely) are temporarily barred in going to work until weather clears up.

Change Topic……

On maintenance work  Mr. "P.B." (initials called "palakang bato" Translated in English "stone frog")  thinks I was cheating on the job and didn't understood the job orders,  though that I did not. He even went as far as looking on my work and see if the safety clutch on those hooks were painted correctly, To his surprise I'm telling the truth and saw that I did painted those safety clutches - the only problem here is that Mr. "P.B." didn’t saw it clearly - What a pain in the ass bastard !!!

For the rest of the day I was busy sweeping the dust and metal particles left off by the other crew members in chipping off rust. For the weather, heat still a big issue and there's nothing much I can do to it but just wear my coveralls wet for temporary relief.

Late at night, A.B. "Patrick" approached me on my cabin and had a little chat, actually the chat was that he was asking a favor if I could lend him some cash. I did agree on it and was no big deal at all.

Change Topic….

Centrum tablets that are sold on the bond store

A lot of people have been wondering what's the daily routine here on board, to give a general description. I woke up very early as in about 3 to 4 am (1 hr free time which eventually I go to the toilet to take a dump, go to my computer and type In a few entries on my computer), then go to my assigned area to clean it at 5am namely B deck and Upper deck accommodation area with a broom and floor mop. On 6am till 6:50am, I'm free time again doing whatever I had on my mind, at 6:50 to 7:05 am, I take my breakfast at the crew mess then on 7:08 till 7:25 I take a bath, brush my teeth and shave. 7:25 till 7:30am I dry myself up, take vitamins (Centrum, Vitamin B complex and Vitamin C). On 7:30 to 7:45, I get dressed up on my working coveralls and wait on my cabin . Finally on 7:45am I go down and wait for the accommodation area starboard side entrance and wait for other co-worker and the BOSUN then start work. At 9:50 till 10:20 I head back again to take a coffee break and after that I start again on work till 11:50 then head back again for lunch.

11:50 till 12:45 is lunch time, afterwards I'm doing regular maintenance work from 12:45 to 2:50 pm. Next will be again the afternoon  break starting from 2:50pm till 3:20pm then the last period of work which is 3:20pm till around 5 to 5:15pm (or sometimes 5:30).

That is the routine work on deck maintenance, either at sea or at anchorage. In port whether discharging or loading cargo the routine is quiet different which I'd discuss on the latter.

AUGUST 29, 2013 Thursday.

On this day is my birthday and much to my surprise despite I never mentioned it, in  here everybody knows about it and even posted it to the white board that its my birthday. From some reason people here knows other peoples personal details even if you don’t mention it. Coincidently since it was my birthday there were several items on the bond store that were already expired and had to be given away at the crew mess , namely this items are a case of soft drinks, a whole carton box of snickers chocolate bars and a case of Gatorade energy drinks.  Ended up bringing a box full of snickers on my cabin.

According to A.B. Mallorca, O.S. Hall and A.B. Patrick I shouldn't go to work today - as in a Russian tradition that anyone who has a birthday doesn't go to work in his "special" day, Unfortunately my BOSUN here is BOSUN AMICAN and don’t expect much from him when I comes to birthday's - and as a result I still went to work as nothing had happened. Anyway try get my attention on something else rather than think about it. For work, the weather is a bit pleasant and cloudy as rains in the morning till noon provided at least some comfort on the temperature, though my coveralls got wet on the rain and had to switch on the "Orange" one.

Speaking of coveralls, my working coveralls got a few holes now on the right knee cap and I'm going to have an emergency repairs on it, The procedure I'm thinking is to patch it up with pockets to have some sort of dual purpose as to patch the hole and act as some form of knee pads. I asked A.B. "Patrick" if he some spare unused coveralls for part and he gave me some of them, Immediately I started out on the repairs of my coveralls.

In other news on work, there has been an ongoing rumor again about some sludge work after we discharge cargo here on Texas and en route to the dry docks. However its not clear yet as of the moment and I'd rather concerned on the mooring operations first rather than these sludge work on cargo holds, First things first.

For the moment my stock of water is almost so near on depletion and I only have 4 bottles of mineral water on my stock (1.5 liters per bottle) and that’s it. I'm thinking right now that maybe I'd get the water on the fountain near the CCR as it’s the closes thing I could get hold of drinkable water. I still also have a few bottles of other liquids like Gatorade and beer but the numbers are not so good either (only 7 bottles of beer and 8 bottles of Gatorade)

September 02, 2013 Monday EMERGENCY BUNKERIN OPS STS

It was expected that on Friday that it would be a half days work, I was assigned by BOSUN to clean the 4 floors of the accommodation block along with A.B. Patrick helping me out, Patrick was in no mood to work on the deck area as he had a recent heated conversation with "Frog Face" over working schedules. A.B. Patrick and I was discussing what is his future plans on his vacation and we were already at the upper deck level working, then Chief Engineer Igor Voytenko (the one who replaced Chief engineer Sergey II'yantsev at Louisiana USA)  came and said that berthing will not be on Sunday September 01 but will be on the 7th, The message came from CSM Management themselves.

A.B. Patrick wasn't obviously happy when he heard the news and hurriedly came to his cabin to inform the folks on his home about the said change of schedule, At the crew mess during break time at 10am I heard most of the crew talk about the sudden change of schedule and the possibility that the scheduled rest day could be changed, fortunately chief mate Sergey Nagornyy stick to the original plan that Friday is half days work and Saturday to be whole day work.

Unexpectedly I did not knew that there will be a drill at 2pm, and was surprised on the latter about hearing the drill alarm. I hurriedly got out of bed and immediately got into my coveralls and safety shoes, I even forgot to wear socks and hurried went to the muster station (meeting area on the ship incase of an emergency or drill) portside. The rest of the crew didn’t expected it as well but everyone has still managed to be on the muster station.

The drill wasn't exactly a drill but more of a safety lecture on safety equipment and Chief Mate Sergey Nagornyy demonstrated to use of the thermal protective aid to use and we had to wear that damned orange outfit in the middle of a hot weather in Texas, honestly wearing that orange suit was a bad idea as it is merely like an oven and traps body heat, thankfully we only got to wear it in only a few minutes. The next lecture was with Junior officer ( and incoming third mate) byron peter fourie instructing use the proper donning of a SCBA equipment (self contained breathing apparatus) , Deck cadet oleksii voitenko was the person who demonstrated on how to wear it. During the said lecture, Bosun Amican kept contradicting on what Byron Lectures about on the self contained breathing apparatus implying that byron got it all wrong and he's not doing the correct thing. It’s a fortune that Byron doesn’t understand Tagalog and its not his native tongue and I'm not exactly sure on how byron will react when he learns (or understands) the tagalog word's "bull frog" is saying against him.

Anyway what can I expect from "bull frog" , hell for all I know he doesn’t have the proper manners nor even good etiquette , anyway I don’t expect much on a person who's background before sailing is a dirty old construction worker - I bet this fuck up bastard has a lot of enemies during his previous 30 plus years of sailing. The way he totally acted pretending to be Mr.-know-it-all BOSUN Amican is totally absurd, well if he's so smart why he didn't took the license examinations in the first place ? He didn't because bastards like him don’t deserve that kind of status and he doesn’t know shit. But better yet I think its best he would rather be a BOSUN than some fucked up sadist filipino ship officer, I can't imagine what horrors he can do if he's a licensed sailor.  This bastard hasn’t learned anything in life and that will remain until till this old sod dies.

August 31st 2013 Saturday.

It’s a luxury that the laundry is now open and as the usual scenario laundry room is full of a long list of laundry, Aside from the good news - another good news is that there's no work on this day and totally a rest day, I did manage and took the opportunity to patch up the few holes on the knee area of my working coveralls with pockets from left over coveralls. The result of course was very satisfying in the sense that it's dual purpose, one is to repair and patch the hole and the other serves as a knee pad whenever I'm kneeling. If I had the time in the future I would post the picture of the said repair I made. Since its difficult to give descriptions on words rather than in pictures.

The rest of the day I had cleaned up my cabin.

September 01, 2013 Sunday

It may sound weird that there's work on Sundays, but that is the price to pay in advancing the "rest days" of the week. For the moment I could not say much on the maintenance work here onboard and I'm chipping rust off the metal grating on the crane area mid ship.

September 02, 2013 Monday

Down to my last bottle of mineral water and I'm not exactly sure what will be now the next step for me since all of vast stockpiles have already been depleted. I'm trying my luck on the water fountain near the CCR if the water is ok there, Honestly I'm not comfortable drinking the water there as it's a bit reddish compared to the "clear" water I see in mineral water, I could assume that the water there has a small concentration of rust in it though very small and fine grains of rust.

One thing that happened today was A.B. "Patrick" had a heated conversation with Pump man Liscano and BOSUN AMICAN, about the use and handle of a spray paint equipment. It's a good thing that A.B. "Patrick" showed them his point and not let be pushed around by people.

In other news , I am now finally on my last bottle of mineral water and I think I'm going to save the last bottle when this ship finally berth in America.

September 03, 2013 Tuesday

In the afternoon of September 03, I was busy chipping off the rust on the grails  in the crane area when I was suddenly interrupted by BOSUN AMICAN and O.S. Hall , I was surprised that they have helmets on, and later found out that the anchors are now being heaved up and will make an STS ops (Ship to ship operations) for bunkering. The anchor was heaved at around 3pm and heard the instruction on the radio that this ship will arrived on the bunkering station at about after 5 hours. The ship arrived at around 8 to 9 pm but there was no immediate bunkering operation that followed and it was only midnight that bunkering ops started, From what I heard the ship that would bring low sulfur bunker fuel will be giving this ship about 400 metric tons.

Ship to ship operations are a bit different compared to the usual mooring and unmooring operations, From what I recall both ships paid out and exchanged two head lines and springs lines and at about an hour later the bunkering operations were finished and unmooring operations soon followed.

By around 8am the following morning , this ship was back again on the anchoring area and it dropped anchor. Usual maintenance work resumed at around 1pm and I was back painting the wheels of the valves with black paint. By chance of luck chief mate Sergey Nagornyy saw me working alone in the mid ship area with the steam pipes in the middle of the heated noon, He took pity on me and said that after that I should rest after coffee break and there is enough time for work tomorrow. I was relieved and happy and never expected that kind of compassion and empathy

September 08, 2013 Sunday TO PACIFY THE MONSTER

Early morning of September 05, 2013 at around 6:11am, I was awaken on a knock on my cabin door. Upon opening it I saw BOSUN AMICAN and immediately gave me a job order to clean the B deck area of the accommodation and upper deck level in the accommodation. Realizing that it was already way beyond the cleaning hours (5am to 6pm) , I didn’t cleaned those deck area's . I decided to postponed it and would later cleaned it during night time so there wont be any time pressure.

I took my breakfast and prepared early for work as the usual routine, and went down to the main deck at 7:45, upon stepping out from the accommodation door, I was immediately approached by BOSUN AMICAN and questioned why I didn’t cleaned the B deck and Upper deck inside the accommodation, I told him that I will have to clean it on the latter after work and I lack the time to attend to it. To my bewilderment BOSUN AMICAN lashed out on me like a mad dog and shouted and forbade me to go to work and go back to my cabin, Implying that he didn’t need people like me and that I should be sent home and fired , he even said something about yesterday that I didn’t went to work (mentioned on my previous journal entry "EMERGENCY BUNKERING OPS STS"). It was an arrogant and commanding voice , an insult that I could not stomach - I already had enough and fed up on his bullying after 5 months

I was raging furious that BOSUN AMICAN said that, I left and went back in the accommodation area , I was in disarray and couldn't think straight. During that moment I had only two options , to continue working despite being forbidden to work and start off cleaning the be B deck and upper deck before heading back to my cabin or go to the chief mate to complain about this bullying. I was at that moment slamming every equipment and door I was working on while cleaning and was trying to reason to my head that maybe perhaps the bastard BOSUN Z. Amican would change his mind after a few minutes, I tried as hard as I could to reason at my mind that maybe just maybe there is some compassion left inside him and he will allow me to go to work - but I knew better knowing what kind of a monster and tyrant the BOSUN is, It was a futile and just a delusion that it would happen. A.B. "Patrick" saw me on the stairway on how furious I was and even had a small talk with him , I said that to him that I'm going out for blood and on "war mode" with the Bosun, I said to him that this bullying has got to end.

Then came out of my despair , my sense of logic and fury - to fight back and show him  that I'm not the person he should fuck with. Now is the time to show him after months of oppression and bullying , that this has to end - that I would not let him just walk away with his bullying, he has a lot to answer for and I had sworn to myself that I would not be ever be maltreated again ,like what happened when I was a deck cadet, something had to be done.

 My only option left is to discuss this with the chief mate and tell my grievances. I was fortunate to see the chief mate in the CCR and told him my predicament. Although it was quiet difficult to express my grievances to Chief mate Sergey Nagornyy because of the language barrier in English (he's russian), I was able to point out directly what is happening. Immediately the chief mate told me to follow him and we went to the deck area outside the accommodation searching for BOSUN AMICAN. At the back of my mind I knew this will be going to be a nasty confrontation, but I'm determined to end this bullying once and for all. I'm prepared on the consequences on my actions and have the balls to fully accept what will happen next - whether good or not. Along the way while we were searching for the BOSUN , I saw A.B. P. Dondonilla and passed by him, I uttered to him as I pass by that I need his help and that I'm taking down BOSUN AMICAN. He said that I should be calm and he will join me to fight after two minutes. The situation was very tense and sudden given that the next few minutes I'm going to fight off BOSUN amican and had to muster all my strength and courage to fight on what is rightful.

When we found the Bosun Z. Amican, he was cocky and arrogant to tell the chief mate that I was punished because I was stubborn and deserved to be forbidden to go to work and be fired. My memory was no longer clear at this point , all I knew is that after he said that I slipped into blind rage, I could no longer recall what I said next but I do remember that the scene of me having a public argument was enough to show him that I'm not the guy he should mess around with. I could only recall that we were shouting at each other and that the chief mate was listening to us like a judge on a court. It was a battle of wits and argument , I did what had to do and said what I had to said. It was a good fight and savagery. I guess the only thing I could recall on my berserk was this

BOSUN (shouting) "You're an O.S. and you should know your place onboard this ship"

Me (shouting with fury also) " I know my position onboard this ship, and I don’t need your lectures, - I'm being harassed, what gives you the right to punish people"

BOSUN (shouting) "no one is harassing you"

Me (shouting) " You’re the one harassing me, being a bosun doesn't give you the right to be judge, jury and executioner onboard this ship"

When my senses came back I saw A.B. "Patrick" positioning himself at the BOSUN'S back waiting for my signal that incase violence erupts he will come to my aide and help me fight BOSUN AMICAN, there was also some crowd gathering on the scene (O.S. Hall, A.B. Homer and Deck Cadet "Alexi") and watching the confrontation, Chief mate saw that the situation was already escalating and interrupted when he saw my eyes filled with tears of rage. He said to me and clearly defined to me my roles and schedules on work and told me get a black paint and assist the deck cadet in painting and start on work immediately. It was clear indication that I had won and I had fought hard for my recognition never to be maltreated, I went to the paint room to get some paint.

Meanwhile

(events are told to me by my friend A.B. "Patrick" when I already left for the paint)

Chief Mate was struck with surprise on what I said , and asked "Patrick" on what was bothering me. My friend "Patrick" said to the chief mate that there is something he should know about, "Patrick" told him everything - the full story. He added that I was everyday being taunted and mocked by BOSUN AMICAN everyday and that BOSUN harasses people onboard this ship, He said that BOSUN doesn’t know how to handle and treat his crew correctly.

BOSUN AMICAN tried to interrupt on what Patrick is saying and said "compared his performance to previous ships"  , Patrick lambasted him and replied back that his previous performance to other ships has nothing to do on how he treats his crew now.

Chief mate understood well on what "Patrick" said despite the language barrier and understand that something was wrong on BOSUN AMICAN. "Patrick" made it clear to him what it was all about

Chief mate asked the other people about this issue and what they have to say to the BOSUN, Surprisingly O.S. Xerxes B. Hall didn't have the balls to say anything and just uttered "No Problems Chief mate" despite he ridicules BOSUN AMICAN a lot, especially behind his back and spreads rumors against him. The same thing goes also to A.B. Homer Mallorca, these kind of people do not have the balls to face the problem and

On my end …

I went first to the C.R. to get a hold of myself and stay focused,  I washed my face on the sink and told myself that I did the right thing. I went to the paint room to get the black paint along with them hardener enamel, when I was pouring an mixing the paints I saw BOSUN AMICAN approaching. Startled that this could start again a nasty confrontation or perhaps an all out fight, I checked my Swiss army knife in my pocket and readied it. BOSUN AMICAN harmlessly passed by but slammed his equipment in the deck workshop's water tight door (just right beside the paint room), in retaliation I slammed the cover of the paint can as a hint of defiance over him and left to paint the valves.

Along the way A.B. Mallorca saw me and said that looks like me and BOSUN are in a war path,  replied yes and added that I'm going to kick his ass.

September 12, 2013 Thursday DISCREPANCIES

Things have quieted down since the confrontation and I do hope that it stays that way, I had made my point not to be bullied by any people around me and that its about time that harassment has got to end. A.B. "Patrick" says that BOSUN will back off and stand down from this moment onwards, Me on the other hand estimate that BOSUN AMICAN will quiet down for at least a month or two before resuming his aggressive behavior. Doesn't really matter really if its permanent of not , what matters is that I showed that bastard AMICAN that I'm not the person to be pushed around with or be bullied - Harassment has no place onboard this ship and I'd rather (and much prefer) to be sent home and not be a sailor anymore than endure his bullying for the remaining months to come.

For the moment I'm going to tell this to my backer Captain Nick Betts about this bullying incident over the email so just incase something bad happens he's fully inform on the reason why and how it happened.

Here's the printout of my email to him.

***************************************************

Hello nick, its been a while (again :D)

So how’s your vacation going? Me well been stuck here in the Texas anchorage for a month now, never expected that anchorage here was that long. Ehehehe and for the record this has been the longest anchorage I had experienced so far and the provision have already run dry here due to the long time this ship has been in anchorage.

Anyway there’s news that this ship might go to berth at sept 20th 2013 to discharge cargo and afterwards go to Latvia and head for the dry docks, probably by October. If ever this ship berths on the sept 20th, there will be a crew change and I thankfully the O.S. who been snooped around my email will be disposed of in this berth.

As for me I’m doing the same old maintenance work as usual, chipping rust and paint stuff here and there in this rust bucket, recently I got myself into an argument (or more like trouble) when I got fed up from the bullying and harassment of BOSUN ZACARIAS L. AMICAN, he’s been bullying me ever since I got and I tried to ignore it and let it pass as much as I can , but last Wednesday that’s the part that I got fed up and manage to do something about the bullying – like you said to me nick a few months ago that bullying has no place onboard this ship.

The nasty situation started when he knocked on my door at 6:11am in the morning and said that I should clean the “B” deck and “Upper” deck area inside the accommodation. Since its already 6:11am and was way beyond the cleaning hours , I decided not cleaned it at that time and get the work after working hours namely in the evening (cleaning time on this ship is 5 to 6am, and my cleaning station is “B” deck and “upper deck inside accommodation”). When I went out at around 7:45 for the usual maintenance work, I saw the BOSUN right in front the accommodation door starboard side and demanded why I didn’t cleaned the area. I replied that I’d clean it latter in the evening and could make the time for it in the morning.

