HABITABLE ZONE

Actual Ship to ship Mooring operations of Conti Greenland and NAVI Ceilo

After Hamburg Germany, This ship cancelled out united kingdom destination and headed somewhere close - Netherlands. Based on what the captain told us about in the safety meeting, that berthing will take place twice, namely each one for the two parcels. First parcel will be done via STS (ship to ship) discharge in Netherlands.

During the travel, O.S. Bilbao tested out his newly purchased Hair clippers and hair grooming set he got on sunny euro to me. I was fortunate that I had a decent hair cut after so many months , in fact this is the first time I got a haircut after six months and during the time I got here till O.S. Bilbao arrived there was no one here on this ship that have a hair dressing skills. So as a result I had a very long hair , enough to make a girly pony tail. Good thing that soviet ship officer's here are not very particular or meddle with personal things on crew like haircuts - it's no big deal to them if you have a long hair or not , A ship with a Filipino ship officers on the other hand are exactly the opposite - always intruding in other peoples affairs and to some extent coerce their own kind (to pressure and blackmail people , by physical , moral or intellectual means) like the maltreatment I had in STOLT Strength were I was pressured (to the point blackmailed) to shave my hair and go bald by coercion by that bastard CHIEF MATE mark joy tacgos. Believe me Filipino sailors love every form of cruelty they can inflict on their own kind, this includes trampling on basic human rights as an individual and Filipino citizen

Anyway simple grooming like a haircut can be simple and taken for granted on land, but on board a ship with no proper and formal barber, this is a huge problem. Can you imagine a situation not getting a haircut for half a year or in worse case a whole year and if ever you had a haircut it has only one style - SKINNY BALD like some sort of Jewish prisoner in a Nazi death camp in world war 2. Seriously it’s a torment for everyone being shaved bald , or having a no haircut at all, but what can we do as a sailor ? It's just part of the reality and a fact !

Going back - Lasting only a day's travel at sea , the following night we left Hamburg this ship had arrived in Netherlands. At about 9pm we dropped anchor, It was the same old usual routine work that I had been doing for the past 6 months now. The only thing different now is that BOSUN Payopay is starting now to get into my nerve's with all his ranting and yelling. Never liked the idea of him lecturing and preaching like some sort of holy pastor when it comes to little petty details about work, especially on the following day at about 4am in the morning when we heaved up anchor, he said some bullshit that I should look at the anchor chain at all times - seriously I had been doing my work that after 2 shackles are left , the part where I  go to the anchor ball and hoist it down , why the fuck lecture me now after 5 months ?! . Anyway I'm glad I don’t have to endure more than 6 months of nasty ranting and preaching - same thing goes also on A.B. Joseph Dinglasa , that Mr know-it-all ! Hmpf what a show off !!! He orders me around and contradicts ever work i make thinking he knows better ! He may not tell it directly but I can sense in his eyes that he's jealous on me - probably because I'm better than him.

Can you believe in this shit ? a ship without a bond store ? Thats not all it gets even more better !

Ship to ship mooring was very tedious and took us three whole hours just to moor to the other ship properly. The ship we moored at is called 'Nave Cielo" . Fortunately ratings working on that ship are Filipino so there's no problem in communicating with them - at least on work. From what I found out from them , they belong to another maritime shipping agency in the Philippines called "Epsilon Maritime Services" , familiar company in the sense that it’s a Greek principal and they gave very low salaries to their workers. The salary I earn from Career ship management as an O.S. is just the same as the one they give as an A.B. (one rank higher than mine). And as any foreign principal , they do have their wont domestic problems as well - specifically Overtime payment on their work. From what I learned it seems that their work on Sundays was totally free and doesn’t get put up on their pay (WHAT THE HELL ?!!!), and that’s not only the thing - it gets even more interesting ! . From what I learned this ship doesn't even have a bond store - yes a BOND STORE ! , Oh man ! How the fuck does the crew even get the basic necessities like shampoo, Soap, clean water and toothpaste ? - beats me ? but I could picture that the crews life on that ship is a living hell without a bond store, to add more insult to the already injured and badly pissed off crew there's no internet email or even any form of communication to get from the outside world . Basically a crew there is Imprisoned and do not have any idea on what's going on in the lives of their love one's. Funny that its already an international law that ships should be provided with internet connection for the welfare of the crew and yet the Greeks seems to haven't heard a thing from the U.N. (or even from the European union).  

Bottom line is there's nothing much to say positive about Philippine shipping companies that have a Greek principal - not even impressive to begin with .so word of advice if you're looking for a "habitable" working environment, DO NOT LOOK FOR WORK THERE IN EPSILON MARITIME SERVICES !!! STAY AWAY FROM THAT PLACE AS MUCH AS POSSIBLE !!!

If I thought that my company (and principal sucks) - well turns out that another shipping company out there in the Philippines sucks even more !!! 

For the moment this ship to ship discharging operations will be very brief, and from what I heard it will be just roughly around 12 or so hours , then after that were going to head off to an anchorage area somewhere in Netherlands till about the 21st , then proceed to berth again and discharge the 2nd parcel of its cargo. During that , it's expected that I'd disembark and be going back home in the Philippines, according to rough estimates - my arrival will be very close to Christmas (or probably be Christmas eve) .

December 18, 2014 Thursday , 0000 HRS.

