TROUBLE AT THE HOMEFRONT

News has just arrived via ship's email. More personal problems as what my sister emailed to me. To keep being professional, (in some extent too professional) I will not discuss minute details. I can only write that me and my sister are in a lot of financial trouble lately - not directly but indirectly, Bills, debts and financial matters have been piling up in huge overwhelming waves just to keep mom alive and maintain her dialysis treatment. Worst part is that my sister is taking all the "wrath and all of its fury" on the situation, I have no exact news on how is she holding up nor how bad it is - but from the looks of it and analysing the situation, my conclusion is - REALLY OVERWHELMINGLY BAD.

It is my estimated that by the time I finish my contract, I would be arriving in the middle of a shit storm back home and I'd be having my hands full clearing it. Honestly I'm already starting to picture myself in a bad situation by the time I finish my working contract here on conti Greenland and got back in the Philippines. For now I feel totally helpless and could only read the house news via ships email and hear my sister take all the beating on the financial trouble. Regardless of the situation , My sister has my full support , whether it be financial or other related matters.

In other news …

On October 25th, Captain kolev called in a short meeting at the bridge - deck department personnel only. The meeting was all about what happened on the recent flag state inspection on St. Petersburg Russia, obviously he wasn't happy that the port authorities found some inconsistencies on the visitors log. The first three entries to be specific on which it was only written that immigration officials came in and their names were never written down.

Captain Kolev and chief mate Bayev insist that under all circumstances , that visitors logbook must be properly identified and all people coming on-board should be inspected and identified. May sound very easy for them , but in reality its more complicated than what these soviets think. In anyway gangway watchman has no "police power" to hold anyone on the gangway entrance , especially if it's a Russian immigration official that has a 45 calibre hand gun placed on the holster - in actual practice , you'd just let them thru and write down their name in the visitors log. It may all sound proper to question and hold people but let us remember that this was Russia and Russian's aren't the nicest of things compared to the Dutch , or even the western Europeans and hate being put hold on one place, chances are they might point the gun at us , Captain Kolev should remember that it will be the gangway watchman that will be shot and not them . Probably there's a rumour going on that the reason why the port state authorities was very critical about this was because the captain never even bothered to be generous nor offer any drinks (for short bribe's) to the authorities.

Going back, it was a good thing that the time it was written down it wasn't on my work shift or else , I would get all the flak.

Following day.

There was a fire drill , the drill was very typical and we didn’t do any actual drill at all because of the bad weather and freezing temperature. Basically it was just simply a standard lecture about a SCBA (self-contained breathing apparatus) equipment and testing it out. Before the lecture started chiefmate bayev noticed the appearance of my helmet , apparently questioning the safeness of my headlight and ask if I could show some sort of "safety certificate" of such on the equipment. Of course I said yes and even added that I have a manual over this equipment, and its certified to be used in tanker ships as what it says on the manual and on the pamphlets in sunny euro brochure. Anyway to avoid any more chatter, it was agreed on the conversation that I won't wear this gear when the Vetting inspector is around as a precaution.

Soon after the brief conversation after the drill, few of my co-workers started telling me that I shouldn't use the damn thing at all (whether deck maintenance or at port). Despite what some of my co-workers tell me about it, I'm not fazed at all on using it, and if must I'm willing to put the extra effort in arguing on the use of my "PELI 2640 ATEX Category 3 certified " headlight if needed.

For the ignoramus co-workers of mine, I specially selected that headlight for use because of the characteristics being an ATEX Category 3 Certified equipment and not on the fact that it looks good around on my safety helmet.

The incident is caught also in video as evidence, (it was recorded on the last part and good thing I was wearing a "Spy Camera" during that incident)

Problem with us sailors is that , most people often (and if not always) get jealous on other peoples equipment especially if I'm wearing unconventional gear. Stuff that is not commonly used by a typical average Filipino Juan, like I said and posted several times on my blog the equipment I used does not in any way contradict the "safety working" guidelines . The only problem here is the nasty nature called "Crab mentality" (or simply say human jealousy).  I find it rather ridiculous that they had been around for decades and yet they haven't developed any tools or equipment to make their working conditions better. I find it surprising that despite being in the 21st century , a Filipino sailor hasn’t evolved anything beyond a simple chipping hammer , coveralls and a helmet , hmpf ! Most probably us Filipino's are busy using our grey matter in creating rumours and  defuncting other people works rather than inventing something. Filipino's are genius in respect but not in the way of inventing something like scientist or engineers do.

Years back I remember that most Filipino sailors told me that I can't use any ordinary flashlight around for work and it has to be "instrically safe", if it's going to be a privately owned flash light it should be the expensive "PELI" brand nothing more. Years fast forward - now that I got a "PELI" brand and took the efforts of acquiring it despite the cost , STILL people around me tell that's I shouldn't use the  fucking thing at all. GOD DAMN MOTHER LOVING COMMIE !!! What the fuck is the problem with Filipino's eh ???!!! Clearly and without mistake it only shows that Filipino human nature of jealousy. If their own kind gets a better stuff , they get angry. 

After a few days …….

Couple of days have passed since my last entry and the ships current position is now drifting somewhere in the middle of Gibraltar waiting for company orders on which country will it discharge its cargo. In the meantime, deck maintenance personnel (myself concluded) are doing the usual routine work of rust chipping, polishing , Painting primer paint to the area.

Speaking of maintenance related issue , I haven't discussed yet that even a simple maintenance related work could be so complicated here. On the big fact that there is only one functional (and working) jet chisel and Cup brush on the whole entire ship. I had no idea why the management doesn’t even bother buying an extra or two on maintenance tools at all, personally I think the management can buy those tools if needed be , but the problem here is that ships officers here namely the soviet chief mate and captain are more interested in being a schmoozer in the company and isn't exactly interested of even mentioning to the company the needed tools and spare parts. Probably they figure that if they can push the workers here "beyond the limit" of working with just the most primitive tools,  they'd get some extra nice flowery perfume on their name in the company.

As a result , were stuck here using the old and un reliable chipping hammer to get the rust off by banging it. Really primitive way of working for the maintenance. Anyway what do I expect from this soviets eh ? Their more interested in achieving goals and skipping out (and perhaps totally ignore at all )the smaller important details - the ones that really matter.

In other news

Officially my stay and expiration of my contract is just only around almost less than two months from now. If my memory serves me correct my working contract will expire by December 27th this year but being home before Christmas or perhaps before new year would be skeptical due to CSM / Careers company policy. Anyway I don’t really mind at all to be hanging out here for a little time longer maybe I could make something beneficial out of it after all my finances are really bone dry for the moment.

