SINCERE HEARTS

Entry log august 29 1984

Happy birthday to me ! Happy birthday to me , happy birthday , happy birthday , Happy birthday to me - you old dinosaur.  Well cheers to me , I am now officially an adult , and an old hag. Years passed by and I hardly felt that I'm now a fully grown Hag errr…. dinosaur errr…. I mean adult by now. Seriously It never occurred to me that I have now reached that age and since it's my birthday. I am not going to write anything about politics or any other worldly affairs in the maritime community and on work , I can write that on the latter - for now I'm writing on something philosophical , something to think about on my life and what I had been through.

For now despite my advance age , I haven't gone anywhere in life beyond "settling down" - For now I could say that I'm a full fledge standalone bachelor. A lot of people at my age (and younger than me) are now saying that I should live in peace now and settle down , but of course I would really love that but apparently the situation I had been through in all those years are somewhat hostile for me to thrive and as a result my progress in life is has been suffering from "arrested development" . From my overall observation , I am ten years (give or take) late on what I should had been doing in life.

Anyway , for now I am going to write about my love life since I'm already an adult (and it's my blog anyway )

(MY) Love Story

So when does love begin ? Some people say that love begins during high school or maybe even in college , the thing when you're old enough (as in really old) to handle a connection with someone. Honestly I don’t think love starts at that period, it starts at an early age. People and society tend to ignore and this dismiss it entirely as some childhood fantasy , maybe so but perhaps they always brand this because they never understood it entirely nor even be open in talking about it.

For me love starts at an early age. Despite ages have already passed, I still remember my very first love and her name.  If my memory serves me correct I was in the third grade with her and she was my seatmate , things didn't exactly progress between me and her other than being classmates and just friends but it was very obvious that I like her a lot. Sadly things will never progress any further on the fact that both our parents hated each other.

The next love interest I got myself into was in the following year. On fourth grade , I met her at school and had been good friends since I lend her my notebook and helped her out on her homework. She has short hair and always wear a "head band" accessory on her hair. I still remember that her favourite class subject was science (same as mine) and dreams of being an astronaut someday (me a scientist) .

The most awkward moment between me and her was that one day our teacher caught me day dreaming and staring at her in the class room. Worst part was that the whole class saw it and instantly figured out I had a crush on her. She was so embarrassed at that moment that I saw her face flushed red. Sadly me and her got separated when she moved in on another country (her classmate told me it was in Australia) at the school years end. I never or never got to confessed to her my true feelings.

On the middle fifth grade and sixth grade, My love interest back then didn’t started out exactly as "friends" . She was basically more like a school rival or in some ways an opponent classmate, we competed on almost anything from grades to all the way done on the teachers attention. Turning point on our rivalry was one day I caught her cheating on one of our exams and told it to our teacher, I felt terribly sorry on what I did and should have turned a blind eye on it   after that incident i decided we had to have a heart to heart talk about it.

I guess little by little we got close to each after that until we became good friends and in some ways a romantic interest. Our classmates would always tease us being a couple. We were both happy at that time. I guess the mistake I made during those happy times was I should have decided to stayed with her all the way till high school. It was a big mistake for me to swap her with my ambition to join some elite high school during those times, a mistake that up to now i regret and had to live with. I still remember that day she asked me if I'm going to stay on our school and join her in high school, I said that I'd be changing schools for high school.

High school was a very turbulent time for me and was constantly plagued with problems both back home and at school. It was for the best that I shut myself out and my heart from all those problems, I fell in love I guess on the last parts of my high school years and it was all by accident. Never imagine her to be my dream gal at all, actually I just treated her as an "Assigned" (or arranged) prom partner, since proms here in the Philippines get "assigned" and not exactly invited or asked out like in western countries, yes I fell in love with her inadvertently .  Anyway I had got no option in backing out probably because of school pressure from our school advisor (teacher) , I back out - my reputation will terribly suffer and my grades are already falling apart back then , I had no other choice but to accept - reluctantly. Prom day came and wasn't really looking forward to it, but the thing to make me have a change of heart was that she was nice to me throughout the prom, took me by surprise and normally didn't expected to be treated nice.

It was a very romantic relationship ,though officially we never declared to be boyfriend and girlfriend. It lasted until my early years in college, but like any other sad ending in a relationship - we separated ways due to major difference on how we view our relationship.

I guess that will be the last time that I really feel in love head over heels with someone.

Over the course of the years my romantic love live fell dark and silent because , I was kept busy and left rebuilding my life on the aftermath of a series of domestic problems. Things were so bad back then that I had to set aside everything and focus on picking up the pieces reconstructing on what's left of my life, it was not even certain that I would finish high school or even reach college at all.