To my surprise he lashed out and shouted and forbade me to go to work, I was in disbelief and thought he’s not serious. Then he shouted again saying “Go back to my Cabin and we don’t need you here” he even added on his hurtful words this “Since you didn’t even went back yesterday for work , then go back to your cabin and don’t ever go to work at all”

It was hurtful words and I was burning with fury , I tried to wait for a few minutes thinking that maybe he’d change his mind and let me go back to work – but nothing happened and knowing that this bosun is a rude bullying bastard , it will never happen.

So I decided to go to the chief mate in the CCR and see what he has to say. I told him about the situation. Immediately we went to the deck area searching for the bosun , and when we found him a nasty confrontation followed complete with shouting and stuff. It was a nasty heated confrontation but I guess it’s better that way than be bullied and harassed and being banned to work. I told the chief mate that I’m being bullied and harassed and it’s fair that being punished like that.

Good thing that the Chief mate allowed me to go to work and an A.B. friend of mine stood out for me in the confrontation and said that this BOSUN is a Rude bullying bastard.

My point here is this….

Ok I’m guilty that I didn’t cleaned the area, and I didn’t said that I will never clean it , I said that I’d clean it later in the evening as cleaning hours are outside regular working hours.

As a bosun what right does he have to ban people from going to work, and that kind of punishment is severe – for what? for not just cleaning some areas in the accommodation. Doesn’t mean he’s the BOSUN onboard mean also that he’s the judge, jury and executioner on his subordinates, what right does he have to punish people at all ? (from what I recall only the chief mate has the discretion on that matter).

And for the record, the day before the incident on the part he said “Since you didn’t even went back yesterday for work , then go back to your cabin and don’t ever go to work at all”. It was not that didn’t go back to work intentionally, I was directly ordered by the chief mate to finish painting the wheels on the steam valve and that I should rest after the coffee break cause there will be more work tomorrow. I was following direct orders from the chief mate and if I wasn’t told by the chief mate to rest, id still continue working. He should be thankful that the chief mate took pity on me on that time when I was in the middle of painting in the middle of the dry hot sun, compared to him that he takes pleasure in the misery of his subordinates.

If he has a problem with me resting on that day. Why didn’t he approached me about it during coffee break he was there and had a clear view of me in the crew mess for 20 minutes, he didn’t said a word about it and everybody was talking about it in the crew mess so it’s impossible that he didn’t knew it. He was there listening and even joining the conversation and aside from me , other crew members were also told by the chief mate to rest after coffee break.

Bottom line here is that this BOSUN Z. L. AMICAN, doesn’t have the right to punish people and it’s very clear that he harasses and bullies his crew , and treats them as mere objects than people. He’s a total bastard.

*****************************************************

So what's happening onboard Cape Tallin ?

Well aside from me having a "Cold War" with the Bosun and ignoring each other. There are a lot of things that came by - one such instance was this so called Inventory of the provisions, Apparently according to Captain Valeriy there was a huge amount of U.S. Dollars that are unaccounted for and from what I heard its estimated of 3,000 U.S. Dollars to about 20,000 U.S.D.  - all of it amounting to the provisions

Anyway I was temporary despatch to help out Chief Cook do an inventory on the provisions, along with Messman and incoming 3rd mate "Byron" and current third mate Corales. Inventory wasn’t that hard I just simply carry a few stuff and move it to the next cabinet inside the huge freezer onboard , the thing that was difficult I guess was counting all the stuff that is going to moved - much like counting live sheep in a cattle ranch. Inventory was in disarray and most of the time on that work , Mess man and Chief cook was always contradicting each other over the items on the provisions. Same thing goes on the two third mates.

On the second day of the inventory 3rd mate Corales had to leave over some other work posted on him and it was only me, chief cook , mess man and "Byron" over the dry store provisions. Things got a bit nasty on the inventory this time around and its was very obvious that Chief Cook R. C. Peneranda was not very particular on what's under his galley area (Kitchen area) , he repeatedly made a lot of errors in declaring some items on the list and even had "Double declarations" . The errors were so obvious and severe that "Byron" ordered me to tag along and keep an eye with the chief cook and monitor if he is declaring everything correctly. "Byron" was definitely annoyed with Mess man and the Chief Cook over it and I heard him say "Fuck !" and "Shit" word on them over the mis-declarations.

From the latest news I heard from was that "Byron" reported this incident over the CSM main office over the discrepancies.

In other news

Patrick collecting water from the evaporator

Since the (mineral) water onboard this ship has ran out for quiet some time now, People  here are getting the water from the fountain riddled with rust. Earlier we tried to get the water from the "evaporator" machine inside the engine room but unfortunately due to reasons that the ship is conserving fuel , the Management here shut down the evaporator leaving us without any source of fresh clean water and only the fountain near the CCR as an option.

It was fortunate that A.B. "Patrick" collected empty plastic bottles and used it to collect water from the fountain, Collecting water from the fountain isn't exactly that "Pure" and is riddled sometimes with rust but for the moment it’s the least of the concerns rather than be dehydrated and die of thirst. I couldn't thank enough "Patrick" for giving me a few bottles of water and collecting some in the fountain, I guess that's what are friends are for , helping and looking out for each other.  The water he gave was sufficient enough to keep me going for at least 5 to 6 days.

In other matters….

Today marks my 120th day onboard this ship, I've been out here for almost 4 months now and yet it feels like I had been here for about 6 or 8 months. Seriously staying onboard with a couple of lunatic bastard Filipino's is taxing and worst I can't just simply quit and walk away on this job - its not that easy quitting here compared to any work on the land base, basically I had a lot of things going on my mind as of the moment, Some might say that being a sailor is definitely cool but I beg to disagree on it and the grim reality is that being a sailor has a lot of sacrifices and hardship (as in unnecessary hardship and sacrifice) . Sacrificing freedom, liberty and happiness and enduring the worst kind of Filipino's has to offer.

My situation onboard here is very difficult compared to my previous ships, I had been here for 4 months and yet it seems that I had not been earning any decent money at all here, For some reason the "Soviet" system is not that rewarding and up to now I only had 200 U.S.D. on my wallet. This system doesn't let people handle their own hard earned money for some reason , way different from my previous company.

Going back, the reality check here is that a huge majority of Filipino sailors think primitively and have anti social manners, they are intellectually inferior and hold very low social skills compared to an average educated person in the Philippines like for example teacher's , doctors, lawyer's, call center agents etc. Filipino intelligence and behavior is onboard is very similar to people working in a manual labor like for example construction workers and such , Expect that their behavior is quiet similar to a "Squatter" in Filipino terms - thank god I'm not like them !!!

September 21, 2013 Saturday A BRIEF BEREAVEMENT

Early in the morning me and A.B. Mallorca had to put all the gratings back in the crane area, then afterwards go to the starboard side of the ship and assist BOSUN AMICAN in the accommodation ladder. Honestly I'm not interested at all in helping out that "frog face" , His very presence is annoyance enough for me but I have to ignore my personal vendetta just to get this work done.

Despite efforts to disassemble and remove the said accommodation gangway with a crane, it was highly impossible and repairing it would have to wait for the dry docks.

At noon time there was word that this ship will get out of anchorage and circle around for the garbage and was confirmed to me by my friend A.B. "Patrick".  At middle afternoon this ship moved from anchorage to dispose of the garbage and disposal was finished at around 4pm and back to anchorage at around 5:30.

For the next few days, were off to the usual maintenance work as usual chipping rust off this ship and painting them. I spent most of my time chatting and visiting my best friend A.B. "Patrick" during his anchor watch and I enjoy spend each time with my friend here knowing that sooner or later he'd leave this ship since he has already finished his contract.

I wonder to myself , what will be life onboard here when he's not around anymore ? Definitely I'm all out here defending and looking out for myself , as I cannot trust anyone here given that these people will sold me out. It's going to be a big challenge for me and it will not be met without any difficulty at all.

I had mixed feelings now that he's leaving. Both happiness and Sadness at the same time. Happy in the sense that A.B. "Patrick" has been through a lot of hell during these past few months and he'd definitely need a break from all of it, a mental rest from all these hardship. Sad in the sense that a close friend will be leaving this ship and after that I could trust no one onboard, I'm all alone now fighting this monsters. I got a lot to thank for "Patrick" for sticking with me and fighting alongside during the worst times onboard and sharing a laugh on the best times here. 

To change the topic of my sadness, I should now write more on wore related affairs.

For now me and Pump man T. S. Liscano has just now finished chipping and repainting the whole Mast riser platform at the forward portside of this ship. We brushed off the rust stains and rust with a pneumatic steel brush, and painted the whole area (full coat) with admiralty gray paint. The most difficult part of the job was painting the tower vent and I had to put on a safety harness for it. It was late in the afternoon that we had finished the job.

Afterwards I was left vacant and went on to find anything on the deck area to sweep. Any dirt rust etc. that could be swept.

After the work day was finished, Oiler D. R. Rogel spotted that the laundry room was flooded and he had to call another oiler M.S. Aquino and 4th engineer N. R. Lamsen to check out the situation.

By night time I was watching the movie , " HOTEL RWANDA" on my PC. Which tells about the genocide of civilians in the civil war in Rwanda way back in 1994, The hero of the story was an Hotel Manger who saved and ferried the 1268 refugees to the closest refugee camp. The hotel manager's heroism was an inspiration considering from the start that he did not meant to save those people and only intended to save himself and his family , The humanitarian mercy, duty and courage he put up during the conflict and saving those people was an inspiration.

Surprisingly the movie was more like an auto biographical movie and the hotel manager was a real person and now lives in Belgium.

After watching the movie , I visited Patrick in his anchor watch duty to see how he is doing, we had the usual chat and such and gave me the news that’s there's a possibility that this ship might be going to load oil somewhere in Congo, of course its only still a prospect and there's still no concrete proof yet. He also said an addition information that discharging operation in Texas will be in two parts as the terminal here did not approve to discharge all the cargo in this ship. From what I heard the first berthing will be crew change which my best friend here Patrick will disembark then the provisions will arrive along with engine parts for the ship , then cast off and go to anchorage and wait for a few days (or a few weeks) then berth again then head off to Europe for the dry docks or the dreaded west Africa.

After learning that there's a possibility that this ship might go to Congo , I did not met that "loading prospect" with much enthusiasm. Knowing that Congo and the west African area is a hell hole of a place and people there shoot each other with submachine guns and rifles as a greeting rather than saying a simple "Hi" and "Hello" . Almost everybody knows around the world that central and west Africa area is an "unstable" region. Oh well I hope this prospect does not materialize at all or else I'd be spending Christmas day on under heavy machine gun fire and sporadic small arms fire, not to mention the constant pirate watch.

Another bad news also came in, and from what i heard the scheduled dry dock of this ship has been moved to a later far off date of February instead of October. This meant that this ship will be going to load and unload cargo again and that I wont have at least a month of rest in the dry docks. I could surmise that maybe the last part of my contract here onboard will be on the dry docks and after that I'd be going home. Honestly I had been looking forward on the dry dock and its sad to hear that this ship wont be heading off in that place until winter subsides by February. I was looking forward to another 3 weeks at least on dry land if ever this ship will get to the dry docks now I guess its just another false expectation on this company. POOR MANAGEMENT.

In the middle of this, there is at least one good news in the middle of this god awful shitty mess, I had made some calculations and from my most recent estimate I had now passed my four months stay here and now going in to complete my 5 months onboard, I had now roughly only at least 4 months more left to finish this contract and after that I'd get to board that big plane home. In other words I'm now officially half way on my contract and had now reached the top of this endeavor and going in to the second phase - going down and back.  Cant imagine that all this time I had now go beyond the four months, it was a long and tiring journey but nevertheless had reached half way. At the back of my mind maybe someday I'd be able to "walk out of this in the sunrise" 

In other news.

On the 20th of September, I had just received word from A.B. "Patrick" that berthing on the 21st is cancelled and that there wont be any crew change for another two weeks till the first week of October. "Patrick" was severely agitated to hear the news knowing  about this sudden change, I could see in his face that he's very upset about it.

On my end I was unaware of the change and was expecting that the berthing will resume as scheduled and was even in a hurry repairing and  patching up holes on my badly worn and tattered coveralls, I only came to know the situation when I went to his cabin at 7pm to get an autograph for him to sign up. ( yes I collect autographs from my friends).

"Patrick" said during our conversation in his cabin that maybe (just maybe) CSM could spare at least a service boat for the crew change and provisions while this ship is still at anchorage and haven't had any definitive berthing schedule yet. He already made a plea to captain Valeriy Krasikov about this since he's already been onboard here on this ship for the 11th month now. According to Captain Valeriy Krasikov he see what he can do about it after all the terminal had already changed again the schedule for the sixth time now.

The following morning at the crew mess while eating breakfast, Mess man F. Penera said that they're might be a possibility that our batch would go home sooner than February 2014. We discussed that we could sent a request letter to Career Ship Management informing of a request to go home early by November and if it works, our batch could be out by December and be home before Christmas, Honestly I'm thrilled about the plan and will be looking forward to this. I suggested to Mess man Penera that the request should contain more than one person and best if all of us (our batch) would sign up for it.

September 23, 2013 Monday THEATER OF RUE

Weather wasn't good last Saturday Sept. 21 due to a low pressure are nearby. It was occasionally rainy that day with a gust of wind every now and then. As expected "patrick" wasn’t smiling and was serious looking during work since berthing schedule was cancelled, another thing that he was upset about was his "mariner mail" (email) has already been cut off given the fact that his contract was already finished a month ago.

On that morning, I checked out the modified raincoats that were made on last Friday and see if the glue that was put on them have already dried, apparently from what I saw the glue have dried and the "attached part" from the rain coat is holding up. Had no idea why the hell they had to modify the said raincoats and make it look like a trench-coat-rain-coat and who ever put up this kind of idea is stupid enough to waste another raincoat and chop it and re attach it to another, My point here is why modify when we can buy one right ??? Anyway this is CSM (Columbia ship management / Career Ship management) and chances are (and expect) they wont even bother to buy one given that this company is very stiff to its employees.

When I was looking at the raincoats , BOSUN AMICAN noticed it and said "Already dried huh ? Why not give it a test drive in the rain" . I only replied with a simple cheap smile and didn't say a word - and why would I ? I don’t talk to enemies or strangers. Snubbing him is enough to show him that I don’t give a shit on his comments.

For the work we've done that morning, since it was raining - we just simply secured a few air bottles and the life raft, then made a little wood work and cut circular shaped wood, which I surmise will be probably used as a cover for the garbage metal drums. I used the hand held tool called "Jigsaw" , it’s a pneumatic wood saw to be specific. Me and O.S. Hall were the ones who cut the wood to circular shaped. After the half day work on Saturday. We all went back to our own cabins to rest and enjoy the "off work" day until Sunday.

On the later part of the afternoon on Saturday, I was busy repairing my tattered yellow  coveralls yet again and Honestly I'm starting to hate repairing and patching that yellow coverall. I had done so many patch ups and repairs that my coverall had already looked more like a ragged Frankenstein - but what can I do to it but be patient in repairing my working clothes as CSM only gives a limited 2 issues of coveralls per contract. Here in this company you don’t get another issue, you only get to be given two sets of it and that’s it ! No replacements whatsoever - just make the best out of it.

Anyway given the limited number of coveralls issue, it’s a good thing that I had at least two other extra coveralls left by the previous crew on this ship. I manage to salvage this stuff in the workshop area were this coveralls are in the process of being scrapped or burned. The two extra coveralls I had is one has the color of orange and the other white.

Late at night, Me and A.B. "Patrick" manage to go down to the engine room to gather up some drinking water via the "evaporator" machine in the engine room. I took a video on him getting water and to show the general public what an evaporator machine looks like in the engine room, The evaporator by the way is another source of clean water out here in this ship - Just be sure to ask permission first to the engine room watch whenever getting water from it. Ah Evaporator machine, an oasis in the middle of a desert.

Aside from the water, Free Cadbury chocolates was also given at the crew mess. From what I recall I think its about 2 boxes of those Chocolate bars are given away free, They are given free because the chocolate bars are already near expiry date and it would be a waste if it will be thrown directly at the trash bin. On my end I had to collect this chocolate bars for reserve food just incase I get into trouble with some bastard crew members here and had to do "Voluntary Confinement", this chocolate bars will serve as reserve food for the me inside the cabin if the situation arises that I'm unable to visit the crew mess.

By Monday. Its back again to the usual onboard maintenance work, and I was tasked by BOSUN AMICAN in chipping off rust on the salt water fire hydrants with a chipping hammer and chisel, well I could have used a pneumatic "Jet Chisel" tool and the job could have been easier and quicker with it, The problem was that there are only two working jet chisels here in the entire ship and apparently both of them are being used on that moment in the pump room area - So it leaves me nothing but use the most basic tools in removing rust.

I finished a few fire hydrants at about 1:30 pm and then proceeded in painting them first with a red primer paint.

The following day Tuesday September 24 2013. I heard from the news coming from A.B. "Patrick" that CSM has already cooked up with something on how they will get out of this ship and what's more is that its already been approve by the brass. From what Patrick describes its now confirmed that there will be a supply ship possibly a tug boat approaching this ship to exchange crew and delivery provisions and stores and from what I heard from "Patrick" is that the date of the approach will be on Friday September 27th.  Patrick's eyes was thrilled and shining with hope now compared last Friday, knowing that this is now confirmed of his departure.

Learned from him also that despite the promises and assurance made by Captain Krasikov that he sent the emergency allotment to career ship management for his relatives (Patrick earlier sent an allotment), He latter found out that no request was received by career ship management when he verified It, In other words he found out that the captain was lying all about the said request letter being sent. Another insult came to him also when the captain was only giving them 200 U.S. dollars as a partial payment on his total wages here onboard and that it will serve to them as a "Pocket money" , According to the captain the rest of the his total salary will be claimed and forwarded to the main office in career.

Hmmm… Jesus H. Christ !!!! Am I just having a misinterpretation or is just Career being very stiff to its employee's. Captain Krasikov is a haggling bastard when It comes to salary issue - I mean what the hell can a sailor buy if he only has 200 U.S. dollar on his wallet? What a McDonald's kiddy meal eh ? I mean only 200 U.S. !!! Nothing more ??? And wait a second , Supposedly Career says that the standard S.O.P. for disembarking crew should be at least 500 U.S. Dollar for ratings and 1000 Dollars for ship officers - then how come Captain Krasikov is only giving 200 U.S.D. ? Hmmm something is fishy here, Either way , its giving Career Ship Management a bad rep and from what I heard most common reason why sailors from career left is because of poor management - specifically money not being handed out to them and other money related issues.

I don’t want to compare but from the company were I came from , the sailors there are better off especially on money related issues. In Sea cap shipping the captain there ensures that all money related matters are settled before a sailor leaves onboard and that Sea Cap lets their sailors handle their very own money - they money they worked hard for. Anyway I'm just passing thru here on this company and I'm not staying here on a long term basis, Figured that the management here is bad and I'd be better off finding another company that has similar conditions with Sea Cap Shipping.

Anyway in other news….

The missing A/V jack wire from the crew mess the other day has already been found, problem was that during the time it was missing, the whole Filipino crew was can't watch TV shows on the DVD player without those A/V jacks, eventually they later found out that Mess man Penera was behind its disappearance and when they found out, they were not very happy about it. Worst was that it escalated into a nasty confrontation at the crew mess.

Apparently what I witness was during lunch time, Engine Fitter mentioned something about why Mess Man took the A/V cables along with it making a nasty comment. Mess man Penera was at the crew mess on that time, he didn't like the comment - became feisty and dared fitter to fight him in a fist fight.