On November 7 2014, this ship has finally berthed to Algeciras and in such short notice. It’s a good thing that bringing up all the mooring ropes (loose rope) are much easier on storage rather than being stored. It took us only as little as an hour in pulling all the eight mooring ropes in standby (both forward and aft) and at around 3pm we've finished all the equipment that will be needed. As payback for the aft mooring team about what happened last time (I mentioned on entry "Snow Flakes" )It was decided that we leave the canvass cover on the aft winches and let the AFT mooring crew remove it themselves.

At about 6:30PM , despite the initial information that berthing will be at 10pm or to the least expected that any activity regarding berthing will begin at about at least 8pm, I was surprised that I was  "ringed" on my cabin phone that early. Upon answering I was told that we have to heave anchor in a few minutes. I heard that after heaving the anchor , our lovely pathetic soviet captain was too anxious to start the work - much to my annoyance. Damn Bulgarians !!!

Had a minor problem on the middle part of mooring operations in the aft, a slight confusion to be specific about connecting those lines. Apparently O.S. Dinglasa keeps saying that there was no need for me to connect the other heaving to the other as the length was sufficient enough to reach the other side (mooring wharf) , while the 2nd mate, pump man Sepulveda and A.B Ganub kept saying that I should now connect the lines while there still time. Adding more annoyance was that these people can't make their minds up and keep saying contradicting orders like for example I should tie the other end to the monkey piece end , while the other says I should connect it on the other end - resulting to more confusion. Damn fuckers can't really make up their mind. To my annoyance after that , I left O.S. Dinglasa and others on how to figure things out on the heaving line and grabbed my metal hook and just stayed position near the winch along with fitter Chaingan.

On the forward mooring team has its own share of problem during that time as well, From what I heard over the radio. Our Bulgarian Captain keeps pushing around the crew there and saying that there too slow in mooring , enough to displease the folks there. Like I said the problem with these people is that they're saying things that are "easier said than done". Bulgarian dumbass thinks that mooring wires and rope are "hand-held" equipment but in reality it's so heavy that it takes both hands and at least two persons to drag the damn thing.

Things got really messy to the point that aft mooring crew had arrived and assisted them on the mooring. From my perspective by the time we arrived , the breast line (soft ropes, mooring arrangement 3:2:2 ) was the ropes that were being moored. We assisted them and finished the job.

When me and A.B. Layos got back on the locker room to change coveralls , I briefly went outside to get my gloves and saw 2nd engineer Maksym Plokhotnichenko and asked me on what happened on the forward mooring and what took them so long, I replied plainly without giving any details that there some problems encountered. After hearing that "Maksym" said a nasty remark saying that these "crew" are lazy and took them a long time to finish. I never said any word on his remarks and kept quiet but it was clear to me that it was very rude to say things like that , I was there and helped the forward mooring crew finish the job and does he have any idea on what kind of shit storm people are handling there ?? How could he say that ?!

When I went back to the locker room and A.B. layos ask what 2nd engineer Maksym was talking about, I said "you don’t wanna know, You'd just get pissed about it" .

Size of actual mooring rope in comparison with an adult human hand, do they have any idea on how heavy this shit is ??? 

I COULD MAKE YOU CARE

European EMSA audit is causing a lot of stir lately on the Philippine sailing community and some huge changes on how things are run. Apparently from what I heard in the news is that EMSA is really determine to wipe out every Filipino off the face of any European flag (or owned) ship, but come to think of it lets say that indeed Filipino's get kicked out by EMSA ( all the 80,000 plus Filipino sailor  which equals to one third of the entire active Filipino sailor population - TAKE NOTE ACTIVE , DOESN’T INCLUDE THE INACTIVE SAILORS) . Now who do you think will replace the vacuum that we will be leaving behind when that time comes eh ? Europeans ? Hmpf ! For all I know Europeans have a much a higher salary value that putting them on the workforce thread mill bracket would be 21 flavours of stupidity for any "European" shipping company who are budget conscious, plus European sailor's don’t like the idea that their salaries will be haggled by any shipping company and doing manual labour - only us Filipino's are stupid enough to accept those kinds of terms .

Alright so how about other "Asian's" , like say Indian's , Indonesian's or better yet the Chinese were they have a much lower salary bracket and they come on bigger pool of numbers than Filipino's ??? (just check the statistics on their population) hmm well I don't think so. Well there was an incident that happened eons ago were I was still in grade school learning how to write , that Filipino's were actually being phased out by (surprise !!!) by European companies. Heck they were so determined on exterminating us for cheap labour that they even invested in putting up a huge number of "quality" facilities outside in the Philippines just to replace us. Apparently it ended up less than they wanted to, facilities turned out to be in tattered condition in a couple of months and companies just ended up throwing their money to the grand canyon. To make the story short , Filipino's sailors are still around and those installations are not.

Personally I think EMSA is not the kind of thing that could be bargained or reasoned with , They'd still try to put us out of business no matter if we even complied on their terms. So it's basically this decision is already rigged from the start and even if they try to phase us out again , they can't exactly exterminate us all , Filipino sailors are too many and too widespread, that they'd have a very difficult time trying to get rid of us and most probably they'd be begging us back in a couple of years or so.

For Marina (Maritime Industry Authority ) , This agency It Isn't exactly the best solution out there but it is definitely better than dealing with multiple government agencies for maritime related affairs. Unfortunately this will be the only sole heir left on any maritime related needs of sailors in the near future (as of circa 2014), Bad for us Filipino sailors in the sense that their giving a despot too much power and I had serious doubts that their dealings will be fair and just like what the fiasco they did on the COP's document, let alone handling of the professional license of sailors nor handling of the maritime schools in the country. The thing here is this -  things will start to get worse than it is getting better before we even know it. 

Anyway that's not the reason why I'm writing about this. Recently I came up on the list about "the official maritime schools" sanctioned by the education department called "CHED" which has a  connection on the upcoming ban of EMSA , unfortunately when I looked on the list - my school was not included on the 2013 (or 2014) list of qualified schools. The school I graduated from is already been on this business for nearly half a century , and that’s the big problem . Since they had been so long as people could remember  , they started to lax and become complacent , to the point that they never adapted anything or made innovations to their facilities - nor even improve at all. Overtime their system of education rot and got the attention of the education department, If I recall correct CHED sent a warning to them way back in 2006 and basically they just ignored it and it was only up to 2012 when CHED decided that it's about time they get slapped in the head.

