UNEXPECTED JOINING

Entry log is June 28, 2016 , TUESDAY

 

More and more are joining in on the "Unsatisfied" band wagon and wanted to leave this ship due to undesirable working conditions here. Recently I learned that two of the O.S. riding crew here on this ship has submitted his letter of repatriation and will be joining Fitter Amiel Lorzano and Oiler Allan Sta. Maria in disembarking in Singapore. To what reason why O.S. will be disembarking is still yet unknown as of this moment(thought Oiler Allan is still undecided as of the moment), but its not surprise to learn that the reason might be something to do with the working conditions here. After all that's the main reason why most of  people here are unsatisfied and disgruntled , including myself because not all (in fact none at all) that they promised was met here on this ship.

 

As a matter of fact, I myself was planning to disembark here but I screwed up after St. Eustatius when I didn’t submitted my letter of repatriation. So my only hope now is this so called mystical "early vacation" leave - if ever it is true on what Cf Sharp tells before we got deployed here. The moment I can only do for now is to sit tight and relay on my skills to last at least a couple of months before I bust out of here. I can only hope by that time , this ship is somewhere in the Asia pacific region and the airfares are not that high in case of an emergency.

 

Now the question on those two O.S., is if their reason are valid enough to earn them a ticket home?

 

In other news.

 

Looks like that O.S. "mark" will be moving in again on my cabin, and I have no idea why they keep compressing him on my cabin. Just as this ship will be expecting at least 3 more visitors (possible is 6) doesn’t mean he'd be booted out of his cabin and be thrown into mine. It's annoying on the fact that I don’t have enough space here and second , I lack the privacy having a roommate. Don’t get me wrong I'm not angry on O.S. "mark" in anyway , but what I'm critical about is the MLC standard of a sailor having a 1:1 ratio on accommodations. It's a big hassled for both of us O.S. sharing a same room.

 

For the info on this journal the visitors will be expecting will be some sort of superintendents probably from DNV-GL , and another three armed security personnel for the transit in Somalian area.

THE BOMB SHELL

Entry log is June 26, 2016 , Sunday

 

 

(FOT / GOT - means fixed overtime / guaranteed overtime pay , meaning you still get the paid for the work done outside normal working hours. Common term used here as a sailor is "open" overtime and "fixed" overtime. )

 

It's now confirmed that FOT / GOT won't pay that much, for them it’s a surprise but for me it wasn't and was anticipated weeks before it came out. Basically the FOT / GOT pay was based per rank of person on this ship, so the higher the rank goes the higher the pay, but for me since I'm one of the lower rankers then its pretty obvious that this pathetic company named norstar will just give scraps. From what I heard the GOT / FOT for the O.S. given on this month was just a total of 17 hours, yeah 17 fucking hours !!! All that hard work that was put for a total of a month without rest days and excess working was just put as toilet paper. (total of only 53 U.S. Dollars all in all, WHAT THE FUCK !!!). When I was a deck cadet I only had 40 U.S. worth on overtime pay, now what's the difference between norstar and my past employer during my deck cadet years eh ?!  Just only 13 dollars difference but total bullshit !!!, might as well that they should have put it on a fixed overtime rather than open overtime - pathetic !!!

 

So all that propaganda bullshit CF sharp has been to deceiving its sailors so that they can sign up for the norstar principal was just plain hoax and to lure unsuspecting victims to ruin. Anyone reading this on my writing SHOULD NOT PROCEED ON EMPLOYEMENT IF CF SHARP OFFERS YOU THE NORSTAR PRINCIPAL. As much as possible avoid it at all cost , otherwise you're in for the ride of your life and will be put directly to harm's way. The Ship is very unsafe given with its age (built 1996) which is by the time writing this is 20 years old now.