An hour later, during the start of afternoon work, everyone in the deck working was surprised that the work was halted and came an order that Chief mate Sergey will have a meeting with us in a few minutes. We were all puzzled on what was the meeting was and a few moments came, Chief mate arrived and mentioned what seems to be the problem with mess man and if we have something to say. Pump man Liscano and BOSUN AMICAN mentioned that Messman Penera was too aggressive on his work , me and "Patrick" on the other hand kept quiet when we were asked by Chief mate Sergey if we had to say something about it. 

I kept quiet on the fact that its none of my business and hell I don’t give a shit if these people killed each other, I'm taking A.B. "Patrick's" advise to stay isolated as much as possible and be a hermit. Don’t take part in any "crew" affairs onboard and don’t pick any sides as it may bring only unnecessary hardship and suffering to us former call center agents. It was very good and wise advise.

Work resumed on the deck department at around 2pm..

In other news…

During the late night of September 25th, I visited  "Patrick" on his anchor watch and later helped him pack his luggage. Patrick's luggage is mostly of course full of clothes and some of it are painting equipment in painting his house, "Patrick" packed quickly in his luggage and just within an hour we were finished. During the Packing of his stuff I gave him an envelop with details of my contact numbers so we could keep in touch along with my Face book account and website (this blog) , I had included in my envelop also the details of my sister and mom's bank account number so he could forward the money I sent to my relative's there.  Aside from that I had "Patrick" write his contact numbers as well at the back of a souvenir I bought in BOTLEK (during this ships stay in Netherlands) so I could remember it every time.

Well I guess that’s about it and I'd be seeing him around. Through out my four month stay here I'm glad I helped out a friend here, helped him recover on his weary mental state and let him get back on his feet, I felt a sense of accomplishment and proud that this person is now more resolve to face the challenges. I taught him how to fight for what is rightfully his and maintain his principles and dignity onboard.

September 28, 2013 Saturday LAST FULL SHOW

Nighttime of Sept 26, Me and "Patrick" went in for a drink during his anchor watch since this will be the last time I'd be drinking with him and he's going home now, I could not miss that opportunity to drink along side my only best friend here onboard. "Patrick" and  I discussed during the drinking session lots of things and shared a laugh, We discussed the first thing he's going to do once he arrives in the Philippines and the total of his onboard salary. He said that he'd hang out probably in the hotel for a day or two with his wife before claiming the money, He added also that despite the captain giving him only 200 U.S.D. as pocket money , the joy of being finally out of cape tallin is enough and there are some things money simply could not buy. Another thing we discussed also on our drinking session is the human nature and behavior of people as a sailor, We both agreed on the discussion that sailors think way different compared to people on land - way different in the sense that sailor's are a lot worst.

On our drinking session, My friend "Patrick" tells that he's going to confront O.S. Hall, 3rd mate Corales and Chief Cook Peneranda as soon as they disembark about their cruelty to him that he endured for months. He says that "he's going to make them pay", I replied to him that I'm not going to get in the way with his revenge - as a matter of fact I agree on his actions, as "Patrick" has suffered a lot deliberately and intentionally in the hands of this people and its right that he should seek justice for it. Some might think this is revenge (call it what ever they want) but I call it justice. I added on my reply to him that "They got a lot to answer for, and they knew they had coming." 

Patrick fiddles with the cell phones and sends SMS to his loves, he receives a reply a few seconds later and says that some guy named "Bryan" is the also coming along to fetch him at the airport. If I recall correct this "Bryan" guy the is a movie / TV star right ? I said to him. He replied "Yup, correct he's the guy" .

We ended our drinking session at around 10:30pm….

THE LAST (JOB) ORDER (FOR PATRICK)

Having a drink really extends my sleeping hours and I woke up exactly 5am (compared before that I wake up as early as 2am to around 3 or 4am. I went on to my usual routine when ever I woke up and clean my assigned "cleaning area" at around 5:30am and finish it at exactly 6am.

Went to the crew mess for breakfast and saw Oiler Mark S. Aquino and O.S. Xerxes Hall waiting for breakfast as well, I greeted them good morning and joked at Xerxes that this will be his last day working onboard - his last full show. After break fast, Had a chat with A.B. Patrick along with mess man penera and discussed the possibility of probability of leaving this ship by December, anyway I'm not expecting much that the departure date will be at that month, most likely and logically the end of my contract here onboard cape tallin is around February 2014 and that excludes possible delays on the change of crew, if it will be included its about march to April 2014 - summer time in the Philippines.

When the Job order came, "Patrick's" final job task is to finish the water tight door outside the accommodation block port side. When I visited his work to check it all out the water tight door looked really fabulous, as in really fabulous - as if the water tight  door looked brand new, made straight from the ship yard.

At late afternoon after the working shift, I visited Patrick in his cabin and saw that he was furious about some anonymous text message his wife received saying something bad about him - about having a mistress, apparently according to his wife the source is somewhere inside this ship. I convinced Patrick to calm down and that who ever texted his wife could only be one of the three people here onboard. It could be O.S. Hall, 3rd mate Corales or Chief cook peneranda, I convinced "Patrick" to calm down just for a few hours and wait until the tugboat for tomorrow morning arrives  - then he can unleash hell and vengeance on these people.

At night during his anchor watch, We took some pictures of ourselves in working coveralls at the gymnasium, like some sort of "Class" picture, then afterwards we had a record video of a discussion in pure plain English, not speaking any tagalog words at all. It was a game to be honest and gives us a tune up if were still up to it on the communications skill. To both our surprise, me and my friend still have the edge in speaking in English. The recorded discussion was hilarious - imagine an American accent guy (Patrick) speaking with a British accent guy (me) and both of us look Filipino.

Seriously I shall forever cherish those memories , those happy moments with my only friend and "war buddy" onboard cape tallin. Memories of joy, sadness, the memories he fought alongside with me against that bastard BOSUN AMICAN, He stood out for me and cheered me up during those times when I was down and lost in despair. We are an effective team in cape tallin. I never met a sailor that was also a call center agent before - only him , only A.B. P. Dondonilla.

This very moment was important to me after all I could only get see him for the last time and by tomorrow morning he'd be gone , Now is the moment and I could not waste the opportunity to be with my best friend here onboard.

At 11pm, bid farewell to my friend at his anchor watch like I have a gut feeling that I wont see him again and went to my cabin to sleep. Before I went and part ways , he gave me a prayer booklet - he told me that this will be useful to me on the later run here. He told me that since I'm I don’t pray much and have already forgotten on how to pray , this will be useful.

"Don’t ever forget to pray to him, especially if you need advise" he said…

"Yes, of course bro"  that was my reply.

On the morning of Saturday, the crew change was postponed till Monday given of the bad weather condition. Apparently the "pilot boat" that CSM rented could not withstand the moderate swell of the sea, Another thing that was made clear was that the boat that would approach cape tallin is just a small boat and not a tug boat. It's only purpose is for the crew change and not to bring in supplies and provision - most likely the reason is CSM is haggling again and being stiff to the crew, provisions unfortunately have to wait until berthing at sometime in October.

Over the two days of waiting, I spend most of my time visiting and being a guest on "Patrick's" cabin, spending the weekend watching movies on the net book I brought along, he gave me tons of stuff that will help me along the way for my remaining months on board and said it will serve me well. He told me a lot of things about his plans when he gets home, spending time with his wife and three kids and what he will do next, He also told me that when he's already gone I should trust no one onboard for this Filipino's hate our own kind (call center agents who became sailors) and we are simply persecuted because of discrimination because of our back grounds as former call center agents, they are jealous of our B.P.O. heritage. He made me swear that I would isolate myself  so that I would be protected from their racism and it would be the best possible and rational action as a defense to them. I agreed to his idea and swore that I will do that , for my protection and sake.

On the morning of September 30th 2013, U.S.A. time, A.B. Patrick gave me a breaking news that the new relievers are on their way and will arrive at 9:30 in the morning. I hurriedly went to the CCR to bring all the luggage to the starboard side gangway and from what I heard the boarding arrangement is combination ladder meaning both pilot ladder and the motorized gangway ladder will be used. After securing the pilot ladder and lowering the gangway ladder , I came back inside the accommodation block to get my safety helmet and also check out "Patrick" as his luggage isn't there yet on the cargo net. Thankfully I found him in the hallway door in front of the CCR, as i escort him to the starboard side, I tried to hold my emotions in saying good bye to my only friend here .

After hearing a brief statement in the radio saying that the anchor should be heaved first, I hurriedly went to the forward part of the ship to assist the heaving and operate the winches.  Soon after the anchors were brought up , I went to the starboard gangway and saw that the 5 disembarking crew were already on the pilot boat and the new on signers have already stepped foot on the deck.

I looked down at the pilot boat and saw A.B. Patrick, O.S. Hall, 3rd mate Corales, Chief cook Peneranda and Deck cadet Oleksii have already boarded and is now waiving good bye to the crew. I called Patrick's name and waived to him goodbye and said "I'd be seeing you around". A minute later the boat sped off fast on to the horizon.

I'd be seeing you around, (call center style of farewell)

Now that A.B. "Patrick" has left, a lot of memories and thoughts flooded to my head as I watch him depart on this ship, A feeling of uncertainty and Happiness. Uncertainty on the fact that I'm now all alone in this ship and have to be on my toes midway on my working contract, for now the remaining time left on my contract is still yet to be written (as of the moment). I guess that’s the problem with me, when I get to know people - I really get to know them well.

Happiness that although he has been persecuted and despised for his background as a call center agent , he has finally found peace and is now stronger than ever. He has suffered great sorrow and trouble but It has enabled him to enjoy so much better all the happiness around him. It would be very sad, were I to relate all the misery and privations which A.B. "Patrick" endured during his hard long stay in cape tallin, but when it all had passed, the wisdom he gained with it outweighs the hardship and risk.

The memories flooded at the back of my head - remembering how he looked like when I saw him in the gangway a few hours after I arrived onboard , his face was problematic and utters the word "This ship sucks".  Now I could see in his face was very different now 4 months later, very bright, very lively and full of hope, not a spec of doubt nor poignancy clouds his face. He's going to disembark this ship with a happy and serene aura. Despite having a very bad start every thing worked out for him and now his contract is finished and he's going to walk right thru the sunrise, happy fulfilled and having a sense of being proud that he endured and withstand it all. I felt a sense of achievement seeing "Patrick" get back on his feet - giving him hope when all seems lost , I no longer see him as a problematic helpless guy - I see him now as a strong resolved person - able to withstand and counter and threats that he will encounter in the future. Now that he has been finally allowed to rest , he is at peace knowing that he has done right on his time onboard this ship. He fought a good fight and finished the race

A TOAST TO OUR MY FRIEND AND HIS VICTORY.

Late at night I went out to my cabin bringing along the few remaining heineken bottles that I had on my cabin. I looked up to the sky and it was a very clear sky, - So clear that the stars seemed brighter than ever. I opened one of the bottles and talked to the sky like an idiot ,thinking that somehow and some way "Patrick" might hear it. Raised the bottle and said.

"Cheers to you my friend, and to your victory on Cape Tallin"

I drank the last remaining bottles I had.

"THE ENEMY WITHIN"

Haven't wrote about this or perhaps I'm going to publish this entry when I feel I'm already safe, for the moment I should just keep this entry on my journal until I am safety to talk about it.

I am writing this as part of my observation inside Cape Tallin, and I still remember what my friend told me several years ago during my time in STOLT Strength, that no matter how I try to much I try to start a new life on a new ship and a new company. Filipino's there are still very much the same - PRIMITIVE AND ILL MANNERED. Reagan Dillo was right and at first I thought that Career Ship management and this ship Cape Tallin was the promise land, - just as it turns out, this was only another hell hole that I got myself into. The only difference I guess was that I'm now aware on what not and what to do onboard , given on my experiences in STOLT Strength. Most and a lot of people still behave the same way as what I experience in STOLT Strength. Paradise isn't what I think it is.

Earlier when I first stepped inside this ship, I thought that the native's here are benign and post no serious threat on my safety - not at all. Hell I was damn wrong. From my observation people here are "Polarized" on two sides and that there is no harmonious relationship at all here. From what I heard both sides here warn me of each other, From the side of the OS Xerxes Balagso Hall, A.B. Ronald Caldona, 3rd Mate German Jr. Tan Corales, Chief Cook Roberto Cervantes Peneranda, Messman Ferdinand Penera, 2nd Mate Renan Oveda Olis .

What I heard from them (people I mentioned above) was that A.B. Patrick Dondonilla is not the person to be trusted and he is manipulative, cunning, thief and a con man. They say that he uses people for his own end and I should be on a look out for him,

Now according to what I heard from A.B. Patrick Dondonilla. The people I mentioned above are back stabbers, jealous people and gossipers. That I should be careful with them as they are vicious and sinister, they steal information and read emails. These people are vicious son of sons a bitches

MY OBSERVATION

Here is the facts that I had came up with. A.B. Patrick has some form of depression and perhaps has paranoia probably on what he has been through on these past 6 months fighting off the other side, .This has been a terrible environment for him and it wouldn't be good for him to stay here at cape tallin than any longer than necessary as its putting him on a lot of psychological stress .

For the others I did observe that these people talk a lot on somebody else's back , and some of them go as far as eve's drop on other peoples email accounts and read their emails. Privacy and confidentiality is a serious problem here as confidential information may be leaked and these people invade other peoples privacy. On my case I was shocked in horror one day when a person told me that my emails have been invaded and some or most probably all of my private conversations with A.B. "Patrick" , "Nick betts" and my younger sister via email may have been read. This is a serious threat on security . I'm not exactly sure how much information has been stolen on my end , but what I do know is that somebody or all of them have been gossiping about my emails.

To counter this , I delete and never leave emails on my inbox and change my password so that no one will ever get to read them. Plus as an added security to counter the ever threat of people getting information, I keep my cabin always locked and sensitive files to have a password. As what "Patrick" have mentioned to me I should keep it locked and other electronic devices to be fully secured , Confidential information falling into the wrong hands is a serious problem and can (and will) be used against me here. Based on what "Patrick" said I should be careful with O.S. Hall as he has the technical means and capacity to invade and steal information on electronic devices. A.B. "Ronald" pose no serious threat on the electronic devices and email as he does not have enough knowledge when it comes to computers , however he does have a hazard on the work place harassing people and barging into someone else cabin and looking for information. Aside from that "Patrick" told me that I should be on a look out also on 3rd mate Corales as he is also a gossiper and backstabber , he apparently eve's drop on calls in the satellite phone and probably also on the email messages and has the access to some cabin keys as well.

ANALYSIS AND CONCLUSION

On what I think about A.B. "Patrick" , He is not wicked as what they portray him to be - as a matter of fact I find him to be exactly the opposite of what they describe him , I had observed them for quiet a while and believe it or not I think "Patrick" is right and says the truth. I have no idea why people brand him to be such and I had to play "Double Agent" to find out the truth.

Personally I find "Patrick's" claims to be true and that I'm following my conscience, He's the good guy here and they are the bad guys.  That’s why I'm siding with him , because I knew how it feels to be misinterpreted and be maltreated during my earlier time in stolt strength, I think its not right that’s he's being treated this way by the crew. Patrick's enemies taught they could manipulate me , but it is them whom I manipulated. They got a lot to answer for to "Patrick" and they knew they had it coming on them.

 For me my role here is to come to "Patrick's" aid and provide some information on what the enemy thinks about him, and judging from the huge numbers of enemies "Patrick" has here onboard - he's going to need all the help he could get to counter it. Despite playing "Double Agent" , I'm officially siding with "Patrick" . Why ? Because I knew from the start that "Patrick" is the good guy and that all the accusations that was pointed out against him has no evidence - whatsoever. I made an investigation to both sides and reviewed the situation and made a conclusion that "Patrick" is telling the truth.

THINGS TO LOOK OUT FOR

This is the information I got from "Patrick" on the enemies behavior or at least how the people move here.

Senior Officers , The Soviets (Captain, Chief Mate, Chief Engineer, 2nd Engineer, Electrician) has been good ones and believe it or not they're ok to get along with compared to Filipino's

2nd Officer Renan Oveda Olis - Some people onboard might find an impression that this is a quiet "silent" guy , Do not be fooled as this bastard has some serious attitude problem deep inside. One indication is that his manners in talking on the radio are crude and ill mannered.

 3rd Mate German Jr. Tan Corales - according from "Patrick" this person has terrible insecurity issues and always get jealous if other people has "Better stuff than his" . He's good in work but beyond that he's poison. On what "Patrick" told me his main tactic is to get and gain peoples trust before backstabbing them, One vicious monster as what he said. He said also that he suspects him for eve's dropping on phone calls and even accessing personal emails onboard without your permission, aside from that he added that he even access people's cabin and shouts on people during mooring operations.

Pump Man Nilo Pastrana - Based on the info, He's a bit cocky and arrogant and whenever you get to chat at him he always shouts at you even on normal conversations, from what I heard also is that he's also a gossiper. On one incident in morocco he shouted at me ( see "discharge operation in mohamedia morocco" blog entry, last week of june 2013) and broadcasted to the entire crew that I dropped onboard a rope.

A.B. Ronald Caldona - Based on what info that was relayed on me, he always thinks he is better than other people and even ridicules them. Has a nasty habit of "cheating on work" and the worst part he even blames the other person for the mistakes he's directly responsible with,

O.S. Xerxes Hall - Based on A.B. "Patrick" , He says that this person has a nasty habit of spreading rumors and gossips to people and definitely cannot be trusted with confidential information, Patrick says that he has a big mouth. On my personal experience he read my confidential emails when I forgot to delete it (or log off) and one day spread the news to the whole crew mess BEHIND MY BACK !!!.

Chief Cook Roberto Cervantes Peneranda - based on the info I got although he looks harmless and not much of a threat , He is not what appears to be. As he gossips and backstabs people on other their back and spreads negative rumors about a person. He  even "broadcast" to other people that this person has a debt on him that needs to be paid , not the kind of person whom you can entrust with confidential info and lending on money.

Bosun Zacarias Amican - based on information and info , although this cock arrogant bastard is less of a gossiper and a backstabber it doesn't mean he's not a threat at all. A lot of people are complaining about him about he's cruelness and depriving treatment by hoarding off working supplies and refusing people have a "coffee break"  on time and putting them to work early - as in very early. Worst part is that he says a lot of insults to people as if like they haven't done anything right. He even proclaims that he's more superior to the chief mate, Points out to himself as a "master" of everything - He's not the "master", Just another asshole on this ship (and the Philippine Maritime Sector)

CODED COMMUNICATION

As to any confidential conversation between me and my friend A.B. "Patrick" we devised nicknames for our enemies here, So that just incase someone might accidentally (or even intentionally) eve's drop on our conversation ,they'd have basically no idea who we are talking about. Here are the nick names

Bastardo  (refers to Renan Oveda Olis, spanish word meaning bastard)

Taratitat (refers to Xerxes Hall, It’s a talkative bird similar to a parrot)

Hunyango (refers to German Tan Corales, it’s a tagalog word for chameleon)

King kong (refers to Roberto Cervantes Peneranda, nicknamed for a popular monkey)

P.B. (refers to Zacarias Amican, its a short term for Palakang Bato - a tagalog word for Bull frog) 

October 03, 2013 Thursday GHOST OF TRANSCOM

Three new crews that replaced the one's that disembarked have started their first day on work. The new chief cook seems to be fairly young for an average cook , So young that if compared to my youthful look , I would look more haggard in appearance. The new cook looks more like some college kid wearing kitchen aprons. While the new O.S. that replaced O.S. Hall, he looks more mature for his age. Now for the new A.B. that replaced my best friend A.B. "Patrick" , hmmm I don’t know but I had a bad feeling about him for some reason. I have no proof whatsoever nor any evidence and my impression is just plainly base on instinct - My impression (and his aura) with him is somewhat similar to that of the infamous former crew Pump Man N. Pastrana. Although I had a bad feeling about him, for now I could say that I haven't made up my mind and haven't have any conclusions with him - not yet.

