S - TRANSIT

March 30, 2018 Friday

Few days have passed after this ship had made a transit in Singapore and as expected the transit here was exaggerated and was a big deal on this ship. Basically an OVERKILL of the situation. Anyway it's their stupid ship and pathetic company and not mine., I'm just riding along here and sitting tight for a month till I get out of this. Till I dispose Shell / Nakilat Company.

I remember back then ., on the company I came from that Singapore transit was just a normal transit and only that it only had just a few guys more in the bridge ., from what I remember what we do during the Singapore transit was just sit around and enjoy the lights passing by with the A.B. and the "O.O.W" - it was no big deal of any kind and even the captain doesn’t even interfere or meddle with the those matters., To simply put the Singapore transit there was more like a "talk show" on T.V. . Now comparing what I had been experiencing right now and seeing . Things here are so exaggerated that I might mistook that this ship is going to a war zone rather than a ship passing thru a traffic area.

The Captain here is at the bridge during my whole work shift and watching every move and detail of our work. I find it uncomfortable working that somebody is keeping an eye on every move I make , which increases more of my stress and difficulty while I'm at the bridge. I couldn’t make a proper "lookout" with him blocking the radar screen which I needed in making references for nearby ships, I was  simply stuck moving my way around and looking the horizon with just only binoculars around. Aside from that every 30 minutes or so I had to switch work with the A.B. around and steer the ship.

Fortunately for me steering the ship wasn’t such a big problem., and the steering console is much more responsive when it comes to whichever direction I'm being told to go. Of course I had to be very careful even on just simply moving the wheel because the of the captain hovers around like a helicopter.

The whole four hours of my working shift on the bridge was pure frustration., I had to think every now and then on what I'm doing was right or wrong plus have to deal the captain hovering around. I was constantly moving every few minutes or so just to avoid being lectured and be mistaken for slacking on work. Good thing the Singapore Marine traffic provided enough distraction for them so I can go unnoticed.   

SHORE LEAVE HASSLE

March 25, 2018 Sunday

There is not a day here that goes by that I am bombarded by scolding on my co-workers ., From what it looks like , they always annoy me by constantly finding faults on almost anything I do.

Being here is a very big mistake on my career and now I find myself arguing over a very trivial matter on board - Shoreleave.

I have been a sailor for almost 8 years now and this is the only one on those years that I find myself arguing over a trivial matter which is shore leave. Back then on my previous company ., the management there always encourages people to go on shore leave every time their ship berths, - BUT HERE it looks like that they're detaining crew here as much as they can. 

On the morning , I saw a memo laying around on the crew mess saying that those who wanted to go to shore leave in south korea can write their names for "Scheduling" and is subject for  approval from HOD. Without haste I wrote my name for the list, thinking it would be no big deal about it. Later in the afternoon while I was in the locker ., BOSUN "Jerrymine" gave me a lecture that next time before I write my name on the list., that I should ask permission first from him. I replied that if going on shore leave is such a big deal then I could simply erased my name , and it won't be a problem anymore. 

For some reason , BOSUN "Jerrymine" sensed my dismay and annoyance over the shore leave issue and said that I couldn't just simply write my name off. It was a bit long conversation just to tell him that I'm pulling out my name in the list.  Conversation went anyway that my name wasn’t retracted.

Despite that my shore leave request will push thru in south korea., I had already lost interest and the only reason why I'm just riding this was just to avoid any more trouble and making it more complicated. Whether or not my shore leave request will push thru doesn’t matter ., I just lost interest over it and dismayed that a simple shore leave here would be such big trouble.

A few days went by and I didn’t even bother to sign the shore leave request ., and kept persuading BOSUN "Jerry mine" to drop my name on the list and kept making excuses on how to pull out my name. I signed the paper later on just for sake of avoiding more escalating trouble or my dismay with Bosun "jerry mine" and the working policies here.

Something tells me on the back of my mind that my upcoming shore leave will be very miserable and be just better off sleeping on my cabin instead.  

FULL BRUNT OF DECEPTION

March 23, 2018

Now the full brunt of doing of work of an A.B. now gets dumped on me and to make it worst ., it looks like that this work schedule is extended for whole remaining days I have here onboard.

I was thinking that I might get some relief or a "breather" when April comes but apparently BOSUN Jerrymine know how to make things more miserable for me. From the looks of it what will happen is that I would be just shifting from 12 to 4 am / pm schedule to 8 to 12 am / pm. He just informed me this during coffee break and now I'm having problems on how to counter this.