 

But the biggest part here about this news is that some of my fellow crew members don’t even have the slightest idea that this will happen on the start., I'm somewhat amused that they're IQ's are not that high when it comes to this and  they have been around sailing longer than I was and yet they are as clueless on the actual situation that Norstar will be conning its way. It was a big surprise for them to learn about this and yet it's not for me and Oiler Allan Sta. Maria , - PATHETIC ! They should have known better that this will happen, To be perfectly honest I was thrilled to see the look on their faces on how disgusted they were when they heard the news.

 

In other news related to work.,

 

Currently were still chipping off huge chunks of corrosion and rust on the aft winches, The rust here is so thick that even using a "jet chisel" tool is useless and will take time. As on me I'm not using a chipping hammer , instead I use a claw hammer , the hammer which a carpenter typically use to smash nails. Each smash I make on the hammer literary chunks and chunks fell off like broken stale crackers. Before the end of each working day my coveralls are covered with pulverized rust from all that hammering and chipping in the winches.

 

Another thing why "jet chisel" equipment here works on a limited basis is because also of the weak outdated compressor from the engine room. To everyone's annoyance four "jet chisel" equipment cannot work simultaneously, if it does pressure from the air socket weaken and thus the efficient "jet chisel" is nothing more than just useless equipment.

 

More Recently …

 

Me and O.S. "Mark" , had been order to work on the "garbage segregation" which meant rummage the garbage and reorganize it. Good thing for me this work meant like scavenging any useful I can find, and I did find some useful items like an mp3 player which I can use as a clock, a few nylon straps and a spare coveralls. Scavenging trash may be degrading for the most part but if a person is  stranded and left for dead by his employers (like in my case in CF Sharp) this could be a life saver in finding items that matter. It's not something to be proud of but definitely it’s a must if I'm going to stuck here longer.

 

Speaking of which , I had found one particular item on the trash , specifically it was a pack of "Kisses" dark chocolate and given with the situation here of the lack of food and other essential items including the fact of "NO BONDSTORE" , I had thoughts of keeping it and hiding it on my cabin and eating it on the latter but of course to my dismay it has been in the trash for almost a month and there's no assurance that it can be riddled with bacteria and fungi. well There's an option that I can use the microwave to sterile the food and blast it with radiation , but I can never be certain that all bacteria (or other organisms) will be purged in the process, besides knowing that working conditions here are very poor and they won't even bother to send me to a doctor if I get sick because the Company matters more to them than human lives. I decided not to proceed on my plan on eating that pack of chocolates and instead threw it to the sea.  I just can't simply risk myself in getting sick here. Besides I maybe inoculated from cholera , but that doesn’t meant I can't catch something else like dysentery, E. Coli bacteria or "God-knows-what" from eating that chocolate - yummy as it may look but I had to pass . It's for the best despite being hungry. 

 

The reason I had thoughts about it in the first place was because of the lack of food here, I had been on five ships before and this ship (my six one) is the poorest working environment I've met of all so far. Practically no food and nothing decent to eat, especially during nighttime. I'm not sure if chief cook's working practices are bad or is the ship restricting its limited food supply. Either way the conclusion here is food is scarce even for Asian standards.

 

In other news

 

Another disappointment came in on this so called "safety meeting" last Saturday. Apparently any attempts that bond store would be put are met with disappointment when our Myanmar captain said that bond store is not exactly needed on this ship and that if we ever need something like toothpaste, lotion , soap etc. We can get it easily elsewhere on land (if the ship berths) specifically when this ship dry docks in china for repairs. WHAT THE FUCK ?!! WHAT THE FUCK ?! How am I supposed to get stuff on a situation that is still a few months away ? Besides that there is no assurance that we will get out of the shipyard at all after work. Moreover even if by some chance we could get out , we don’t have any money yet and we haven't been exactly paid and given cash money. I had been given here more than a month now and I haven't been paid on my salary yet (at least given cash) and only some paper slip with numbers saying that some cash was deposited on my bank account.

 

Either way the situation is that the bond will not exist and if does its not reliable, which will be a problem for me later since I heavily relay on it for food, soap and other essential stuff.    