As me and my best friend A.B. Patrick once said "Once a bastard will always be a bastard" . No matter how much a person says that he has "changed for the better" expect in the end , that it only changes for the worst, Bastardness can only be hidden or be made far worst but it never goes away. For this three new comers , I could give them at least a month or two before their "true colors" shows up.

Somehow I have this feeling of mistrust and suspicion over them for no apparent reason - maybe because all of these years in being a sailor taught me to be very mindful to my fellow Filipino's especially sailors. For now my reaction to them is the "Cold treatment" , I don’t talk to them unless its absolutely necessary. yes it’s a bit snobbish and elitist in general but I have to enforce the idea to these people the "Don't-fuck-with-me" concept and the "Touch-me-and-your-dead" composure, after all I'm not sure what horrors are they capable of.

Anyway this matter should not trouble me as I have still other things to write about.

On work, for the moment I am currently chipping rust off from the fire isolation valve with just only a chipping hammer and a scrapper. Seriously working with this stone age tool in removing rust is not enjoyable, Supposedly there were two jet chisels around here but regrettably one of those jet chisels broke down last Tuesday and is beyond repair. Its barrel was totally split into two as I saw when it was opened up in the workshop. It took me at least a few hours to finish a single valve in chipping instead of at least 30 to 45 minutes with a jet chisel and worst part was that there are a lot of rough edges using only those tools .

After the Chipping of rust, I proceed to the usual procedure of painting the valves with red primer coat paint on the surfaces and after a few hours the second coat of paint. Other crew members here also are sadly using the same old primitives tool and  not the jet chisel due to the lack of equipment.

While I was painting one of those Fire Isolation valves with primer, the new A.B. who was working on the other side (the fire wire winches) asked if I had movies on my hard drive. I lied and said that I don’t have much, he asked again and said if I had movies on my computer and I replied there is none on my computer. (and technically I don’t have movies on my computer since its on my external hard drive)

It's mean not to share knowledge to other people but I have to carefully remember things me and Patrick have discussed about life onboard, that people here are not good natured and the only thing that they approach someone is they needed something, afterwards once you have outlived the usefulness - they're going to stab you in the back and that I don’t want to happen to myself. Cruel as it may but I have my reasons to not share my knowledge and stuff to other people.

In other matters related to work, for some reason Mr. Bull frog here (BOSUN AMICAN) ordered me to rush the job in painting the fire isolation valves. For some reason the bastard told me to get straight away to the "Final Coating" after the primer paint, In other words the coat paint on those valves are only two instead of the standard three coats of paint (primer, 2nd coat and final coat). I have no idea why Bull frog puts a nasty habit of dumping a lot of work on people and then rushing those job orders resulting to sub standard results on work. Honestly I often times wonder how this bastard AMICAN ever got promoted to BOSUN anyway, Heck he's not doing a good job on handling work and people !

On the crew mess the cash advance form was brought up and is now open, I immediately signed up to it and wrote down 700 U.S. dollars, I badly needed hard cash here onboard as money is very scarce on this company. Obviously the money I'm requesting is for the computer I'd be buying. I do hope that my cash advance request will be granted onboard so I can finally buy that computer.

At night, I received an SMS message coming from my best friend "patrick" its say that everything is ok with him and his wife and they met on the airport. He said in the SMS message also that he's going to report back to career ship management office and claim his final wages. I tried to call him on his cell phone using the iridium satellite phone from the bridge to see how his travel on the plane went on and if he confronted those bastards (OS Hall, 3rd mate corales and chief cook peneranda) about their ill treatment towards him and at the same time greet him to see how's he doing over there, Unfortunately it seems that "Patrick's" cell phone couldn't be reached at the moment - maybe I'd try on a latter time.

Since I couldn't reach "Patrick", I decided to call the folks on my house and see how are they doing. I called mom and dad to see how's life is going there, well from what I heard dad's bike got stolen when he went out to buy a lottery ticket. Another thing I found out is big brother's remittance money haven't arrived yet (typical stuff), and my cousin "Mac" is always leaves the house leaving only mom and dad at the house. Another news I found out is that my "Kitty" ( my younger sister) will be leaving his managerial post on Sea Oil company by this October, apparently from what I heard the reason is due to her bitchy boss in the company (oh well shit happens and I think it’s a right decision that kitty should leave the company if her boss is such a bastard).

Last info I got from the house is quite puzzling , its from my former company - TRANSCOM.  Apparently from what I heard from my mom over the phone someone dropped off the house and checked out my status there, My mom describes the person as a tall man in formal clothes and with glasses . Mom said that he was asking about my whereabouts and why I'm not showing at the office, he claims to be my manager at transcom , Mom told them that I already resigned from my job as a telephone operator, The man left a calling card before leaving the house.

I suspect that the man who visited the house was my former T.L. and boss , J.R. but I don’t give a shit whoever he is, The thing that puzzles me is why this person visited the house. For all I knew I had been off in Transcom for more than three months during that time and its highly unlikely someone would even go thru the trouble of contacting me and in the call center environment, chances are I had already been considered A.W.O.L. at that time. I doubt that this person just went all the way in finding my house just say a friendly face and have small talk, and what I think is that it has something to do with my blog (this website) or something else. Could it be the company property I haven't returned yet ???

October 04 2013 Friday THE REPLACEMENTS

At the moment, I am still customizing and modifying the white coveralls A.B. "Patrick" left me before he disembarked. My plan to modify was put some extra pockets at both the sides of the sleeves and put up a kneepads on it for work, I am rushing the modification of it since my current yellow coverall I use for work might give way anytime soon.

For the moment the berthing schedule of October 06 is cancelled yet again and moved far back at October 9th, So it means that the crew and I will be enjoying another Saturdays as half day work and Sundays as off work.

On work while me and A.B. Homer was transferring back the fire wire back to its dedicated winches from the dedicated Spring line winch. Homer was saying a rumor that 2nd Engineer Ards might return to this ship, while Chief mate Gotcha will not return at all. According to what homer saw on some memo, he only saw the name Mr. ards as replacement for the 2nd engineer and for the chief mate he never saw Mr. Gotcha. , implying that the chief mate will be a new guy. Of course this is just rumors - it might or may not happen at all, On the other hand I'm happy that Mr. Ards will be returning onboard (Assumption only) since he's such a nice guy, and relived that Mr. Gotcha will not  be returning anymore considering that this guy finds pleasure in dumping the crew with a lot of job orders, and making us work a lot till we get exhausted. If I recall correct he made us work starting 8am sharp till exactly 6pm.

After finishing putting back the steel wires and greasing them, the next job order I was put up by "Mr. Bull Frog" was to mop the whole entire forecastle part and aft area with a bleaching chemical known as oxy acid, work wasn't really that hard - the problem was that the heat from the weather here is making it difficult for me to stay long out in the sun, and after the whole day working under the sun I got badly exhausted and dizzy.

On Dinner I saw a memo at the crew mess and mess man f. penera told me that it was a petition to the DPA (designated person ashore) about this ships situation on the provisions and that I have to sign in to the petition to persuade the CSM management to send in provisions (the whole crew should also sign it by the way). According to the petition that I had ready is that this ship is seriously dangerously low on food and water. Based on the facts - Here is what I read

1.Ship's drinking water supplies and liquids have already been depleted ( for short no more mineral water, no more alcohol, no more soft drinks and even energy drinks of any kind)

2.Solid foods like vegetables, dairy products have already been gone also and all that is left are a handful of spices and meat, a few loaves of bread.

3.Even none provisions related material and equipment like deck stores and stuff are badly needed, or have been long gone or used up.

Anyway I missed the idea of ordering a pack of soda's, energy drinks and foodstuff at the bond store, heck from what I recall recently even the supply of chocolates have already been depleted, the amusing thing here is that we have a lot of cash (thought not physical hard cash but more like "points" on some piece of paper) and yet we couldn't purchase anything at all because there's no supply at the bond store . I'm not saying that CSM is starving us out but they haven't given us provision supplies for a long time now that all of the crew here are starting to worry about it. For the record I think its roughly at least three months since there have been any provisions here and the last provisioning was still way back in Morocco.

The Following day….

The night job order to clean and wax the floors of deck A, B and C were cancelled due to the lack of material needed to do the job (namely the wax component) , So as a result me and the new O.S. just went on the usual schedule of work on Saturdays and cleaned the floors inside the accommodation as usual.

On my observations

It seems that the new O.S. and Mess man Penera have some sort of very minor disagreement. The new O.S. says that the Mess man is mischievous and the same thing goes as well in Mess man saying a comment about the new O.S. . For the new A.B. I didn’t him hovering around and knocking my cabin door every now and then asking for something and even looking inside my cabin. I'm very suspicious on this new A.B's motive's and plainly don’t trust him - What I think is that he might rip me off and steal my stuff.

Just for the record, Both of them are asking if I have some movies on my hard drive (specifically porn movies). The A.B. asked if he could have the space on my locker (I have two lockers by the way) I told to him that he could have it since I don’t use the lockers anymore.

I just didn’t like the idea someone going in and out of my cabin or even looking at it and see's what stuff I have inside, - I consider my cabin a private territory and I don’t want people barging inside it without my permission as I have a lot of equipment here inside my cabin that should be kept secret and be well guarded away from the people on this ship, because chances are people here will eventually take advantage and rip me off of any usable equipment. Call it greedy but I don’t share my stuff to other people onboard - not to these kind of people. By the way since they had already barged into my cabin , they already found out that I had a tablet and a hard drive.

In other news….

Got a nasty comment from Pump man Liscano while I was eating dinner on Saturday. Bastard didn’t even considered approaching me later after dinner, anyway he said something about me jumping in the laundry cue and said that there is a cue line that needs to be followed. Don’t give a shit on what he says and what the hell does he mean cue ??? Well in the first place he should have guarded his laundry first and didn’t left it laying around inside the washing machine for more than half an hour.

On Sundays I just slept for the whole day and went to the gym for my routine exercises plus made another modification on the replacement coveralls I'd be using after the berthing ops here in Nederland, Texas U.S.A.  

October 08, 2013 Tuesday BREAKING INACTIVITY

October 08, 2013 Tuesday, Nederland's Texas U.S.A.

Position 29 degrees 25.171 minutes north , 93 degrees 37.937 minutes West

"I like your attire, you look like cowboy" ( Russian Chief mate Sergey Nagornyy after seeing me wearing my working the gear in the CCR).

Finally after a near 2 months of anchorage on Texas, U.S.A. this boat is finally going to dock, and its about time - given that this ship is already dangerously low on provisions and other stuff as well.

"Bull Frog AMICAN" gave me a short notice yesterday that this ship will be arriving and a pilot coming at about 1330 HRS (1:30 pm) and that I still have to go to work at about 10am to do some final task like disposal of food waste and garbage before heaving up the anchor at estimated time to be noon. If I heard correctly channeling (travel, and transit time to designated port) will be about 5 hours.

The pilot came in exactly as expected and as soon as this ship proceeded on the channeling part after the anchor was heaved, we disposed all of the food waste and dumped it at sea . Soon afterwards the trash disposal ,me and O.S. Jermonick (the new O.S. that replaced O.S. hall) were put to the task of moving the heavy life rafts on the port side to the starboard side. The life rafts were too heavy unfortunately and had to ask for help on Mess man Penera in lifting it to the starboard side. To my dismay the lazy prick declined in helping us out and made excuses that he just had a meal.

"Bastard son of a bitch !!!, dreams of becoming an O.S. one day and yet he can't do the job on what an O.S. is supposed to do in the first place. - No wonder he's been a mess man for 8 years and never received a promotion, and as a matter of fact his promotion for this ship has been turned down as well" I said to myself.

It took four people to transfer those heavy life rafts to the starboard side and had to wake up A.B. Mallorca and A.B. Briones (A.B. that replaced P. dondonilla). After the task, Both me and O.S. Del Monte (O.S. that replaced Xerxes Hall) went to the forward part on the ship along with the BOSUN, and went on standby for the next 5 to 6 hours while in channel. O.S. Del Monte just laid in the mooring ropes as it was like just a bed, while I just sat on those ropes. While waiting and on standby, O.S. Del Monte said a little monkey chat about his background . From what I heard on his story , he's a newly promoted O.S. just like me and that during deck cadet years he spent working 14 months onboard a ship that mostly deals with bunker refueling to other ships, and mostly is based in Fujairah - somewhere in the middle east. Their crew based on his description totals to about 32 crew members onboard a ship - far more numerous than this ship or anything I had heard of so far on any cargo tanker ships. Based on the way he speaks and his accent in tagalog, I could hint that O.S. Del Monte is somewhere in central Luzon area , probably in batangas, Pampanga or even zambales ilongapo area.

Anyway I didn't pay attention much to his story and just remembered the basic info, and as if I care about his background anyway , I'm not interested about it. This may sound rude to other people but I'm just being practical, I'd save the introductions and formalities later because chances are - after 5 months he's just going to be a name I knew of in Cape Tallin - nothing more. 

At about near midnight, the ship went to berth and the mooring arrangement was 3, 2, 3. Meaning three headlines , two spring lines and 3 breast lines. The mooring operations went smoothly as usual and the only problem in the mooring ops is that "Bull Frog" AMICAN can't simply shut up his mouth in criticizing 3rd Mate Byron Peter Fourie , saying his not that skilled when it comes to mooring ops.

Bastard "Bull Frog" can't simply shut his mouth up and it’s a good thing that 3rd Mate Byron couldn't understand tagalog language or else I'm sure that Byron is going to smack BOSUN ass for being obnoxious. I'm defending Byron over this matter and compared to his predecessor 3rd Mate G. Corales (another ill mannered person like BOSUN AMICAN) , Byron is better if not best and different. Byron doesn't shout and treats people with respect especially in mooring ops - something that AMICAN and Corales will never have, - respect to other people. Oh one more thing about the mooring, Bull frog AMICAN is always a show off and even lectures us two O.S. about chain stoppers thinking that were ignorant about that stuff - ha ! Nice try frog face , and for the record Deck cadet Ulysses Claro already told me about chain stoppers three years earlier. Problem with his lordship BOSUN Z. Amican is his boundless superbia, FUCKING ARROGANT BASTARD !!! .

Immediately soon after the mooring operations and the fire fighting equipment already prepared, Most of the crew went to the accommodation to arrange a few things and prepare for the provisioning and replacement of some safety equipment like fire extinguishers and life rafts along with loading of some chemicals that will be used for tank cleaning ops on the latter. As for the engine crew they were busy on the bunkering procedure for the ship, To make it short everyone is busy doing their own assigned task. Me on the other hand my duties was being a gangway watchman - Had no problem with that and I've been doing this kind of work since I was a deck cadet way back in STOLT ships, and beside's honestly I loved seeing some asshole crewmembers to sweating a lot on the provisions and deck stores - let those cock suckers do all the hard work. 

One thing I'm relieved though is that the provisions have already came, meaning there's now at the very least some food supply, drinks and water for everyone. During the Gangway watch on midnight till 6am in the morning I had worn my long awaited equipment which I had kept in secretly for 5 months now, I gave it a test drive for everyone to see - hell I care about their worthless comments, I had waited long enough to wear this gear and should have worn this long ago.

Most of the crew here were surprise to see me wearing the gear and A.B. Briones asked if he could have some of my gear when I disembarked, I gave a nod that he could have my gear one day.

The Following day…..

Damn nearly got late on my afternoon to night watch (12pm till 6pm) no thanks to my faulty alarm clock, it’s a good thing that my laptop has an alarm clock function and I kept an extra digital watch to keep the time check, another thing that I'm thankful is that the person I'm going to relieve for work is the new O.S. and not the old bastard O.S. Xerxes Hall . I woke up at around 11:45am barely 15 minutes to start work, Hurriedly got on with my coveralls and went to the deck area.

Things are pretty much quiet on my working shift the only thing I could tell was Electrician Obertynskyy, 2nd Engineer Vakhrushev , Enginer Fitter Sano went on a shore leave but a few minutes latter aborted it and went back , probably because no one called an agent to fetch them.

I went to the CCR on a later time to change my radio battery and when I came Chief mate Nagornyy saw my attire and made a comment that he liked my coverall uniforms this time - saying that I looked more like a cow boy because the gear I'm wearing looked more like a side arm than a tool box.

Another thing was that there was a COW / IGS washing that took over on the latter at around 2pm till 4pm , probably to wash off the remaining cargo that was left on the tanks. BOSUN AMICAN, A.B. "Bryan" and 2nd Officer OLIS was the one conducting the COW / IGS washing and operates those butter wash machines.

Despite being physically tired and need some rest, I still went to the gym at night and rigorously made some exercises just to keep me fit. Honestly I need this kind of work out and adhere to the schedules as much as possible.

The next day early morning …. October 10, 2013

The early morning shift was pretty much ok, although A.B. Briones made a mistake in telling me that the unloading cargo was already finished and this ship is just waiting for the pilot to came in to cast off - well in reality this ship was still discharging cargo and pilot will arrive later at around early afternoon.

Late around my early morning shift A.B. Mallorca said something that annoyed me, he said that Pump man liscano told him that I always look on to my digital watch for some reason. I replied with a feisty manner,

"So what's the issue with me looking on to my watch ? They got a problem with it ??! " I said to homer. To my surprise homer quickly retracted his words and said that I shouldn't mind them . At exactly 6am I finished my working shift.

At about 11am I was awaken by the noise knocking to my cabin door and when I opened it, I saw Homer and said that BOSUN AMICAN needs my help in loading all the fire extinguishers and chemicals onboard. I acknowledged and closed my cabin door and hurriedly got dressed again on my coveralls.

"What ?? the Bull frog needs my help ? I find that hard to believe that a cocky amphibian like him ever needs my help in the deck store supplies" I said to myself while I was dressing up. When I went there it was in the middle of the loading process and they were using the loading crane to put up all the deck store supplies and chemicals. From what I saw the fire extinguishers came in first then followed by the life rafts, then the "sea clean plus" chemical which I think amounted to 32 drums alls in all. Even the engine crew got involved in putting all the deck store supplies onboard, I saw Engine Fitter Sano and the two Oilers Aquino and Rogel helping us out. Shortly after the loading of the said deck store supplies , This ship proceeded to the unmooring ops.

Mooring ops wasn't really that hard to be honest but the problem was that the wire are very heavy when they are being recovered compared to the nylon mooring ropes and putting them back all in good filed up condition is a heavy chore. In this mooring operation I had terrible difficulty in those wires , even if I had already slowly increased my strength from all that gym work , it is still not enough from all the force that should be exerted to have all the wires properly filed up and as a result the port side winch got entangled with wires - as in badly entangled. I'm not to be blamed on it and nobody should be blamed - not even byron (BOSUN AMICAN and OILER Rogel blames him for his inexperience in mooring and unmooring ops) , The wire is just simply freaking heavy and needs at least two people to have it all filed correctly while being recovered. We corrected the entangled wire by simply starting over again and using a thick rope with a metal shackle on the end and "tied" it on the bollard nearby.

While on channeling for the anchorage site I forgot to go to the forward part of the ship and stayed on my cabin repairing the newly refitted white coverall that "Patrick" gave me a few weeks ago, I only went there when I received a radio message from "bull frog" telling me to go there. Anyway I took the opportunity to give the white coverall a little test drive and see how it works out.