Release P/V pressure by hand , just grab the lever !! 

Was heavily busy on all the social networking stuff and updating my blog and haven’t got a chance to have a decent sleep. I started out my work and saw that A.B. Marlon Layos and O.S. Tan are very much busy doing something and immediately I recognized that discharge operations was near its finish. Within a few hours "Stripping" will start. I ignored my duties being the "guard dog" at the gangway for this time and helped out on the work in the manifold, besides I'm already bored being a "Guard dog" and there not much guarding the gangway since this is a ship to ship operations , no walk way platforms of any kind connected  to shore. Aside from helping out in the manifold , i was also helping out delivering mail from my ship to the other ship , 2nd mate always radioed into me the word "PHILPOST!!!" which i definitely meant i had to delivery mail (documents) to the other ship 

We finished discharging the cargo at about 2am in the morning and cargo hoses was disconnected at about 3am , and wake up the crew over the phone at about 5am, this time to avoid any problems and confusion I decided to notify both Oiler Lague and Wiper Evangelista that Ship pilot will arrive at 5:30am

pilot then arrives at about 5:30am and we immediately sailed off, but instead of going outside (a few miles away Rotterdam) to an anchorage area. Us aft mooring team got surprised when we were ordered to arrange again the mooring ropes and "park" this ship on a nearby berthing platform. Mooring arrangement on the platform was 2:2:3 . 

Ship is parked so close , it make me want to think to strap on a life jacket and swim to the shore just to get a "Shore Leave'

ONE HELL OF A MESS

Finally here in Germany after only a day's travel (22 hours to be specific). For the moment weather is getting worse and rough as ever, and temperatures are dropping like sales prices on local electronic stores.

On December 10, 2014 was probably the most physically demanding day I had on my entire stay in conti greenland and it all started on a screw up on early 4am in the morning. Was called on the cabin phone and order to heave up anchor, pretty much thinking that this will be just another routine forget me work, I got outside the weather was terribly bitchy. High winds, nasty ocean swell and terrible cold temperature enough to be describe in "sea" related movie on Hollywood.

3:45pm winter time , already sunset 

To why our soviet captain decided to heave up anchor on such a terrible weather ? I had no idea , but it's obvious that captain is at it again doing his old cheap tricks of notify people late. It may work on mooring / unmooring situations but doesn’t work well on heaving anchors especially on terrible weather. Believe me this is the kind of person that will literary get you killed on his poor decisions.

We were heaving the anchor and got to the part where there was only 4 shackles was left on the water , when suddenly a huge swell pulled up the anchor chain from  hawser and all hell broke loose, I think a shackle or two was plucked out and slid off. Looking on the scène was frightening and seeing first hand a few tons of anchor chain terror crushing everything on its path in its way down to the sea is scary enough for me to run and duck for cover.  A second ago when that happened I thought the anchor chain would snap or the whole winch machinery would be ripped out from the deck , I didn’t saw which direction Bosun Payopay went and the same goes as well on O.S. tan.

I ducked for cover on the entrance of the bosun store, but I think it was a stupid place for me to get cover there as a few millimetres thick of iron wall is not enough to stop a 25 ton (to the least) anchor chain from dismembering a human. It was 20 to 30 seconds when the anchor chain finally stopped on its tracks, I didn’t snap but the machinery inside the winch was in bad shape, basically the whole starboard winch was inoperable and unresponsive after that.

BOSUN Payopay went to us and told us to conceal what actually happened , He told us to mention only the part that the anchors got stuck and the winch was unresponsive, we should omit the part that the anchor chain slacked violently as it may jeopardize us being blamed for it, Logically he's right and it's best we keep our mouth shut to exempt us from being blamed

Bosun Payopay Radioed in to the bridge that something was wrong on the anchor motors and Captain Kolev immediately sent in 2nd engineer maksym and Chief engineer to the scene, when they arrived they could figure out what was exactly wrong the anchor motor and had to get some time to think about the problem. After the engine personnel couldn't resolve the problem, I was ordered by the captain to wake up everyone to help us. A few minute after the call, the whole forward part area of the ship was swarming with crew members , despite the numbers no immediate action was taken until 2 hours later, we had to wait and sit tight until the weather clears up. Weather was really bad that the whole ship was rolling at a very sharp angle , so sharp that we wonder perhaps the whole accommodation area now is a mess.

No surprise when I got back to the crew mess to eat breakfast, everything turned out to be a disaster there. Some china wears were broken along with a few glasses and coffee mugs, as if like a typhoon hit the place and went back with a vengeance.

Another hour passed when I return to the forward area , I saw BOSUN Payopay and Captain Kolev taking to each other about the plan to recover the anchor and heave it back up to the deck. According to Captain Kolev's plan he plans to use the other remaining winch to help pull the stuck up anchor using mooring wires like a some sort of wind up machine. Most of the crew disagree on his idea given that its "Unsafe" that mooring wire are pulling such heavy weight objects.

