THE BAD AND THE WORST

Much as people expect that Saturday would be at least half day work, It was far from it - no thanks to our disregardful Chief Mate. Instead as it turned out - it was whole day work , and much of it was spent on removing the ice accumulations on the bollards and bitts. Now big question is why the hell are we (deck crew) standing here and smashing this huge pile of ice in the first place ??? According to him we need to remove the ice ASAP as their is a possibility that bunkering ops *MIGHT* begin soon.

( Geez - Seriously ??? With this kind of weather, with all the blizzard and all , plus the sun hasn't shined for almost two weeks and temperature going to and from negative 9 to negative 11 degrees Celsius, - I SO REALLY NOT THINK SO !!! )

Does he seriously believe berthing operations will commence on this kind of weather ?! , Only stupid sailors would do that . Its very obvious that its cancelled until the snow storm clears

Anyway we still did the job order even with much protest deep inside, even O.S. Del Monte frowned on the idea that were still doing work during rest day. As usual the ice was very slippery and hard as rock, we had to bring out several tools just to get it off from the bollards and bitts. Among the tools that was taken out was a crow bar, a few hammers, a chisel, chipping hammer and a hand held axe (both are my personal choice). As of expected when I used the mini hand axe to chop off the ice that was stuck on the bollards,  BOSUN AMICAN said to me that i can't use the hand axe as ship officers may mistook me that I'd chop someone here onboard in half.

(Seriously ??? Then why the hell do we hand a hand axe in the deck workshop in the first place eh ? Hmm What i really think is that Zacarias here is jealous that i grabbed a much better tool in the workshop than his and he doesn't want anyone to use better tools - That bastard !! Well if there's anyone here onboard that i would like to chop off in half using a min axe then it would be Mr. Zacarias Amican)

Sunday came and went and fortunately it was a total rest day , though i just most of the day sleeping and playing computer games. It was a miracle on that day that the sun came out and shone after nearly two week, bringing much warmth on the cold weather - well at least melt some of the ice in the deck area

By Monday , given that its already a clear weather . Bunkering operations have started and BOSUN AMICAN woke me up as early as 5am to be on standby , given that the bunkering ship will arrive an hour later. As expect the bunker ship "Hercules" arrived and went on to a ship to ship bunkering ops , The deck only handles the mooring part and we let the engine crew handle the rest on how to connect the bunker hose in the manifold area.  At around 11 pm the bunkering operations was all over and I didn't even handled the unmooring part , since i was in the pumproom

In other news...

Getting food supplies on the bond store has been difficult in these past few weeks, it was always either bad or worse. Worse in the sense that mess man Ferdinand doesn't do his job well in the bond store and every time i would order something and give the order form to him , he comes up with tons of lousy excuses just to cover up his irresponsibility. Once incident I recall is that he tells me that he's busy and that i need it to pass it directly to the new Russian third mate - Bah , that bitch could have just easily told me he doesn't want to do the job so i don't have to go to so much trouble in figuring it all out for myself. 

Another reason why i hate mess man Ferdinand being in charge on the bond store is that he has a *profiteering scheme* , were he charges me on something that he didn't deliver in the first place. For example i ordered 5 pcs of M&M's chocolate and a case of cola , he only delivers the case of coca cola and says that M&M's have just ran out - later found out after a month that I'm being charged both on the M&M's and cola on the bond store. See what i mean ?

Aside from that he never delivers on time.

On the bad news , lately from what i heard it seems that the new Russian third mate took total control on the bond store. Bad part is that the bond store is only opened 3 days in a week and not 24 / 7 as to what the previous 3rd mates have been doing (to be honest i like more "byron's " idea that its opened 24 / 7 ) , bond store is only opened Tuesday , Thursdays and Saturdays - beyond that its closed. Never liked this restrictions on the bond store and i don't see any point why bond store should have a schedule, anyway at least i got rid of Mess man Ferdinand and his modus operandi. 

Last Thursday i was so eager to get those M&M's and cola that i finally decided to find the Russian third mate and order some. I found him at the bridge and regrettably he seems to be not in the mood receiving order slips. He bitches me up on me saying that "did i ever read what he wrote in the white board on the crew mess ?" , I did read on what was written at the crew mess and i don't see any reason why he should be bitchy about it . It was exactly 6:20pm and it was Thursday, right on the schedule.