After 6pm, I went back again to my cabin and went on a standby, I took the radio with me on my cabin and waited for the time I'd be called back again for the anchorage. It was about close to 10pm when I went outside for the anchorage ops, I did the usual task I always do and operate the anchor winch in dropping the anchor. It was no big deal and just have to remember to switch the winches on first , then "engaged" the winches, followed by unlocking the breakers and last operate the lever to drop the anchor, presto !! . If I recall correct the portside anchors was the one dropped this time. (every ship has two anchors - one per each side on the bow of the ship , portside which means left and starboard side which means right).

October 14, 2013 Monday DISTINCTION BETWEEN US

Cape Tallin at anchorage area, Texas USA

"Having a license in the Philippines does not guarantee being posted to be a ship officer immediately, Most of the time a Filipino sailor gets to spend literary years as an O.S. or A.B. before being posted as a 3rd mate and in some cases - sailors do not get to be posted at all as third mate"

 - My comment to "Byron" regarding the differences on South African sailors to Filipino Sailors.

Immediately after this ship has arrived in the anchorage area, we were put on maintenance work and the job orders was simply to put all the equipment for the deck store in its proper storage place, It took us the whole day to secure all those equipment that were brought in.

My job order (nautical term for work) on that day was to return all the fire extinguishers to its proper places - sounds easy but unluckily I had to putt all of them on the different areas of the whole ship, including fire extinguishers that are located on the forward part and engine room. Had to return all 80 of those fire extinguishers to its proper places. Although the task is semi difficult , I took the opportunity to take some pictures as well on that task and see every nook and cranny of this ship.

During lunch, I was relieved to hear that water rations have now resumed to normal and that each crew can get a pack of mineral water per week ( 1 pack is equal to 12 bottles and each bottle contains a liter of water) for free, I Surely did miss the mineral water for two months and I hurriedly got my pack of water in the galley.

October 12, 2013 Saturday

Since its Saturday , its expected that work is only for half the day. I only did two job orders here on this day. One is I helped out pump man liscano in cleaning up the pump room which involves taking out the water and scooping up some dripping oils on those pipes , and of course I had to haul off all the equipment and trash from the bottom of the pump room all the way up to the upper deck level using a wooden derricks, good thing those gym works out did pay off and pulling those ropes was no big deal.

2nd work I did after finishing the pump room chore was to wash the whole deck area, and free it from all the mud and oily sludge stains left behind from the previous unmooring operations. Strangely enough, I find it odd that this ship ran out of its supply of rags and that I saw O.S. Del Monte and A.B. Briones ripping off bed sheet to make use of it as rags. Seriously I find it odd that C.S.M. - A large company that has office throughout Europe and in the Philippines, with all its so called malevolence has forgotten to supply this ship with rags - Well what I do think is that did it forgot or never supplied it at all? , let others figure it all out whether CSM is a neglectful and depriving company.

Anyway going back, after all the spare bed sheets have been torn apart and used as rags, Me, O.S. Del Monte and A.B. Briones went to the forward part of the ship and wiped off the grease stains on the deck. We used a chemical called "Sea Clean" (main ingredient is Naptha) to wipe off those oily stains using only rags and we had used chemical gloves so that our bare hands wont get into contact with the chemical, We could have used a mop which is much more safer than having a chemical gloves but from what I heard from O.S. Del Monte , "Bull Frog" BOSUN Amican forbade them to use the mop. What the hell !!! That fucking cocksucker , I should have known that it was his doing to risk the safety of these guys in handling chemicals such as Naptha. It easier said for him ordering people around without even thinking of the word "Safety First" because its not his hands that would get into contact with Naptha. Aside from that its more of a chore doing the work without the mop.

During the washing of the deck area, there is a minor incident which BOSUN AMICAN shouted at me in front of the two new guys (O.S. Del Monte and A.B. Briones), He said in a shouting manner "Oi di mo ba nakikita yung dumi sa harapan mo" (translation from tagalog " ei don’t you see the dirty under you" ). Of course I could not let this insult pass by and replied in a shouting feisty manner "Oo nakikita ko !!! " (translation : "Yeah I see it !! ") , My tone was very harsh and enough for him to send the message on his brain the meaning "don’t fuck with me !!" - and the best part I showed him I'm defiant on his cheap scare tactics and right in front of the two new guys as well. This may sound not socially acceptable but intimidation plays a big role onboard any ship as far as I knew.

The rest of the afternoon till the following day , was spent me rest, sleeping and modifying my equipment and coveralls - I watched the movie "Avengers" and "Thor" on Sunday. "Avengers" was a good movie but for "Thor" seems to fell kind of short on the movie plot - it was more like a family drama with superpowers involved.

October 14, 2013 Monday.

Cant believe that one and a half rest day is finally over again and yet again I'm back to maintenance work. In spite this I'm very much happy that to the very least this ship has a rest day which if compared to other CSM ships out there - do not have Sundays as rest day (doing work starting from sundays to saturdays - i.e. no rest day at all).

On work , in the early morning I was helping out Pumpman Liscano in changing the bilges valve, afterwards in the latter part of the morning till early afternoon I was putting grease on those flood damper wire both in the port and starboard side of the pump room. Last part on the work was that the whole deck crew was at work putting the huge human size spool piece to the IG connection at the manifold area. I was the one assisting them in giving all the tools (impact wrench, spanners, wrenches etc) and collecting the bolts and nuts of the spool piece.

By the way since the spool piece is huge, heavy and human size - we had to use the cargo crane in lifting it up to the manifold area. After the spool was properly connect to the IG line , I was ordered to remove all the canvass coverings off on the butter wash machines in preparation for the upcoming tank cleaning for tomorrow.

Late at night, decided to drop by at the bridge and use the Iridium satellite phone to check the folks back home, To my dismay I cant contact the people at the house and despite it rang numerously - nobody answered the phone. After the phone call, me and "Byron" had an interesting conversation. We discussed between the difference of the Philippine maritime education and the south African maritime education, based on our discussion there is a very huge differences in the maritime educational system. One fact is that south African maritime curriculum is way much easier and shorter compared to the Philippine counterpart. In South Africa this so called maritime education can be finished as little as only a year and another year going onboard, which in total there is only two years of education to be a ship officer , and the big difference as well is the work practice which once a sailor (south african) get a license he/ she gets only to spend at least a month as A.B. before becoming a 3rd mate - only a month as A.B. , just like "byron's" case which I witness first hand here.  I told "byron" in the Philippines , things are much complicated due to the stiff competition and numerous numbers of Filipino sailors  - having a license in the Philippines does not guarantee being posted to be a ship officer immediately, Most of the time a Filipino sailor gets to spend literary years as an O.S. or A.B. before being posted as a 3rd mate and in some cases - sailors do not get to be posted at all as third mate. I added on the conversation that the actual number of Filipino sailors is close to somewhere between 900 thousand and the overall number of active Filipino sailors is just around 200 thousand. In other words I told byron that if we do the math it means that as much as 700 thousand sailors are inactive resulting to stiff competition amongst fellow Filipino's - not enough space for everyone to be accommodated. 

October 15, 2013 Tuesday ROAD TO ST.ROSE

October 15, 2013 Tuesday Id-ul-Adha

Work was still basically the same on these few days, still the usual maintenance work and such like chipping off rust, grinding plastic garbage on the trash compactor , making stencils etc. For now there is a rumor that this ship's next voyage could be somewhere deep within the Mediterranean, either could be Libya, Syria, Israel or perhaps Lebanon. What is certain is that this ship will load cargo in the U.S. , its confirmed based on what I heard from "Byron" that it will be in St. Rose Louisiana for the loading.     

In other news….

"Bull frog" seems to cant keep his mouth shout and since he can't confront me directly as what he did before, he tries to result to back stabbing techniques - ha ! As if that is going to work on me , DUH !!!! , Of course I'm referring to what happened earlier this morning at about roughly 10am. It was already time for coffee break and since nobody  want to go in first inside the accommodation since its already time, I decided to myself why the hell should I wait for them and went inside the accommodation, then I suddenly remembered that I left my gloves outside so I went back out, I was at the door and overheard the conversation. From what I heard I'm certain that it was BOSUN AMICAN voice I'm hearing and he's talking to someone saying that this O.S. (He's referring to me) is one of a kind and leaves on work early without asking permission, blah blah all that negative stuff. I overheard everything he's saying, But I'm undaunted on this and hell fuck I don’t give a shit on his comments - as if he can do anything about it, besides its about time I show disrespect to this person after all the insults I endured on him - all he can do is back talk and cant confront me directly, as if he's going to stand a chance, ha !

My Friend A.B. "Dondonilla" once told me that back talking is a cowards way of fighting, and the person who does this doesn’t have the courage to face reality. I'm not surprise that this old fossil acts like that

October 17, 2013 Thursday

When on to the usual maintenance work, but to be honest there isn't anything to do much on work. I was literary roaming around the ship doing nothing and looking for anything that I might work on. The only maintenance work that I had don’t worth while is the wash paint of the forecastle entrance (Bosun's Store entrance) and that’s about it - nothing more.

Late in the evening , This ship had another fire drill and Abandon ship drill. The fire drill was pretty much a work in the park and that as long as I do my muster station duties then I'd be fine on it. By the way for the information of the public my muster station duties on a fire drill is to close all ventilation vents on the port side then afterwards grab a fire extinguisher and bring it along on the site of the fire.

After the Drill, Chief mate Sergey Nagornyy , held a small crew discussion at the gymnasium. He told us that on Friday we will be arriving at Louisiana and that work on that day is considered a half day. He added by 7pm tomorrow this ship will proceed on the pilot anchorage area to fetch up the pilot for the 12 hour long channeling to the Mississippi river. He dismissed the meeting within just only 10 minutes. At lunch I was surprised that there was two bottles of beer and a can of coca cola on my table, I later found out that it was Electrician Andriy Obertynskyy birthday today and he had treated the whole crew with beers and soft drinks - real generous guy

At night , about 7pm O.S. Del Monte came knocking to my door and said that "Its Time" , what he meant was that its time for us to go to the forecastle of the ship, operate the machinery to heave up the anchor.  Its night time and I hurriedly got dressed up for it, putted on my white coveralls , head scarf and my safety helmet (which is now equip with a light appliance that looks more like a night vision goggles) and went to the forward part of the ship.  Heaving up the anchor was very basic and that I'm very much  familiar on how to operate the machinery winches - it was a piece of cake.

After the heaving of anchors, I went to the CCR to check out my emails and was surprised that a friend of mine "C.Pabalay" emailed me. Its been a long time since I was in touch and that the last I made communications was before I went onboard on this ship. Glad that friends are always in touch with me even if its just bare bone emails.

October 18, 2013 Friday.

Morning went on with the usual work, this time though were off in throwing the food waste garbage at sea. Not an easy and very smelly task I must say. One thing that I hated on this days work was that the "liquid part" of the food waste slammed on my face and I had to gag a few times because of the awful smell , Fortunately I quickly washed my face on a nearby fresh water outlet though my face still has somewhat having a "Burnt" sensation, probably because of the enormous amount of bacteria on that liquid.

At afternoon, the washing machine was open and decided to take the opportunity in washing all the working clothes and personal clothes with it. I found a nice place to dry my washed clothes (and coveralls) and believe it or not I found it on the most unlikely of places here onboard the ship - its inside the engine casing. Why the engine casing ??? Well very simple its very hot and warm there , the temperatures that the engine casing emit are hot enough to dry wet clothes plus inside it there's a constant circulation of hot air around. If my memory serves me correct the temperature there typically is somewhat close to 37 degree's Celsius to as high as about 42 degree's Celsius. More then enough to dry my clothes in just as about an hour or two. Aside from that the place is hot enough that nobody goes there.

Early night time while I was watching "Real Steel" movie ( starring dakota goyo) , I heard someone knocking on my cabin door and when I opened it , Messman F. Penera was in front.  I asked him what's the reason why he's knocking, he says that the authority over handling the bond store is now mine and 3rd  mate "Byron" has agreed that I'd be handling the slop chest.

Wasn't smiling when I heard this given the fact that I'm not interested in handling it at all, as a matter of fact when I first came here onboard I turned down the handling of the slop chest numerous times when it was offered to me by my best friend "A.B. P. Dondonilla" , I reason out that it would be a source of jealousy and greed amongst us Filipino's here and have no intention of being on the middle of it. It was a very good reason enough and even my best friend A.B. P.Dondonilla agreed that its for the better that way that I don’t handle it and let Messman F.Penera took over.

Puzzled on what Messman F.Penera said, I asked him why ? And while we were having a conversation, A.B. H.Mallorca came by and butted to conversation said openly that I shouldn't be allowed to handle the slop chest and let O.S. Del Monte handle it. It added more puzzle to me why Homer said that. Ferdinand told me that I should go to the officers mess room and ask "Byron" about it for full story.

When I came the officers mess, "Byron" told me that I'm capable of the job and that he'd give me a quick tour on it later. He said that handling the bond store has its "perks" and that I'd be benefit in handling it on the long run. He asked me if I can handle the job. Though unwilling and very reluctant in handling the bond store, I decided to accept it anyway given that it was "Byron's" own choosing that I should handle the said store.  He said that he'd give me full details about why I should handle the store and a quick tour guide on how to handle it.

At around 8 in the evening , "Byron" gave me a quick tour on how the bond store works and explained to me privately that the reason why I'm going to be in charge of the said bond store was about the incident that happened yesterday. Apparently from what I heard on "Byron" is that Mess man F.Penera couldn’t be trusted and that he allowed some crew members to purchase beer and have a drinking session. Well he wouldn't mind at all about drinking and purchasing beer, but the problem is that there's a rule here onboard that 24 hours before a ship berths to a terminal , Purchasing for beer and liquid and even smoke is prohibited, until 3rd mate "Byron" or the Chief mate give's a green light over it. Now Messman F.Penera apparently disregarded that rule and as a result when the chief mate learned of it. He was removed from handling the bond store. Now the task of handling the bond store gets dumped on me. Apparently based on what I heard from 3rd mate Byron, white people here (Soviets, South Africans . etc)  have more trust and confidence in me in this matter compared to my other Filipino counterparts.

On the quick tour part, Byron told me that there are two bond stores here onboard. One Bond Store is located at the C deck which is just right in front of the captains cabin door (to be specific its an empty space trunk on that floor) which houses the smokes and liquor the stuff that’s prohibited to sell if a ship is entering and exiting a port within 24 hours. The second bond store is located below the galley which houses then chocolates , soft drinks and other stuff aside from liquor and smokes. This bond store is open 24 /7 and has no restrictions of any kind. "Byron" told me that whenever this ship is entering port and leaving , I must leave at least 3 cans of soft drinks in the bridge's ref and 3 bottles of mineral water on the CCR , plus a pack of soda's in the officer's mess.

After the said tour Messman F.Penera approached me and said that I should dispose a certain beer case (12 bottles in a cardboard box) , From what he told me this is the beer that he gave with on the crew yesterday and as for concealment he filled the empty bottles with water and glued back the bottle caps, to mislead "byron" that all the beer cases are intact and nothing is missing. He told me that specific beer case should be disposed soon. I promptly agreed to dispose the bottles , but back in my mind it gave me a clear evidence on what they were saying against Ferdinand, that it  was true and that Messman F. Penera was involved in numerous and mischievous doings here onboard.

October 19, 2013 Saturday.

Early morning at about 12:30 am, Me, O.S. Del Monte and BOSUN AMICAN was ordered to prepare the pilot ladder, according to the bridge we will use combination ladder (both gangway and pilot ladder to be used) and that the pilot ladder will be dropped 2 meters above the water, never really had a trouble in setting it up and was physcially string now thanks to the continuous work out in the gym, this is also my first time to go down the gangway ladder to tie up and connect both pilot ladder and the gang way ladder, I just wore a life jacket as a precaution and that’s it.  the pilot for the channeling on Mississippi came in by and the a few minutes later channeling started. From what I heard this is a 12 hour long channeling .

By the time this ship is making its way towards the Mississippi, Weather seems to be not agreeing as there is occasional rains and cold breeze every minute or so. Mississippi river now is very different compared to last time I visited the place, before the place was uncomfortably hot and humid - now rainy and bitterly cold. BOSUN AMICAN stayed on the forecastle and took a nap , while me and O.S. Del Monte stayed in the Suez cabin room and standby just incase both of us were needed on the forecastle part.

Around 8am in the morning, I heard on the radio that Captain Valeriy Karasikov is ordering BOSUN AMICAN to standby and prepare to drop anchor within 20 minutes. O.S. Del Monte also heard it on the radio and quickly got up an put on his coveralls , I was at the toilet at that time and quickly got up to go to the forward part of the ship.

The dropping procedure of the anchor was "Gravity type" which meant that we wont be using winches to lower the said anchor and just let go of the anchor brake and let gravity pull the ladder down from the ship. According to the radio both starboard and portside anchors will be let go to properly place the ship on the anchorage area. On dropping the anchor I overshot the length of the dropping anchor by 2 shackles , instead of dropping 5 shackles only, i ended up dropping 7 , but that not bad at all since this was my first time dropping the anchor using gravity type. Everybody makes mistakes on the first try - in due time I'd get to perfect the procedure. By the way the weather was so bad that when this ship dropped anchors, I was soaking wet on my coveralls again by rain and had to dry my coveralls and hang them inside the engine casing. Good thing that the hot humid and circulating air inside was enough to dry my coveralls within 2 short hours.

Based on the info I learned the pilot disembarked and will be back within just after lunch time or until the weather clears up from the heavy fog and rain. It was at about almost 6pm when the pilot came and we immediately resumed to heaving up the anchor, it took us another 6 hours to reach the berthing site. The mooring arrangement from what I heard was 4. 2. 2. - 4 headline , 2 breast lines and 2 spring lines. Since this ship has about 6 steel wires for mooring , Its high likely the breast lines are the loose ropes. During mooring ops there was a bit confusion among us three on which orders to take on the fact that BOSUN AMICAN keeps contradicting 3rd Mate Byron's decisions in the mooring ops. Me, O.S. Del Monte and Oiler Roger is getting confused over whether which one is to be followed.  Worst part , it seems that Oiler Roger keeps mumbling that "Byron" is stupid when it comes to mooring operations and favor more Bosun AMICAN over it. Bastard people !!! Its a good thing "Bryon" doesn't understand tagalog language or else he going to kick both of their asses.

October 20,2013 Sunday Early Morning.

Immediately after the mooring ops , all of the crew were immediately put on their respective work. I was busy on preparing the fire fighting equipment nearby the Manifold area which includes the foam monitors, fire extinguishers, fire hoses and SOPEP drums. As  much as possible I try to stay away from the majority , which i saw that they're still rigging up the gangway ladder. This may sound cruel but I'd like to see how this arrogant cocky crew members fare well in getting the job done in putting up the gangway ladder. To my delight I see them having a difficult time on the gangway ladder. During my working shift i asked A.B. Mallorca if anyone from the crew will go on shore leave and buy something, he replied that there are a lot of people here who want to get out and buy some stuff , he added that they will go on shore leave at about 1pm in the afternoon.