Despite objections his plan went ahead and we went on the tiresome task of replacing and mooring wires and winding them up on the starboard mooring winch. After the "Recovery" was finished , it was shown that the anchor was badly twisted from the bad weather so twisted and bent. From my watch it was already 2:45 pm when the task was completed

15 minutes after the competition, all of us were badly tired when captain kolev ordered that berthing will resume immediately and we have to rig the pilot ladder on the starboard side. ( Damn bastard even forgot to say thank you on our hard efforts in pulling the anchor up again, ) So for the record I had been doing work all day long starting from 4am all the up to 8:30pm , If it weren't for bosun payopay taking pity and saying I should take a load off , I would have gone working straight till the following morning of 6am - 26 hours non-stop !!!! Damn !!!!

The rest was short lived and was only for two hours but enough to refresh me to take a light quick nap before being called back on the deck at 10:30pm for the mooring operations.

Mooring operations was easy , well at least for the aft mooring team - not so much on the forward though since one of the winches was badly broken.

On the loading operation, loading cargo in Hamburg was very long and took 6 long days to finish (for tanker ship standards). There was plenty of time to go on a shore leave and see the surroundings, I took the opportunity there in going out and seeing the nearby seaman's club, bought there some souvenirs and an internet sim card. Seaman's club was basically average here in Hamburg but definitely more better than the rest. Basically it's just a club house with a souvenir shop, a library and nothing more, We stayed there for a few hours (to be specific only 2 and a half hours) .  me, A.B. Joseph Dinglasa, A.B. Marlon Layos, Chief cook and chief engineer, then head back to our ship.

To mention there are two internet sim brands available for sailors in Germany. One is "ORTEL" which I'm not familiar with and the other is "LEBARA". I'm already familiar with lebara internet since this company operates also in Netherlands, Unfortunately Lebara Netherlands is different from Lebara Germany, I can't use my internet dutch  sim here and have to buy a Lebara Germany internet instead.  Basically internet top ups here are not convertible even though both if these countries us "Euro" as their money. Anyway believe it or not Lebara Germany is much customer friendly than its Dutch counterpart and they gave away a 3Gb flat rate credit here ( in Netherlands they only give 1GB for the same price). For everybody's information the cost of internet in LEBARA Germany in the Seaman's club is 15 Euro's (or about 20 U.S. Dollars) as of circa december 2014.

All the six days stay in Hamburg was basically just trapped on this ship, doing always a six hour work shift on the gangway being the "guard dog" at the entrance. During my off hours , I spent much of my time inside the cabin doing internet stuff mostly social networking thing. To make full use of the 3GB credit on lebara , I had to download one of the news games in the civilization video game franchise titled "Civilization : Beyond Earth" .

It was a new game and the latest, but definitely not well known. To give you a sneak peak on the story, the game is set in the far future and earth has undergone a cataclysmic unmentioned apocalypse only referred to as "The great mistake" . World's remaining surviving population managed to build stellar ships in hopes of finding a new world beyond the stars , and it's up to the player as a colonial governor to lead the people of earth to the "Promise Land"  and that’s about it. Game starts off in a strange alien world and you either terraform the place to be more earth like or just simply evolve (or adapt) on this new world and go beyond human. Of course you're not the only civilization around and there's a lot of "Neighbours" who made it to the stellar trip from earth and you either co-exist with them or start a new world order on an alien world.

Factions are on this game is ARC (formerly north American countries), Franco-Liberia ( former western Europe states), Brasilia (former central and south American states) , African union (formerly African states) , Pan Pacific cooperation (formerly north Asian and pacific states), Polystrailan (formerly Australia and Micronesian states ) , Slavic Federation (formerly eastern Europe and USSR states) and Klavenine Commonwealth (formerly south asian states and middle east) .    

A PHILOSOPHICAL QUESTION

Idiot's Guide for gangway Visitors log (form may vary from company to company) 

After the attempt on bidding to return home in Rotterdam fell on its ass, Another rumour is sprouting again, this time the ships voyage will be in somewhere in Germany going to England, While both of these western European countries are convenient ports like Netherlands - it does not necessary mean that we could disembark there. A big factor to this is our captain and another factor is time in which holiday season will starts early as midweek of December, and when it comes normal business hours are temporarily set aside until Christmas and new year elapses.

Anyway I'm already tired on this news and I should let it rest, should concentrate on other matters aside from this one, besides no matter on how many convenient ports this ship has gone thru and even if this ships docks on manila harbour in the Philippines , as long as the captain on this ship is awful - THERE WILL BE NO CREW CHANGES AT ALL ! PERIOD ! I'm so seriously doubtful that me and messman montoya will ever get to disembark in Germany nor in Britain and return home to the Philippines

Anyway I haven't been exactly on both countries before, Germany and England should be a little interesting scenery though I think I'd still be seeing the same old thing like a refinery and industrial area and wouldn't be setting foot at all on either the krauts or the english. Anyway I'd be taking pictures just to show proof.

On December 06, 2014 Saturday in the afternoon this went to dock in Rotterdam port in VOPAK terminal to be specific. Mooring wasn't a big chore and accomplish it with minimal screw ups, The only thing I didn’t like about the docking was the fact that mooring ropes were brought out on the last hour before this ship arrives at port - again by poor decisions made by our soviet bosses. Literary we were still bringing out mooring ropes when the pilot arrived.

After berthing , I did my usual specific task in setting up the SOPEP equipment and Gangway paraphernalia. A lot of visitors came in and I was constantly notifying the ship of this visitors, despite my frequent radio notification , nobody replies on my walkie talkie and later found out after an hour that walkie talkie channel was changed from channel 3 to channel 1 on short notice.