Obviously when it got to the public that my school got closed , no one could argue the reasons why it got closed - they knew basically that my school deserved what it got . Last I heard from the school was that it was still in business but only a court order prevents its closure. I'm not exactly sure on how long my school could hold out that long with only a piece of paper as a life line from being shut down PERMANENTLY, eventually I'm not going to be surprise one day if that happens. The school management knew it had it coming ,

Maybe somewhere along the line , my school made a lot of poor decisions along the way, Things that proved to be fatal to them in the long run. I still remember the days during college that my school was heavily investing on propaganda rather than taking care of the welfare of their education system. They always blabber about how the schools founder discovered some islands on the ass end of west Philippines. They were on so much propaganda that I sometimes think that they're building a "cult of personality" on the schools founder. Yeah sure there is no doubt that my schools founder has some achievements during his time but those accomplishments he made during his life has no relation at all on the schools situation. The worst part is that almost all of their instructors are corrupt and ruthless, to the point that a college students lunch money end up being on the pockets of these instructors. Even the descendant of the schools founder was ruthless enough to practice these (which happened to be an instructor as well on this very school).

One of the worst instructors there on my school was this person named Mr. Malacas (translation in English "Mr. Strong"), he was a viciously ruthless sociopath in any way a person can think of - he was pure evil incarnate. Aside from using coercion to force his student in handling over their money, he's infamously known to bring a 45. calibre hand gun in the classroom while literary counting the loot he got in his students and even arrogantly shows it off openly on the teacher's desk and makes threats that if any NBI or police shows up (or any law enforcement) the first person right in front of him will be shot. Hmpf I guess that's how he got his rank of second mate , shooting innocent 15 - 16 year olds teenagers. Aside from that he is also infamously known to harass any student he comes across, doesn’t matter what time or place as long as he was in the mood of harassing people , he do whatever he can think of to cruelly harass people. Now What kind of a fucking teacher is that eh ??Another incident is that apparently he coerced a female student in another college department to have sex with him , sad to say the student really ended up a local motel with him.

Going back. my school never made any progress in improving their facilities hence as a matter of fact as time goes by , basic facilities and overall look of the school campus deteriorates beyond any passing rate to the point that  even a public elementary school looks even better than my college maritime school at that time.

By the time I'm writing this MARINA will come up soon on the list of "EMSA" qualified maritime to verdict CHED's decision, Unfortunately my school's  fate will finally be decided by that.

Don’t get me wrong I support my alumni school PMI, I came from that place , but I'm not some blind, Flag saluting , founder worshipping do-as-they-will PMI Lover, Their family like a kid brother, but let me tell you what family really means .  You ever had a kid brother ? Some dumbass delinquent younger brother, say, who banged up the pastor's daughter, can't hold a job, and his home away is a jail cell? - that’s what PMI is. All I'm saying is it’s a good wake up call for them that CHED kicked them in the nuts , I just wished that sometimes MARINA should slap the heads of PMI school official instead and tell them on how really a maritime school should be run.

SNOWFLAKES

Ship is currently proceeding eastward on the north sea and just passed by on Denmark. During the transit a two ship pilots came in for the 24 hour long channelling (they boarded sometime near midnight and disembarked at around 1pm the following day), I'm not exactly sure on which direction in Denmark this ship went to but I heard that this ship is passing thru some sort of "short cut" trip . I looked on the geographical map on my installed encyclopaedia program (Encarta Microsoft) and saw that there is indeed some sort of river or canal running all across Denmark. I assume this ship went there.

It’s a good thing that these pilots has a side business in selling sim cards (both internet and call cards) and I was able to buy some of those stuff for personal updating of this blog and as a plus they were polite enough to give me a change for the U.S. dollar bills I had on my wallet. Seriously this Danish pilots are a life saver - I badly needed the internet connection cause I need to check out my sister and see what's mom situation on the hospital. Anyway I'm very happy they're selling these as a side business and not Danish cookies :D

By the way it’s a good thing that Danish people speak clear English and I had no problem with them transacting sim cards. I sure hope that I could get to use fully the internet sim card on the way back to Rotterdam Netherlands

In other news  , temperatures here are pleasant and somewhat a bit chilly cold for Filipino standards. Based on the thermometer I had brought along on the trip, it registers at about 15 degrees Celsius and possibly might get even lower when this ship reaches St. Petersburg Russia.

On October 20th this ship finally reached that place at about 5pm and as early as that I along with O.S. Macalawa and BOSUN Payopay are already station on the forward part of the ship waiting for any orders to drop off the anchor via gravity. Weather temperature already dropped at that time to somewhere between 8 degrees Celsius and according to what I heard from the radio , chief mate Anatoliy Bayev wants us to drain the fire water line and fresh water lines as soon as after we finished anchoring, Evidently to prevent those lines from being blocked by ice. (no water inside means no ice blockage) . To add he said that temperature outside will go as low as negative 1 degrees Celsius at around mid night.

Took us at least 30 minutes to finish and secure the anchor and a couple of more  minutes to drain the water lines.

The following morning , this ship proceeded to berth in the morning at around 10am and the pilot came in at around 7am.  No problem for us given that we were already awake as early as 5am in the morning. During the mooring operation , the weather was getting bad - snowflakes were falling off the sky and the temperatures have already dropped to negative one degree's Celsius , worst part of the work was that this ship has no proper supply of winter gloves nor winter boots and I had to run around on the aft area using only standard gear (which is not suitable for winter). Fortunately for me I'm more resistant to cold weather than a hot climate - but of course that doesn’t necessarily mean I'm immune to it, my hand was so cold that it felt numb as well as my two feet during the mooring work.  I kept in mind as a tip that if a person charges  into work ill equip during winter time , just keep moving to make the blood flow and lessen the chances of my feet and hands from getting frozen. Good thing for me that there was plenty of work around to keep me moving as there are no mooring boats around in St. Petersburg Russia, no mooring boats means that mooring wire had to be moored in the dolphin on the wharf via heaving line (usually throwing the "monkey piece" end to the wharf and the other end of it tied up to the "eye" of the mooring wire)

Before we got to finish the mooring , I had to take from the tug boat some piece of paper which happened to be a receipt for the tug boat services. I recovered that piece of paper using only a heaving line and the tug man eventually tied it around with a piece of string. I immediately took it to the bridge for the captain to sign it up and stamp it then afterwards take it bringing it back to the tugboats the same thing I mentioned earlier.