I'm not enjoying this job at all knowing that I'm over worked and underpaid here  and them getting overpaid and underwork.,  I'm seriously opting to get the early vacation leave as soon as possible, So I can get the fuck out of here soon. For now I can't just submit it yet and have to wait until this ship arrives in south Korea and had a crew change. For now there's nothing I can do but sit out here and wait for another two weeks before I make my move on submitting an "early vacation".  

The only luck I had for now is that , I hope Ship pilot won’t come during my watch hours or else I'm screwed on the steering part work. That is the only chance and option available for me to avoid this work and its random and inaccurate.

Personally I don’t see any reason why I should be doing all these because the contract I signed with is for an O.S. Job Position and not an A.B. , If im going to do these at all , I should have signed up for an A.B. instead !

Aside from these problems … Another problem I have to deal with on being dumped on more work load is not having enough sleep . Here they packed me with so much work that almost my rest hours just literary runs only barely 10 hours for the whole day., (below the regular 16 rest hours per day)., So it's obvious now that the effects of sleep deprivation and fatigue are starting to make a toll now on my body., and the lack of rest hours has already been a problem as well not only on my health but also on my hygiene and work routine. 

i can't imagine that I have to pack on those 5 hours rest the part where I have to eat, sleep , wash and prepare my clothes, bathe , go to the toilet,  etc all the basic stuff a person should do biologically on a short span of 5 hours., Its totally almost impossible to do all those things at the same time - and to add more of the problem is that there making people here do work related stuff on "off hours" ., meaning I have to do something that is work related during my short rest period. Such examples to these is doing all the laundry for the whole crew , which I have to wash all of their working coveralls and cleaning certain areas like my cabin and locker room. 

Honestly I'm feeling hopeless right now in faced with overwhelming odds.,  Supposedly I signed up here because I thought working condition here and environment would be better compared to those of a typical liquid tankers , but turns out I was wrong and that liquid tankers have a more pleasant working practices than here.  I was just simply lured here and Shell / Nakilat is just making false promises on its advertisements., their policies here are brutal and repressive.  

EMPTY HANDED

As expected the following days from my last contract have been difficult, since the arrival of the two new shit bag crews (Chief mate "Ivan" and Bosun "Jerrymine") . As soon as they arrived the new bosun immediately set to work on putting more harsh policies likes less time on water breaks and such,

During unmooring time, on India. I saw on my very eyes that he's the typical harsh type of Bosun by always yelling at people. I haven't seen those types of Bosun in years but now I'm seeing one and I'm filled with disappointment over it.

For short he's a dick.

In other more bad news for me,

It was lucky fort me that I was still in the crew TV room when the Qatari deck cadet spoke to Bosun "Jerrymine" that the X-box Gaming console on the officers Tv room was missing. I didn’t bother to get into the details about the missing X-Box but it is apparent that they know it's already missing.

March 10, 2018 Saturday EMPTY HANDED

I went to full panic and quickly headed to my cabin and planned on how to deal with the X-box on my possession. I was thinking that as soon as its discovered, a follow up cabin to cabin search will soon follow. I couldn’t think straight at that time ., and was totally spooked. I went in and out of my cabin a number times just to check if the place was clear.

Then an insane plan hit my head ., rather than dealing on how to hide the X-box on my possession, why not think of a method on how to "dispose" of it properly without a trace ? No evidence to point to me that I'm planning to steal it and take it home on my house. The first initial though that came to me was throw it at sea immediately which I think was a bright idea.

So I took a black garbage bag on my locker and stuffed the whole merchandise in it and waited for a couple hours. During the waited , I also thought that even if I wasn’t caught having an X-box on my cabin , I would be caught having a Nintendo Wii device instead , so as much as I hate I had to include the Nintendo Wii on the garbage bag for disposal , along with all its accessories.

At around 10.30 Pm I looked outside the deck area to see if everything was clear and check if the CCTV's were no pointing on the direction which I would dispose the garbage bag. I threw in a long throw and the garbage bag went directly overboard to the sea and that was the end of it.,

I slept calmly knowing that the trouble has past and assured that this problem will no longer trouble me., Although I admit , I will be going home without a treasure trove around of videogames (empty handed for short) but considering the risk of discovery - it's worth that I should literary throw this one directly at the sea. 

LONG 52

February 28 2018 Wednesday LONG 52

Two new shit bag crews have arrived as expected, One is Chief mate "ivan" and the other is the new Bosun. I warned earlier (or have been hearing rumors) that these two will be wreaking havoc on this ship and will be giving a crew a hard time while they're here. 