At midnight I was all prepared to start my work shift and was at the gangway when A.B. Marlon Layos approached me and said that I had to change outfit. Reason was that NSB superintendents are around and that They're afraid of me being seen around with a customized non-standard NSB coveralls and gear. Well there's nothing wrong on my gear in fact my equipment and gear complies with all specifications of safety for working in tanker ships, the only debatable issue here was that my gear is heavily modified and bears only little in appearance over the usual issued gear given by NSB / CSM. Anyway to avoid any further discussions , I decided to remove all my gear and shift to the low quality issued equipment - at least for a day only while NSB superintendents are still around.

In the morning at about 11am , received a call in my cabin phone that sunny euro salesman has just arrived and is now taking retails orders. Hurriedly went downstairs and gave the salesman the list of the duty free items I needed. One the numerous items on the list, only four items were available and on stock . Specifically two plush toys (local term in Filipino is stuff toy), a PELI flashlight, lebara internet sim card  , and a Samsung cell phone.

Some of my crewmates didn't like the sunny euro salesman and said he was quite rude in entertaining buyers.

During my work shift in the afternoon, Outside temperature in Netherlands fell close to zero and worst it was raining. Basically all of us here on-board can't get outside the accommodation without putting some thick jacket to keep ourselves warm.

Technically I set foot on land in Netherlands for the first time after 5 long months trapped on a ship - as least for ten minutes. So yes technically I got my feet connected to the soil , Anyway reason why I had to step on land was that apparently there was some problem on the sunny euro van making a delivery over the terminal security and someone has to go there to the security guard post to get the purchased items - since I'm the "guard" at the gangway at that time, it's part of my job description to go there and haul off those items for the crew. (irony of the job was a "security guard" of the ship got to talk to another security guard - at least a land based one). Had a cart wheel along with me and get those items.

So what was the odd stuff crew members had been ordering on sunny euro ? Well I couldn’t see clearly but from I hauled off several boxes and one of the boxes contains an entire tool case set , a set of frying pans , and assorted electronic stuff, and of course there was the plush toys I ordered - anyway good thing sunny euro doesn’t sell fucking dolls like the MTS store did, If I recall earlier a deck cadet ordered one fucking doll and sent a lot of rumour on-board a ship on what was main purpose of the cadet to order such.  I don’t have any issues with peoples preferences but buying a fucking doll on a ship isn't exactly as "private" and discreet as a person would normally purchase on land, remember that were dealing in an environment that has no exact privacy at all.

Cargo operations were finish at about in between 7 to 8 pm, but the ship was still in berth due to bunkering (refuelling). Somehow terminal regulation here on VOPAK in Netherlands do not allow simultaneous refuelling and loading / discharging of cargo - it's always one at a time.

Around 10pm Unmooring operations started and the easiest I did so far due to lack of loose ropes and we only used wired ones in mooring (mooring arrangement was 3:2). Basically we only did was loose the wire rope a little then heave it back up, very simple.

1am and 2am we were still up an told to be on standby along with my crewmates waiting at the crew mess , when it was notified that ship will drop anchor "8 shackles in the water - port side anchor". So I was off again along with O.S. tan and bosun payopay in the forward area to lower the said anchor via gravity type.

Seriously ? Dropping anchor dead in the night ? Well who am I to question? ORDERS ARE ORDERS right ? It’s a good thing that I had been fully accustomed to sleep deprivation and fatigue , otherwise I'd be going nuts over this. 

It was close to 2:45am when the anchor was finally secured. When I went back to my cabin , it was good to see that there's still a signal (internet signal) available and was able to make a few more changes on my blog.

About 4am in the morning I had received some horrible news that my Siamese pet cat passed away (mention on my previous entry "Uncertainty Component"). I felt empty upon hearing the news from my sister via Facebook, I want to mourn for the loss of one thing dearest to me and yet I do not have the luxury to do so - there is no time, As much as I want - I'm imprisoned here and there's nothing I can do to prevent my pets cats death or even at least ease the suffering or be there on its last breath. I guess this one problem of being a sailor, being "absent" and never there when I'm needed, This is only my pet cat and how much more if it was a close relative.

Problem with us sailors is that much is sacrificed on our lives for the sake of money, Imagine that you grow old without knowing anything beyond outside the ship assigned with. You'd never know your son or daughter's first birthday and baptismal , Parents last breath before they died, Your wife's wedding anniversary or even on my case see how your close relatives and pets live and continue with their lives. Basically being a sailor omits that part - Your absent when that moment in life happens and imprisoned on a ship , Simple things in life that can only be once and cannot be replaced or be repeated ever again - no matter if they pay you twice the normal salary or offer you freebies like fee electricity, food, water and shelter.

REPLY TO A PHILOSOPHICAL QUESTION

Before I end this entry, I saw one post on face book account from one user. Replying defensively and proud on one of my "picture" comments. His reply on one of my post was harsh and blinded by ignorance. I took a picture and this is what he says in Tagalog "Sa una lang naman yan eh, lahat ng seaman dumaan sa ganyan sahod . Nun call center agent kb libre pagkain, tubig, kuryente at pamasahe mo ? Now do the math"

TRANSLATION IN ENGLISH

"That was just a start, all sailors went on that kind of salary bracket. When you’re a  call center agent did they give you free food, water , electricity or transportation money ? Do the math"

My reply to this onslaught :

Well it's a bad start if you ask me, besides do you think freedom, human dignity and human rights can be replaced with free food, water, electricity or even transportation money ? - Go figure Einstein !!! No matter how you put it in different ways, treatment of deck cadets will never be equal - people and shipping companies will always take advantage of deck cadets and be treated as "2nd class citizens" .