F.O.T. / G.O.T. ISSUE

Entry log is June 22, 2016 , Wednesday

 

There have been news that came in lately, not exactly bad news but definitely not good news.

 

First off, the overtime pay that almost everybody is awaiting here has been approved and from the looks of it , a few have been happy about the excess overtime working hours but of course not all. From the rumours Deck department had an excess 25 working hours, so that means the total of working hours will be something close to 105 to 110 working hours from the standard GOT / FOT on our contracts (guaranteed overtime / fixed overtime). This may sound sweet but doing the math may not be so,

 

Based on my contract I had a net pay for a month is just 1,000 U.S.D. which includes the GOT / FOT , If I add my excess working hours then multiply the excess working hours to my rate per working hour - it only adds to 78.25 U.S.D. ,

 

Hmpf !!! All that hard work for just 78.25 U.S.D. ??? I had already been working even on weekends on this pathetic ship , not to mention had a cleaning schedule of every hour everyday plus TAKE NOTE of extended working hours during mooring / unmooring and a 6 hour long shift every time this ship goes to port and all this stinky Norstar Ship Management / CF Sharp Crew Management can add is just 78.25 U.S.D. ??? WHAT THE FUCK ?!!! Honestly 1078 U.S.D. pay barely scratches my previous salary of 1268 U.S.D. and does not even impress me  at all.

 

Most of my co-workers are joyful about the increase , but I'm not sure if they're just ignorant or they haven't been employed previous with a good company with a better principal. Either way I'm amused they're still smiling even if they're giving us shitty pay.

 

As for the Excess overtime pay, thanks but this doesn’t change anything on the way I think about CF sharp and Norstar Crew management.

 

In other news ….

 

Had heard that fitter Amiel Lorzano did pass his repatriation request and it was only hand written, From what I heard it was passed after ST. Eustatius loading and from the looks of it he will be going home once this ship reaches Singapore somewhere late July or early august. Oiler Allan Sta Maria is also thinking of passing his repatriation request , despite earlier having second thoughts and didn’t passed his repatriation request. On my end , I had already missed out the opportunity in sending a repatriation request which I should have done right after St. Eustatius loading operation, Despite the setback because I hesitated - I will send a request sometime in late November. Hopefully I had at least enough money to go around with that time period by that time to cover up huge losses of income on this contract.    

LONG VOYAGE

Log entry: June 15, 2016 Wednesday

 

Typing and sending Oiler's Allan Sta. Ana's message was troublesome but I had to send it anyway since I owe the guy in helping me out sending a message to my sister via putting TOP UP's on my phone. His personal message was very long and was absolutely littered with " blessing for us and pray for me - religious gibberish" which complicates my SMS sending given with the limited amount of time I had to squeeze those SMS before the menu refreshes.

 

His messages looked more like a standalone email than simple 150  character tweets for an international SMS standard and cramming a four page note on it was frustrating, Anyway I did manage to get it done because I owe him a favour. Oh by the way just to write for the record , the nearby mountain was blocking the cellphone signal and I had to smuggle on the workplace an instrically unsafe device because the only area that has a signal was on the forward part of the ship, everything else is dead spot and I had done that while I was in the middle of working shift. 

 

Speaking of which , On my equipment - it looks like that I had broken another set of expensive equipment on work,. Alas my kata mini tablet worth 5,000 Php I bought way back 2013 now lies badly inoperable and destroyed from getting soaked on sea water. Apparently I'm partly to blame why it got destroyed , I was looking for an effective device as a clock and being handheld decided that my kata was enough for "work operations" , Now that its commissioned and being used for work, Indian ship officers of mine , one day decided that I was to be put on work while in the middle of the rain and sea splash. As a result my kata mini tablet got water logged and never again functioned, a piece of expensive and usable equipment now lies destroyed. - Fucking Crows !!! 