After my working shift of 12midnight to 6am in the morning, I went to the crew mess and see Messman Penera if there someone in the crew that I could ask a favor in buying a laptop for me. He said that I could ask Chief Cook. When I asked Chief Cook, he made a lot of excuses and turned down the favor I'm asking, Dejected . I just went back to my cabin and thought of another plan whom I could ask for a favor, I could only think of one person at that time - It was "byron", the south African British ship officer here onboard. During my sleep , my thoughts circled around that my own countrymen couldn't be trusted and definitely unreliable, and not one single Filipino helped me out  - sarcastically people whom I least expect at all are the one's who took in my favor. The Ukrainian Electrician Andriy Oberstynskyy and South African 3rd mate Byron Peter Fourie took in the errand, they said that I don't have to worry about it and they will personally look over the task. I was very relieved that this people took in the errand i asked , heck this people whom I consider  not even "My own kind" are the one's helping me out compared to "own kind" (Filipino's). Its not a surprise why my own kind will always be definitely inferior to other races out there, Filipino's are simply greedy, jealous and malicious blabber mouth people.

Anyway it was about 1pm, during my watch when they went on for the shore leave, there were ten crew members who went out.

During my afternoon watch, there was some problems I encountered on the gangway ladder - that it sway too far every time there's a swell coming from other ships who are passing by. (Incidentally the docks this ship is berthed at is in just in the middle of Mississippi river, poor dock construction planning - kind of like a hot dog stand sitting right beside a highway , get it ???). The sway from the gangway based on my rough estimation is about more than a meter, enough to cause an alarm on Two A.B's (A.B. Mallorca and A.B. Briones). Fortunately we put on simple remedies for it by simply securing and tie up the gangway ladder on a nearby cargo pipe.

Also during my watch since ,Since I'm now the official "caretaker" of the bond store, A.B. H.Mallorca said to me that he's going to purchase a case of "Fanta" soda and two cases of heineken beer, I said "No Problem, but for the beer ,I think I'm not going to release it yet since were still at port and have to wait until this ship is miles away." He replied that he's not in the hurry for the beers and said that he'd like it to be distributed by Saturday.

After my watch, I was already famished and had to eat dinner. I was gobbling my dinner when Mess man Ferdinand yelped that , shore leaver's have already arrived. Well at least some of the shore leaver's. When i went outside , I saw two of the crew members dragging out a 40 inch flat screen two outside and blabbering that this t.v. Is for the officers mess.

October 21,2013 Monday

Very much happy and content over the new computer I got , and I seriously thank "byron" and electrician Andriy for running an errand for me with this one. So far the specs of this computer are outstanding and miles away from my previous LG laptop when it comes to graphics and games depart. However there is one set back on this HP computer i got - it lacks security and "natural" anti-virus features, in other words its back up systems are inferior when it comes to unforeseen breakdowns and emergencies, once this system crashes , It crashes for good and all the possible data goes along with it.

For work there is still nothing much to report at and that everything is very much the same, i just have to keep my eye on the gangway whenever another ship passes along since it gives a very long swell.

When i was off work, there was a slight tension between A.B. Briones and BOSUN Amican over the similar issue i had on the gangway. Apparently from what i heard BOSUN Amican showed off his rudeness in the A.B. And even refused to help him in adjusting the mooring ropes and took off without saying a word, not to mention he repeatedly shouted at the A.B.

It doesn't surprise me about this incident at all knowing what kind of a bastard is Bosun Zacarias Amican is. I had been around here for 6 months now and i know very well that this bosun is ill mannered and a cock sucking bastard. Anyway i shall maintain my isolation mentality over this and would much prefer going solo , let A.B. Briones and O.S. Del monte deal with it personally. 

October 23,2013 Wednesday

Upon my arrival at 12 am Midnight, I was informed by O.S. Del  Monte and A.B. Briones that pilot will be arriving at 1am and going to the shore side, By the time the pilot arrived, I hurriedly secured the gangway and unleashed all the knots.

30 minutes later, I hurriedly went to my mooring station and went on to the usual unmooring ops. Unmooring ops is much lighter compared to before now that the bastard 3rd mate Corales has been disposed off and "byron" is way better (if not the best) in as a leader on the unmooring ops. I have confidence and trust that byron will someday be a great ship officer around one day . He has the ability of being relax and cool when i comes to mooring and unmooring operations plus he knows how to treat his crew members well. Byron treats us with respect and with dignity and doesn't belittle nor ridicule people.

After the unmooring operations, this ship proceeded immediately on the 12 hour long channeling away from ST. Rose. Me along with O.S. Del Monte and Bosun Amican were  securing the ropes in the middle of the night - for whatever reason i have no idea. O.S. Del Monte is also complaining on that idea and we should have been paying attention about the channeling rather than securing the ropes.

One annoying thing that happened here was "Bastard - O" (2nd officer Renan Olis Oveda) said on the radio that I should drop only the pilot ladder and not the accommodation gangway. Which apparently I mistook as combination ladder, more to my annoyance is the unnecessary comment made by "Bull frog" amican when he assisted us in rigging the pilot ladder. " You can't do simple things right eh ? You can't be trusted on the simplest things" . That fucker simply can't just shut his damn mouth, Honestly if bull frog wasn't just onboard this ship and were at land , I'm going to trash his style along with bastard - o's obnoxiousness.

On the afternoon of October 23rd 2013, this ship went officially out in the Mississippi river and on to the Atlantic Ocean , carrying its cargo of Crude Oil products. Its next destination will be somewhere in the seas of Europe probably in Libya or somewhere off.

October 28, 2013 Monday ALL FOR THE RIGHT REASONS

First day in handling the said bond store, For a start I'm able to perform the task for now without any problems. Of course my first customers are A.B. H.Mallorca, Bosun Amican (unfortunately) and of course myself. Not bad at all eh ? Of course I do remember at all to collect the order forms and check out who's ordering everyday and remember the golden rule that never take out any objects in there without informing 3rd officer byron first.  As a fail safe measure, I also make photocopies of every order for me to compare with in case of any discrepancies that might arise later on, Handling the bond store isn't like a typical 7-11 store so i have to meticulous about everything here since money is involved.

I delivered all the goods just right in front of their door step, I don't bother knocking thru their doors as most of the Filipino crew here are exaggeratedly too finicky - way too finicky compared to a typical Filipino rich guy, Anyway what can i expect from these Visayan savages eh ?? , even the bastard "bull frog" Zacarias Amican didn't even bother to say thank you. Believe it or not, white people (Soviet, South Africans, British) appreciate more of what I'm doing on my job. I never ask anything in return for what I'm doing but its relieving that whites recognize more of my role in work compared to us Filipino's. Filipino's to be honest are better off being servants and slaves rather than be master's , Like the Filipino national hero once said "What is freedom if the slaves of today will become tyrants of tomorrow".  Filipino's sailor here lack the compassion, Probably because of the fact of their background on where they came from. Sadly most of them came from shanty towns and far flung backwater area's like the provinces, and its no surprise that they behave like the people there - Crude, primitive and very ill mannered. In plain tagalog translation "ugaling squatter"

Anyway i should not write more about my woes here...

Most of the orders i saw on the slip are smokes, mostly LM and Marlboro, Color red to be specific. Some smokes are not exactly orders coming from the crew but are reserved for the "representation" stuff (giveaways for short to port authorities like customs etc.)

For the latest news,

Due to security concerns related to my diary (offline one using Microsoft office OneNote) , I had put in a password for it , So that in any case a nasty crew member here decided to open up my computer and access it , they'd be stopped up from reading any diary entries here, Thanks to the natural password protect section of this program. I cannot put my trust in blind fate here onboard knowing that some crew members here might take a look on my computer diary when I'm not around and read it. I had already had enough of the incident were O.S. Del Monte's predecessor O.S. Xerxes Balagso Hall accessed my emails and read my dairy entries there, worst part is that he distributed and discussed this sensitive information at the crew mess behind my back. Accessing someone's private email, taking sensitive information and disseminating it to the public is a very serious crime and as far as I knew it has a severe penalty of going to jail in western countries, unfortunately I'm a filipino and so is xerxes and there is no anti-cybercrime law in the Philippines, so he just basically walks away with it.  

In other news .....

Quiet recently, I had been testing out my brand new HP laptop computer and been playing a multiplayer first person shooter game called "far cry" with some of my co-workers here in the CCR office, I'm testing it to determine how far this can handle computer graphics. For the moment I'm pretty much convince this can handle the workload of complex 3d games.

During the LAN multiplayer game, it was me, messman Ferdinand penera and chief cook Jonathan Lubi Olan and 4th engineer Nino R. Lamsen playing over the LAN wifi connection. The game takes quiet a while to get used to and that its a bit entertaining, In that game I play the role "Rebel" which basically has a flame thrower , or the "saboteur" that has a silencer pistol or a MP5 with silencer (or the basic profile is a dart rifle) . If I'm a melee combatant , My personal choice is the flamer thrower - which is kind of fun seeing my enemies being burned to death

Late at night on Saturday....

Homer mallorca decided to celebrate his birthday (which was postponed last time due to unloading operations at St. Rose Louisiana ) and as part of my duties in handling the bond store released the two beer cases that he order a week ago, Aside from that I released two other beer cases which Oiler Aquino and 3rd engineer Cranz ordered on Mallorca's birthday. When i reported back to byron the said orders , byron was surprised that the crew purchased four cases of beer on a single night and said " I hope they do understand that each crew has a limitation of one beer case until the next provision arrives, each crew is only limited to that"

I replied " I did explained it to them Sir, however they seemed to be not paying attention on what I'm saying" . Byron was definitely not pleased on what he heard, To avoid any unnecessary long chatter , I added "Oh well, don't say we didn't warn them" . Byron replied " Yes, indeed" . I went down and went to the CCR to resume the LAN Game with Messman, Chief Cook and 4th engineer.

As for the gaming session, Playing Far Cry 2 over the LAN was ok , however there is one incident were 4th engineer Nino Lamsen became a sore loser , out of his fits of rage that he keeps being burned to death by my flame thrower. He smashed his mouse with his hand and the batteries came flying out of it. Obviously the three of us were struck with surprise over his anger management issues , probably on the fact that this is just a game - a computer game , nothing more and that it never bothered me if ever i was  on the losing side. In any case , what do we expect from a form of society that is a bit backward compared to the land based jobs ??? Like I said from time and time again , people here onboard the ship think primitive. Don't expect much from them.

On the latter hour of the gaming session. A.B. Mallorca (obviously drunk on the birthday celebration) keeps going in and out of the CCR and bothers us in the gaming, saying stuff like "hey, that's enough - its already late in the hour" , kind of like that bull shit. Quiet annoying to be honest and he should be thankful that he's onboard a ship or else i'd be replying to him , " Fuck off homer ! Its none of your business" .

On the second day of the gaming session, (Sunday) I was pretty much asleep on the whole morning and woke up at around 10am. I was so late in waking up that I never even bothered to do the laundry, - all i do was slept. It was in the afternoon and i was eating lunch , when Messman Ferdinand saw me again and said that there's another gaming session at 1pm. This time though its the a "team death match" and were fighting against the "White's" (meaning 3rd mate, electrician and chiefmate). A much as i hate it and would prefer to sleep , I did went along since I don't want to get in the wrong foot with the ship officer's.

Unfortunately we lost the match on this one ....

In other news .....

There has been some tensions lately between A.B. Bryan and A.B. Jay , I haven't figured it out yet what was the main cause of it but what i do know is that A.B. Jay has not been going along with some of the crew here and that I only knew of the news when A.B. Mallorca apparently gossiped to me late in the afternoon. Frankly the only thing that matters to me is that as long as it doesn't have anything to do with me, I couldn't care less about who or what are the reasons and intentions of the misunderstanding - I don't give a shit on it.  Aside from that the most import reason why I must remain neutral and isolated is that i gave my word from my friend Patrick here that i will stay neutral and isolated until i disembark here, its a promise i will keep.

Some people have been wondering (and asking me) here why i don't hang out in the crew mess during coffee break, I haven't on the fact that i dislike BOSUN Amican and do not want to see his face , I disliked him ever since the incident that happened a few months ago (see journal entry "TO PACIFY THE MONSTER")

and i thinks its better to isolate myself and never mingle with these kind of people , it may sound to other people that this is unsociable, but i guess its better that way .

For the news on work.

As of the moment, while writing this , The whole deck ratings (including me) are busy cleaning the insides of the ballast tank. No. 4 and No. 5 starboard side have already been cleared out and cleaned and Ballast tank no.3 is still under ops of being cleaned. I went down during the cleaning of ballast tank no.5 to assist in cleaning it, I brought along my shovel (plastic type), my helmet (attached with a headlight), radio, canteen filled with water . I brought these along since i do know exactly what are the conditions inside the ballast tank - given on my previous experience during my deck cadet years.

For the knowledge of the general public the conditions inside the ballast tank during cleaning to my best description looks more like working in a coal mine. The area is pitch dark , wet, smelly and full of mud everywhere, expect that if your going to work down there your coveralls will eventually be coated with mud.

On the first day of the ballast cleaning operations, one of the fire hoses that was being used, blew up due to the pressure coming from the fire pumps, worst part was that it blew right in front of my face when I was lowering it to the entrance, spewing water all over the deck. Obviously I was very wet. 3rd mate byron saw the incident as he was inspecting some fire extinguishers nearby the area. The fire hose was nearly ripped into two by the time i shut the fire hydrant. I asked byron on how to remedy the situation, he said that the only thing to repair the said fire hose is to reattach the nozzle to the broken part, It possible but unfortunately the cleaning ops don't have a lot of time for it and that a replacement is needed fast. Its a good thing that Chief mate Sergey allowed to use another fire hydrant hose as a replacement.

After the work , i was informed by byron during dinner time that the slop chest will be giving away a case of soft drink and mineral water for a day as a consideration for us deck crew who are working on the ballast.

On the second day of ballast cleaning ops, were assigned to clean water ballast tank no 5 starboard side, at first i thought i wasn't going to go down there and on the latter found out that me and O.S. Del Monte will be switching roles on work - In other words I'd be the one who will be going down there to clean all that mud inside. When i went down there things didn't went smoothly as it was supposed to and my headlight was malfunctioning on that time , I accidentally dropped my healight and worse part was that one of the batteries fell on the muddy water. To further complicate the situation it was my only light source and when it fell , i was heavily struggling to find it and was blinded by the absences of light. Good thing that A.B. Gave found me and illuminated the spot were I lost the batteries, I found the batteries but was unable to put it back together until in the afternoon. Its a good thing that O.S. Del Monte fixed the said headlight, he said the problem of the headlight was that all the circuitry inside was wet inside and needs simply to be brushed with pressurized air to dry it up (air he got from the local air valve).

After lunch it was totally unexpected that byron had to advance our ship's clock of one hour. Problem was that he advance the clock in the midday and not in night time which was the usual practice on a ship. Despite the sudden advance of clocks we were still able to finish the job without any problems at all.

On the third day of ballast cleaning ops. I was back again as a "Support" guarding the entrance of that ballast manhole. It was an easy job just guarding the hole as a look out, though i wasn't able to stay dry due to the bad weather and that "Byron" had to open the foam monitor and point it on the wrong direction. Nevertheless i wasn't stressed out with this one. There was one incident i could report at that happened on this day and it was between A.B. Jay and O.S. Del Monte, apparently the two had a nasty heated argument inside the ballast tank area, The were obviously shouting and screaming to each other over some issues with comments O.S. Del Monte made to A.B. Jay. A.B. Homer mallorca and I was just simply listening since both of us were at the entrance of the manhole. During Coffee break in the afternoon , things turned on to a more nastier approach between the two, I have no idea on what exactly happened since i was away for a few minutes grabbing a few soda's and some food for the coffee break but when i saw things when i arrived jay and del Monte were already push each other and homer and amican was in the middle trying to clam the two. Anyway I mind my own business and good luck to them, I could care less about it.

Late at night 4th engineer lamsen filled out an order from on the bond store requesting some wine and beer, well not that it matters but the thing here is that he's requesting a huge amount of beer and wine. To be specific 4 cases of beer and 2 bottles of wine . I had to consult third mate byron over this issue since it was in conflict with the rule he imposes about one case of beer per person, per crewmember.

Fourth day of ballast cleaning operations went smoothly, I was better equipped and was using another headlight gear i bought along in Europe (courtesy of sunny euro store) Never had any serious problems with my gear and as a matter of fact it exceeds far more than my expectations. I do admire the gear and stuff that is being sold on the sunny euro store , really good quality of merchandise - definitely the best.

Late at night while i was busy cleaning all my equipment and working clothes , I was invited by Fitter Sano to go to his cabin and have a drink with him. On the chat with him during the drinking session, he shows me the pictures of his wife and kid and the house he bought just recently.

The second part of the conversation we discussed was about A.B. "Patrick" , he asked me if Pat was a friend of mine and what's the deal why he was being treated differently onboard the ship. I told him that "Patrick" is a good friend of mine, It just so happens that he worked at a time were people here onboard were such an assholes, He ended up being branded as a bad guy. I explained to him that "Patrick" is not the bad guy that people say around him , I have no idea why O.S. Hall is such a dick in spreading rumor's against him. "Patrick" helped him get his promotion and unfortunately the debt of gratitude he received was being treated ill.

The third part of the conversation was Fitter is mentioning something about the incident that happened with bosun amican while at anchorage in houston texas (See journal entry titled "TO PACIFY THE MONSTER"), Fitter Sano said that i made the wrong decision in telling the chief mate about my problem with the BOSUN. He said something that i shouldn't have sought a white's help and instead should have asked for the Filipino junior officers help on that matter. To avoid any misunderstandings with fitter, since i disagree on his opinion and i do not simply trust him with sensitive matters like this one. I only replied in a neutral answer to avoid any confrontation with a drunk. "Honestly i don't a shit on what people think on my decision, i acted out as what was the best approach on that matter. I Did what i had to do and if my decision if wrong then i take full responsibility on it , and i alone and no one else had to be blame on that, I cant change it and have to live with it" that's what i said to him , a bit hypocrite answer but I knew well deep inside that my decisions are correct and that Fitter Sano comments are wrong.

I disagree on what he said that I should seek first the help of a Filipino Junior officer on that matter. Hell fuck do i know better that 3rd mate corales (the third mate during that time) can't be trusted on any confidential matter and as far as i knew he's a blabber mouth as well aside from O.S. Hall, as for 2nd officer Renan Olis Oveda (a.k.a. "Bastard - O") I don't talk to asshole's like him and as far as i knew were not in good terms since the incident on Louisiana USA (see entry "ON UNEVEN GROUND"), If I'm going to seek that "Bastard-O's" help , then i might as well hand over my ass in a silver platter. Its very obvious that he's going to be very bias on any decision. Overall I don't have any confidence to any of these "Filipino" junior officers at all and I highly definitely doubt that they will solve anything at all, there us no guarantee that they will be able to solve my problems at all. Aside from that 3rd mates job description is just limited to the safety equipment and navigation only , the same thing goes to the 2nd officer which is limited to med equipments and navigation.  The best and most logical solution in settling disputes on a ship is thru the chief mate - no more no less.

Besides i do know that I am right on my decision to tell my grudge to the chief mate, I have full confidence that my grievances will be treated fairly and be heard., If i haven't spoken with the chief mate about the problem then surely , BOSUN AMICAN's ill abusive treatment to his subordinates will not stop nor curve down a bit and for my situation i cannot just sit by on the sidelines and let him walk away with it. The problem with these bloody fucking visayan's is that they have the guts to start trouble but don't have the ball's to take responsibility on the transgressions they make. They never asked themselves or asked why people hated them, they refuse to accept the responsibility for anything they've done. They decided to play high and mighty, and when their subordinates turned against them. They comfort themselves to their knowledge that it wasn't really their fault, not really. They cannot play god and then wash their hands of the transgressions they made. Sooner or later, the day comes when they can't hide from the things that they've done anymore. That's what happened to BOSUN AMICAN, One day someone is going to whack him down with a chief mate. He should have seen that coming or maybe he was so purely stupid to realize that, Doesn't really matter. I had no regrets on it and as a matter of fact I am proud that i did that - I showed him that I'm no coward.