Each year hundreds or thousands of helpless teenagers will be sent to ships to be horribly underpaid and face inhumane treatment, do you think you can live with that kind horror condemning these kids to such unnecessary hardship ? BASTARD ! Because of your ignorance to reality , Some of these kids will have nightmares for the rest of their lives ! If you don’t know what I'm talking about then take a look on the conditions of deck cadets in the "inter-island" industry !

Being a call centre agent may not offer free food, water, electricity or even transportation money but they offer a something more than that and cannot be replaced - FREEDOM, HUMAN DIGNITY AND RIGHTS !!! A term called "self worth" for you ignorant Filipino sailors out there ! . The thought of you being there with your family and loves ones both physically and financially are priceless, Plus as a freebie you get to live a normal life - something a sailor's life cannot match or get even with.

Being a sailor as a job is more of philosophical question rather than a question of logic. You get a shit load of money, but what's the price in the end ? The trade-off ?

UNCERTAINTY COMPONENT

Gas freeing the entire compartment, SO that workers wont drop dead in the middle of their work

Given that the five new Romanian crew members arrived without any luggage, The whole crew here on-board the ship is left nothing but to provide extra working gear (and clothes) on these new crew members. Immediately a few hour after they arrived we were left scouring for anything useful for them. Coveralls, boots, rain coats etc.

This ship could provide the equipment they want but problem is that previous soviet ship officer always omit ship supply orders in the past and as a result of their haggling no sufficient equipment was provide for the five new crewmembers who will work on the fuel oil tank below. Soviet style of work environment  isn't really that enjoyable given that they never provide (bother to buy) any equipment needed and just leave crew members to "Buy" Their very own gear out of their own pockets.

Anyway despite this affair being an all "Engine department" matter, it turned out to be very different from the original goal and turns out that the crew department got involved (or dumped at) in engine departments problems. Deck department ended up being as a "Support" crew to the Romanian's.

On late night I was doing a relief watch over A.B. Marlon who apparently got badly drunk and run around butt naked at the crew mess during chief cook's birthday (he fell asleep and missed work). During the watch keeping on the bridge , Me and third mate Democrito Eslit was surprised to see the red light flash went on at the mast and wonder what kind of alarm went on. After a few minutes of figuring it out , he went to a conclusion that it was a bilge alarm, We weren't exactly sure on what triggered the alarm but the point there was someone is going to have to go to the fore castle and get inside and see what's going on exactly. First idea was A.B. Marlon but wasn't exactly a good choice since he's still asleep and badly drunk from chief cooks birthday party (same goes as well as other crew members who at that time was still drinking on the crew mess) , Plan B was Me, Bosun Payopay and O.S. Tan would to go in there. Third mate eslit went for plan B and within minutes after waking up BOSUN Payopay and O.S. Tan . The three of us were already geared up to go in the forecastle in the middle of the night and Third Mate gave us a green light to go ahead even if this ship was experiencing rough weather at that time.

We brought with us a small wilden pump and few hoses like air hose and immediately got inside the forecastle, even on rough weather were sea waves were bashing their way on the forward part of the ship. Inside we took a look on the bilge alarm and as expected it was flooded, We hurriedly set up the hoses and pumped away the water after clearing the alarm of water we looked the source on what triggered it. We saw that some pipes on the portside had a few leaks , the pipes was badly corroded that small amounts of waters was gushing out. The only remedy we did for now was closed the anchor wash valve until it gets patched up by epoxy the following morning.

On the next few days Mess man Montoya was a bit tense and agitated, reason ? Well apparently there hasn’t been a clear detail yet on when will we disembark and CSM / Career has met it with silence. We were scheduled to disembark when we get to Rotterdam but apparently there is not flight details yet, and he's starting to get worried about it, me on the other hand is starting to get idea's that there won't be any crew change at all .

On December 5th, It was finally confirmed that there won't be any crew changes at all and that our local company here Career has finally confirmed that won't be anyone replacing me and Mess man montoya when this ship arrives at Rotterdam. The thing that puzzles me and up to now makes my head scratch is why ? Netherlands is certainly the most convenient port in the world and we did everything on the book (and by the book) to notify our respective companies of a crew change way ahead of time. I could only suspect two major reasons why this happened.

First was our beloved Soviet Captain-from-hell Mr. Kolev, I had no evidence to support my accusation but It’s an intuition that he's behind it and suspects he blocks every move we do in getting home. Mess man Montoya suspects this as well, given that this has been cancelled twice, one is in Gibraltar transit and Here in Rotterdam. Gibraltar is questionable and forgivable but in Netherlands, it's pretty obvious that he's behind it (or has something to do with it) assuming that Rotterdam is one of the most convenient ports for sailors in the world, and any crew changes happening there on any company is always carried out. The thing that supports my theory here is the fact that one time Bosun Payopay accidentally mentioned to me about the crew change plan captain kolev has in mind when he himself passed his request for "crew change", He narrates that captain kolev confirmed there is a crew change but it was not scheduled till way out on January 2015 - in other words it meant that any people who plan to go home earlier in December 2014 WILL NOT BE ENTERTAINED AT ALL.