Fortunately for me I have only around 60 days or so here on this ship , So I have only to deal with them in roughly two months - so practically I have to sit tight and wait for the shit storm to pass.

For the moment its already been 48 hours since they arrived from Las Raffan, Qatar and there's already starting to crash the house., Bosun "Jerimy" his lordship has already decreed that I will be transferred from doing day work to the bridge (which plainly means deck watch keeping)., hmpf lordship didn’t even bother to ask me yes or no on that and simply said the conversation is over . Wow ??? Talk about one way conversation. Fine by me doing bridge watch keeping but with these perfectionist company and perfectionist crew running around here., Its just a waste of time and effort ,

Anyway since I signed the contract and it's still valid for the next 60 days ., I'm stuck with this kind of management till I signed off. Apparently from my guess things are going to get a hell lot worse as time goes by , and I had a bad feeling that these 60 days or so for me will be very long for me. Things were doing fine for me when Bosun Berlix was in charge but he's not around anymore and shifted back being an A.B. , So that leaves me sorting my shit out on this problem and dealing in with a more shitty Bosun like jerrymine. And to add aside from doing the full scale work of an A.B. , I'm also dumped in doing all the manual work now , like washing the laundry for the whole crew - WITHOUT LAUNDRY ALLOWANCE (or any form of monetary compensation for my efforts).  

If my math is good and help arrives at least on the 25th of April., I have at least 52 days to worry about , but if things get worst like help arrives on the first week of May., I have a grueling 70 days more to sit tight on this predicament. Any of these options is still a long way to go for me to manage but I have no choice but deal with it.

So after enduring this crappy contract ., no more hanging around on shitty Arab principals for me  and absolutely no "uwak" officers (which is a must). Any company who will mention these two will absolutely be dropped off on my list PERIOD and I will make no further attempt in even considering looking for work on those kinds of companies.

MAGICAL TOY BOX

February 23, 2018

And it all ends the worthless pathetic two days of "Wet dock" ship repairs. Honestly this so called "Wet Dock" is nothing more than just a tune up and a cheaper version of a "dry dock" ship repairs. There are no hordes of maintenance personnel swarming the place to repair the ship., (I only counted less than 30 maintenance people).

It was a big letdown on the fact that I was expecting that there will be at least a shore leave around , but it turns out that there are no shore leaves even if this ship stayed for almost three days., I mean the whole "night" and time was more than enough for a shore leave and yet I have no idea why they didn’t offered this to the crew to go on shore leave. I was working there and the working hours were not even considered busy.

The only most logical explanation why there is no shore leave is that the management never allowed it in the first place.,

Anyway it's no surprise for me that wet dock will turn out like this., After all this is an "uwak" infested ship and the company is run by "uwak's" . So its very obviously that Shell / Nakilat is neglectful on its crew and that working here is more stressful than any other Liquid tankers (chemical, product and Oil) I worked with. All I can say I don’t expect much if the ship and company has "uwaks" in it.

In other news ..

Lately I had been making online purchases left and right in lazada (Philippine version of ebay) and the reason why I'm doing this is for the preparation for the next ship / company I'd be working with. Another reason aside from it is that it cut me the time and effort for me in searching for these items,  thus help me focus in urgent matters like finding a job and replacement company after this (shell / nakilat). On how things are going for me , it looks like that I'm heavily relaying on online purchase to fill in the materials I need, and probably soon almost all of my equipment will be supplied by lazada.

For the purpose of disseminating this information for my fellow sailors., I will post here on this blog the items that I will bring along , complete with all the necessary information a sailor should know.  Also to tell them that these equipment's are considered mostly "experimental" in category and some of them might still be "debatable" for use in the actual Ship work.

Online store and purchases have been almost around for nearly 30 years but here in the Philippines , its only been introduced recently - as in for the "millennial" generation and its gaining popularity. In the old days it was basically go to a far place and search each item available - hazzle , inconvenient and impractical to today's standards    

In other news.

Recently I had "scavenge" the crew TV room to find anything that can be of use., and it came to see on the old cabinet that there's an unused Old Video Game console system left behind., It was a Nintendo Wii ., which from what I remember on video game system was a hit gaming console back in 2003 ., Probably the ship crew mistook this videogame console to be broken or badly damaged and just left it there to neglected.

I tested the console and plugged the power and hooked it up on the TV and found out that this Nintendo Wii was still in very good condition and the only problem was that the batteries for the game controller were empty (or missing). I tested the gaming controller using my rechargeable batteries and it worked . 