F.Y.I. --> Tugboats and mooring boats work alongside during mooring operation, function of tugboats is to either push (or pull away) the ship in getting near the berth. While mooring boats role during mooring operation is simply deliver the ships mooring line (or mooring wire in our case) to the dolphin wharfs - nothing more. Aside from that Tugboats are larger than mooring boats. PICTURED HERE ON THIS VIDEO

At the night of October 21st , temperatures have reached an all-time low of negative 4 degrees Celsius . It was so cold that my co-workers here have already donned their winter coveralls , me on the other hand didn’t don the standard NSB issue winter coverall as it was ineffective and do not provide proper insulation against cold - I was better off in a parka since it has a thick layer of foam which is a good advantage in cold weather.

Winter Gloves that was tested, got it from a sports store

Aside from the parka , I had my modified red NSB cover and underneath it two layers of sweat shirts to keep me totally warm in the body area also on my clothing underneath the coverall is two sweat pants and three layers of sock to Keep my feet warm plus a winter boots (standard NSB issue) that I found under my locker.  Did also have an opportunity to test some of my equipment which were winter glove and an attachment device for the Motorola radio walkie talkie used on board.

The test drive on the winter gloves was ok , but for the headset attachment I think it was a failure in testing it out on actual working conditions namely for the fact that the headset was only designed for use by ship officers inside a cozy CCR and not entirely for use by any ship rating. It is totally incompatible and cannot be used by a person with a safety helmet on, plus the volume sound coming from the headset is too weak to be heard if it is just only worn on the neck.

The following day …

This ship was boarded by some sort of flag state authority to conduct some sort of inspection. It was my work shift when both of them arrived and I was at the gangway watch, of course I did the usual procedure of checking peoples identification cards with pictures before letting them in and escorting them to the CCR.

snow on the stairways , temperatures are falling rapidly

Everything seemed fine until half an hour later, I was called in over by the radio by Chief mate Anatoliy Bayev and was asked if I could bring the "Visitor's log" on the gangway to the Ship captains office (just right beside CCR). Before I brought it along I was told to check thoroughly the entries made there and if every box options there were ticked, I checked it thoroughly before giving it to the ship masters office. After 5 minutes or so I was told to go back again and get the visitors log , thinking that everything was in order, I went out then inside Chief mate bayez told me that the first four entries of the visitors log didn't had a name written on the visitor's. The chief mate asked me if I was the one on the gangway watch when this was written, I said I wasn’t. (my gangway watch was 6am till 12 noon and 6pm to 12 midnight).

At about sometime on 2pm to 3pm , it was announced that there will be only a single watch and O.S. personnel are on standby and await further announcements for the unmooring ops. The information was relayed to me by O.S. Ronnie Macalawa when I was in the mess room at about 4:42pm.

7:30pm when I was ringed by the phone being informed that the pilot had arrived and we had to assemble on our respective unmooring stations. Unmooring went out without any problems and after that I was told by my co-workers to go to the forward mooring station and assist bosun in putting back the "loose rope" (also called soft rope) back inside the bosun's store. After finishing the said ropes , when we got back we found out that , the rope on the aft part were not secured and they didn’t even bother to put it back - resulting to the fact that the soft ropes got frozen and would be now difficult to put back on the steering gear room .

In other matters,

There's a rumour here going on board going around that captain Ivaylo dimitrov kolev will be taking over the bond store after 3rd mate Vergel Abalos disembarks (finished contract) in Rotterdam on the way back. I'm not exactly sure on what's the overall motive why captain Kolev is so interested will taking over the bond store, but one can easily perceived it to be just plain greed. Apparently several weeks ago Captain Kolev saw the report on how much a bond store earns from crew purchases and probably figure that it’s a lot of money going thru it.

Honestly a ship captain taking over a bond store and cashing out the profits ??? hmm were did I heard that before ? Kind of reminds me of a greedy bastard Filipino ship Captain named Alfredo Pascual of Sea Cap Shipping company. Anyway it only proves one thing, - there is no small or larger amount of money for greedy people.

EYES ON THE PRIZE

Few days after this ship left Senegal, the next location it was headed was in las palmas islands (territory of Spain just west of morocco)to do some bunkering. By the time this ship arrived , the sea was a bit rough and had postponed bunkering operations and waited until early morning when the sea calmed down. the bunkering ship was also having difficulty and was "Shakey" going up and down, to the point that we ask ourselves if bunkering at this time was a bad idea.

I was at the monkey island at that time doing maintenance work in painting the tower with white coloured paint (Along with O.S. Macalawa and Bosun Payopay). At that height I was able to see it very clearly on what is happening on that bunker ship and saw as crystal the rolling and heaving motion. Hopefully bunkering was Finished at noon without any incident even if the sea was rough. This ship resumed going northward to Gibraltar to wait further announcements from the shipping office on when will be the next loading port.

On the next few days that this ship was going northward, we went on the usual deck maintenance work in the "monkey island" area of the ship. Painting white paint all over the area and doing a "full coat" on anything we could see. After that we went busy on the aft part changing the paint of the deck level from orange to red.

On the night of October 14, 2014, Ship got a nasty rolling motion , it was so bad that most of my stuff on my cabin fell off from cabinets and rackets and had to put them on a much safer area around my cabin, I haven't experienced this kind of terrible roll in years (since my time in Bow Ophelia) . Apparently from what I heard on the following morning , it turns out that captain Ivaylo Kolev fiddled with the steering controls which in resulted to make the ship roll badly - the rolling motion was so bad , that I might think that this ship is going to make a "Barrel roll". Anyway the moral lesson to be learned on that is that never fiddle with the Auto-pilot steering when in transit on bay of Biscay - OR ELSE !!! . Well don’t really mind if the captain wants to fiddle the controls once in a while but of all the time and place on this planet he had to pick, why does he had to manipulate the controls while in Biscay huh ?! , He could meddle with the controls inside the Mediterranean - heck I don’t even give a shit if he messes it even if were in the north or south pole , but never interfere with the auto pilot steering on the north of France, the sea area there is fucking terrible and hellishly rough - enough to make everyone sea sick, or sink the ship.  What a total dumb ass !!!

At October 14, 2014. We received word that this ship will be heading northward all the way back to Netherlands Rotterdam which is one of the busiest port in the world and well known popular among the sailing community worldwide. Anyway honestly the only thing that comes up on my mind on Netherlands is "Sunny Euro" store and "Botlek" , and I had come up with the list of items I would buy if this ship would possibly berth in that port ,unfortunately latter in the afternoon plans for going to Rotterdam were cancelled and was replaced instead of going to St. Petersburg Russia by the NSB management , maybe there's a possibility that this ill go to rotterdam on the way back (meaning discharge operation) 

ARE WE THAT DIFFERENT ?