So basically this means clearly that Captain Kolev, is not interested at all for any crew to be home before Christmas and new year and will not make any "green light" to any crew who plans to go home. Bastard is probably a very depriving son of a bitch if you ask me, he maybe a captain but makes very poor decisions.

Going on the second assumption is on our Career Ship Management / Columbia Ship Management Part. I had been mentioning almost forever that Career / CSM isn't exactly one of the best companies out there and has serious issues on management - AS IN SERIOUS ISSUES, especially when it comes to crew changes. Though it's not as worst as any Philippine shipping company out there that has a Greek principal , still Soviet principal is terribly bad and no exemptions. As what I had been describing crew changes takes a very long time and always / almost of the time crew here are still working months after their working contract has expired (takes note , months only ! In a Greek principal its YEARS before going back home). So basically It meant for me and Mess man Montoya to be stuck out here in this floating rust bucket in the middle of Europe for another month because of company orders and company contracts.

Going back Career Ship Management has a "provision" sentence on their contracts specifically implying plus and minus a month, and they offer tediously  long contracts. Currently my working contract here on this ship is 6 months which technically meant in reality is seven months. To simply put it Career Ship management has always had problems returning their crew back to the Philippines , crew change is always delayed and never on time. If you're not really planning to stay long working on board a ship try to avoid working for Career Ship Management Company.

In other matters

Recently I'm not exactly feeling well emotionally , just received news from the ships email that the cat I had been caring for a very long time now is very ill. My sister says that "bhut bhut" (also known as batman) has a bloated abdomen and she suspects that my cat has cancer and is dying. I made a reply to my sister to take my cat to the vet and see what's exactly happening,

My sister mentions that she sent a picture of my cat on the email , but apparently there's no Jpeg or any pictures received. I suspect that my emails are being censored by the fucking Bulgarian captain , before pictures normally come thru on the email - now even this simple amenities are being revoked. This fucking Bulgarian captain is one of the worst I've seen so far, and each day he's around here on this ship make's everyday life a hell lot worse than yesterday. What if it was a picture of a family member huh ? This is just only a picture of a family pet and yet censorship is applied on emails - WHAT THE FUCK !!!! There is no other alternate explanation to this other than "censorship" on emails. When Captain Gorge pornitiche was running things around, pictures on emails were normally received. Now totally no pictures are coming thru , plus I even suspect that emails here are being read - no fucking sense of privacy.

The only thing why censorship is allowed is , one if you're in the military and second is that a country is at war. On my situation I'm neither of both, Definitely I'm not a military and I'm working as a civilian maintenance worker here on a civilian ship, working on a civilian company !!! I don’t see any reason why censorship has to be applied at all on emails. I'm terribly outrage on what is happening around and how this fucking soviet Bulgarian captain runs things, I don’t mind on his poor decisions on work, or how repressive his system is but censoring pictures and personal emails coming from my relatives !!! - this is definitely gets personal ! I already lost a beloved pet cat this year , "Niggy" is already dead and a victim of road kill. I simply find it unbearable to lost another dear one on the same year much more on the fact that I'm trapped here and in imprisoned while all the things I value slowly die away.  

NIGHT RENDEZVOUS

I'd be quick on this entry…

December 01, 2014 1am in the morning ships engine stopped to give way for the incoming 5 crew members in Gibraltar area, Was already prepared at that time and was expecting that we will pick them up in the middle of the night, besides I couldn’t sleep very well so I just simply waited for the queue.

Bosun Payopay knocked to my door and said its time and I should wake up O.S. tan while I'm at it. After getting on my coveralls , I went to the Crew mess room to wait for the announcement. BOSUN Payopay told me to wake up pump man sepulveda , Fitter Chaigan and Wiper Evangelista. Didn’t get the instructions clearly and added to wake up A.B. Marlon Layos to the list, Good thing I didn't proceed to wake up everybody or else I'm going to be in more trouble.

When Marlon woke up , I told him that I made a mistake in waking him up and told him to go back to his cabin. Good thing Marlon was in a good mood and said its ok, (if this was another A.B. with a bad temper, I'd definitely be hearing some nasty stuff from their dirty mouths). Wiper said on the phone that I should only notify him again if the service boat is already there , So basically means a NO but that's not my problem anymore - as long as I gave him a notification.

1:20 am Service boat arrived carrying the expected 5 crew members, no luggage's were brought in from the crew. Found out from one of them that there luggage's was lost on the airport. I escorted them on the ships office and escorted back the ships chandler back to the service boat.

1:30 am everything was cleared and all equipment used was secured. Went back to my cabin to pass time and wrote this entry. 

FULL CIRCLE

Rumour and intrigue keep coming up around. Guess that any ship with a Filipino crew will definitely have these and from my point of view I haven't encountered any ship without it. For the moment the main news running around CONTI Greenland is about the upcoming disembarkation of me and mess man montoya, a lot of speculation that both of us might disembark in Gibraltar or in Rotterdam Netherlands.