Immediately an idea came to me instant ., what if I could bring this console home when I disembark by around April or May ., I could use a new electronic stuff on the TV set back home ? I could really use a new gizmo around and besides that upgrading and buying accessories and games for this videogame system would be easy to find - I'm very sure that this gadget will be very useful on my house and definitely will not be neglected at all like what this ship is treating this console. Surely they won't notice this videogame console would be missing and the crew TV room has a Play station 3 hooked up and still in service on this ship. They just probably think that the whole console (Nintendo Wii) is broken anyway.

Technically of course this is called stealing the ships property but its still fun taking these home as payback for all the shitty treatment I had received on UPL Shell / Nakilat for the past four months ., and it's called vengeance. 

MESSAGE FROM ANOTHER SIDE

February 19, 2018

Location: Near Las Raffan Qatar

By next week, the real task begins for me …..

Based and what is confirmed is that two new crew will be arriving soon and from what I heard that the incoming chief mate and Bosun will be some of the worst Shell / Nakilat has to offer. So for me expect that the remaining 2 and a half months for me will a "hell of a ride" and that working hours will be very long and work will be unpleasant.

But in any case 2 months for me will not be problematic., given with my previous experience in CSM company were that I have to endure a shitty bosun for 10 months., Surely 2 months will definitely be not a problem for me and this will be my first and last with Shell / Nakilat Principal. I'd be leaving the company and search for a more comfortable and "crew friendly" working environment company.

From what I heard the incoming Chief mate has a foul language problem., (which I wonder does he kiss his wife with a mouth like that ) and the Incoming BOSUN based on rumours I heard about messman is "Strict" (which from a pinoy nautical's term perspective is a polite term for asshole / shitty personality). Latest news I had heard is that they will be arriving on the 25th of February. 

This ship may be advance and high tech for gas tanker standards but its working policies polices are crude, backward and repressive on its crew.

Speaking of repressive policies , I decided to do a publicity stunt by taking a small camera and took pictures in the trunk deck area of this LNG ship and ABSOLUTELY NO ONE IS GOING TO STOP ME FROM PUBLISHING THIS ON MY BLOG. Normally this stunt is punishable in Shell / Nakilat Dogmatic standards as summarily dismissal and fired on the spot but fuck with it. They're already lame and control freak in the first place ., So I'd be publishing pictures of the LNG ship im working at and NO ONE IN SHELL / NAKILAT is going to stop me no matter how much they say "its not safe" ,. SAFE MY ASS SHELL / NAKILAT - youre just only an name in the maritime industry and no matter how much you brag about you're malevolence , I think that you're just another typical asshole here in this sector .

LIFEBOAT TEST

February 09, 2018 Friday 

Location : Near Singapore

Its Pathetic ., to see my crew mates act so lowly today on the "waterborne" Life boat test but it is what I saw on my eyes. They looked simply so stupid., It was obvious that most of them were agitated on the testing of the life boat and only shows that despite all Shell's bragging and "perfectionist" attitude - they simply could not cope with changing situations ,

Compared to my previous ship I had joined , this ship doesn’t have a welcoming and comfortable working environment.

During lunchtime they tried to persuade me to get inside the lifeboat , on the last minute obviously I wasn’t happy hearing it especially on the last minute and I have no idea on why the hell BOSUN Berlix thought of that . I didn’t replied or gave my answer to their comment - I just remained silent and frowned and immediately left my table. On my head I was saying "why the fuck have they decided to put me on that damn lifeboat ?, I had already been in that way back last 2010 and now they're putting me back !! What the fuck !"

MAMA SAN'S PLACE

February 04, 2018 Sunday

Location : Incheon, Korea

After the long wait for an approval on my shore leave ., I finally got the chance to roam around again in south Korea after three months. Honestly I think it’s a bit unfair that I have to wait for a month just to get a chance on shore leave in the first place, its totally a bummer that this is the procedure in Shell / Nakilat principal and very repressing.

Anyway I'm not surprised that this will be case given that SHELL is a "Perfectionist" kind of principal and that terms here are rarely fair to Filipino's and this includes shore leaves. In reality a sailor working here wouldn't enjoy his work at all because of the so many restrictions.

I remember back when I was in the Oil tanker type of ship ., there is rarely any restrictions on shore leave and that almost everyone is allowed as long as they arrive on time before the ship leaves. Absolutely almost everything there was very easy to handle., and it’s very different on what shore leave is in LNG ships.