I got my hands full on those hard years focusing on necessity and survival, there is absolutely zero time and monetary budget to even create and maintain a love relationship. This hardship dragged on until I was back in college some years after. Although I was practically afloat , funding on my college could not sustain any romantic relationships.

For me the Filipino society is backward when it comes to love compared to other Asian countries, probably too conservative in the wrong sense. Anyway I don’t exactly think that love starts somewhere on college or beyond it, and don’t really believe in being too young to fall in love like most adult always say. For me they're saying that because they're so full of hypocrisy and never get to understand young people. Filipino Society is very judgemental on that fact, and very medieval. 

I haven't found her yet , and maybe there's a possibility that I never will. But to find the meaning of existence is to be that something is out there meant for me and I won't stop losing hope that maybe I will encounter her someday.

SCHOOL DAYS ANIME

Entry is based on August 26, 2015

Ship has been diverted to La havre France first, before going to Amsterdam. Apparently from what I heard on the bridge, the full discharge will be in france and the loading will be in Netherlands then slingshot its way to Ecuador. So obviously after Netherlands its going to be a very long travel again that will last for a month.

Possibly my disembarkation if this will materialize will be somewhere in south America , which will be a problem for me because of the temperature issue again. I'm not exactly sure if temperature's in that area will be cold enough for me to wear my travel clothes since I only carried clothes suitable and designed for European weather. Anyway whatever the case if this will ever be the reality I will have to make changes on my clothing style.

Currently playing network games of "call of duty: modern warfare" is temporarily suspended until this ship gets out of Netherlands, well good for me in this case in the sense that I get to spend some time doing other thing like updating my blog and other stuff. For the mean time its good that they had to suspend the games and I myself isn't exactly in the mood to play them at all for now because my game save there went corrupted and I had to forcefully start back down again to the rank of "private"  (from LT. Col.) I had to do some remedies to get my rank back again and all my equipment and fortunately for me I had an extra pc to come by so , it means I just update and upgrade my game saves using a "drone PC" . Hopefully I will get back my rank and equipment in days time.

In other news

Lately I had my interest in watching some anime material which I copied on 2nd mate OLAN's hard drive, one in particular titled "school days" got my interest probably because it’s a great drama / tragic love story. Originally this anime came from the "hentai" series but was toned down and revamped into a wholesome (well in some extent) love story. It has a great story plot, a must to watch for the non-anime (and anime) people.

RUDENESS AND LACK OF MANNERS OF PINOY SAILORS

Been some time since I last updated my journal, and I guess it's about time I write something. The days that went after this ships recent departure from kinder Morgan terminal in Galveston Texas have been relatively quiet. I had been busy doing mostly the usual routine maintenance work and some affairs related to the  bond store.

Apparently the latest news is that , the bond store inventory is not that accurate as it was supposedly and as I suspect 3rd mate keith caduas predecessor (3rd mate german corales) never even bothered to update it before he left and finished contract. As a result me and Keith have now been updating the inventory every so often and checking out why the numbers have been inaccurate. Anyway doesn’t surprise me that German was always such a dick and dumped all the unresolved inventory to keith after he left, I mean he was an asshole back then in Cape Tallin and It hasn't changed when I encountered him again here in Conti Agulhas.

For the moment I had been testing out the latest laptop computer (Lenovo) I bought to my sister during this ships stay in U.S.A. . The new computer I bought isn't really much to look at and from my perspective as a buyer, I only intend it as a gift and nothing more, This Lenovo computer I bought lacks the RAM power , I sufficiently need to run games. Its only has 4GB of RAM compared to my aging HP laptop that is 6GB Ram.  I'm sure that my sister will be delighted to see her new laptop and she needs a little reward after all in successfully taking care of mom when I'm not around.

Aside from the high end equipment that I will giving to my sister when I get back home, I'm also planning to buy a new car for myself. My sister has told me that there's a possibility that I could buy one this Christmas season and that the payment terms are easy , 60 thousand pesos for the down payment and the succeeding monthly payment will be just 10k

In other news

I recently ran into a heated discussion over someone who posted something on the internet (tinig ng marino facebook group page). Apparently the posting is basically harmless and does not have anything to do at all in regards to the maritime community but what happened was that someone butt in on my advice and sharing of wisdom in regards to matters of the relationship. From what I saw this "Navie trasga" guy is very rude and ill mannered, and not only does he even contradicted my posted opinions but that thunder cunt even has nerve in insulting my username like a dog that got loose from his yard and keeps humping and shitting his way through the neighbourhood. Of course I'm not just going to sit around and let that insult pass, the problem with Filipino sailors is that they love to insult people but are afraid to take an insult, So I respond on his message by hurling a lot of nasty words and beating the shit out of him (in cyberspace)

That's one of the many reason why people (and me in particular) don't like Filipino sailors , they always piss each other off. 