Earlier it was thought that the crew change will be in  Gibraltar, given that this ship will received another set of "irregular" crew members for the soon to be retro fitting of this ship, but now it seems that speculation has moved it to be in Rotterdam. From what I heard arrival in Netherlands will be in December 5th this is only on the arrival part and doesn’t include the time of anchorage and actual time we get off on this ship and into the airplane. My rough estimate is probably by second week of December me and mess man montoya will be in the Philippines

Speaking of which, I had no idea why Mess man Montoya is in such a hurry to get off in this ship - not exactly sure in his ulterior motive. In addition Mess man Montoya speculates that captain kolev has something to do about the cancellation of disembarkation in Gibraltar, I don’t exactly know if that’s true since this is purely speculation

By the way I had no idea on the matters regarding the soon retrofitting since this is mostly an "Engine" department business. For us deck department , these set of irregular crew will be staying at the Suez cabin for the duration of the work and the rest will be staying on some extra rooms on the accommodation.

In other matters …..

Bosun Payopay seems to be unhappy lately, cant figured out why but I speculate that this might be something to do on my upcoming disembarkation on this ship, probably because Bosun payopay is part of the batch that should be included to disembark in Rotterdam. Due to him being left out this and being omitted from the crew change request this has caused a rift and friction between mess man montoya and Bosun Payopay and eventually putting up intrigue on each other, He seems to be pretty quiet lately about this matter , No idea what goes on his mind though.

If I would asked on what would be my opinion on this matter, I say I wouldn’t sent a crew change request letter and my contract run along on its course - I'd wait for NSB to send me a notice informing me to disembark . Unfortunately of course messman montoya sent a crew change request pre-emptively and hasten our disembarkation

Anyway despite my opinion - it would be best I keep my mouth shut and choose my words carefully, Being on-board a ship isn't exactly the same as it in back land where a person can freely speak out . The environment here is way different and very similar to conditions to that in a prison - minus only the violence and killing, you cannot in anyway put a trust on any person on any information or comments whatsoever. If I had something in mind , its best I think twice before opening my mouth and always speak in neutral comments and decisions.

In other news …

Had already finished packing up my things, wasn't really that of a hassle rolling everything up on my luggage - most of my stuff anyway is still packed from the day I arrived here 5 months ago. For the record this ship is the shortest I had worked since my job began , if my estimate is correct that id disembark on 2nd week of December , my stay here is just 5 months and 10 days- assuming that I disembark this december.

Anyway I'm fine with that duration, and let it end that way. I had no quarrel with anyone and didn't do anything stupid plus I'm not stressed out in anyway on work. Working relations here stable and co-workers here pose little threat at all compared to my previous ship CAPE TALLIN.

Currently I'm busy cleaning my cabin in preparation for my soon disembarkation.

News on work …..

Soon after this ship was finished on Libya, were doing what we do best in maintenance. Chipping , polishing , painting and usual stuff like any ordinary rank and file employee in maintenance would do.

On Saturday November 29, 2014 we opened up two fuel oil tanks located on the ship to "Gas free"  it (meaning ventilate) . It's a usual procedure for any tanker ship to remove all toxic fumes and vapours on any enclosed area, so that maintenance workers who would go there won't drop dead from suffocation or poisoning. Anyway not my problem since deck department here will not be involve in the retro fitting of this ship, the 5 new crew members arriving in Gibraltar will be the one's doing all the manual labour.

At about 10:30 am, we had an oil spill drill. Pretty boring stuff and did what my usual task of carrying some "anti-oil pollution" equipment like a shovel and a few mops. After the drill we proceeded to the crew mess for monthly "safety meeting" which only discussed the already known 5 new crew members and crew change.

Soon after that Bosun Payopay , me and O.S. tan went to finish the work on the portable vent machine to ventilate the Fuel oil tanks, everything was going along fine until Captain Kolev arrived and meddled with Bosun Payopay decision on where to place the vent machine. As a result the inlet water that powers the machine burst and let out a fountain of salt water, Soaking Bosun Payopay , O.S. Tan and Captain Kolev in the process. Me I managed to stay dry by hiding behind the Vent machine and immediately shutting off the fire hydrant (vent machine is powered by the fire hydrant, no electricity needed). Can't really paint on the look on Bosun Payopay's face and Captain Kolev , They were obviously caught surprise by the accident. Good thing I was wearing a face mask, so they didn’t notice the smirk on my face, Anyway serves Captain Kolev right for meddling on work and he got what he deserved hehehhe ;)

After that the rest of Saturday and Sunday was free time and rest. Personally I liked the idea that Saturdays are half day work and Sundays are totally rest compared to some ships in Career Ship management and CSM have a more cruel and less humanitarian approach. From what I heard on O.S. Tan tales some ships like for example Cape Tampa and such have no rest days at all and crew there work non-stop from Sundays to Saturdays and work from 6am till 6pm , and they only give you roughly 130 hours of overtime work pay for it. 130 hours only ??? What the hell ?!!!

Count that on how many Saturdays and Sundays there are in a month plus calculate the 12 hour long work every single day and working hours will logically exceed the 130 hours - any person can logically figure it out that, however CSM only pays you 130 hours and it violates a standard ILO / STCW conventions about working and rest hours. To simply say the soviet system of working standards is cruel, repressive and totally unfair for any normal individual who has brains to question the working practices by CSM.