 

In other news

 

Looks like the St. Eustatius berthing will drag now for 5 straight days from discharging to unloading of its cargo and it's not a surprise that fatigue signs are now showing on my work. 5 days straight of 6 hour long working shift and total of 12 hours a day, total that and fatigue will really show up on my part. If this "over worked" working schedule drags on for a long time, I'm not sure on how long can I keep up with this kind of environment. Working environment here is a big drag, imagine practically no rest days !!!

 

After work on St. Eustatius is finish , I'm sure I'd be dragged on again in the unmooring for again, meaning extended working hours. I'm having doubts that this ship and the principal norstar ship management is complying with minimal rest hours, I figure it is below 10 hours. 

 

During the whole berthing work, the ship made a few leaks on its cargo - all of it signs of poor maintenance and severely bad corrosion. Even some hydraulic Valves and pumps are leaking like in the winches for example, we had to get buckets to collect those leaks just to prevent them from spilling on the deck floor.  Plus not to mention the problematic gangway and pilot access ladders which sometimes work and sometimes doesn’t work.

 

When Unmooring time came, an unforeseen scenario happened. Turns out that the Indian 2nd officer had a heated conversation with Pumpman Mondiego Obina from pilot access gangway safety - actually indirectly related to that. It started when one of the bolts on the gangway ladder went missing, 2nd Officer notice that and told pump man about it. Pump man ignored it and said its of little importance , 2nd officer insisted and that’s the trouble started.

 

2nd officer told Pumpman that he should tell me to get some bolts , Pumpman refused on the fact that I'm not one of his "men" . In the end 2nd officer just told me to get some bolts in the starboard deck store, couldn't figure which size he wanted so I grabbed some few and when I returned they were still arguing. I just kept the silent on the whole ruckus to avoid any flak from both sides.,  A.B. Enrique Antiporta joined on the side of Pump man Obina.

 

It didn't bother me , after the two broke off and was busy securing the pilot gangway , problem is that O.S. Marden Luib seems to not help me at all on the work and just tells me on what to do, - tsk ! That lazy old tart ! Trying to cheat his way off on work again !!!! I wonder how he got that promotion he brags about in CSM ? Anyway he's been with CSM before so I expect that people who came from that origin on my previous company doesn’t have good manners compared to people from NSB principal. - Asshole doesn’t even know how to open a mast riser properly during work ! Pathetic !!!

 

Once the pilot ladder was secured , I got a few hours rest and back again on work on the following morning.  

FINAL VERDICT

Journal log entry : June 13, 2016 Monday

Area: St. Eustatius , (Somewhere in the Caribbean)

 

After much deliberation and thinking, I had finally made a verdict and I think it's best for me to sit tight and ride this whole contract out. Now the only problem I have for the moment would be notifying my sister, that I had changed my mind and will not go home by August.

 

Maybe surprising by now that a couple of weeks ago, I was blabbering about going home and all that shit. As a matter of fact I still do because I was deceived and coerced by CF Sharp in signing unfair contracts. However despite my reasons , I cannot set aside logic and reason that land base jobs are more easily constructed / deconstructed with minimal whiplash compared to overseas job. Basically having a land based job is more secure and the worker is more protect by law than the overseas one, As an OFW I have to consider that once I'm outside the Philippines, It's every man for himself - and that I'm at the mercy of my employer quiet literary. So its more complicated to quit a job overseas than quit a job locally because of this because Phil. Labour law doesn’t apply elsewhere. In other words I'm avoiding the risk of my whiplash if I don’t finish my contract

 

As for my teeth, apparently I had to endure this for a couple of months for now and imperatively need dental repairs as soon as I get back in the Philippines and hope that the damage sustained is not that extensive enough to made me lose my teeth. 

 

In other matters , ship has recently reached and berthed in St. Eustatius , an island somewhere in the Caribbean and began loading in cargo. As usual I'm off again on my usual task of the gangway watchman , and helping out in the manifold area. Honestly I'm not in the mood or even excited about my work , and the stinky contract adds more to my dissatisfaction here.