Despite being bitchy , he knew i was right and I did get the M&M's and the Pepsi cola. Honestly I'm not really happy on how he reacted given that BOND store should have been opened 24 / 7 in the first place. It doesn't really matter anyway if he's pissed off - the end just justifies the means.

For the moment i signed the "every two months " special allotment, form on the crew mess which will forward some of my money (500 U.S.D. To be specific) to my sisters banks accounts. Regrettably I didn't expect that career will forward it on the latter - as in three weeks late from schedule and my sister had to go to the trouble of verifying it and call up the office just to know what happened to the said money. Supposedly this kind of money matters should have been settled at least 48 to 72 hours upon confirmation from Career Ship management that it has received the "Special allotement" request. Anyway it seems that Career Ship management is a very difficult company to deal with when it comes to money matters, 3 weeks late !!! Bah what kind of remittance money transaction is that huh ??? Even land based Filipino overseas workers remittance money typically takes only 48 to 72 hours for their relatives back home to received the money - Go figure what seems to be wrong with career ship management

In other matter relating to career ship management, It looks like that the intended date of my disembarkation has gone cold. Up to now there is still no word yet on when will i be able to return to the Philippines, and looking on my situation here in Kerch , Ukraine - its going to be very obvious that my stay here onboard will be a little bit longer and will be extended unintentionally beyond February 18 (date of my finish contract). Now I'm facing two problems with this. One is the current supplies that i have and the second is the email service onboard will be cut after February 18. 

Some of the typical Meds I take onboard 

The current supplies i have for the moment only last as far as 7 months and as obviously intended , my supplies that i brought along with me have already been depleted. I no longer have the antibiotics and painkiller on my luggage. Even the necessary maintenance med i take like vitamin C, B complex and E have been used up as well , at my rate here staying longer would be a persistent problem on where i could get these supplies. Aside from the essential med , equipment i used on work is already been used up. There are a lot of my work equipments here that needs serious repairs and maintenance and , some of the equipments i have only have spare parts available in the Philippines.

On the email service. It seems that my free email service here will be automatically cut off at the end of my contract in cape tallin (february 18) . There's a very huge possibility that I'd be operating blind after February 18, and probably this could be very much my last entry for my blog on February and the next entry will be as soon as i get back in the Philippines (date of disembarkation is still yet to be announced),

It very obvious that after february 18 , the only communication i have to the outside world will only be my roaming cell phone and the onboard satellite phone iridium (both are very expensive to maintain and not definitely free).

In other news ...

After thinking of it for sometime i have finally decided that may its about time that i should share my knowledge that i accumulated in the past years, What i meant is

Sharing all the information i got like eBooks', computer based training and such on the internet and this blog. I guess It could be considered as a good will gesture, after all most educational materials in this so called maritime schooling in the Philippines is very inaccurate and very huge farawayness to the actual job that is being done onboard. 

CANCELLED FOR THE TIME BEING

Short notice again as usual, honestly Russian Managed ships are always like these, and i was in the middle of my work mopping up a few mud stains left from the dry dock on BOSUN's store when i suddenly heard the hydraulic machine for the anchor winch lit up , and the next thing in saw when i looked up on the gangway ladder was O.S. Del Monte telling me to hustle up and mooring operations (ship to ship) will be starting soon and were going to heave up anchor.

Good thing that the mooring winch is just directly above and the bosun's store. I hurried put on my bonnet for the cold and my jacket and hurriedly went up, as expected BOSUN Amican was already there preparing the necessary equipment. He ordered me find PUMP MAN Liscano, in the pump room - apparently because there's another reducer that would be added to cargo line number three and its needed ASAP .

I had difficulty finding Pump man liscano , i went to the pump room , engine room work shop and even to his cabin and CCR but found no trace of him. I went back and told that i couldn't find at all , BOSUN Amican then sent O.S. Del Monte and A.B. Mallorca in finding him but both of them returned with same results.

After the heaving of the anchor , we waited a few minutes . Then we then again proceeded to our respective mooring stations and awaited on the mooring operations. The first rope used was for the tug line, it was quiet difficult carrying the loose rope that will be used for the TUG as the cold weather had frozen the rope solid (temperature by the way is zero degrees Celsius in Ukraine) . To make it more difficult is that BOSUN Amican seems to be rushing people on carrying the loose rope and shouts at us like some wild ass bitch, Bastard didn't consider on how heavy this rope is especially when its on solid ice. 