Here's the snap shot copy of what transpired. (its not translated) 

KINDER MORGAN

AUGUST 06 2015

Ship has arrived and is waiting a couple of days now, Ship has arrive at around august 03, 2015 midnight. Supposedly I was the one (or two of the O.S.'s) needed to drop the anchor but turns out that BOSUN serafin has a new policy regarding anchor dropping / heaving - he only needs one O.S. at a time. So in turn my presence there was no longer needed. O.S. Joash was the one who dropped the anchor at that time.

Weather on the past few days was cooler compared to what I experienced in Louisiana. A bit windy now in Galveston Texas probably because summer season in the U.S. about to end. On the days that this ship was at anchorage , we were basically busy in doing the same old maintenance task (chipping , polishing and painting rusted areas) plus washing the deck every now and then from bird droppings which littered the whole forward aft area.

On the 7th of august there were rumours that this ship might go to berth sooner than expected. At around 5 pm on the same day , as small supply boat came near on our ship to deliver some food provisions. It was expected that this small supply boat would also bring in the new on signers to replace the disembarking ones (2nd engineer, 2nd officer and electrician) but apparently it was revealed that they are only carrying a small amount of provisions and bonds store supplies (only becks beer, nothiing else)

After helping out in the provisions, it was expected that berthing schedule was cancelled within this day. So I went back to my cabin and resumed playing a pc game called "call of duty: modern warfare"  , it was a first person network game and I was playing against three people (fitter, wiper and oiler) . It was about roughly 8 pm when I received a call from my cabin phone that berthing schedule will commence and we have to heave up anchor and prepare for the pilot ladder.

After the pilot went on-board this ship , we were ordered to heave up the pilot ladder and secure it.

Usual charade when it comes to berthing , same old drill that I'm now accustomed and familiar after years being a sailor. Channelling to the terminal took six hours an  

OLA REPUBLICA DOMINCANA

Here's the events that happened during the Dominican republic stay.

Monday work routine was done as usual , I was put on the task of segregation of garbage along with the disposal of food waste and then on the latter helping out O.S. Joash and A.B. Ryan Osiang in washing the deck. The whole work took us until noon time and was expecting or assumed that berthing will be sometime on the latter afternoon. During lunch time all of a sudden , it was announced that arrival in dominican republic will be in an hour and its berthing upon arrival schedule. (meaning this ships gets to dock as soon as it arrives).

1pm exactly when I was called in the cabin to rig the pilot ladder , then it was followed by mooring operations. Temperature in domincan republic (and the rest of central America was humid and hot. I had to bring along three purified water bottles filled with cold water just in case to keep us rehydrated. Mooring arrangement from what I recall is 3:2:2 and the spring lines will be wire , the rest is soft ropes.

Mooring is tedious and complicated because of the weather and we have to drag one soft rope around all the way from the forecastle area to the spring line winches . After that we have to give the spring line to the dock . Since there was no apparent mooring boat on standby we had to manually give those ropes one by one via heaving line. It was taking us a lot of time and as a result Captain Romanuik was already shouting on the radio that were wasting too much time on that rope.

By the time we already finished heaving up the third rope , everybody was already exhausted from the temperature. Good thing for me I already took my anti-heat medications so at least I have some form of resistance from the hot weather.

SAILORS PERCEPTION ON THE DOMINICAN REPUBLIC

Security in Dominican republic is a bit different compared to the usual countries in central America , although it's not as tight as in south America or even west African countries. There is still a discrimination on how we treat them - all because on the guise of "Security measures" . As expected there no supposedly allowed at all times to go inside without any permission and if permission is granted they don’t go around without any escorts. The kitchen is closed for them at all times and they cannot use any facilities inside.

Despite the ill treatment, The D.R. guys don’t seemed to mind being treated that way.

Anyway , One good thing about the local folks here in the security and gangway watchman is that they also sell all sorts of stuff , and believe it or not they also sell "black stone" (some sort of premature ejaculation tablet from what I heard on the locals) . Earlier I thought that this was only being sold in the panama area and not elsewhere, it was a surprise for me that they were selling it here as well. I suppose this tablet is available on the whole Caribbean area. Aside from selling that drug , some local folk here also sell the usual stuff , internet SIM card and from my understanding , it's about 15 U.S. Dollars per 750 MB , their mobile network here is either "Orange" or "claro" , unfortunately for me I didn't saw on how they registered the whole process - so for now I have no clear records on the internet here.