 

Speaking of which, I overheard Oiler Edgar being cheerful about the overtime pay, saying that there's a bonus or some sort of extra pay for the long working hours we had been working with. I could just giggle and smile about how stupidly naïve and clueless this guy is, and how he is ever falsely hopeful on the situation. It’s a surprise that my co-workers are idiotically blind about the contract we signed with that, they didn't have any idea that we signed on a FIXED OVERTIME PAY and that CF sharp / Norstar Crew Management has been deceiving us all along. - Pathetic Fools !!! It took me only a couple of days to figure this one out and them , up to now are still figuring out the situation. If I could only tell them on their stupidly tenaciously unwilling brains that they should wake up and do a reality check then they don’t have to realize first-hand about what is actually going on here.

 

There is no absolutely no chance that this ship nor Norstar Crew Management would be paying our excess overtime working hours. Why ? They put up a rude gurgle tongued PRO-COMPANY Myanmar Captain in charge of the whole damn ship ! And applease Norstar crew "fucking ship" management this Captain has been pushing the limits of comfortability to the limits, just to save money. Shipping companies nowadays like Norstar don’t care if the ship is comfortable of not and their the stereotypical money hungry company , they only thing they care about is the statistics that they're saving money and whoever does that has a ship's captains smelly spring time fresh name on it. Bottom line I don’t absolutely think that our beloved gurgle tongued captain would pay the excess overtime salaries they owe us, for the rest of my stupid crew member's - they'd just have to figure it out later this month about the real deal.

 

THEY COULDN'T MAKE THIS SHIP COMFORTABLE IN THE FIRST PLACE AND HAD TO LIE TO US POINT BLANK TO BE HERE, SO I DON’T EXPECT THEM AT ALL  THAT THEY WILL BE PAYING OUR SALARIES THE RIGHT WAY  

 

Despite all the misery and ignorance this ship has to offer, I had some relieving news that I learned the tedious procedure of "SMS TIPID" promo of smart roaming service on the cellphone, convenient in the sense that cost of international SMS is reduced drastically as low as 2 Philippine Peso. The drag is that I have to numerously type a set of numbers plus have to keep in mind to type in my SMS fast before the menu that pops up refreshes. The annoying part of this is that the service is more of a menu mania ,  but the overall point here is to send message internationally cheaply despite the cumbersome menu's

 

From what I recall here is what I have to Dial on my cellphone, first of course is that I have to subscribe first.

 

Dial *133*<amount of top up load, 100 , 200, 500 PHP> followed by #

Example *133*100#

 

After that , a message will pop up on the cellphone informing the number of international SMS available

 

After that the next thing to do is send a message and again I have to dial a set of numbers

 

Dial *133*<followed by the number of the receiving cellphone> followed by #

Example *133*09204785463# press call button

 

A menu pops , to type in the message then followed by the menu send text and voila !! International text in low cost served !!!

 

In other matters….

 

Since most of my contract will be spent on this hell hole Asia pacific , I had decided to make changes on my equipment as part of my "adaptive tactics". As I had been writing on the past few months, my equipment is suitable in European environment (i.e. cold environment) - this maybe good on European setting but troublesome and terribly uncomfortable in warmer (if not hot) Asia pacific environment (i.e. warm to hot environment). Basically the designs of my equipment trap body heat , and if to be put on Asian temperatures it would just basically roast me to death.,

 

Fortunately for me , I bought along the trip some stuff that have thinner clothing suitable in dispersing body heat. Although the equipment I had with me is few but certainly it will be invaluable for my work here, and will provide protection and comfortability at the same time. It’s a blessing that I had been a pack rat and it really paid off despite receiving a lot of criticism on a lot of ignorant people saying that I was carrying too much "unnecessary" luggage. Glad that I had proven them wrong and despite the hardship work here on this hellish "BOSTON EAGLE" ship , I am confidently saying that I'm well equip and more of a match on the rigors of work.      