EVENTS HAPPENED on OCTOBER 06 2014

Weather in Senegal is so hot and unbearable, it really makes me wish for a nuclear winter. Seriously temperatures here are so high that I wet my coveralls with water just to keep me cool and comfy. A lot of people here on-board didn’t like my kind of idea and work tactics in a hot environment , they just basically tell stuff that my kind of tactic will get me killed in the long run - honestly I think they're jealous that I think more creative than theirs and they don’t have any medical evidence to support their claims

On early morning of Sunday October 5 , I woke up and saw a note from my co-worker saying that work shift is temporary suspended for a day due to the recent national holiday in Senegal called "id ul adha" (muslim holiday , hell don’t know what exactly means) . So since it’s a national holiday for them , it means any Muslim will literary drop what they're doing on work and go home to god-knows-where to celebrate this holiday.

At 5:45 am My Cabin Phone rang.

"Ring a ding" twice…

That was the queue I was waiting for and knew that work on discharge operations has started. As usual I dressed lightly for adaptation on the hot dry weather in Senegal. When I got there I heard from O.S. Ronnie that discharging operations had already started at about 1am in the morning and total work will be finished at somewhere around 4pm.

During my shift, I gave some of my old shoes to one Senegalese watchman (named Mohammed) and he was very thankful that I had some to spare. By the way the Senegalese Watchman who was barred from entering the accommodation (I mentioned in "Things about Senegal" ) , gave me a small plastic necklace and says thanks you to me for the effort I when through just to give him the coffee. Honestly I didn't expect for him to thank me about it - none at all . Besides I only did what I think is right after what the people here treated him that way, I said to him that I can't keep it but he kept insisted and said that it’s the least he can do after the "humanitarian" treatment he received. I accepted the small plastic and tucked it in on my pocket. I learned that his name was "Ybrahim"

Senegal is obviously a very poor country , definitely poorer and backward than any country I had seen so far - A lot of people here live in poverty and other upper countries (like European's and even Asian's ) brand African people to be nothing more than thieves', raider's and to some extent cannibals, but in spite all the negative things we say to them, they're good people on that place - very good people who just got caught in between poverty. I had nothing against these people and I often wonder why we treat them poorly and very different. Hmpf ! The world isn't perfect anyway and the same thing goes in the Philippine Sailing community , just didn’t expect that my own kind will treat these people that horribly - are we that different from them ?

At around 4pm discharging operations was finished and sooner after , everybody was awaken up and conducted a Stowaway search. This is a normal practice on any ship that has been to Africa and is going to Europe. Apparently people here don’t want any uninvited hitch hikers to be riding along on this ship on our way back.

7pm we started unmooring this ship. After the unmooring , I was put on the task In going to go to the gangway ladder and arrange the ropes there. It didn’t went well on what I did and eventually I was told to go back up and let the A.B. "Ruben" do it. Point taken that I'm not really good at that but the thing that annoys me is what Pumpman Sepulveda said when I got back up.  "you’ve been into a couple of ships and still you don’t know yet on how to arrange that" .

First off I didn’t ask for his comment , Second easy for him to say that because he's not the one who went down there. Problem with Filipino people around here is that they don’t know when to shut up and mind their own business. Fucking people from the south !!! Totally lacking of modesty and courtesy , how very typical !!

The following afternoon , Chief mate anatoliy bayev gave us a job order to clean out all the items used by Senegalese people , including the Suez room. Disgusting as it may sound but these is the reality. People here treat them like some sick people with contagious disease, really disheartening.   

THINGS ABOUT SENEGAL

Weather isn't exactly friendly at Senegal this time of year it and feels very much like summer in the Philippines (to be specific like in the month of April or May) ,  I had been doing all the precautions and Do's and Don'ts in a hot climate such as these. Always bringing my water canteen around with me to keep my hydrated and keep myself cool as much as possible , to the point which I wear my coveralls wet.

Senegal as I describe is pretty much calmer and quieter than it west African neighbours . Locals around here are friendly and mostly do "Small boat" business selling internet sim cards and top up loads, I myself bought an internet sim card load in one of these (unfortunately I didn’t bought a top up load and later found out that they accept Euro's as well). In the extent merchants here on these small boats are fairly honest enough to do business with and there's little need to be watchful over them, they simply just do business in selling and not steal or rip off a helpless sailor.

Two days ago people here on board hesitate a lot on whether we should contact the locals or not , they have doubts that these people might be robber's (or pirate's) of some sort but now things are a bit different and they now sought to contact each small boat that pass through here as much as possible to buy internet sim cards and top up's. Mostly these small boats pass around in the anchorage area every morning or so, to sell stuff and if interested you can contact them. THEY ACCEPT US DOLLARS AND EUROPEAN EURO'S which is very convenient.

For  general public information the communications company here is called "ORANGE" (equivalent to "Smart Communications" in the Philippines). Internet sim cards are sold separately here and you have to buy a top up load in order to use internet, (they don’t come along on the sim card). By the way all the manuals and language here is in French, and internet is charged via bandwidth usage (20MB, 150MB , 500MB, 1GB, 2GB, 3GB)

To Top-up a sim card (or "reload" term in the Philippines)

Press *123* code recharge # (then press call button on your cell phone)

To Check balance

Press #123# (press call button on your cell phone)

To Sign up for internet service

Press #1234# (press call button on your cell phone)

(official website by the company is www.passorange.sn)

Customer service hotline

Press 1441 (press call button on your cell phone)

(Information given by 3rd mate Vergel Acebo Abalos)

As for the news on work

Mooring operations were difficult. Apparently Captain Kolev has poor work decisions and had us bring out mooring ropes in just an hour before we go to berth. As an obvious result , me , O.S. Ronnie Macalawa and BOSUN Payopay are all dead beat tired before even the mooring work to start. To make it worst the weather on that day wasn't pleasant and was terribly hot, it a surprise that I even finished the job without being sick of fever from heat exhaustion and fatigue. (it’s a good thing I drank another cocktail of my meds , to at least lessen chances of being sick).

At berth , people on board here are being so discriminative about African Senegal's . Fellow Filipino's and Europeans alike, in some instances even refuse to let them in inside the crew mess for a cup of coffee and shun them - labelling them as "EBOLA" , I'm not saying that we should fraternize or be "buddy-buddy" with them, what I'm saying is that we could at least treat them humanely after all despite their colour and appearance they are  human beings WITH FEELINGS. Filipino's hate being discriminate but on the way my fellow Filipino's are acting right now , they're showing off a very poor impression.