One thing I found out on the port here in Dominican republic is that there's a night club here called "Manila bar" , and as expected on any red light district in a foreign  country especially central and south America there's prostitutes and whore's inside it. During my late afternoon gangway watch shift , I heard on the radio that A.B. Ryan asked me that he will be coming in late on work and will go on shore leave and I had to fill him in for a while. I agreed of course. A few hours later (well about 9pm) , he returned back and showed something in the gangway . It was a panty and a high heels shoe, I don’t want to get into the details but its obviously he went there and had some fun.

DEEP IN THE CARRIBEAN

july 24 , 2015 friday

As part of the two part unloading cargo operations , this ship is now currently moored in Jamaica. Docking operations started as early as 6:30 pm and was told to immediately prepare the pilot embarkation ladder for the pilot. Soon after the pilot embarked on this ship, all crew was announced via P.A. to standby for mooring operations. Mooring operations proceeded very smoothly and without any problems , the mooring arrangement if I recall was 3:2:2 (3 headlines and 2 springs lines) The spring lines was of surprise, a soft rope was used along with the headlines. The breast line if I recall was a wire line. The whole mooring operation in the forward could have finished a lot sooner , if not for the Jamaican mooring boat crew which took its time in placing it on the dolphin platform.

As for the weather , it has very few changes and was still very hot. - not much to expect on a tropical country , as a matter of fact the Philippines despite being a tropical country is much cooler compared to tropical countries in central America. But if I could compare the temperature experienced in Louisiana and here , I could say that its much better.

The loading operations here in kingston Jamaica will only take a day based on what I heard and it's not a full discharge , ( the other half of it will be in the Dominican republic ).

So what can I say in Jamaica ? First off this is a small island located south of Cuba , mostly this country is a tourist destination and people here speak English, even their local television shows are in English language so there's basically no problem, which is good since a lot of Filipino sailors understand English (take note UNDERSTAND , I didn’t say their able to speak English). I'm not sure if Jamaican's here are nice people given that this ship is only moored on a platform. The internet from what recall here is bandwidth charge and expensive . 20 U.S. Dollars for 250 MB of internet. The good thing about internet here is its ready to use and no registration needed.

After a day of discharge , pilot boarded this ship at about 10:00 pm and immediately went into unmooring. Unmooring and securing of deck equipment was finished at about close to midnight.

Travel time from the Jamaica to the Dominican republic takes about a day.

Sunday was a good thing a rest day , and we haven't have a good rest day for ages now (which for some reason berthing and unmooring operations get timed always on weekends). 

INCOMING DISASTER

July 17, 2015 

When this ship leaves port, it will have four new crew members. The thing here that concerns me is the new crew , Rumours have been going on that these new crew members are somewhat trouble makers and definitely not the kind of people whom can't get along easily. I don't know them personally but there are rumours saying that two of these new crew have serious attitude problems. Specifically the O.S. and the BOSUN.

Anyway in just a matter of a few hours after they arrived , immediately two I had mentioned got into the wrong foot with some of the crew. And caused a bit of bad impression during then recent bunkering operations (Immediately after we unmoored). Apparently BOSUN Serafin left the whole six hour long transit outside lake charles to only me and O.S. Joash, each of us has to spend three hours each on the forward part being on "guard" , when supposedly he should be the one leading and staying on watch , but it turns out that he was the first to step inside the cabin and slept. O.S. Joash said he wasn't happy on what happened that were still out there  while him (referring to BOSUN Serafin) is inside, in other words he ditched us out. From what I interpret this new bosun is somewhat a problem from what I heard on previous crew. 

A few days later…

We are still doing the old maintenance work of chipping, polishing and painting rusted area on this ship. As expected this so called routine maintenance will never end , like exercise during prison time and 24 hours before we arrived oj the next port we did the usual chore (I mean work) of washing the whole deck area.

In other news during those few days' time

The new salary rate scale of NSB just arrived, as expected the new salary scale was a bit lower compared to our current salary. Most of the affected that got a huge decrease in salary was for the higher rankers, as for the A.B.'s and lower ranks they got at least 30 U.S. dollars down from their current salary. The rank that was hugely affected was "messman" ( ship version of a "maid" ) which had a decrease of as much as 200 U.S. Dollars. On my current status , the reduction of salary was not that severe (in fact benign)  with only 13 U.S.D. something. Despite my rank was less affected , I still have thoughts of maybe going to another company - not because of the money but because I wanted to started over again , start fresh and maybe (and hoping) that this new start will be better from the previous one.