Good thing though that mooring operation is a ship to ship one which is way easier , ( much more easier if the weather wasn't zero degrees celcuis )and the ship that will be going along side is a SCF ship named "Vladimir Tikhonov" ,  a FPSO kind of ship (layman's terms a VLCC one). Berthing took only a few minutes and that's it.

As for the loading operations , it was probably the same old usual basic stuff and i have already been familiar on the M.O. (modus operandi )  Here every time this ship berths. Just prepare the fire fighting equipment and be on the gangway watch - nothing more.  According to the new Russian 3rd mate the loading operations will be as short as only 12 to 16 hours and no more, Obviously because all the three cargo lines will used on the  operations.

After my six hour security watch, I went to the crew mess and found out that the crew change plan had already been issued and i already knew who's going to be my replacement O.S. When i disembark , in addition according to the memo , my disembarkation point will be Istanbul turkey -Via transit. If its via transit , then it means that the exchange of crew will be as short and very brief as in 15 to 30 minutes plus the ship will be literary in the channelling process.

Well if that's the case then i wont have any problems with it as my luggage's will be very light and easy to carry , even my large travelling bag  wont be that of a problem even though its quite bulky. I have currently three luggage's , one back pack which carries all the sensitive electronic gadgets , One travelling back that carries all my equipment needed on maintenance work and the other is a stroller bag (one with wheels) which carries all my clothes.  (standard luggage's capacity for a Filipino sailors is two "check-in" luggage each with a 20 kilogram capacity , and a hand carried luggage with a 10 kilogram capacity, THIS IS STANDARD - totalling up to as much as 50 kilograms all in all)

stroller bag were i'd be putting my luggage

I was thrilled on the news and as soon as i got to my cabin , i immediately made preparations in packing my luggage's and cleaned my cabin (which i haven't cleaned for months now, not even on the dry dock ops) and even gave a few equipments that i have to my fellow co-workers, I think the memo was good enough for me and that my departure is scheduled within 72 hours and less , So I was in a hurry. Heck i didn't have any decent sleep also because i was in the rush of finishing all the things that had needed to be done. I even sent a roaming SMS to my sister to be ready to fetch me at the airport within 72 hours .

EARLY MIDNIGHT (MORNING) 12:00 Am  to 6 AM

 there wasn't any real thing that i did on my security watch during loading operations, and to be honest i just hid in the port side mid ship deck store just to kill time, aside from that I'm trying to stay warm as much as possible given that the temperature is already zero degree's Celsius .

This is the first time i ever witnessed that snow would be falling from the sky, even during my cadet years i never encountered winter before, it was always incidentally during my cadet years that I'm always in Europe during summer time - never in winter. Oh well i guess there's always the first time.  Before i went to work , i decided that i should give my foldable pliers and plastic knife to A.B. Jay - after all i wont be needing it as soon as i disembark on tis ship. I putted it in his locked just to make things easier and secure for me that he gets those items

After my early morning watch , i went to the crew mess and was surprised to see that there's another memo again coming from career shipping company, this time unfortunately the memo is a bad one. According to the memo it seems that our departure on this ship is rescinded and that our "crew reliever's" are yet unprepared, Apparently based on what i read some of our replacements haven't even undergone yet (or even got cleared yet) from their medical test and even the replacement for 3rd engineer cranz and 2nd officer "bastard - O" haven't finished their trainings yet and will probably be ready as far as mid week of February.  Plainly speaking our batch is stuck here on board for the time being.

Filipino Ratings class on sailors are very much expendable and career shipping could easily find a replacement if ever our  so called "reliever's" have problems ,( just pick another one from the litter that is set to go and that's it) - However the big blow why we couldn't get off on this ship was because of the issue involving the reliever's of  two officers on our batch (i mentioned earlier).

Honestly i cant figure out why career wants us to go on a batch , maybe because plane tickets are cheaper if we go on by batch perhaps ??? , well if they can't get us by "batch", we can always leave behind 2nd officer "bastard - O" after all i don't like the guy. Our batch can also leave behind BOSUN AMICAN , he's an asshole as well and i don't mind at all if both of them can be ditched out.