Anyway for the time being let's hope that my next ship will not be that bad , landing on a nice ship is only by chance and luck.

OUT OF TIME

Marsa el brega - where the fuck is that place exactly huh ? I know its somewhere in Europe and take's a couple of days east from Barcelona, Spain but where the hell is that specifically on the map ? I assumed it might be somewhere again in eastern Europe as we had adjusted the ships clock by one hour advance - but on what country its located is still I have to find out.

Anyway there's been some news lately about this voyage (marsa el brega to Rotterdam), not exactly general news but news about my possible disembarkation (along with bosun payopay and messman montoya). Its only plausible that my batch would disembark in Rotterdam Netherlands after the loading operation in this Marsa el brega, given that it’s a convenient port.

Don’t really mind getting off on this ship, but problem is my finances. I haven't exactly fully recovered yet on the money part and would at needed at least a month more to get some little extra for my money, anyway as if I got any other choice at all, but there's no need for me to panic or be tense - after all they haven't brought down yet the names on who will be our replacements, what is definite is that this ship is going on Rotterdam.

On Sunday November 23, 2014 in the afternoon, we had a barbecue party. Helped out in setting up the tables, barbecue grill and the like. When it started at around 4pm. Everything was going fine until his lordship Captain Kolev saw me having a camera and taking pictures. He called me and ordered that I had those pictures be deleted, Fine by me - problem is what followed after. As usual 3rd engineer Jerry Aguila Gonzales started preaching again like some sort of righteous Infallible pope, Criticizes me about the rule in which no cameras are allowed during barbecue parties, heck and that’s not all - it didn't stop only on that. Preaching even dragged to the part that I'm being lectured on the civilian clothes I'm wearing along with the design of my working coveralls specifically me wearing a full facemask. I don’t really see the point of this being discussed and so definitely way off the topic and has no relation at all in me having a camera around.

There's so much bitching around on the grill party that I lost my mood and left early without saying goodbye - just took off and hid on my cabin. Besides there's no point in me staying that long if I'm not enjoying something especially if there's a "helicopter" hovering and bitching me around.

Anyway I don’t exactly understand why Soviet Ship officer's here are afraid of those pictures coming up - for Filipino standards it's no big deal , Apparently from what I heard they will get some nasty reprisal from CSM if ever one of the photos will surface on the internet.

The Following day

We resumed on the usual maintenance work , this time washing the whole deck area including the accommodation bloc with sea water. Everything was doing fine until I heard from BOSUN Payopay that maintenance work is only up to 3pm, I asked BOSUN Payopay on why it's only 3 / 4 of a day. He said that he has no idea, My co-workers O.S. Vicent tan said that he overheard that it might be that this ship might drop anchor. Whatever the case regular maintenance work isn't going to be interrupted if it weren't for something.

Aside from washing the whole deck area. Me and Bosun payopay was ordered by our lovely soviet captain from hell to hid 3 card board boxes of full cigarette on the aft peak ballast. Seriously I find "hiding stuff away from the bonds store to  the ballast" scheme a so waste of time and total unnecessary, I don’t think that Libyans (heard from messman that were going to Libya) are a  bunch of thieves. They may have some difficult times but they're no "Dorobo" . Anyway who am I  to have these such opinions ? My task is only to hid these items , doesn’t matter on how twisted our soviet captain thinks - only matters is that we get the job done.

3pm came by and turns out that after the coffee break , This ship went on "berthing upon arrival scenario" . Not a very appealing to our approach considering that most of the crew are all dead beat tired from maintenance work and they never informed us that this would be the scenario. Sadly our lovely communist captain never bothered to inform us sooner about this and would result in us going to work straight till 8pm and missing out dinner. This would seriously took a toll on my upcoming work shift by midnight - I had no rest and proper sleep - no thanks to that mother loving commie bastard.

Soon after the mooring ops and after preparing the necessary equipment , I went straight ahead in the crew mess to get some grub. While eating I overheard  from our "soviet captain from hell" talking to BOSUN payopay that he'd disembark when this ship will transit in Gibraltar area for bunkering, So basically its confirmed that he'd be going home soon after few days. - No such mention of me and messman montoya on which date will we both disembark on this ship.  Messman Montoya overheard the conversation on the crew mess as well and was immediately hyped to heard the news, He told me that I should to pack stuff soon as there's a possibility that we too might disembark on the ship unannounced.

In other news…

The effects of exhaustion and sleep deprivation were really affecting me when I began on my work shift in midnight. I was so haggard that a lot of times I immediately feel into a light sleep whenever I close my eyes or remain in one place for a few minutes. Disorientation effects from sleep deprivation was becoming visible, - couldn't concentrate and focus that well , My mind was totally floating and a lot of times I was blabbering nonsense on simple chatter . As soon as I finished my working shift - I immediately crashed to my bed on my cabin and totally skipped breakfast, I'm more tired than hungry.

In the morning much to everyone's disappointment , internet service didn’t arrive. We had been requesting internet for a few days before being here in Libya and yet no such thing arrived at all. There was an offer from the agent when we arrived but turns out the terms aren't really fair and a total rip off of money. Agent says that he only has one Wi-Fi internet modem equipment and that modem can only support three connections out of almost everybody here on this ship that need internet connection.

Guess that Internet connection in Libya will just have to skip and updating of my blog will have to wait a little further.