Honestly I'm facing a dilemma as a sailor, this so called "profession" is now very impractical and costly in maintaining, and I have serious doubts I will ever proceed further in this job. Seriously this job will cost me another 100 thousand pesos more in upgrading in the years to come and this doesn’t include the objective of securing a license. All this expense for a job that is related to similarly to a construction / maintenance job ,

Frankly I have serious thoughts of retiring early and shifting career and going into medicine, in fact to be honest I shouldn't be here in the first place at all - If it weren't for the financial difficulties that I had suffered during my teen years, I would have been very much a medical doctor by now. 

VISITING THE GLADES

JULY 10, 2015

Couple of days after Venezuela, we were again doing basically the same old usual maintenance work. Mostly were just washing the deck area, removing rust stains using a rust remover chemical on the ship chimney, segregating trash on the garbage room and literary scooping up dirt and throwing it overboard.

This ship arrived in Florida USA, at July 10, 2015 noon time and we dropped anchor, during the dropping of anchor job, we encountered a minor problem on the "drop" which apparently the chains got stuck and wouldn't go any further after a shackle and a half was lowered. BOSUN Diosana tried to use a sledge hammer to smash and kick start the chain but it was unresponsive. (do not try this method - its ill-advised) , so in the end we received an order from Captain Waldemar Romaniuk that we should lower the anchor by gear. The whole process of lowering it was very slow and took us about 15 to 20 more minutes to lower 7 shackles in the water.

During Noon time , everyone on deck was wondering on what job order to do and since Chief mate Oleg never gave any more job orders for this day , we were basically just wandering off on the whole deck area trying to search and look for ways just to make us look busy, we could try doing the never ending looping sort of jobs in deck (like chipping , polishing and painting rusted area's and the like) but we hesitated doing such jobs because berthing schedules notices in the U.S.A. is terribly unpredictable. So in the end I and O.S. Joash ended up cleaning our own cabins instead of doing something on deck (due to lack of job orders) . Aside from cleaning our cabins , I tried doing a side work in cleaning my tools by immersing it on rust remover chemical .

After working hours , since this ship is at anchorage. I saw Fitter Lorenzo and Pumpman Sepulveda fishing on the port side and took a picture of their catch. Suddenly fitter lorenzo suggested that I should help him out on his next catch , It didn’t took long for him to catch another one and I helped by simple holding the  fish after he reeled it removed the bait from its mouth. Up close I knew thought that this kind of fish had teeth.

At around 10 Pm I was surprised to hear over the cabin phone that berthing operation will now resume and immediately we heaved up anchor and proceed to berth .

Sleep deprivation is getting to be a problem , especially now that I'm caught ill prepared on the sudden docking schedule. It's not that serious but being unable to concentrate on my work and being "delirium" does have some nasty effects. Most people here observe every inch of my move like a god damn surveillance camera.  Anyway serves me right in playing too much PC videogames, "elder scrolls : SKYRIM "  really took much attention in accomplishing some fantasy quest there.

Since this is a U.S. port , Apparently I'm not allowed to use my mask as an headdress given with this so called ISPS security standards (or marsec standards) , it’s a bummer on my part given that I use it to cover my long hair and as a face protection itself. Well I guess it was a complication I have to deal with being in american soil.

During my gangway watch , I was surprised to learned from A.B. "lydon" that he had found a free Wi-Fi spot near the aft area and aside from the good news , the Wi-Fi hotspot is definitely free - like an oasis in the middle of a waste land. It never occurred to me that "Lyndon" could discover a hotspot in this area, I took the opportunity to update all my software's on my cell phone. It didn't took me long to do it.