Drats !!! I already gave some of my things ... , good thing i haven't gave my Swiss army knife yet to O.S. Del Monte

During the afternoon work , it was the same old routine as usual and was just basically helping out the surveyor get some cargo samples on the cargo tank. I heard from A.B. Mallorca that this ship might sail off by 5pm since there's a possibility that pilotage wont be available after 6 pm and will be by tomorrow, but knowing have these soviets operate  - i assume that this ship will sail off beyond 6 pm and will be calling us late on the intent schedule, always in bad timing as one might simply say.

I was right... Exactly at about 6:30 to 7pm, Me , O.S. Del Monte, BOSUN AMICAN and Oiler Rogel were put on standby at the our mooring stations in preparation for unmooring ops. We waited there for an hour and a half and yet there was no order given out

After waiting for a while we decided to go inside the crew mess and take a coffee break at least for 15 minutes , then all of a sudden in the middle of our coffee break. A radio message came in to the walkie talkie and instructing us to go back in the forward mooring station to release the mooring ropes.

Like i said this soviets are always in bad timing....

Unmooring operation wasn't really that hard and I'm already used to the drill of filing up these mooring wires with hooks, There was one incident thought that Oiler Rogel had an argument over the new Russian 3rd mate over some decision on which rope would be retracted first. From what i heard on the incident is that one of the mooring crew in the other ship (vladimir tikhonov) nearly got an accident over our mooring wires when it almost snapped , did scared the shit out of the mooring crew on the ship. The details on what i heard is that the third mate wants to heave up our wire while Oiler Rogel (he's the winch operator)  reacted on the machinery by slacking the wire so it wont snap.

I don't really know the exact details since i was one on the other side of the winch machinery. But what i do heard is that were having an argument. Anyway it seems that the new Russian third mate is very unpopular among the crew , and compared to his predecessor 3rd mate "Byron" , he's not that even friendly at all to begin with. Anyway not my problem ...

After the unmooring operations this ship was put on anchorage nearby , there was still no message yet on were this ship is headed to ... For the moment it is currently on standby and waiting

For our batch , we might have just had to wait a little longer as crew as crew replacements have been cancelled for the time being... 

NEGATIVE NINE

For the past few days this ship has been sitting its fat ass out here on the anchorage area , probably waiting for the next destination. There hasn't been any word yet on the next unloading operation of this ship, but what I'm certain is that this ship is waiting for bunkering operations (refuelling).

Winter season here in eastern Europe is harsher than i thought, with temperatures ranging negative below zero - it would be really unwise someone would go out in the deck area without winter clothing even for less than 5 minutes. For the moment the temperature now as while i write this already hit on the negative 9 degree's Celsius and possible could get any lower within the coming of days.  Rule of the thumb here in winter is that its not the snow that is actually giving the cold , but its the wind. Get caught on a small cold breeze or blizzard , and you'd find yourself (or any body part exposed ) frozen within less than 5 minutes.

As for work, most of it is now on indoors like going to the pump room painting on something or inside the accommodation cleaning on my cleaning station. Going outside on the deck area is almost nearly as impossible as the whole area is covered with ice especially on the forward part. For now my latest assignment is painting some sort of heating machinery in the pump room and i have to paint it with an aluminium colour paint afterwards i have to clean all the oil residues with a chemical known as "Aquatuff" (some sort of heavy duty alkaline chemical , in the words its a soap). Aside from that i did also helped out Pump Man Liscano in changing rubber gaskets off from this heating machinery.

On January 29th Wednesday...

At 9pm, I Was busy playing Far cry 2 in multiplayer mode along with my co-workers. When suddenly i saw BOSUN AMICAN came to my cabin door (my door was open to let a clear signal from the WI-FI  modem) and said that " its time to heave up anchor" , at first i thought that this ship has spent too much time in anchorage and maybe its about time this ship has left in Ukraine and go to turkey . As usual i immediately put on my winter gear and headed straight to the forward part, Immediately when i opened the water tight door, I was totally caught unexpected on the weather - The winds were blowing very strong and furious like a hurricane and i nearly slip a couple of times because even the main deck was covered with ice (not snow) . Even O.S. Del Monte was caught by surprise on the strong weather and slippery deck floor, he said that i should go ahead cause he's going to get something first and change foot wear.