Since I finally got to roam to south Korea ., my main goal to find some part replacements for my Nintendo Switch and second objective is to get at least some memory upgrades in SD card for my Nintendo Switch as well. Third objective is to find antibiotics for my recent skin infection (Boil) to be specific I have to find amoxicillin. There were four of us who finally got a chance on shore leave and was dropped off on a store called "Seaman's Center" ., It's not actually a seaman's Center - just a store named on it., ( the real Seaman's Center is actually just on the other side of the street) .

We never actually got to roam around Incheon due to weather problems and its still too damn cold (as in -4 degress celcius) to stay out outside so most of the time on shore leave was spent in a subway dealing with an Indian cellphone dealer., (which Oiler Danilo is annoying., and his chat dealings with the Indian goes on like forever) .

the remaining half an hour was spent in a small mall called "Emart" which for I wasn’t able to get amoxicillin antibiotics for my ongoing skin infection (Boil), I assume that probably buying antibiotics here in south Korea needed a prescription and that the pharmacy store there is basically has nothing important in their shelves compared to small pharmacies store's in the Philippines which I can buy antibiotics almost practically everywhere without prescriptions.

While buying a few chocolates on the small supermart ., a Korean cashier probably mistook me to be Korean looking from my haggard pale look (must have been my ongoing bad skin infection) and asked me where I'm from., I replied I was from the philippines.

Just to mention ., On the way to Emart - we practically circled around than going on to the usual route because Oiler "Danilo's" meddling on which direction we should go., we almost went way off on the path and was already near a ferry passenger terminal.

 When we got on the rendevouz area (mama's sans place) it was around 7pm. A.B. "Mario Manalo" mention that internet connection on Mama San's place was strong and fast enough to accommodate downloads so I immediately wasted no time and quickly put up my Nintendo switch to download some games I bought on the Eshop and as what they said , internet in korea is really fast AS A HUNDRED TIMES FASTER THAN IN THE PHILIPPINES. In the span of thirty minutes I was able to finish the downloads on two games that I bought "Pokken tournament" (pokemon fighting game) and Voez (a music game) ., If I only knew that internet here in mama san's place was this fast - I could have arrived a bit earlier to finish off some heavy download games which I still have on my Nintendo.  Probably If I had arrived earlier I could have finished downloading "Skyrim" game on Nswitch.

Most memory upgrades I got was from mama san's store. The 64GB SD Card, although it not enough or suitable for my Gaming console it is however perfect for my other mobile gadgets like tablet and Action camera.

At around 7.30pm we were picked up by the bus and was put straight back to the ship.  When we returned I was told by BOSUN Berlix to take a rest for about 6 hours then be on the deck watch at 4am to 8am in the morning.

FIRE SAFETY HAZARD

JOURNAL ENTRY : January 25 2018, Thursday

For the moment , I had now been enjoying the full extent of online banking and checking on my account details and doing some money transfers. Imagine I'm doing a financial transactions using my mobile phone or computer on what should be done in a bank.

Internet banking and Mobile phone banking is been around in the Philippines for more than a decade and yet here in the maritime industry ., it is still unheard of and probably is still a new concept. Some of my crewmates here never even heard of it , or practically never knew it existed at all.

It may take a while for the general population of seafarers in the maritime industry to fully be even aware on this kind of Financial technology since internet onboard ships is still newly introduced.

Now for the moment , it looks like that my regular allotment salary for me hasn’t arrived yet even though its already the 25th of this month. (Delayed salary perhaps ??) . I had been checking it via mobile banking and verified it again via internet banking and the results ended up the same., - The salary hasn’t been wired transferred yet.

What could be cause of the delay ?

In other news related

"GADGETS ARE TO BE INSPECTED DURING CABIN INSPECTION"

Seriously ??? Even my personal electronics are to be checked this time around ? Apparently the longer I'm staying here in this ship (and in general in UPL - Shell / Nakilat ) Their "safety" polices keeps getting worse and more bizarre. Honestly I don’t see the point on why they have to check my personal belonging which includes my electronic gadgets.

I do know their looking for fire safety hazard but checking my electronic gadgets is a bit over the top and from what I'm looking at its already a violation of my privacy and civil rights.  I'm not comfortable some person is just simply barging around the cabin inspecting and looking on my personal belongings and effects.  Even if its for the sake of so called "fire safety hazard" .

In other news

A Filipino Superintendent boarded this ship back in Lass Raffan and now is conducting some sort of "motivational" lectures to the whole crew. During those meeting session he explains the working culture in this principal