For the moment port everglades in Florida , isn't much to look at because of the strict security and the weather here is terrible, from my estimate the temperatures here rose as high as 37 degree's during high noon. Provisioning (resupply) took place on noon time as well as garbage disposal. One thing I had noticed on garbage disposal here in this pier is some sort of weird penalty on which a trash shouldn't hit or land on the soil (either accidental or intentional) , if it does the ship will be fined 3,000 U.S. Dollars for it. I'm not sure if the garbage man is making these up or just avoiding his work but apparently this is what happened during garbage disposal and that we had to tie one end of the rope from the ship to his garbage truck , and sort of "zip line" to deliver the trash

In other news I took advantage of the free time to go on shore leave, but as what is expected its very limited and restricted. Security in port is tight and we can wander off on any shopping area's were we wanted to like walmart or best buy, Its just stuck on some small store called seaman centre in florida and that's about it. Even their electronic store in seaman's club doesn’t look much and their the gadgets shown there is somewhat outdated

SOMEWHERE IN SOUTH AMERICA

July 01, 2015

Finally arrived at this place after two days from panama, This ship arrived at around close to 8pm and as usual procedure me and BOSUN Diosana was in standby at the forward to drop anchor. Anchoring wasn't a problem in dropping and that it was dropped at 6 shackles on deck, it was very quick and very messy as expected on any anchor drop via gravity. It left a big puff of dirt cloud while being dropped - enough to cover me whole and left my coveralls all coated with mud

According to the previous safety meeting discussed at the crew mess yesterday - on this country , this ships security level will be raised to marsec level two and It will be a double watch while this ship is anchored, so basically as what the name implies there will be two persons on standby until this ship readies itself on berth.

In the meantime while this ship is still waiting , some of the crew here are doing business and trading off a few stuff from nearby fishing boats that pass. Some of us got lucky on a boat and it happened that they have a few interesting stuff to trade, like internet sim cards, beer and "Bacardi" (a hard drink similar to scotch). I got my hands on an internet sim card (for updating my blog, face book and twitter) and some liquor called Bacardi.

At first the internet wasn't working properly and I couldn't figure out on how to use it directly to my pc computer (both on my HP and Acer). I waited a couple of hours and tried again. This time it worked perfectly and was able to update my social media accounts. Fitter Lorenzo on the other hand had serious problem in the internet connection and keeps pestering me about using my cell phone as his modem. Apparently his connection isn't going to work on the fact that he's using a different sim that the rest of us , (he's using movistar sim , our is "digitel" sim). On the latter I tried hiding the information that my internet connection can be used as a hotspot, I only said that my internet connection is for mobile cellphone use only - a little white lie wouldn't hurt anyway.

At the morning of july 3 Friday , I was about to finish my anchor watch and was already headed back to my cabin when I heard on the radio that , this ship will immediately dock at 8 am , and me and A.B. "lyndon" had to prepare the accommodation gangway for the pilot to arrive.

Mooring operations went soon after that, and it wasn’t exactly difficult. Only thing that's was an annoyance was 3rd mate's corales attitude. Saying that I don’t know anything when it comes to knots during mooring time, It never bothered me on the fact that this is a typical problem when you have Filipino's officer's in the mooring crew. People thinking that they're high and mighty because they have a license to practice and blabbers and lectures you all the way even on work - well I don’t need his lectures or preachings ! . Anyway when it comes to mooring, it's not a big deal on what kind of knot you'd use , as long as the mooring ropes get to the destination from point A to point B - no need to figure out on what kind of knot to use because were not in school. It makes no difference if you're using either bow line , clove hitch, timber hitch or more specifically a midshipman's knot - Nobody gives a shit on that ! If it gets stuck, then use the reserve heaving line while the other crew member is busy sorting it out, it's that simple and no need to be fancy on work (because there no extra pay on the performance). Just keep the work simple and practical and it will be fine, That's the basic working tactics I apply.

In other news …

Given that the MARSEC security level has been raised on this ship to level two , and as a result our gangway watch work has been raised to a total of 12 hours per day , and were doing triple watch (meaning there's three people on deck on guard duty at that time).I don’t really mind having an extra company during my work and the six hour long shift , I'm used to it anyway. 

According to the policy nobody goes in and out on our ship without reporting first to the Cargo control room (via radio) and asking permission first. Compared to the usual routine of just announcing it over the radio and letting them in. As usual third mate corales goes in again telling me that next time before I let someone in I should ask permission first and when the time came that I was radioing about a surveyor who wanted to come on board , he said on the radio that I shouldn't put them on hold and let them in immediately. - ( HMPF ! Double standard bitches !)

Anyway in other matters

I heard from O.S. Keith that this so called raise of security level is just an excuse coming from the captain because this ship will be going to the U.S. on next port and he doesn't want any hassles on port authority inspections there given that this ship just came from south America (specifically Venezuela which is a drug trafficking country according to the U.S. ). Usually Venezuela is a trouble free place compared to other south American countries like Colombia or even brazil for sailors , you can go on a shore leave if a sailor wants to without much the hassle but it seems that our captain doesn’t want to take chances (or have fun at all) so we ended up stuck here and trapped.