I tried as hard as i could to maintain my balance while walking as i could easily lose balance from the wind and the slippery floor . I walked on the middle side of the deck as their isn't much ice in there and the pipes break off the blow of the wind, by the time I'm almost at the forward part area, i saw A.B. "Jay " going on the opposite direction and said that chief mate Bezruchko said that our presence in the forward part of the ship is no longer need. I asked why ? He replied that some small ship nearly collided with us and just passed a few feet away from the bow , now that the ship has passed by without ramming us then there's no reason why we have to heave up the anchors 

Upon what A.B. "Jay " said, i finally figured out why me and O.S. Del Monte was called in the middle of the night to heave up anchor. Immediately i went back to then accommodation and saw O.S. Del Monte going in on the same direction as i am earlier. I just relayed the information I got from A.B. " jay " and both of us returned on the accommodation.

As for A.B. "Jay", last i saw of him was that he was talking with pump man Liscano over some heating valves that need to be opened at 3 portside

On January 31st Friday...

I was busy continuing the usual job of painting when this ship suddenly gave the order to heave up anchor, To the reasons why the anchor is being heaved up , i have no idea why. Nevertheless to whatever reasons , as part of my work as an O.S. Here onboard i have to go to the forward part of the ship and assist (and operate the winch) the heaving of the anchor,

Before we heaved the anchor, we chipped the ice off from the winches - the whole machinery was envelop like an ice cube. Took us at least 3 hours to get the ice off and we used a couple of tools we have in the work shop, some of the crew preferred the fire axe to chop off those chunks of ice, others the "Ice Pick " (a handheld stabbing tool)  , me on the hand preferred the chipping hammer as its ends is a bit pointy (not sharp)compared to a typical hammer. Its very good hand held tool and there's no danger of it endangering myself (or others) if it ever slips on my hand.

Seriously it was a bad idea that they heaved up the anchor at this day as winds were quiet strong and to make it worst the temperature dropped to negative 11 degrees Celsius, and on top of that there was this huge sea spray going on and off at the forward part of the ship. Obviously all of us (BOSUN , O.S. Del Monte, A.B. Bryan, and chief mate Bezruchko ) were all wet with freezing sea water and the whole forward part in the deck area are already covered with ice.

It was a very tough anchor heaving operations because of the wind and the temperature. My whole winter clothing was wet from the sea spray, then shortly it gets frozen from the low temperature , I was very much covered with ice that i couldn't even put the hood on my winter jacket as it was already frozen. I didn't even knew that it was already frozen until O.S. Del Monte told me that it wasn't stuck on my jacket- It was frozen.  Aside from winter jacket even the red goggles i use became frozen and its plastic lens broke.  Both me and O.S. Del Monte take turns in operating the winch every few minutes or so , if I'm the one operating the machinery, O.S. Del Monte is the one who warms his hands using the steam pipe on 1 starboard side - and Vice versa.

the whole aft part area is covered with ice

The steam pipe was really helpful in warming the hands during a blizzard , though i have to keep in mind that steam pipes are so hot that it would be best I'm wearing my gloves  while touching in , so it wont burn my hands.

After the anchor was successfully heaved we received orders from captain slabada that we should hide somewhere as the anchor will be dropped again in a few minutes via gravity type drop. Without hesitation all of us went to the bosun store below as it is the only safe place from this kind of weather. After a few minutes we went out again as we need to drop the anchor. A.B. Bryan was the one who dropped the anchor via gravity type. 11 shackles was dropped over the water and soon after the anchors were drop, I was told by BOSUN AMICAN to go back to the accommodation as the weather is already getting worse. Me and O.S. Del Monte hurriedly pulled away from the forward area and used the catwalk in going back to the accommodation because there was less ice on that path and its not slippery at all.

at my back is what used to be our deck area ,  fully littered with ice

BLACK AND WHITE

JANUARY 18, 2014 Saturday

After a successful dry dock operations in Varna Bulgaria, this ship is headed off again picking up cargo in the Baltic area. For the moment the next destination will be somewhere in Ukraine and its a ship to ship loading operations probably on the same size with this ship.