COMPLICATIONS ON PLANS

Entry log : June 12, 2016 Sunday

 

Yesterday's talk with Oiler Allan Sta Maria had been fruitful on planning but it reveal some complications about our situation on getting out. Apparently my reason is valid, so there's little complication about my predicament, however regarding Oiler Allan's situation on "refusal to work" it’s a lot more complicated. From what I heard from him is that there's some sort of 4 months professional reason for any resignation, which rendered him to - if he submits his resignation to somewhere in August. So it means bottom line is that if I ever decided to proceed in quitting this job - I have to go thru it alone. If I submitted my "letter of repatriation" it's up to the company anyway, if they will approve it or not. For me the difficult part is going to it alone on this plan, But Oiler told me that it's not an issue with him if I went ahead first - If I manage to pull this off.

 

Aside from me and Oiler, another person on the race to leave this ship is Fitter Amiel Lorzano. I haven't talk to him about my plans, and never plan to, probably because I don’t want any screw-ups on some loud mouth guy like him, and Oiler Edgar is right that I should go on this one alone, Besides from my understanding bereavement reason / compassion reason is the best sure way to get home / escape this ship, without ruining my so called employment records as a sailor,. Although it unfortunate that somebody has to die first namely a direct relative in order to get this first.

 

For now I'd attempt to pass my letter of repatriation , after this berthing / loading operations on ST. Eustatius (somewhere in the Caribbean) or something and see what happens next. Of course I'm still thinking if I will submit it or not.

 

In other news

 

Fortunately since it's a Philippine holiday, It was whole day rest - well almost. I was  again put to work to assist Pump man and an A.B. in some forecastle business which went all up till 10am to finally be resolve. The rest of the day was spent with me getting my clothes lineup on the washing machine (which had a lone line since almost everybody on this ship haven't had their laundry done for a week) and either putting back all the stuff, I took out on my luggage in prep for what I mention earlier and checking out / repairing the equipment I had been using.

 

UNREST ON WORK

Entry Log : June 10, 2016 Friday

 

 

Looks like the environment here gets uglier and worst each day that passed. Latest update is that the laundry room will be rarely opened from now on, as in one a week to wash clothes, so basically it means I have only that chance to clean all my numerous coveralls and clothes on that very single day which I know will have a very long line. I have no idea about this illogical water discipline but its sure that life here will get worst as the time goes by. Anyway according to what I heard, fresh water production of this ship is very slow. Really now ?! And am I supposedly to believe on this kind of shit ?! Ha ?! For all I know I had been taking all the shit Norstar Ship Management has been giving me since day 1 when I arrived here. I think they're just saying that to make my life here even more miserable.

 

Just to add more insult on injury on this matter, I had only received an issued box of tide powder soap for the laundry ( 595 grams to be specific) until this ship arrives to china, which if my math is right while writing this takes more than 50 days' time to reach it. Wow very insightful of the management here, and how the hell am I supposedly to budget that kind of limited resources eh ?! Anyway no matter how much I grumble and complain about this , I'm sure it will only fell to deaf ears. The only possible way for me to this is to get out of here.

 

In other news

 

It looks like two crew members here fitter Amiel Lorzano and Oiler Allan Sta Maria are very open about leaving this ship. As a matter of fact, most of the crew are been talking about them resigning to this ship, which I overheard. I'm not sure about fitter but about oiler I think he's dead centered as I am in getting out of this place and we have been talking very meticulously about it a couple of days ago. Anyway who would want to stay on this place right ?! Everything here was deceitful from the start. No Internet, NO sattelite Phones, No bond store, Bosses are Indians , working hours are very long, Low pay, Resource onboard are scare and limited, food is also limited, etc everything that I pictured in my mind that I hate to be, has materialized here. So I can't blame the two for wanting the same to bust out of here. But for now the only thing we can do is sit tight and wait till the next payroll comes and hopefully will be enough to send us back home. Oh and for the record, the only person who knows that I'd be leaving this ship is Oiler Suarez - I don’t plan revealing my intention to any other crew aside from him and let's say I have trust issues with the rest of the crew.