One instance , is this watchman whom was just simply asking for a cup of coffee. Out of pity I decided to let him follow me at least to the entrance of the accommodation entrance on the portside to give him a cup of coffee . By bad luck it turns out that Messman Montoya saw me and he said "people like them are not allowed here, only the agent and loading master are allowed to enter" , he looked at the poor Senegalese with total disgust, plus he's lecturing me like some sort of self-righteous bastard. I told the Senegalese to go to the suez cabin room outside and wait for me there for the coffee, I went back to Mess man Montoya and asked if there is a specific designated coffee cup for the watch men to drink . He rudely said no and said with disgust that we don’t give them coffee cups , annoyed with so much discrimination against them , I decided to get whatever coffee cup I can find on the coffee area and get coffee for the watchmen by myself . Before I even get to finish the coffee I saw Mess man Montoya , talking to Captain kolev and saying (or more like impressing him) that he foiled an attempt of a nigger to enter the accommodation space then he went back to the galley and told the cook about it as like he was broadcasting the whole wide world that no niggers are allowed on-board.

I feel very sorry for the watchman about the treatment and this kind of behaviour of my own kind , yet I couldn't do anything about it but just simply give him the coffee that he ask. I often wonder why we Filipino's get discriminated most of the time and yet I ask myself that sometimes maybe this is the judgement we get because we discriminated other people about their colour and race.  

The following day I recent bought a top up card from one of the agents. (good thing 3rd mate Vergel Acebo Abalos is a smooth talker and talked his way in convincing the agent to buy the top up loads for us and bring it here)and immediately hooked up my computer for the internet. Here's what I found out on what is happening on the sailing community in the Philippines

• First off , it looks like MARINA will be handling and taking over the show on all maritime related interest of Filipino sailors - as in everything. Aside from issuing seaman's book, and now COP's, Marina will now be absorbing functions in regards to issuance of licenses to sailors . Before it was PRC (Professional regulations commission) who issues this blue plastic license cards by late quarter of 2014.  To summarize MARINA will be expanding its influence(to some extent power) and will be the "head honcho" on all matters about Filipino sailors. Big question now is whether or not this will be another bigger tyrant replacing previous tyrants who govern Filipinos sailor's or their dealings will be fair and just ? - stay tuned !!!. For us ordinary common sailors , it means were not going to visit PRC anytime soon (or none at all) for our license related affairs which includes examinations and such. Another big question is I wonder how much will they charge us for examination fees ?? I hope they're not going to rob  some poor  young helpless deck cadet on those fee's like what they just did on veteran sailors about COP's

• The political party "ANGKLA" seemed to made it out after all on the latest political elections and has managed to get a seat on politics, unfortunately like all other political parties, this sailor themed political party ended up just siphoning government funds for their own personal gain and basically just don’t really give a shit about sailors , heck they even ignored a recent seafarers day parade on luneta - really bad impression on them since thier political party is sailor themed . Hmmm I wonder since PTC company formally backed this political party a few years back or in some ways connected , I asked myself were does the government supplied money for political party goes to ??? (Please  don’t tell me it all went to PTC ) oh well follow the trail of the money - well uhm government money that is :D . Oh yeah by the way from what I heard , this political party is run by cold blooded people from "Elite" maritime probably those PMMA (or MAAP)  sons of bitches - Hmpf !!! no wonder they don’t give a shit on us.

• Now news about us deck cadets (or at least those who feel like deck cadets), there is a recent rumour that implemented by marina that aside from your usual record training book (the blue one that looks like an oversized notepad) , deck cadets have another notepad size booklet to fill up to according to what I heard it another "Journal" or "Diary" of some sort, uhm if that was a case then can they count this blog as well ? maybe I could update it out online every now and then :D - nah I don’t think any MARINA official wouldn't be happy about what I'm writing  . Anyway if being a sailor in the Filipino maritime community is bad , then deck cadets gets the worse treatment of all.

TREASURE HUNT

Even though it gives me comfort to know that Senegalese people are not cannibals, it doesn't necessarily mean that they won't steal our stuff. As a precaution to these scenario, Captain Ivaylo Dimitriv Kolev told us that our job work currently is part hiding good from the bond store to somewhere else. He ordered us to hid the stuff on the bond store to three separate locations. One location was inside the one of the cofferdams in inside the Emergency steering gear, the other is placed inside the "cable trunk" space at the back of the kitchen, and the rest that remains is sealed off on the bond store at the bottom of the galley.

Captains Kolev's intention why he had to conceal most of this stuff is based on the incident on what happened last year where Senegalese authorities ransack almost everything on the ship's supplies. Anyway it's not a big surprise that this always typical happens on any commercial ship going into Africa as authorities there have a bad habit of making each ship their own personal shopping store.

On my end it's not exactly my concern, the only thing I had was that it's another extra work for us hiding all those stuff on the cofferdam and after Africa putting all these merchandise back to the bond store.

Aside from that, some of the folks here think that hiding most of the bond store to  the cofferdams is a bad idea and might even bring trouble and get the attention of port authorities on why the hell is our bond store almost empty. They suspect that port authorities might conduct a quasi-random drug search (or cabin search of some kind) on this ship to bring out the said merchandise. Anyway this won't be exactly known until we arrived in Senegal water territories on September 29th 2014 and docked on a Senegal port.

In the meantime , Captain Kolev conducted a safety meeting last Saturday September 27th and debriefed us on the Do's and Don'ts as well as the "what to do" while were in Africa. Meeting just basically told us some common problems that plague Africa like malaria, stowaways, rude and violent people, and most recently the Ebola outbreak. Right after the safety meeting, barbecue party started. Had a lot of drinks there and had me waking up in the morning with a nasty hangover, Good thing that this Sundays was a rest day and a breather from all the hard work going on around.

Monday, September 29, 2014 …..

This is the day where this ship arrived in Senegal waters, first off weather here isn't really that great and comfortable like in Europe. Climate is much similar to a tropical country with temperatures of 29 degrees Celsius in the morning and roughly about 30 plus something on mid-day. As usual same tactics apply on a tropical hot climate, always keep hydrated (bring water canteen) , dress light or if the heat is unbearable make my coveralls moist (not wet) and stay out of the sun as much as possible, and change to dry clothes often if there's time.