Now that Christmas and new year has come to pass along with the dry dock operations as well , the big question now is when am I going home ??? . For now the only answer to could come up with is  just plain horse shit rumours coming from 2nd officer Renan olis oveda "bastard-o" , rumours that are just obviously his paranoid delusion grandeur. Anyway for the information of all. Apparently his delusions of disembarking as early as February on this ship has already reached record high , worst part is that its just all in his head and there is no proof notices whatsoever coming from CSM about the crew change. In other words , were stuck here until further notice.

For the moment before this ship arrives, my work is consisting of just cleaning inside the accommodation area and putting back equipment here and there - nothing special and just the regular maintenance work typically done here onboard.

JANUARY 19, 2014 SUNDAY

Should have known from my gut that Sundays rest off are cancelled yet again, For some reason the new chief mate is getting a nasty habit of putting the people on the working thread mill on weekends, Ignoring the typical modus operandi here in cape tallin that weekends are off work. Honestly i find it quiet unnecessary that were still out here doing work and all , i mean all the crew are still basically tired from the previous operation of dry docking this ship and haven't recovered yet from the rigors of fatigue. Can't they give us at least a break ? At least a day of rest ??? How can the chief mate be so ignorant about the basic needs of people here ? They should have at least considered that fact an be humane. For a Russian this new chief mate is doing a good job being cruel to his crew, and i don't like it.

As usual we were doing the regular maintenance work of putting back all the equipment on its storage for the whole day.

Late in the afternoon this ship arrived in Ukraine, and dropped off anchors in the anchorage area. The difference was that the type of procedure that the anchors will be dropped by will be via "Gravity" type meaning its not assisted by a winch. O.S. Del Monte is the one who dropped the anchors this time on the starboard since he has a better handling when it comes to gravity type drop rather than me. My only role there was to count the number of shackles that was dropped (which by the way is 7 shackles)

Early at night , O.S. Del Monte knocked to my cabin door and said that new equipment (as in winter equipment) was being issued now and I must go to the smoking room to get them. So what did i get ??? A new pair of winter coveralls that looks more like a gardeners coverall (you know the one being worn by "super Mario" mascot in Nintendo), plus an orange coloured ordinary coverall , a winter bonnet and a pair also of winter gloves, not bad eh ???  Some of  my co-workers are joking that i might put it on my luggage when i go home, but i assured then that i have no intention of bringing this equipment along with me. It stays here and i will leave it here (except for the orange coverall, which i plan to modify when i get back home)

JANUARY 20th, 2014 Monday

Still feeling tired and fatigued from yesterdays work , Honestly i still think that yesterday should have been a rest day.

For the moment rumours are still spreading that there's a possibility that , our batch might disembark on turkey, on our way back to be specific after this loading situation in Ukraine . I don't mind at all if that was the case , but the problem is it appears to be just a paranoid delusion of 2nd officer Renan "bastard-O" and there is no substantial proof yet showing any memo regarding on the crew change , whether in the ships email (via MS outlook) nor via paper notice.

Sweet as it may sound that I'd be going home soon enough after this loading operation cargo in Ukraine however relaying on somebody else word is a bad choice here , as i do know very well that people here have no sense  "word of honour" and its a poor choice taking their word for it. I'd hold my judgement yet until i get a paper notice about a crew change - for now i could only dismiss the rumours as a wild bitchy ass paranoid delusion of 2nd officer "bastard-O".

That asshole is so eager to get home he disregards logic and fact , first before he makes statements - we need a written proof of "crew change" list  otherwise "bastard-o" is just horse shitting people here.

Late at night , even though i wasn't in the mood playing multiplayer "Far Cry2"i decided to accept Chief Cook's invitation to play the game , after all according to him  he said that were going to play in inside our cabins and their just going to bring out the modem somewhere near the alley way on B deck (the deck were all rating cabins are located).

JANUARY 21st, 2014 Tuesday

The whole day work was only spent on scrubbing the deck area with chemical known as "Sea care" on 6th wings and 5 wings deck area. I was holding the water hose and was basically rinsing the washings. By the way i did found out one thing , that a raincoat has more practical uses during winter time, this time i used the raincoat as a form "Thermal insulation" (given that raincoats are made of some form of rubber) and it worked perfectly fine , as in no problems at all.