Me and fitter ended our conversation at around 1am in the morning.....

November 05, 2013 Tuesday HARDWARE MODERNIZATION

My new Hp laptop alongside with my old LG x200 netbook 

Saturdays and Sundays just went on like a snap. Couldn't imagine that rest days would just go by like that. Anyway days seems to be passing quiet fast now that there is no more serious threat aboard this ship, Just got only three months left and it will all be over soon. I am very anxious to get home and have a new start on the next ship, I haven't really though about what will doing next after this ship probably I'd have a long vacation of some sort and re-evaluate my tactics and equipments used on my work here as a sailor.  Anyway there's plenty of time for me to think about it, for now i still got three months of work to do.

I am pretty much happy now that i got two computers, and my latest and most advance one (HP computer) can handle computing and gaming programs with ease. Big questions now is what will i do to my old LG x200 laptop ? I still plan to use it though even after nearly 4 years of loyal service (i bought it way back 2010), as a matter of fact no matter how advance my current laptop is , there is still some programs and aspects that my LG x200 beats (and excels) my HP one - Most notably the security and backup features, My LG can withstand serious break down issues and has a formidable backup recovery systems , My current HP doesn't have one.

Probably I'd be using the old one to accommodate, store private personal files and use it on personal "internet" and email accounts, while my new one will one just be used for my public personal use.

Anyway in regards to work....

For the moment i was worried about the management of the slop chest, probably because some people here think that they could manipulate me easily, namely fitter sano. Heck it doesn't mean that i visited him the other day and had a chat with him , means also that I could trust him, I do know well how Filipino's think here and operate  - they don't have the intellectual capacity most call centre agents have (me and A.B. Patrick) , If they want to manipulate someone then they have to try harder cause it isn't going to work on me - not now , now ever. Why am i saying this ??? Well one good reason , about the Heineken and wine issues, Fitter has already 3 bottles of wine as what i clearly recall (and records shows it), however despite there is no restrictions in ordering wine , this ship has only a limited number of it and that the only one's left are for the soviet people onboard. In other words i can't have fitter take anymore wine's because its already reserved,

It was a right decision that i had reserved the two bottles of wine for the soviets. The captain ordered one recently and out of coincidence, he ordered two bottles.

As for the beer related issues , the bond store has only 5 - 6 cases of beer left. 3 for 3rd mate byron and 2 for the 4th engineer lamsen and another probably again for the soviets or for the Filipino's .

Speaking of which there was two incidents i could report that happened last Sunday, November 03, 2013 about 4th engineers wine. It involves Mess man Ferdinand misallocating 2 bottles of wine, Apparently he never understood what I meant and instead of giving it to the ship officer's - he gave it to the ships crew, for them to drink. Worst part is that he's washing his hands and says that its my fault and not his. Problem with this guy is that he never verified to 4th engineer on what the wine was all about , to me 4th engineer gave me a clear instruction on it , to give it to Ferdinand.

Another incident is the frequent change on the number of available Beer cases for 4th engineer (from 3 beer cases down to 2 ), previously "byron" told me that the available cases for 4th engineer would be 3, however just quiet recently he again changed it to the number 2. The situation could have been easily resolved however the problem is that I had already given up one of the disputed beer cases before byron had notified me, as a result - I'm left figuring it out to whom I'm going to charge the one beer case for. I had two possible solutions to this , one is that I find someone here onboard that would shoulder the paper work on the limitations (or possibly even the cost). Another is that i could shoulder the cost and declaration myself, therefore eliminating all the paper work and other "blockade's" besides that i have a vast resources available here and haven't tested the full extent of it yet and overall just to avoid any conflicts with the people around me.

In other news.....

For the moment were still cleaning the ballast tanks , we've already cleared up all the ballast tanks from mud on the starboard side along with the forepeak tank. For now were already going to the ballast tank no.1 port side and there's a lot of mud there and took us two whole days to cleaned that damned thing. It could have been a lot easier if there were two fire hoses working - water could have soften the mud, making it a lot easier to be scooped up with a shovel or any other tools. Apparently Bosun Amican is to blame on this work tactic blunder, I'm not exactly sure why he changed tactics with this one but no matter the case might be , the cleaning of the ballast tank no.1 portside was big fuckup

Anyway for the moment the weather is getting cold now , probably on the fact that this ship is already approaching Europe in Gibraltar and its winter time there. 

November 16, 2013 Sunday DOWN IN THE MUD HOLE

a view on the video game civilization 5

Haven't wrote down anything for a couple of days now, probably because my attention got caught up in playing a PC video games (civilization 5 and far cry 2). Not exactly a fan of far cry video game at all but I'm just playing it for the sake of multiplayer game with other member's of the crew. Unofficially its more like "socializing" to them even though I never wanted to, anyway think of it as a "Ping-Pong" (A.K.A. table tennis) policy. Now in playing Civilization 5 is a whole different story, I had been always a fan of this video game ever since the first "Civilization" game came out in the PC and SNES console (Super Nintendo game console) , it was a total blast when i played it and craved to play the sequel civilization 2 in the play station. Both these games were the best, however they suffered computer graphics limitations on animation given to the technological limitations during the time the games were publish. Now this is were civilization 5 video game comes along, for now "CIV 5" benefits on the graphics issue, benefiting mostly on the improved technologies of the current computer graphics now unlike its predecessors. I could say overall that the graphics of CIV 5 is the best i had seen so far. Unfortunately despite the enhanced 3d graphics , it does not exactly capture my whole interest in playing this game, sure the game is very entertaining but not as entertaining as CIV 1 or CIV 2 (maybe even CIV 3) . Somehow the essence or "Substance" in the game has diminished, probably because on what i heard that Sid Meier's in not in charge of this project and that a third party company took over.

So far as i had played the game there is considerable difference from the "Orginal" concept Sid Meier's put on the CIV 1 and CIV 2. Some of these are the "entertaining" part of the game like real video capture of advisor's giving off state related advises and seeing them bickering at each other. Another thing is the concept of foreign affairs and diplomacy , apparently the guys who made this game didn't paid much attention to it. I miss the "Spy" (diplomat) unit and establishment of embassies and United Nation HQ part in the game , even the basic advances in the military strategy is toned down like for example that I cannot base my nuclear units and stealth bomber's on an aircraft carrier and instead have to base them on a city, Before in Civilization 2 I can make it based on an aircraft carrier. Another thing is the movement on the terrain, for some reason I cannot make any improvements or even pass my units on a mountainous region, if my "Civilization"  terrain is somewhat encircled by mountains then its obviously impossible for me to expand my empire based on that rule, a very difficult disadvantage on my behalf playing the game. Anyway despite the flaws, overall CIV 5 is still very fun to play.

For the work related news

Monday was a surprise for me on the fact that there was no ballast cleaning ops, it was a big relief for me and a change of pace after all I'm starting to get tired of the idea in going inside the ballast tank for the whole day digging out mud and having to wear my coveralls wet the whole time. Not a very pretty sight and in some cases on of the most difficult jobs onboard a ship. On Monday i was just simply assigned to pain some vacuum pump machine inside the pump room , i painted it with "machinery green" colour (light green in general terms). I painted it for the whole day and painting it was an easy one.

When i returned to my cabin in the morning , there was an "issued" soap near at the front door. Regrettably when i returned in the after noon, the soap was gone and someone from the crew took it. I had no idea who took it but i could only say that people here are untrustworthy and you cannot let simple stuff laying around at front of the cabin door.  Worst part is that there's news that bathing soaps have already ran out in this ship and have to wait again for the provisions to have one,

Jesus H. Christ !!! Now how the hell am I supposed to wash myself every time I'd take a bath ??? , problem with CSM is that everything here is ALWAYS in short supply , I can't possibly imagine how people can keep up with this kind of company - a very stiff little mother fucker !!!

Tuesdays was resumption on the cleaning of the water ballast tank. As usual i only got to knew it on the last minute before officially going to work, and I had to go "down there" yet again on that mud hole. Frankly I'm starting to hate being in the ballast tank, most likely because my coveralls are all wet and i had to wear them all day long and worst part is that its not just normally wet but covered with mud.  Anyway that is how we work inside the ballast tank , were cleaning the whole tank filled with mud and normally were all wet and covered by it - its all just part of this dirty job, i had to get used to that kind of idea despite being sick and tired of it. 

Wednesday, much to my surprise I suddenly found out that I wont be the look out in the entrance of the ballast tank and will be instead go inside the tank again in cleaning it. I hurriedly got back to my cabin to change gear. Well I have no problems in going back to the tank once again but the problem is that my batteries is currently being charge at that time.

For the moment A.B. "jay" will be the look out on the ballast tank…

On Thursday , it was an easy job for us since the mud inside 4port was less compared to the previous one's (forecastle, 1 and 2 winds) , we just finished the said ballast tank with a snap., The only thing I could say on that day was that O.S. Del Monte broke one of the headlights I use on work , anyway it doesn’t really matter since that headlight he broke was very cheap and I only got it at a garage sale in a mall.

On Friday, we started out the usual maintenance work inside the ballast tank and yet again removing all those mud accumulations that got piled up in the past 5 years. For the moment I didn’t went down and was assigned as the look out at the entrance. Being a look out on the entrance was an easy job, just assist them in lowering down the fire hoses and make sure that the pressure on the fire hydrants are ok and that’s get to go, Of course as an additional workload I also have to prepare snacks on their coffee break , nothing fancy really - just the usual line up of coffee, soft drinks , bread and instant noodles. I had to lower this items and setup shop inside the entrance of the ballast tank 30 minutes before the coffee break begins .

THE ARRIVAL

Just saw my "slop chest" at the crew mess and it was a whooping 48 U.S. dollars , (equivalent roughly around 2,000 PHP plus). Yeah It was definitely a huge deductions and that means I ordered a lot of stuff to use for my personal needs, on top of it I'm the largest of all the deductions for the whole crew. But there's nothing to be ashamed of and that my money is pretty much only for me and I'm responsible enough to spend that money at my own disposal, besides using the slop chest here is definitely unavoidable on the point of the safe drinkable "Water" issue, which is definitely not free. Anyway the funny thing is that my younger sister was right in the money management, saying that "the larger a persons income is, the larger the expenses are" . There is one thing I might add here , although I admit that I'd do have a large income now compared before (and the largest so far) , there are two things in this world that money cannot buy no matter how large it is - Happiness and Freedom, I'm going to be stuck here on this hell hole for 6 to 7 months, I'm wasting a huge part of my life here in the process.



Seriously people say that being a sailor in the Philippines gives an impression of "being rich". Yeah indeed that we do have received salaries that are in U.S. Dollars, but despite all the money the trade off is freedom and happiness. The Psychological stress effect of doing the same thing over and over again is tedious plus a sailor has to deal with co-workers who are basically cruel, greedy and barbarous. Being a sailor is more like being a prisoner in exchange for money and in the end of the said contract (time of bondage, as I prefer the term) you get to win your freedom back for a few months then head back again to working onboard a ship. Honestly I'm getting so sick and tired of this, and I've only been working for only three ships (including this one) , Being a Sailor is basically a love-her , Hate-her relationship for me. The only thing why I'm doing this is only for two things , practical money and the perks of going to other countries - nothing more. I could live my life without being a sailor at all and I had already proven it during my years as a telephone operator. Anyway writing my resentment won't do me any good here, For now I have to focus on my remaining 6 months of work.



Change topic…



So far I had been gaining strength and power , thanks to the gym and weight lifting equipment of this ship - plus also the body building instruction A.B. "Patrick" told me, Now I'm able to lift and carry some objects that I previously cannot carry before. I do thank a lot on "Patrick" on showing me how important going to the gym is here.



In other news



There is a rumor here that there might be a deck cadet boarding the vessel in new Orleans, and word is it's the son / daughter of the incoming chief engineer of this ship. According to what I heard from the crew mess their scheduled to board the vessel on this port in new Orleans.



In other matters, the work today had us washing the whole deck area .The forward part of the ship going to aft. We mixed the chemicals "Cold Wash" and "Oxy Acid" to clear the deck of grease and rust stains, we mopped the deck area riddled with it, just have to remember that when we should mix it with fresh water and not salt water as the effect of those chemicals will be different. Later on the afternoon we replaced the old broken pilot ladder and put the new one from the deck store in preparation for the arrival at the U.S. , If Captain Slabada is correct we should be arriving there at 11 in the evening , followed by a 12 hour channeling then berthing upon arrival. Aside from that based on what I heard from "Patrick" discharging operations will be at least 8 to 9 hours on the first type of cargo. Then afterwards its still not sure on what will happen next.



The next day, July 26, 2013 Friday…..



Morning wasn't very good on the fact that they checked my cleaning area and found out that the garbage's hasn't been taken out and segregated, but hell I care I'm not bothered by it and they can blabber all they want with it - they free to do it and I'm free to frown as much as I want , if they got a problem with it , then they're free to file a report.



I was given a job by BOSUN AMICAN to put the life rings in place as well as the scupper plugs, I accomplished the putting the life rings around the ship however for the scupper plugs I wasn't able to complete it until on the latter since I didn't saw at first were it was stowed. For the general information the scupper plugs here for the deck area are stored on the deck store portside (for the port side scupper plugs) and on the Oil Pollution locker on the starboard side (for the starboard side). The rest of the morning till afternoon me along with A.B. Mallorca, O.S. Hall and A.B. "Bryan" we busy hauling off mooring ropes from the BOSUN'S Store and Steering Gear Room. If my memory serves me correct 3 loose mooring ropes were brought out on the forward part of the ship while on the aft part 4 mooring loose ropes. The last task we did was to clean the deck store and the BOSUN Store with any "loose paints" that fell off, While we were busy cleaning I heard from O.S. Hall's conversation to A.B. "Bryan" that disembarking crew are only given 500 U.S. Dollars (for ratings) from the actual total salaries earned here and the rest of the money will be forwarded to career shipping, In other words a sailor here on this company never gets to handle his own hard earned cash onboard and you work here day and night without being paid at all since the rest of the money can only be claimed when they're in the Philippines.



What the hell ?!!! Then why the hell am I here working overseas if I can't buy stuff abroad ? It doesn't make any sense at all, another purpose why the hell I'm working overseas is that I could buy stuff abroad. Now how the fuck can I buy those stuff if I can't have my money here in the first place right ? Who gives them (Career Ship management and CSM) the right to handle my hard earned cash ?! I'm terribly dismayed to learn that kind of policy here on this company and that I should have known earlier that CSM and Career ship management was very stiff when it comes to money matters, I'm starting to think that coming here in CSM was a big mistake after all. Anyway but since they promoted me to O.S. and gave me a U.S. Visa maybe I'd get to stay here for another ship and no more , only two ships here for me and that's enough - no more.



The crew should handle their own money and the right to dispose their own cash as they please. Believe it of not the financial system on my former company Sea cap Shipping is much better - way superior compared to Career Ship Management.



Going back to work



In the afternoon , much to our surprise we were given another job order coming this time from Captain Slabada himself. The job was to make sure the starboard mast of the ship is securely fasten so it wont vibrate anymore. Me, O.S. Hall, BOSUN Amican and A.B. "Patrick" were immediately dispatch to the area and we carried along a few tools as well. As I saw at the bottom of the mast, that there was a crack with it which render the mast a bit unstable (which in turn resulted to it vibrating a lot). BOSUN AMICAN playing "Mr. Know-it-all" says that having a chain block strapped around it will make the broken mast situation even more worse and said that a simple strap should do the trick.



July 27 Saturday, early morning 1am



I was waken that early morning by orders from the Bridge to prepare the pilot ladder, Immediately I dressed on my coverall and went to the deck area. We had to remove to bar and drag the heavy pilot ladder. Based on what I heard on BOSUN's radio the ladder should be dropped 2 meter above the water , Soon after the pilot ladder was prepared the pilot boat arrived and a pilot boarded this vessel. After another 3 hour another pilot boat came and 2 pilot came by , probably I could surmise that these two pilots are coastal pilot and arrived to "assist" the earlier pilot that came by. The channeling was quite a bit long as it took 10 hours to channel thru the Mississippi river and arrived at an anchorage somewhere near St. Rose, New Orleans.



After 10 hours , this ship arrived at the anchorage site and was ordered to drop anchor nearby for the U.S. coast guard inspections. The two coast guards came in at around 2pm followed shortly by 2 customs and border protection officials, By the moment The customs came by they said that the gangway we prepared has some safety issues from the rope and wanted it removed. "Patrick" and I went immediately to modify the rope issue on the gangway. BOSUN AMICAN saw this and insist that we should stick to the original rope arrangement on the gangway , the block head never understood the part that it came directly from the Customs official and that its necessary that we change the said rope.



The Customs officials business was very short and we just simply came in to the CCR to have the passports check and see if we are actually the one's on the passport and that's it. The U.S. Coast Guard however was a bit lengthy and inspected everything and on the late afternoon had us going in for a fire drill. Fire Drill was no "Big Deal" as opposed to what Filipino's sailors say - I think it was their exaggerated story that make the coast guard inspection a big fuss. Just remember and do the specific (TAKE NOTE SPECIFIC) duties that is assigned to each sailor on those drill and everything will be fine. The only problem I saw at that time was the weather for now on the Mississippi area is quiet very hot , despite the occasional rainy and cloudy weather, the heat and humidity here was awfully terrible. My coveralls was always wet from the heat and most of the time just to keep myself cool I always went to the few fresh water outlets to shower my face and sometimes wet my coveralls with water and lets it dry while I wore it.



In the abandon ship drill, Mess man Ferdinand screwed up and forgot to bring the blankets, worse part was that he was in front of the two coast guard inspectors when it happened. The new chief mate was obviously furious over it and scolded the chief cook and mess man for the crew up.



At 6pm it was finally over and the coast guard left, BOSUN AMICAN as usually never bothered to tell me what is my specifically job schedule for the day and I ended up going straight on work for yesterday midnight till 6pm. Leaving me to figure out for myself, that old bastard doesn't do his job well and supposedly that is one of the main functions a BOSUN here onboard to tell when the time of the work schedule and when were off. I decided that it was already 6pm and took a time off, I needed the rest and was exhausted, at 9pm I was awaken again by BOSUN AMICAN and was headed off again on the anchor winches to heave off the anchor. This ship went on again for another 6 more hours in channeling before reaching the said destination, The mooring arrangement this time on what we have was 4:2:2 obviously 4 headlines , 2 breast lines and 2 spring lines.



Spring lines were drawn first then followed by the headlines then the breast line. During the said breast lines while we were circling and fastening it to the double bollard, BOSUN AMICAN said to A.B. "Bryan" that he should follow his orders and that he hates complainers, It was very rude of BOSUN AMICAN to tell it to "Bryan" but nevertheless I stayed out of trouble and let them kill each other off. A.B. "Bryan" was definitely furious about this and was grumbling even after the mooring operation. After the fire wire was set up we went next on putting the gangway ladder as a form of a "Real" pilot ladder. Had all the deck department push and pull the said ladder just for it to be properly setup. While the crew were having difficulty over setting up the ladder and needed a flashlight A.B. "Patrick" told me that I should use the flashlight that was attached to my helmet to help them out, I told "Patrick" that I won't use it. Not to these kind of people , and wont waste a mega amp of energy for people who's not even worth it beside's I should be very careful in using tools here as for people here are a bunch of jealous son of a bitches and ungrateful bastards. I'd be better not helping them off rather than helping them - believe me.