 

In other news

 

Currently the laundry rooms floor have been repainted with the colour green, which looks better and nicer than its previous look, But like I said despite it new cosmetically changed look , the laundry area isn't opened yet and some of the washing machine there are still broken.

SCHEMING ON THE BLOCKADE

Journal log entry : June 08, 2016

 

For the past two days I had been planning my move to get out of this ship. One such plan is that I use a "bereavement / compassion leave" which despite my sadness losing dad last month , can be used as an excuse to get the hell out of this ship.

 

There are two scenario's that would lead this plan. One is that the company will honor my request and grant me an all-expense paid ticket out of here, second scenario is that they will still honor my request by in the expense I have to shoulder the cost of travel from my point of disembarkation all the way to the Philippines, and same goes also for my replacement. Lucky for me this ship is bound to Asia , were air fares are cheapest. The only question is if I do have enough money by the time I send a request for an "early vacation" . On second though I don’t give a shit about money at all - safety and lives is in questioned here , and I don’t want to risk my neck dying on this ship.

 

So in the face of overwhelming odds, there is only one thing for me to do and I had to science this shit out of here. My main goal is to get out of here and my only chance lies on that request for repatriation.

 

Anyway I had enlisted (or at least made a conspiracy) with oiler and supports his plan that he was just generating airfare for the time being just to bust out of here. Same idea goes with me on planning a "jailbreak" here, so basically I'm "in" on his plan to get the fuck out of here. , We talked about it and laid out carefully the plans and with luck will execute on the latter month.

 

 

On news related to work…

 

This ship has recently berthed Columbia and god ! I can't imagine working for exceeding 12 hours on the whole day. It’s a total slave work , I'm not sure on what's exactly an article in STCW or ILO or whatever violates the minimum 10 hour rest period in a day , but definitely this is clear that it’s a violation. To be prudent the management here doesn’t even have a work / rest worksheet , to sanitize any evidence against any person who has the balls to report this to the authorities. The most recent annoyance is that after going thru all that hassle of casting off - I was put back again to maintenance work until 5pm for some dumb fuck removing of water on the bilge in the forecastle , then in midnight the following day to "heave up anchor" - not a very comfortable of work schedule as if like an emergency and imperative work is to be done, on a normal work schedule.

 

People here says that our indian chief office is to be blamed on the brutal work schedule, as if like he doesn’t know how to manage and handle people. Either way I think "Gandi" here is doing his management skills very poorly and he's crew are more annoyed because of this (and so am I).

 

WORK TACTICS IN E.B.

Entry log: June 06, 2016 Monday

 

With the difficult working environment and lack of resting hours , here is most of the tactics I had worked with on "BOSTON EAGLE" . I had to focus in order to stay alive here on this ship for a few months, actually I draw inspiration on the NASA survival movie like the martian (starring Matt Daimon), I feel like an astronaut on a space mission here and in the middle of it something went wrong.

 

Basically my situation here as of the moment is solving one problem over the next - usually related to daily maintenance and space saving measures, Of course in general this doesn’t matter at all if I can't get the hell out of this slave ship, but on the short run till I figure it out - I'm solving one little problem to another. Fortunately for me I brought all the needed equipment I need for the trip (and god !! it was worth every ounce of weight on my luggage) and I have to science this shit up to get out of BOSTON EAGLE.