At dinner time, O.S. Del Monte and Mess man Ferdinand had a nasty conversation which eventually led to Mess man Ferdinand challenging O.S. Del Monte into a brawl. Good thing that O.S. Del Monte isn't going to back down on this one and that stood up against Ferdinand. I applaud what Del Monte did and its about time somebody teaches this mess man a lesson on manners.

DEN OF DESIRES

January 14, 2014 Saturday

Things have been quiet been very busy lately and I didn't got the time to update my journal for quiet sometime now. Ok so were shall I begin first ?

First off this ship arrived on the ship yard at the 4th of January 2014, but didn't exactly went ahead on the shipyard facility. First this ship was berthed nearby on  some sort of "Pre dry dock" facility , This ship stayed there for at least three days to conduct some inspections made by the CSM superintendent on which engine and part will this ship be repaired. Those three days were pretty much busy, as usual there were the usual dock workers who would come in and out to do some maintenance stuff and the like, and even board up their maintenance tool needed for the repairs.

On the first day was pretty much quiet no work at all and I was just basically on the gangway watch and putting up notes on the ISPS logbook on who came in and out onboard this ship. Much to my dismay the work schedule that was given to me (and O.S. Del monte) was the six hour shift (12am to 6am , 12pm to 6pm) , Honestly i find it very unnecessary that my working shift was like that. It should have been on day work like from the rest of the deck crew.

On the Second day there wasn't any action at all that happened but one notable thing i did was i get to have a shore leave and see the surroundings. We went out in a group during shore leave as it is much safety going out in groups rather than going solo here in Bulgaria . From what i recall , there was both oiler aquino and oiler rogel, Fitter Sano and fourth engineer lamsen , and electrician koba on the engine department. The ones that went on shore leave on the deck department are me, Bosun amican, Pump man liscano , me, A.B. Bryan and chief mate Evgeny Bezruchko.

O.S. Del Monte was the one intended to go on shore leave rather than me on that time, However he declined when he found out that bosun amican will be tagging along on this shore leave. The security guard on the nearby post was very lenient and friendly towards visitors and didn't even demanded to see our shore leave papers or our seaman's book . We just simply went ahead and he didn't bother us.  Outside we waited a few minutes and a local cab came in to fetch us. Good thing that the Bulgarian taxi driver was kind enough and can exchange our US dollars for Bulgarian leva (local currency here)

On shore leave the first thing that went on everyone's mind was to visit the local mall and see what stuff are being sold there. We went to Grand Mall to see how it looks like, the mall there's isn't as big as the one's in the Philippines but its sufficient enough to provide entertainment and even the outline of the place and design is somewhat similar to local malls here in the Philippines (theaters and cinema are located on the upper most floors while supermarket and groceries are at the bottom) . What I bought on that place is another external Hard drive (Samsung) and a local brand travelling bag for my luggage. Anyway my main objective by the way why I went on shore leave is to buy a travelling bag to put my extra luggage inside it, Having a travelling to put my extra luggage inside it is much more classy and convenient rather than putting my luggage in a cardboard box (most of the Filipino workers, uses cardboard box to put their luggage inside it, nothing wrong with it - though it has become an iconic habit to most overseas Filipino workers ).

Just to add the food in Bulgaria is cheaper compared to other European countries, the price is somewhat very similar to the prices of food here in the Philippines. Although the food and clothes  are cheap , i could say much the same on the prices of  "electronics"

After the brief shopping spree ,and it was already 10pm at that time (local mall shops here are open until 10 pm, same business hours like in the Philippines) and the shops here are already closing. We were picked up by the cab outside the mall and some of us decided to drop by on the local bar, probably because they were not content on what they saw and wanted more. For the taxi driver , he had something in mind and immediately he suggested some bar nearby.

When we went there, We were greeted by a girl in the entrance. The thing that caught my attention was that this girl is in bikini's, even though the temperature outside the bar is just only 2 degree's Celsius at nighttime. I said to myself "oh boy i could see where this is going" it was very clear that this bar is obviously a sex den and the girl who greeted us in the entrance is no ordinary waitress. As we entered we were lead to a room that has a red lights and in the middle was a pole. Most likely i assume that the room was a strip show and in fact i was correct, a few minutes another girl in bikini's went in the middle of the room and did a pole dancing, the only difference from your ordinary pole dancing is that she was dancing half naked (she took off her bra's) .