Immediately after the ship was fully moored, The on signer's came in for the new chief engineer, electrician, third mate, and a new joiner a deck cadet - (yes believe it or not a deck cadet). Couldn't believe that there was a deck cadet here on this ship, I think its only temporary for this ship to have a deck cadet at a time and probably only during summer time, from what I found out on the later this cadet will only be here for two short months. Anyway the discharge operation was very short on this port and only took 8 hours. After which we immediately prepared again all the equipment necessary for the mooring , since we found out later on that the next port was just an hour away.



The mooring operations on the next port was quiet difficult because of the weather and to make it worse the mooring crew on the other side had wrong mooring arrangements which eventually resulted in having a modified version of the 4:2:2 mooring arrangement. A.B. Patrick had to tag along this time on the mooring operations on the forward part and the Future Third mate of this ship, the south African national.



Another thing that I could mention was the BOSUN AMICAN and 3rd Mate German Tan Corales wasn't that helpful as they act like mooring operations is some sort of competition for them,3rd Mate Corales is a bastard when I comes to this as he always shouts at people, Incidentally I had 3 unreported accidents on this mooring operations. One is that when the cable wire being paid out it dragged my foot, Good thing though that it was a slip, Second was that the other wire had some loose spiky fibers which caught my coveralls and dragged me for a meter or two , I let myself be dragged in the sense that if I resisted the "dragging" the spike might caught my flesh in the leg and might tear it apart. Third accident was very obvious that the wire "whip lashed" on my chest, wasn't that serious but I felt the weight of the object hitting me. Felt like a human hand hit my chest during my college ROTC years, It was so sudden that I shouted at instinct the curse word "God damn it !!! Putang Ina !!! " (translated in English God damn it !! Mother fucker !!!). BOSUN AMICAN saw this and didn't mind at all the accident , he is cold hearted as usual and never bother to ask if I was alright or not. Bastard didn't even helped me out in dragging another wire to the lead and even scolded me for not tying up the rope tail properly. It was a good thing that A.B. "Patrick" was there and was constantly reminding me not to be in "Berserker Mode" from all the pressure, I thank a lot that I had a real friend here to help me out and said to me often "Phil, chill out" or "Phil, take it easy" .



Immediately after the mooring operations, we set out again in preparing the fire wire then the portable gangway , I wasn't exactly feeling well and was badly exhausted from the hot weather but I was still manage to finish the job. For BOSUN AMICAN , he left without even saying to his subordinates whether they're already off the hook on work or not - he just simply went to the accommodation ladder leaving everyone.

WHY DO I WEAR MY COVERALLS WET

67 days onboard Cape Tallin (M / T Cape Tallin Plus 67)
Enroute to New Orleans, United States of America



Much to the surprise of everyone , Vetting inspections of this ship will be done in the U.S. and this time it was announced a bit late. I'm not exactly sure on how the vetting inspections are done here in a crude oil product tanker but on what I recall about the Vetting inspections done on a chemical tanker when I was still a deck cadet, it was a tedious and laborious objective , and on what I recall I had to stencil from forward of the ship down to the aft part for two weeks and the work was from sunrise till sun down (unfortunately I was in Europe in that time and the sun doesn't come down till 10 pm during summer time). Nevertheless it's a horrible work from what I recall. A.B. Patrick says that vetting inspections on a product tanker aren't that meticulous as in a chemical tanker.



In other news related to work..



Not feeling absolutely well this time and I feel that I'm going to have a fever of some sort from heat exhaustion, Unfortunately I'm trapped onboard this ship for the next 6 months (half a year) and there's pretty much nothing I can do about it but work, work and work until I drop dead, bed rest is near next to impossible here unless I'm lucky that its weekends. The only remedy I had for now to keep me well is that I take antibiotics, painkillers and a few vitamins to hold me up, (fortunately I bought these along for the journey). Heat here is simply nailing me,



For the work we done (which resulted to my heat exhaustion), Me and the new pump man had to go down to the pump room to test two kinds of alarms. One is the gas detector alarm and the other is the emergency switch, Going down the pump here is honestly not a very good idea , as this is a poorly ventilated room and the heat from the engine room (or some other heat source inside this ship) is somewhat "Trapped" , Both me and the new pump man was heavily sweating from the heat inside within minutes upon entering. Had no idea why ventilation is very poor on this ship and compared to the previous ship I worked with, this one is worst so far. Good thing that I had with me is a flask of water and I doused my head with water just to keep myself cool.



We tested the gas detector in the pump room by simply filling up 1 / 8th of an empty mineral water bottle with thinner and then we simply inserted it on a small tube protruding on some machinery and within minutes the "alarm" went on. There are two gas detectors in this room , one in the starboard side and the other is in the port side.



Aside from test the alarm. We also tested the "High level" Alarm and "Overfill" alarm on the deck area, as well as the bilge alarm on the forecastle area ( inside the BOSUN'S store). If I had the spare time, I'd secretly take pictures of these sensors for educational purposes.



The following day.



The hot weather is simply not that comfortable at all and It resulted to me doing a work tactics to wear my coveralls wet to cool myself. The process involves wetting my coveralls and then spin dry it on the washing machine for a minute or two then wear it. the resulting "evaporating" effect of water on my coveralls is enough to cool me temporarily on the hot environment.



For the rest of the work , I was off painting the emergency towing appliance located in the port side with the color "Admiralty Gray" paint and painting a few railings as well on the manifold area, I did also painted a two boxes that serves as a pneumatic machines for the fire wire. Aside from that I also helped out the new Pump man in inspecting the isolation valves and replacing Teflon gaskets of it , I even accidentally bumped my head on one of the valves wheels over head ( damn I should have worn a safety helmet) . Wasn't really that serious but it doesn't hurt having my head hit the metal.



Another thing is that after working hours, I took a few pictures of the "High level alarm and Overfill Alarm sensor" on the deck area, I had uploaded it on my computer via blue tooth and wrote notes here using the Microsoft one note program. Unfortunately I didn't took pictures of the emergency stop in the pump room as temperatures there are exceeding hot , maybe I'd took those pictures next time or maybe when the temperatures are a bit cooler.



In other news , the rest of the crew were busy making a wooden ladder for the aluminum gangway we had onboard. BOSUN AMICAN along with A.B. Homer Mallorca was busy doing the carpentry work, others like O.S. Hall, A.B. "Patrick" and A.B. Bryan were busy cleaning the aft deck from grease with a chemical known as "Sea Clean". ( I found out later on from "Patrick" that Sea clean chemical is different from Metal Brite)



July 24, 2013 Wednesday……



Another terrible hot humid weather again, and keeps getting worse. This time the weather is so severe that I wore my coveralls wet - as in soaking wet to keep me cool. This is the part I really hate on U.S.A. , specifically in the "Southern" part. A lot of people might think that U.S.A. is a cold country probably as cold as Europe - well they're hell wrong about it and wait till they get to Houston, Texas U.S.A. on summer time (or nearby area). If my coveralls isn't wet with water then its wet by sweat from the dry heat, Seriously the weather here is very bad and if didn't drank lots of water or even wore my coveralls wet then I'm certain I'm going to faint from dehydration or heat stroke, either way.



It's a good thing that deck works today involves washing the deck area with sea water, at least getting myself wet on work provides some sort of comfort. Took us at least half a day to finish the said job order ( work in nautical terms), did learn a new chemical today and what it is exactly used for, the chemical "Cold Wash" was apparently and anti grease agent (like sea clean) but has of a less or a bleaching effect on using in the deck. After lunch I heard that there was a drill scheduled at 4pm, During the 1pm to 3pm I was busy hauling off garbage from the garbage collection area to the workshop for segregation and later painting "machinery green" to the air motors of both pilot access gangways and fire wire winches.



Before the drill most of the crew hanged out on the gymnasium just to chill the time, the gym looked more like a "seaman's club" from the people waiting and doing other stuff like ping pong, pool , boxing etc.



During the drill, I went well on the abandon ship duties, As for the Oil Pollution I did found out later on that my duties and task there was put the scupper plugs on the port side (on actual oil pollution emergency) then radio back then proceed to the foam monitor equipment nearby the Oil pollution area. On the Emergency Steering Drill It was pretty much the same old thing on how the emergency steering equipment operates like to my previous ships , the only difference is that Japanese made Ships are more comfortable to work with compared to Chinese One's. The Steering Gear room (like the pump room) has very poor ventilation and a person just simply standing inside the room would be sweating his / her cover alls within minutes.



After the few drills, we were ordered to wait to the CCR of the ship (Cargo Control Room), I hurriedly went to my cabin to change my shirt as it was soaking wet then proceeded to the CCR. Inside the CCR , we were debriefed by the New Chief mate and Captain Igors Slabada on the Do's and Don't in entering U.S. Ports. Notably on the gangway watch and the Garbage disposal related issues. Segregate the garbage, never leave the gangway watch unattended , etc. stuff like that. Captain Slaba told us that there's a possibility of "Berthing upon arrival" and that Vetting inspections will soon follow. He also added that he will be disembarking on this port also and it's a pleasure on working with us.

BREAKFAST OF CHAMPIONS

Weather is not improving at all - in fact it's getting worse as this ship approaches New Orleans area in the United States. It's not surprising though, since summer season is at it's height on the north Atlantic region and core temperatures are quiet hot , as a matter of fact the temperatures here are similar to tropical countries (like the Philippines) for now and getting hotter (or even hotter) . In relation to work, its very difficult to work on a hot weather and I had to bring at least a canister of water with me every time I go out , as this ship lacks sufficient fresh water outlets to keep myself cool.



Last Saturday July 20th 2013, the whole crew was busy preparing for a grill party. First work we did was hauling off from the steering gear room the barbecue equipment stowed there, and the next thing we did was wash off the whole deck area on the accommodation with sea water. Then haul off the tables from gymnasium (ships gym) to the starboard side. We had trouble putting the canvass that will serve as a small shade probably because of the windy weather during that time.



Next after setting up the tables and cleaning the place, we lit the barbecue grill and burned a few wood pieces from wooden pallets at the aft part of the ship. I along with A.B. "Patrick" and A.B. "Mallorca" was temporary on watch of the fire, until we were later replaced by A.B. "Bryan" since there will be a drill at 1pm.



The fire drill was quiet short and I do know now my assigned task here when ever there will be a fire drill (or actual fire). My task was simply shut all the ventilation vents on the port side of this ship, get and bring the fire extinguisher on the site of the fire and go to the pump man and await further instructions, very simple right ?! On the lifeboat drill (abandon ship drill) my task was on the aft painter (rope) of the life boat then after the drill I have to tighten the wire on the forward part of the life boat to properly secure it in its place.



After the drill the grill barbecue started and as usual the whole grill was busy on the grill , Me and A.B. was busy rolling the whole pig to be roasted on the grill, O.S. Hall and the new oiler , along with new engine fitter was busy on the barbecue sticks being roasted. The new engine fitter took some time to take pictures and had mess man Ferdinand Penera carry the camera and A.B. "Patrick" took pictures , Unfortunately Captain Igors Slabada saw the picture taking and called "Patrick" and "Ferdinand" to the bridge and ordered that the pictures would be deleted. Some of the crew was dismayed on the captains action namely BOSUN AMICAN and the new engine fitter about the pictures being deleted. During dinner time their dismay was very obvious that the new engine fitter shouted to the russians the tagalog word "PUTANG INA NYO" (translated in english "you mother fuckers") . Of course the Russians never understood that word since their not familiar at tagalog at all.



After the dinner, I quietly slipped away from everybody's sight and returned to my cabin since I wasn't feeling well and was having an asthma attack (probably an allergy on the orange flavored soft drink like fanta which I drank during dinner time). I slept for at least 2 hours then , I was awoken by A.B. Homer Mallorca banging the door , when I opened he said that my presence is required the grill party. I replied I wont come, and Homer went away , A few minutes later Homer Banged the door again and I replied the same thing. Honestly I had to my reasons why I shouldn't join , one is that I had mentioned earlier I was having an asthma attack and haven't been fully recovered yet ( I forgot to bring my medications onboard and left it in the Philippines) , Second is personal reasons that I don't like drinking alongside with people I dislike (hint its the person I mention on my previous entry "belly of the beast") , I think its pure hypocrisy to drink with the people who think they are more *superior* and keep pushing around people. For me I don't talk to these kinds of people and don't make friends with them (and never will)



The following morning,



When I went to my cabin door , I saw a small note saying that I should clean the mess from the grill party yesterday and there's even a Foot note saying "BOSUN'S ORDERS" (see what I mean). That's fine with me that id clean up the mess , I'd be better off doing that, I immediately went to cleaning the place as early as 5 am (4:30 am). Putting the benches back and removing the covers for the tables wasn't that hard , unfortunately I did had a problem on the one table as I did not realized it was that heavy. Good thing A.B. Homer Mallorca was already awake at that early time and saw me dragging the said table, he helped me out on the rest of the stuff putting it back into place as well as putting back also the barbecue grill equipment back on the steering gear. We were finished on the work as early as 9am.



It's a good thing that it was rest day (Sunday) and I spent my time washing off clothes and fixing my working equipment, washing the scavenged gloves I saw on deck , as well as go to the gym. On the late evening I was fortunately that Mess man Ferdinand gave me a hair cut - it not that fancy but its more like a trim and I'm very happy that I got a haircut since having a long hair on a hot weather outside is not a very good idea. I asked Ferdinand on where did he learn the skill in cutting hair ( be a barber) he said he learned it when he was working on a passenger ship a few years back.

BELLY OF THE BEAST

Already finished checking out the isolation valves for COW IGS butter wash machines together with the new pump man and now I'm cutting out gaskets again on the Teflon sheets.



On the crew mess, I received and signed up the memo I got from Captain Igors Slabada about the specific duties of an Ordinary Seaman. I think this memo is based on the company SMS of career and not just pure made up rules imposed as there is a document number and reference number as well.



This is what is written on the memo



1. He has the required certification and qualification for the position he is employed for particularly with regard to the bridge watch keeping and tanker operation. His department head is the chief officer - latter will allocate the day to day work.

2. He will be engage with engaged with bridge watch keeping and assist the OOW with the lookout and steering and all other task that might arise

3. He is a member of the deck crew and participates in the safe operation of the vessel during cargo handling, mooring, preparations for sea and port, and etc.

4. He takes part in the maintenance of the deck department and any repairs of deck machinery and also when required in the other departments

5. He observes the safety regulations that apply and reports immediately any irregularity concerned to the safe operation of the vessel to the chief officer or to the OOW.

6. He has to make himself familiar with all the safety equipment and its handling. He has to know his duties in case of emergency and if any questions arise he will ask the safety officer, the department head.

7. He takes part n the safety training / drills and attends the viewing of the various training CD's and passing tests.

8. He must observe and strictly follow the pollution and prevention regulations in order to comply with MARPOL requirements and never dumps anything overboard without permission of the chief officer.

9. He attends on the job training and further information given by the Safety Officer regarding the safety Failure File.

10. He keeps his cabin clean and tidy and maintains cleanliness in all public rooms, in the storerooms and workshops and elsewhere on deck and accommodation.

11. He observes that no stores, spares or provision is wasted and that equipment and stores are handled with care.

12. When on duty he wears protective clothing that should be clean and tidy and handled with care.

13. During security emergency to obey SSO orders.

14. He must strictly follow the SMOKING regulations and pays attention that other crew member and visitors do the same.

15. He keeps a true and correct record of his overtimes and STCW working / rest hours and hands it over to the Chief Officer at the end of week for verification or when required

16. All other duties ordered by Chief Officer and Master.



Some of these rules are a bit exaggerated and just let your logic and practical thinking do the rest, some of the rules of course makes sense. Overall all these rules point only on Deck Maintenance - nothing more, nothing less



Anyway in other matters around the crew mess, the bond store recently gave out a box of can coca cola soft drinks and a box of Gatorade orange. The main reason of course is that it's already near expiration date, but when I looked over the coca cola can I noticed that it's still not on the expiry date and the date it will expire is still next year 2014.



In other news…



At the deck there is rumor, that this ship will not be berthing to Houston but will be on somewhere on Louisiana on the 26th, I haven't confirmed this yet at all and the details of course is subjected to change every now and then. Aside from that rumor there is also rumor that this will berth in Valenzuela (down south of Houston, way south and farther than Mexico), as this ship is still not scheduled yet to hit the dry docks. The only thing I can confirmed at is that this is the last loading and unloading operations for Cape Tallin before it gets repaired in the shipyard - the exact country that this ship will dry dock is also not yet confirmed as well.



July 19 2013 Friday….



Been helping out the new Pump man for a few days now , mostly his work consist of checking out the COW IGS machines and the latest was that we had to check isolations valves from 2 wings area of this ship, for now the isolation valves for 1 to 3 wings (out of 6 wings) have already been inspected and check, the remaining isolation valves and Cow IGS valves will be check out on the latter days.



Some of the crew were busy, entering the ballast tank and check it out if there's no leak , the new chief mate came in personally to check and found out that there is a small leak and apparently its dripping oil to the ballast water. I heard from them that for now they're going to remedy the situation by putting in a sealant for now until complete repairs will be made on the dry dock.



In the late afternoon after work, I was in the locker room along with A.B. "Patrick" and A.B. "Bryan" (the new A.B. that replaced Ronald) when BOSUN AMICAN came around and said that before I should came in to the locker room first I should ask permission first from him and not even the chief mate could enter the locker room without his permission or even relieve me from my work. I didn't like the tone of his voice and his arrogance; well for me he shouldn't wave his rank like that and showing off his arrogance because one day people could throw him overboard. Aside from that he shouldn't brag that he's more "Superior" to the chief mate. Well if he has the balls then why not tell that to the chief mate himself and let see who gets sent home first. Bastard son of a bitch!!! A.B. "Patrick" didn't like also what he said and gave me an advice on how to counter that bastard.



In other news, I'm back again scavenging for supplies on the deck whenever (or during at work) I have the free time. For the moment I got a few leather gloves during my rounds on the forward and aft of the ship, and I'd wash them later on secretly via the washing machine. Speaking of which I already figured out what's the main reason why the leather gloves and working equipment are a scarcity here onboard , Believe it or not from what I discovered it's not the CSM management , nor the captain or the chief mate. Its BOSUN AMICAN who's hoarding off the working supplies, yes that's what I found out - explains it all why there was a working supplies provision that came around in Amsterdam and yet there is still up to now no working supplies yet coming on the circulation and I myself haven't received any new gloves at all. (See blog entry "calm before the storm" June or July 2013 entry)



That fucking bastard! He's holding off the supplies like a blockade, Hard to believe but there are still greedy people out there onboard and worst part is that he's a Filipino - these kind of people makes me sick. Bloody fucking cruel of him letting his own men scurrying for supplies on deck and him hoarding off the supplies meant for the crew, probably this depriving monster thinks he owns the supplies eh?? Fuck! Worst part is that he thinks he's more "Superior" to other people even to the chief mate! Bah!



Oh well it's amazing that these sleazy bastard lasted for years in the working in and out on different ships without someone attempting to smack his face. He's been here for only two months and yet a lot people have been complaining about him and I myself including on his shitty behavior. Let's hope he doesn't make any more serious offenses or else retaliation on him will be much more serious. For now he makes an antagonist impression on me and sad to say I'd have my hands full dealing with him for the next 6 months since he came onboard along with me two months ago. A complication I have to deal with.

A PIDGEON THAT NEVER FLIES

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.