 

• All equipment that I had should be stored with inside along with my cabin to prevent some crews stealing or getting my stuff without permission.
• Assembled inside my cabin facilities like a clothes hangar etc., anything that we will make me self-sufficient and self-sustaining .
• Sharing of any entertainment and Data is restricted, given that Filipino's I'm working with are not that friendly or even welcoming as a co-worker.
• "Isolation Tactic" again is in place , like what I did back during my time  in Stolt Strength and Cape Tallin.
• Store food and water for at least a couple of days inside my cabin.
• Triple "S" Tactic is in place meaning Search , Salvage and Save. Meaning find anything Salvageable equipment left behind, repair it and store it for later use - we might not know when are we going to need it. Basically it's more like a maritime version of "Hunt and Gather" kind of stuff on the stone age
• Wash and wear tactics, after wearing clothes and coveralls immediately wash it and hung it up to dry. I don’t have an exact idea when will laundry room be open again and the soap given was limited, and laundry won't be a problem dealing with on the latter.
• "Silence is Golden" tactic is also applied here, given with the situation that most crew here have attitude / behavioral issues,. I had decided not to talk much and remain silent, So that people here will have trouble reading my motives and intentions. What I can confirm for now is that some crew here are gossipers and some are arrogant cocky sons of bitches.

SOMETHING TO BE GREATFUL?

LOG ENTRY June 05, 2016 Sunday

 

Despite being Sunday , there is still work going on here on this nightmare ship "BOSTON EAGLE" .

 

Pay slip just came out , and as expected it was unsurprisingly disappointing.

 

Some of the crew here were very ignorant on what is actually going on the salary, actually almost all of them are smoochers (translation in Tagalog "sip sip") hoping that Norstar Ship management will be fair on the employments terms. I guess that’s the problem with Filipino crew, Most of them are arrogant and cocky sons of bitches thinking they're the high and mighty when it comes to manual labour but almost all of them don’t know shit when it comes to paper management works like this on the pay slip and pay roll issues. PATHETIC !!! People who don’t have balls to do what needs to be done.

 

Now these ignorants are figuring it out for themselves on how to solve the payroll and are even hopeful that norstar might hold up to the end of the deal on the contract. Haven't they even though theoretically that filling up past beyond the 85 overtime hours on work is almost impossible to achieve ? That would mean for us to practically work almost every day without a rest day (Sundays to Saturdays)  And there is no absolute guarantee that this principal Norstar Ship Management will even kept the promise of compensating to the overtime pay., My Filipino crewmates are total fools for even expecting good pay to this company. Worst part is that they are ignorant and don’t have the iron balls to stand up and investigate on what the fuck is going on.

 

Some of the crew doesn’t even know what and where is the leave pay going to be claimed, Can you believed that ?! What total idiots are they to think that leave pay is going to be claimed while onboard ?! As far as I know leave pay is going to be claimed when the sailor reaches home. So basically for us here the dollars is just nothing more than just ink marks on a piece of paper and that this principal , this so called norstar shitty company is doesn’t let us handle our hard earn money. In fact if I recall correct, they're not going to hand us any money at all while onboard, So practically there won't be any shopping done while I'm here or when I'm disembarking few months after this at the airport. Big question is - what the fuck am I supposedly to buy , when their not giving me any money at all , What ? Are they supposed to let me barter my way out ? And sell my underwear for a burger and soft drink ?.

 

Even the so called

 

I guess that’s the difference with me from them , I'm not afraid to lose my job just to uphold my beliefs and putting my neck on the line, I'm not afraid to speak out. Filipino's easily shit on their pants when the subject is already about losing their jobs, even if safety and health is already compromised.  The former principal I work with was a soviet run type of principal, they are brutal in some aspects but reasonable people. They even let us take week ends off as a rest day and the overtime is pay is 120 hours per month, and we don’t have to go to great efforts and hardship just to fill that 120 hours of pay. It's more like a semi fix and semi open overtime.

 

 Here on this Indian infested principal things are much worse, and are already violating ILO work standard violations. Practically no rest days at all , and work starts 8am till 5:30pm.

 

In the late morning,

 

I was caught surprised that an AB is even grateful that have an 90 hour over time bah !! And asked myself should we really be grateful on such absurd employment terms ????! , and we have to go to great lengths of work just to fill that ? Probably this stupidly pathetic A.B. doesn't even know what he's exactly talking about and most likely he hasn't been to a good company as well, . This A.B. is so full of shit !