For me i didn't mind at all if she was dancing half naked , as long as we keep it that way . Well after her naked strip dance she went to one of our guys (specifically Oiler Aquino) and asked if Aquino could put her up in a private room which obviously an invitation on sex. Oiler Aquino turned down the said offer. The other girls offered the same service to other co-workers of mine but ended on the same results like oiler aquino did. The only one who had sex with those girls was Old bull frog amican.

TIN CASTLE

January 03, 2013 Friday

Moment finally came that this ship had to transit it's way on from turkey Istanbul to Varna Bulgaria. As usual we heaved up anchor early in the morning and waited for the pilot to board the vessel . It was a very short transit lasting only for at least 3 hours and then the pilot disembarked, As for me my work on the whole day was only securing a couple of stuff , mostly stuff inside the deck store locker on the port side.

This is the pictures i took during our transit,

This is me overlooking on the nearby city

a few small boats passing thru

A lot of people might think that being a sailor is a very cool job and that i do get to see places where no typical filipino might ever even see for a life time, But i do remember that i only get to "See it" not touch it or step on this foreign soil and live on it.  Indeed this is a good and wonderful place however being there and living there are two different things. Most tales from the previous sailors i heard when i was a kid couldn't differentiate the story they told about ""being there" from " Seeing it"

GREASED SITUATION

First day of 2014 was very much quiet, and i took that opportunity to repair and do maintenance work of my equipment (my personal working equipment). After all i needed a good rest since Saturdays and Sundays have already been cancelled off no thanks to our beloved captain. I think there won't be any Saturdays and Sundays off until the captain gets replaced on the "dry docks" and even so the superintendents are there so expect that there wont be any weekends for a long time and probably until i disembark. For now the only remedy is to adjust on this harsh policy.  Good thing for me that i just have roughly a month and a half or two months before I disembark on this ship.

Since it was Wednesday and a holiday , almost everyone has free time. As a past time some of us played "Far Cry 2" video game on the multiplayer, there were seven of us playing the game at the same time. Byron, O.S. Del Monte , Mess man Ferdinand , Chief  Cook Olan, me , Fitter Sano and fourth engineer Lamsen. Everything was going fine - that until 4th engineer lamsen screwed up and showed his sore Loser attitude. Mr "anger management" evidently is going bonkers again during the play session and keeps cursing us and taking the game too personally (and seriously). For him , he wants to be always want to be a top scorer even though he's skills do not say so. Totally an arrogant sassy bastard.

During halfway on the game. Byron got motion sickness from the playing and had to quit early (or maybe got fed up when 4th Engineer Lamsen said an offensive word saying "Fuck you" ). Us on the other hand remained, and for me in particular remained for the sake of not having a bad "Public Relations" . As the game session progress , 4th engineer became even more aggressive in his attitude towards us, apparently he's losing on the game and he hates that the most. He got so fed up that he made a "dirty finger" hand sign on me right in front of my computer screen when i apparently shot him in the back in the video game.

Obviously the other people on the room went on an uproar on my defense, fitter sano obviously didn't like on what he say, same goes to chief cook and messman ferdinand as well. O.S. Del Monte uttered a word saying "Ei 4th don't take it too personally, its just a game !".

January 02, 2013 Thursday

So much for the holiday break and back again to the reality, We heaved anchor at around 5am and went channelling somewhere in turkey. The pilot didn't stayed that long - just only a few hours and then he disembarked at around late in the morning.

During piloting , I was off shovelling crude oil sludge from the slop tank starboard together with A.B. Bryan and A.B. Homer. Didn't have any problems going in and round corners teetering with sludge as i was wearing a rain coat. ( Rain coats can in some ways be an improved chemical suit. Believe me from experience), sludge didn't went thru to my coveralls thanks to it.  Actually I just found out on the latter the usefulness of a raincoat no thanks to A.B. Jay, he gave me somewhat an idea and upon seeing him going down the cargo tank and using the rain coat pants.

Earlier before going down on the cargo tank and donning the "improvised" chemical suit, BOSUN Amican saw me wearing it and said a criticise remark that "I wont be able to move properly wearing that thing on" . Didn't paid any attention to it as it's very obvious that he's just jealous over it. Next few hours i saw him wearing a rain coat as well hmmm sassy bastard !!!