PICTURED HERE ARE ACTUAL HEAVING AND DROPPING ANCHOR OPERATIONS

PROPAGANDA BLUES

During my spare time and browsing thru webpages when I had come across a "filipino sailor" community themed website. Specifically luswelf website (luneta seafarers welfare - uhm something like that more or less) , the website is basically mediocre at best and nothing interesting at all except the "sailor" song that was being played. I find myself amused to it and yet somewhat bothered by what the song content. Here are the facts on this propaganda material. Website address is ww.seafarerdirectoryph.com

• Song heavily refers that in order to be a sailor , a so called "backer" (layman term is "sponsor") is needed in order to be employed, regardless of what educational background, credentials and previous job experience a person has. In other words even a lowly janitor with an educational background of grade school can be a sailor provided that he / she has a political connection or contact that would sponsor him to a company and school credentials are rendered obsolete and worthless. This is heavily implied on the April boy regino's rip off song titled "pano ang puso ko"

• Ship captains and Ship officer's here are worshipped as "pseudo gods" and needs to be venerated (if not mandatory). Hinting that there is too much office politics in this environment. A schmoozer will fit well here or a boot licker as well.

• Lone some cowboy rip off song tells the working conditions and the general status of how deplorable condition are when working as a sailor , specifically in the "Domestic" shipping. Mentions as well that in order to get the "job" you have to do a little sexual favour to an old hag inside a shipping office, aside from that mentions as well that sailors are economically dependent on this job and no skills beyond this line of work.

• Luneta being a "Hub" iconic to the Philippine sailing community, and a symbol of how things are doing on this profession. Overcrowded , little opportunities, exploitation and inequality. For short it’s a haven and hang out place for huge numbers of unemployed sailors

• Lots of heavy propaganda and heavy brainwashing, telling stuff of how wonderful a sailor's life is blah and blah, entirely skipping out the reality check . 

WE WENT THAT -A- AWAY

Early morning of September 19, 2014 Friday was greeted with a lot of heavy Fog. It was so thick that I couldn't see anything infront of me beyond 10 metres, at first I mistook that piloting and mooring will be cancelled from the bad weather, in fact Chief Mate Anatoliy Bayez even gave a work order for us to wash the deck area. We started our usually deck maintenance schedule then all of a sudden in the middle of work somewhere between 9am, I saw A.B. Marlon Layos rushing towards BOSUN Payopay and told him to prepare "Combination Ladder" (a mix of pilot ladder and gangway ladder being lowered) on the starboard side. I asked A.B. Marlon on what's going on and he replied that Pilotage and mooring operation will begin soon and I had to hurry up and change coverall's.

Did change my coveralls immediately and by the time I went back the whole combination ladder had been finished rigging. Soon after I proceeded to the forward anchor winch to prepare and heave up anchor. O.S. "Ronnie" was the one who actually operated the machinery and heaved it up, while me was basically stuck in removing the anchor ball. While no one was looking I secretly put a digital camera on top the ETA appliance to film the actual heaving of anchor. It only took a couple of minutes for me to record the work and was immediately cut off because Bosun Payopay ordered me to wash the 2nd deck level with a fire hose, I can't leave the camera behind so I took it with me.

While getting the equipment for deck wash was being ready, I became absent minded whether this hose was to be taken on which floor. By the time Bosun Payopay arrived, he was surprised that I haven't even started yet on the work. He was definitely upset about it. At noon we finished washing the deck in a rush manner.  Seriously I think it was a bad idea to go working on deck maintenance while underway, I'm not certain why we did that but obviously its not a good idea.

Mooring was easy given that we just have to drop our mooring wires and the mooring arrangement for Rotterdam was 3:2 (three headlines, 2 spring lines) , to make it more easy there's a mooring boat to assist us.

Loading cargo didn't resume until 9pm on my shift. During my watch most of the crew here were anxiously to await the Sunny Euro agent, obviously to buy a lot stuff. A lot of crew have already prepared their shopping list for it and mine as well. During the wait I showed off my best talent in being fluent in English communications on talking into the walkie talkie, apparently it was a big mistake to do that and as a result I got suspected as a former call centre agent. Obviously out of fear and horror I tried to deny my former association with the BPO industry as much as possible, given that former call centre agents here are always being targeted by jealousy and singled out for persecution. I can't risk my safety here no matter what and don't what to repeat the mistake for the third time. It's a good thing that I just set an alibi that I got my English from watching too much television when I was a kid (poor excuse, but hey it work and they bought the idea). Besides they don’t have any hard evidence or witnesses to pin me down on my association with the BPO folk's (technical term for call centre community)

Being a former call centre agent in a seaman environment is a very bad idea, more bad if your crew mates knew about it. Unless I want be an unwilling target of discrimination, I suggest I keep my mouth shut for my safety and tone down my English to the social degenerate level. Don’t get me wrong, I'm always proud of my association with the BPO and being a former call centre agent , the English skills they impart on me is the lasting legacy - a part of me that will never fade.

On the second day of Loading Cargo, the agent from sunny euro visited our ship and took orders of the stuff we want to buy on their store, from the looks of it "Sunny Euro" got a good income from us , from what I heard the biggest spender was chief engineer Revaz Chavchanide, A.B. Marlon Layos (which both of them bought a laptop computer) and O.S. Ronnie Macalawa (which bought a Sound system component). On my end I just only bought a headset for my computer , I needed to buy one since my previous headset got broken when I accidentally got it crush under my bed.

Late on the evening, the replacement for 2nd office Olan arrived…

Unmooring operations went on without any problems and this ships next stop will be Senegal africa

I FORGOT TO REMEMBER TO FORGET

Haven't had any decent sleep lately , but it's my fault anyway - I had been hooked up playing PC games , specifically Fallout: New Vegas video game. It's really a good game and what I like about it is that it’s has a nonlinear ending. I could either choose to side with the NCR government , "Caesars legion" , Mr. House faction or an independent Las Vegas state.

Apart from playing that game, I had been playing as well its predecessor game Fallout 3 . This time I had finally figured out on how to install its DLC expansion game , frankly I'm not really that much interested in this game anymore - well at least I'm not playing this as often as before I saw the "canon" ending. 

Anyway I had been hooked upon these games for a while that I forgot what I'm supposed to do on other work related agenda's like adding extra pockets on my coveralls and such, heck I even forgot to go to the gym right now. Maybe if I got some extra time I could come up to finish this priorities.

On the other hand, this "isolationist" experiment is really working wonders, I had been here for almost 3 months now and I could rarely be seen in the crew mess and mingling over the crew. In fact the only thing I get to be seen on the crew mess is during official hours like work and some papers that need to be signed - nothing more. I take pride in being an isolationist , it’s the part of being safe and having a secure environment on board a ship. The trick in being an isolationist is very simple , not that hard to figure out - just prepare a lot of multimedia stuff stored around on your personal computer (or any multimedia device) , and not just store but really hoard a lot of it. I made sure that the stockpile I had here is enough to last for at least 9 to 10 months.