I guess this is the downside of having a mixed crew, most of the time (or all the time) your stuck and trapped inside a ship doing work even though were supposedly doing nothing at all . The foreign officers doesn’t want anybody to go out and see the surroundings , and like all of any human fallibility flaws they get jealous if they see anyone having fun.

On the third day in port, cargo operations stopped and we had to wait another twelve hours for the cargo resume loading. From what I heard , the terminal ran out of cargo to pump and that for the moment it is still generating, Fortunately after the 12 hours of waiting , the loading operations resumed. During the wait, O.S. keith and had a chat about his personal life (not that I care , and its exactly none of my business) saying that all his relatives now are in Italy and he's the only one living in their house. I told him that maybe someday he'd retire being a sailor early and that he'd spend the rest of his years being in overseas based on his situation.

During the last day of loading, this ship got a visit from illegal drug inspectors and they conducted a thorough search of the entire ship from the bridge all the way down to the engine room. Included also on the search is the cabin to cabin which they have a dog with them to sniff out any narcotics or substances. Usually the crew must be inside the cabin , in order to prevent any foul play or planted evidence against them. Aside from the usual narcotic inspectors , the ship was also inspected on diver's , seeing that underneath the ship (meaning the part which is submerged by water) doesn’t have any drugs attached .

Few hours after the inspection , this ship casted off and will be heading to the glades in Florida.

NSB PRINCIPAL IN TURMOIL

There are a lot of rumours going on and circulating on this ship about NSB's sudden change of contract duration and salary wage scale. Some say that the salary scale will still be the same but the contract duration will be a bit longer, others say that its headed for the worst and that aside from having a longer contract the pay will be much smaller than it was.

Before the connection ran out in the internet I asked Chief cook Regidor on what's the situation back at home on the company . He said that its already confirmed that the salary rate will be "china rate" and he said that it’s a bit higher than the TCC standard salary one (though definitely much lower than our current salary rate). According to him the salary of the chief cook will be downgraded and will now be 1,500 U.S.D. per month from 1,800 plus to 2,200 U.S.D. , which is bad news. Either way he said , he's planning to leave the company soon but is stalled on the fact that Career Ship Management has his documents (seaman's book and Passport).I told chief cook regidor that it's his worker's right to choose on whether or not he should stay in the company, If he feels that the employment terms are not fair then it's his call alone to leave.

Hearing word from NSB that next contract stay on their ships will be much longer and being paid less is bad news indeed , They are making their employee's look much like a prisoner's, and with the lack of entertaining facilities (or even proper facilities for crew welfare) it's obviously and no surprise that a majority of their crew are now having second thoughts of staying with the principal (or the company). The real reason anyway that most of their crew are still sticking around is because of that this principal has a shorter contract and much larger pay compared to the "other" principals, CSM in particular - beyond that and without it, there's no other reason for the crew to stay longer other than necessary.

Despite NSB promises that the new contract will have an "open overtime pay" , a lot of crew from NSB doubt such promises will be enforced - after all technically our current existing contract tells that it's an "open overtime" but company memo says otherwise, and I think NSB is just saying that to prevent an exodus of their crew.

I myself , is having doubts of staying on the company (or principal) as well. In fact the only reason I'm hanging out on NSB in the first place is it’s a short contract, much higher salary (than CSM ) and it's based on Europe. I tired already surveying any Philippine shipping companies on what the next suitable (or habitable) company that has these conditions via internet and came up with a number of companies that has these conditions , problems is that although I had a number of suitable candidates none of these is exactly a small player which meant that it will be difficult to get in and be their employee - anyway I'd try my luck anyhow , after all this isn't the first time that I switched companies besides that I'm much more comfortable now compared to years ago, were it was a big uncertain (having no U.S. visa , No license and roughly only a year of working experience as a sailor) . Now pretty much I could say that I had a U.S. Visa and a sizable working experience. When I get home, I'd figure everything out and will be preparing for my departure from Career Ship Management.

As for the moment my salary here as an O.S. is 1,268 U.S.D. but obviously it will be lowered as the new rate comes and I will confirm on my replacement (reliever if you put it that way) on how extent will be the changes on NSB principal. I cannot definitely return and be pulled back in CSM because I had a lot of enemies there and cannot stay in NSB because of the worsening employment contract terms.

For the record this is the highlight parts of NSB principal in career ship management BEFORE the change of contract terms and salary wages July 2015.

