EXPLORING ROTTERDAM

While waiting for a flight to get back in the Philippines, I decided to spent my time exploring every nook and cranny of this city. It wouldn't be helpful for me to be just confined in a small hotel room and waste my time there doing social media . Here are the picture i took while exploring Rotterdam, for the moment i had located some tourist spots around the local hotel I'm staying (called maritime hotel). Maybe one day i'd be so familiar on this place I'd definitely be able to walk and explore the surroundings even more

Officially we had already disembarked on the ship and awaited for our flight schedule back to the Philippines. From what i heard on captain abibba. flight schedule will be on the 23rd december and arrival date will be on christmas eve, In the meantime while waiting for our flight , i took the opportunity to roam around and explore Rotterdam fully. I believe that i shouldn't waste my time just holed up on the hotel room and stick all the time on social media. Funny that some of my crew mates always criticize me for always being locked up inside the cabin, Now it seems that the the situation is now exactly opposite and their the one's afraid to go outside the hotel room. Doesn't matter anyway if they want to stay up - there and waste the time of their lives trapped on a small hotel room doing social media.

This is the picture i got from exploring the whole (or major part of rotterdam city)

Saying Hi and Hello at the same time in Rotterdam

Far west side has a long walk way

The Erasmus bridge near maritime hotel (the hotel I'm staying) 

Behold the amphibious bus of Netherlands, basically its a tourist bus . I saw it in youtube that this bus can go thru water, I wish the philippines has these types of bus , as its practical given that most roads here get flooded even on normal rain weather

The whole city map of rotterdam

GOD BLESS UNCLE SAM !!! This is the most iconic fast food on filipino sailors , Definitely a must to visit and eat here 

Really tire from all the long hours of walking, had to remove my "Highschool jap outfit" and put it in the closet

Remembering and studying on which part of the city i explore and will be marking the areas on the paper map

Good thing im already familiar in reading a map, according to here a few more kilometers and I'm already on my commercial district 

Location of the mall i found , my left point finger pointing it on the map, the other on the lower read arrow is the location of the hotel I am staying 

Fuck off batman !! can you see i'm a little bit busy shopping . I can handle myself in shopping - go find another helpless citizen aside to assist with  you do gooder  !!!

Tony stark seems to be pretty pissed off on customers who just basically do "window shopping" and don't buy something , hmpf probably he just mistook me for a shop lifter of some sort

If apple company would release an ipad this big for 50 U.S. Dollars , I'm still not going to buy that kind of shit - i'd be better off with a plasma TV :D 

Cellphones , cellphones, and more cellphones !!! but this time its charged on euros and not dollars

Now this is the collection every pervert needs , i wonder what kind of "preferences" this store has ? bestiality ? , incest ? orgy or the usual BDSM ????

Well santa is off work today and probably buying some toys at best buy to cut some labor cost for the elves 

This is a fruits and vegetable store , European style though

Remember when you're in europe (specifically in Netherlands and Belgium) Media mart is the solution to all the shopping needs - well at least on the electronics and communication needs of sailors . This is like the dutch version of "SM mall" in the philippines

Europe is so clean and pollution free , the soles of my shoes are not still not that dirty - even if i walked more than four hours straight !!!

I wish my ship was always berthed next to the road and no security check points like this one 

Looking for another tourist location on the map , some sort of CN tower of rotterdam 

a small chinese pagoda in netherlands

paying homage to the shipping principal i first started with , HAIL STOLT NEILSEN !!!

CONTI GREENLAND FILES

"As I boarded the plane and moved thru the air at remarkable speed drawing ever closer to home. And yet I find no peace. If there was an only way to find out what lies ahead. Instead I'm left to wonder. What will I find back home. Will I be greeted with hostility or be quietly ignored? Even if I knew the answer, it would bring me no rest, for I cannot say which would I prefer"

This is the crew people on board CONTI GREENLAND , 20 standing crew. Dramatis personae

Gorge Potirniche (Captain, Romanian)

Pavlo Tsvyetkov (Chief Mate, Ukrainian)

Jose Mari Lubi Olan (2nd officer, Filipino)

Vergel Acebo Abalos (3rd officer, Filipino)

Oleg Odarchenko (Chief Engineer, Ukrainian)

Andrejs Aronietis (2nd Engineer, Latvian)

Eusebio Jr. Santos Astrero (3rd Engineer , Filipino)

Michael Reyes Funtilar (Electrical Officer, Filipino)

Thanny Gilbuena Sepulveda (Pump man, Filipino)

Nilo Payopay (Bosun, Filipino)

Ruben Lawagon Ganub (Able Seaman, Filipino)

Marlon Depallo Layos (Able Seaman, Filipino)

Myself (Ordinary Seaman, Filipino, refused to be promoted O.S. - O.T. )

Joseph Quinal Dinglasa (Ordinary Seaman, Filipino, promoted to A.B. on latter)

Ronnie Tapawan Macalawa (Ordinary Seaman, Filipino)

Virgilio Panado Calayag (Engine Fitter, Filipino)

Elbert Gallamaso Lague (Oiler, Filipino)

Retchel Carin Taporco (Wiper, Filipino)

Regidor Figueroa Pineda (Chief Cook, Filipino)

Dimitrov Ivaylo Kolev (Captain, Bulgarian , replaces Gorge Portiniche)

Anatoliy Bayev (Chief Mate , Ukrainian, replaces Pavlo Tsyetkov)

Revaz Chavchanidze (Chief Engineer, Georgain, replaces Oleg Odarchenko)

Maksym Plokhotnichenko (2nd Engineer, Ukrainian, replaces Andrejs Aronietis)

Jerry Aguila Gonzales (3rd Engineer, Filipino, Replaces Eusebio Jr. Santos)

Ferdinand Curso Ybanez ( Electrician, Filipino, replaces Micheal Reyes Funtilar)

Erwin Del Rosario Chaingan (Fitter , Filipino , replaces Virgilio Panada Calayag)

Anthony Cruzat Evangelista (Wiper, Filipino , replaces Retchel Carin Taporco)

Cacatian, Emery Kris C. (2nd mate, Filipino, replaces Jose Mari Lubi Olan)

Visario, Reynaldo L. (Chief Cook, Filipino, replaces Regidor Figueroa Pineda)

Bilyy, Serhiy (Chief Mate, Ukrainian, replaces Anatoliy Bayev)

Jigan, Sorin (Chief Engineer, Romanian, Replaces Revaz Chavchanidze)

Eslit, Democrito Jr. Quinmada (3rd Mate, Filipino, replaces Vergel Acebo Abalos)

Reno Torillos Bilbao (Ordinary Seaman, Filipino, replaces Ronnie Macalawa)

Vincent Anthony Montecillo Tan (O.S. , Filipino, replaces Ruben Ganub)

Petrica Daraba (Romanian, Engine maintenance, Disembarks in Germany)

Aurelian Ciobeica (Romanian, Engine Maintenance, Disembarks in Germany)

Laurentiu Ciinaru (Romanian, Engine Maintenance, Disembarks in Germany)

Viorel Zainea (Romanian, Engine Maintenance, Disembarks in Germany)

Viorel Scraba (Romanian, Engine Maintenance, Disembarks in Germany) 

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) .