Sure I might get a lot of negative feedback about this but sometimes , I had to weigh which will be the best of my interest. They say a stuff  "No man's an island" but I say I'd rather be a "City State" than mingle with these savages. Don’t get me wrong , I'm not saying that my stay here in Conti Greenland is unpleasant , in fact it contrary and people here are ok and way better than the one's I encountered in Cape Tallin (or Stolt Strength - the worst by the way). I had good working relations here and just happens that I'm test driving these tactics for defensive purposes.

In other news….

A lot of people are asking me on why I haven't "extended" my contract yet, well for a good reason - I HATE SPENDING A LOT OF TIME IN A GILDED CAGE !!! . Sure they maybe a lot of money here if I spend a little time longer but at what price ? Seriously I'm not really meant to spend a lot of time in a closed environment and I find it very suffocating and mentally stressful, if I would find myself trapped here longer than the intended 6 months contract.

A lot of sailors might find what I'm saying to be a bit betraying on the sailing job , but on my personal view of things a person is not really meant to be confined on prolonged periods nor spent his entire life at sea. Sooner or later a person confined under these circumstances will find themselves to be having mental (and social ) problems in the long run. I had only been a sailor for quite some time now and I had seen what it does on people (especially Filipino's) confined in such an extended period and my observations confirmed that a majority of Filipino sailors are "mentally" unstable and lack the so called social skill in coping up on the real world and fail to understand other people around him / her.

From what I had seen on my time, being a sailor is a mentally debilitating  job. Sooner or later Filipino's exposed to these condition in years will eventually succumb to having antisocial personality disorder on one way or the other. Other people are resistant but not totally immune to these stress. I'd be damned if I ended up like these and that's the main reason why as much as possible I stay out of long working contracts - ABSOLUTELY NO CONTRACT EXTENSIONS ! Period and I'm going to stick with that.

In other news related to work

A few days ago , we celebrated O.S. "Ronnie's" birthday - actually there were two birthdays at that time, aside from "Ronnie" , electrician ferdinand curso ybanez was also celebrating his birthday on the same day.

As expected A.B. Marlon Depallo Layos got badly drunk again and started doing his tribal dance . Me like everyone else got a few drinks or so but not enough to make me feel woozy and such , after four bottles - I just stealthy hid and left the crew mess to enjoy a nice nap - and before the nap play "Fallout new vegas" PC game. After two days the drinking session I was awaken up in midnight to be notified that we will be dropping anchor at 1am early in the morning, I was caught off surprise given that  no further details were given yet on this ships arrival at St. Petersburg Russia and I only found it out on the that very same time. To make it more annoying aside from being woken up in the midnight to drop anchor was we get to heave it again after only five hours. Anyway Sleep deprivation is a norm here and I had already accepted that fact, expect as a sailor that you'd get called to work in the middle of the night in short notice - like it or not !

I didn’t had any good sleep after the anchors were dropped and just spent my time waiting on my cabin. After 5 hours, we were out again heaving the anchor and this time headed for berthing and mooring.

During the loading operations in St. Petersburg, the heater was switched on prematurely and as a result , a lot of people are complaining that it's too hot inside. To why it was switched on , I had no idea .. But some say that Captain Gorge Potirniche was the one who ordered and insisted that it should be turned on even though it's not winter yet. Problem with this captain is that he has an anxiety issue which impairs his rational thinking, he's  too exaggerated and too paranoid on even normal routine work. he thinks russia is too damn cold (when in reality is its still summer season here). so he turns on the heater like a blast furnace and ends up a lot of people getting pissed over the temperature.

By the way mooring operation in St. Petersburg was a change of pace, because there were no mooring boats around to assist in the mooring and we had to use a heaving line connected to a messenger line to bring out those heavy mooring wires. Took us a long time in mooring to get it properly moored.

After the loading operations this ship casted off and headed to Netherlands to discharge its Oil cargo.

The rest of the week was just spent doing maintenance work like chipping rust, polishing those rust marks, and putting primer paint on it.

Rest day on Sundays was broken off in the middle of the night as I was notified that anchor will be dropped by around 9pm, at about 10pm to 11pm we finished dropping it off and as usual we dropped it via gravity type. After that we received a notice from the new captain , Ivaylo Dimitrov Kolev that we will be heaving it off at around 3am in the morning and will await the pilot. In other words we only have roughly 5 hours rest before mooring operations begin.

Mooring operations in Netherlands was 3 : 3 : 2 , three heads lines (or stern line in my case) , three breast lines "Loose" ropes and 2 spring lines. Mooring operations was finished 10am in the morning.

During cargo operations while I was in the crew mess eating lunch, I had heard that most people here have submitted their intentions in extending their working contracts , some of the people who submitted their extensions were chief mate Anatoliy bayev, chief engineer revaz chavchanidze and wiper Anthony cruzat evangelista.

Aside from extension contracts , another rumour came in that this ship might be bound to the African country Senegal after the discharging / loading operations  in Netherlands. I had never been into Africa ever before and not exactly sure on how will I react about it probably because I do know very well that place is backward and that people there lack modesty and proper manners, plus on top of that  the first thing that comes out on my mind when I think about Africa is plagues , malaria , AIDS and "god-knows-what-kind-of-epidemic". 

In other news , a memo came in that O.S. "Ronnie" , 2nd Mate "Olan" and A.B. "Ruben" will be disembarking on our next port (rotterdam) since they already had finished their contracts of six months - so it means that we will be receiving in new replacements by the next port , specifically two new O.S. and a second mate. O.S. Joseph will be promoted to A.B. and will be filing in on the vacancy that will be left behind by "Ruben" , so instead of a new A.B. , an O.S. will be sent as a replacement.

Me on the other hand will be transferred back to my previous working schedule , and will be transferred back to forward mooring station, also there's speculation that I might be promoted to O.S. - O.T. rank here which is some sort of quasi A.B. position, technically I'm still an O.S. but the work description will be now similar to a regular A.B. than an O.S. , Well being promoted is fine by me and has its perks but the trade-off is that weekends off will be cancelled PERMANENTLY and they'd just add only a 100 U.S. dollars on my pay for the trouble.

Seriously just between me and this blog, an O.S. - O.T. rank is a big joke and not exactly a job promotion but rather just a change of job description, or on some extent just an additional job burden.