*Short contract (6 months plus and minus one month)

*large pay for ratings (1,268 U.S.D.  On "Ordinary Seaman" job position)

*based always in Europe

FIFTY SHADES OF GREY IN BEING A SAILOR

"Fifty Shades of grey " means  a lot of facets of personality. Can go from gentleman one minute to Psychotic on the next. usually refers to a situation that is not clear, particularly with regard to whether or not something is categorically evil. When doubt comes into play, things are neither black, nor white, but are in a gray area.

Recently found an interesting topic from a seaman themed organization on facebook , I would like to share it. Apologies if this article is untranslated ,

Article from https://www.facebook.com/groups/filseaface/

LAHAT NG ITO'Y MAY KATOTOHANAN NA DAPAT HUWAG TULARAN KUNG SA TINGIN MO'Y MAYRON KANG KAPWANG SEAMAN NA MAAPAKAN. NAWA'Y BAGOHIN NATIN ANG MGA BAGAY2X NA MASANG2X PAKINGGAN.
REPOST:
Hi Sir Jans kindly hide my name.Ito yung naobserbahan ko sa larangan ng trbaho natin.

" Uri ng Mga Seaman "

1) PornStar - pagkatapos ng trabaho, nandoon na sa tv room, nood ng mga porno.

2) Tundo/Cavite - Konting pahid ng pintura, nandoon na sa ilalim ng mga tubo naka abang kung may kalaban.

3) PasipChief - kapit kay chiefmate/chief engr

4) Breezy - Mga dakilang kupal, Siksik, Liglig at umaapaw ang kayabangan, lahat na lang meron sya. kung anu meron ang kausap nya dapat meron din sya.

5) SelfieLords - mahilig magpicture kahit kasalukuyan ang work, pati pagkahuli ng isda na 3 ang kumagat o kaya kasamahan na nakalambitin, sasabihin "JUST IN" tapos upload agad, hindi na nahiya, yung kasama nya nagttrabaho sya papicture picture lang, alam na ngang bawal ang mobile/camera.

6) Crabby - sinisiraan nya yung kasamahan nya kasi hindi sila close, o kaya hindi sya makatikim ng beer dito.

7) Maoy - yung magaling mag iinom tapos maka dalawang bote lang, hindi na alam ang ginagawa.

8) Tirador - ubos ang pagkain sa bridge, tapos puro kalat sa floor, kawawa yung taga linis.

9) Sleeping Beauty - sa duty laging inaantok, pero pagkatapos ng duty hirap naman makatulog.

10) Bosski - yung nagmamagaling, marami syang alam, minsan mautos din.

11) Kasamahan - kasamahan sa inuman, kasamahan sa smoking, kasamahan sa mura, kahit na alam nyang masama, para lang ma promote, makikiyosi din at makikipag inuman magdamagan kahit hindi kaya ng katawan, para lang makasabay kasi naghihintay ng promotion.

12) Reklamador - nagrereklamo na matagal gumamit ng gamit sa barko yung kasamahan nya, pero sya naman yung matagal talaga. akala mo sa kanya yung barko.

13) Spy - Mga Sumbungero, isumbong ka nya sa Opisina pag hindi ka nagustuhan. (ingat kayo sa mga ito, kasi konting pagkakamali sibak kayo sa opisina)

14) Early Worm - tsempre yung maagang pumasok na naghihintay ng promotion/naghihintay ng magandang evaluation.

15) Palaboy - Naghihintay ng may magpa inom o kaya may ibigay si tano na beer, tapos sya yung nakakarami, minsan mag take out pa sa cabin nya, kapal ng mukha hindi man lang makabili ng kahit isang case.

16) Kapit kusina - dikit kay messman o kaya kay mayor, para pag may masarap na pagkain o kaya may kailangan sya sa taga-kusina madali nya itong makuha.

17) Security Guard - hirap na hirap na yung mga kasamahan nya sa paghila ng tali, sya naman nakatayo pa din.

18) Tour Guide - Alam nya yung language ng mga kasama nyang mga Opisyal, tapos pag walang nakakarinig na pinoy, hihingi sya ng favor na ipromote sya.

19) May Tama - nakakabata dw ang pag-ibig kaya kahit may asawa't anak na nanliligaw pa ng bagets akala mo gwapo, lagi rin itong nanonood ng love story, tapos ang favorite scene nya yung nag aaway si popoy at basha.

20) Gym Instructor - turuan nya yung opisyal nya mag gym tapos ang kapalit nun hingi sya ng pabor na ipromote sya.

And this was the reply that i saw on the facebook groups , Amusing on the fact that based only on observation that you can see on how crude and rude filipino sailors are when it comes to manners. Take note this is only observation on the internet and expect they'd be much worse when you are working with them up close and in person inside a ship