MODIFICATIONS ON PPE

October 15, 2018 Tuesday

Enroute to Perth Australia

For some time now, I had been making thoughts on modifications in the equipment I had been using , to fit more in the TCC working environment. I had completed some of the modifications now, although some of the equipment that I had in mind will not use here due to "Work Politics" such as using my very own head light. Apparently here they don’t allow 3rd party equipment brought in by their crew., Funny that on this ship (and company) they don’t sufficiently supply their crew with head lights and yet when it comes to the crew providing their own equipment for work (which is far more superior than their standard issue) , they will forbid the use of it and will come up with a lame excuse that "other third party equipment is prohibited and use only company supplied equipment - even if its instrincally safe" (from this part , they sounded more like that Shell )

Pathetic Fools !

Anyway what can I expect from an industry environment that has been laid back for forty four years, it's only natural I guess to assume that people inside it is also thinking forty years late. Of course it's not my business if they think that way, my concern is on how I do work comfortably , using some modified equipment.

Despite some limitation, it does not stop me on my work and the use of my light equipment is just a minor setback. Most of the equipment I have can be used here , and they can't come up with any stupid excuses of why I shouldn't I use it. Thankfully even though there are some limitations and ban on certain equipment people and TCC is not that hard headed and single minded compared to Shell and that folks here still have some room for open mind when it comes to progress.

In any case my latest work involves me in modifying the helmet I use. Hopefully jealous folks here won't notice some the modifications I made.

Another changes I had to do is can my balaclava I use on daily work , the previous one I'm using was already too old and worn out and that I had been wearing that head equipment for almost three ships now , spanning back when I was still in career ship management. So I guess it's about time I retire that balaclava and make a new one.  

In other news….

After the loading of cargo in Papua New Guinea, this ship is back again heading east to Perth Australia to discharge cargo and has already started to adjust its clock to the same time zone in the Philippines. Probably I'd get an internet connection there thru the Optus internet sim card I bought there. Probably I may even get to publish or update my blog once this ship reaches Australia or maybe even download the RPG game I bought recently for the Nintendo switch called "Octopath Traveller"

In other news again …..

Finally got my hair trim , thanks to fitter who has some knowledge in being a barber. The long hair is already starting to bother me because its already starting to itch in my ear area, and sadly I do not know anyone here onboard who knows how to cut hair - that is before I found out fitter can.

So I guess now that my hair is already trimmed again, I won't have to deal with the long hair issue for a month or two and no itching for a while.

Having a long hair maybe good when I'm stationed in Europe, since hair acts as some sort of heat insulation (which traps body heat) for the protection in cold weather environments , but currently I'm now in the tropics and in south east asia and this area in the globe is one of the hottest places and basically heat insulation is practically useless., and having a long hair is a terrible idea as in might lead to heat  exhaustion or terrible discomfort.

On another news…

Lately some of my crew mates decided to play a LAN multiplayer FPS game called "Counter Strike" . Yeah the game is very old as in about roughly almost 20 years now and yet believe it or not we still play this game like it was yesterday. It was actually 3rd mate who came up with the idea , and I just went along on what they were thinking. There are six of us playing the game , so it's basically a 3 on 3 shoot-out game.

I'm hesitant at first probably because the computer I had with on this trip is not exactly built for gaming , rather the one I have right now is for office use and for internet only - if I wanted to play games all along I could have settled for a much larger more muscled computer to play games with. Aside from that , right now I'm in the transitioning from Playing PC games going to console gaming like what I had the Nintendo switch for.

The good thing playing counterstrike , is that this game is so old that almost all computers can play this game and no computer will have difficulty running this game.

EXPLOITS IN PAPUA

October 13, 2018 Tuesday

Enroute to Perth Australia

Yesterday marks my 60th day here, and without any stressful situations or incidents.

The Papua New Guinean exploits went in very quick, and although shore leave was totally impossible due to the ship mooring in a buoy (SBM , also known as  ship buoy mooring in nautical terms) at least the work load was very light compared to the traditional port facility. Basically most of my work there is just babysitting a buoy on which the ship is moored at and see if the ship is aligned, and that’s about it.

Despite the announcement made by this ships Indian captain that we will be expecting visitors specifically customs and immigration authorities, it turns out that it was just a deception and that this uwak captain is just paranoid. The only persons that came in is a mooring master, a ships agent and a loading master. Nothing more

So I guess there won't be cabins inspections and checking of hard drives which is good for me.

During work I manage to take the liberty in taking pictures while no one was around., of course I made sure that I'm alone in taking pictures and had to be careful since people here are not that trust worthy - Filipino's or any other nationality alike. 

I took pictures on how SBM looks like in the actual , this info and pictures will be invaluable as a reference and knowledge.  My actions on taking pictures may violate some "safety" standards on a tanker but people who would say that are stupidly ignorant and do not know the value of knowledge nor even thinking of what we can learn from it.  Dangerous or not ITS IS STILL KNOWLEDGE FOR ME , AND THEREFORE MUST BE STUDIED AND LEARNED FROM.

  

10 PERCENT CHANCE OF RAIN

September 30, 2018 Tuesday

Kumon, Papua New Guinea

Ship finally departed kwinana , Perth West Australia after a week, and its headed off in its next destination somewhere in Papua New Guinea.

Soon after its departure, I implemented on the plan in using my "working belt". I simply came up one day and wear it on work. As expected it caused a fuzz around my co-workers that they keep talking about it for the whole week and made negative comments on why I'm wearing such an equipment.

My opinion about why they keep talking about it , is that they're jealous over my equipment. Despite them being jealous over my equipment , they cannot pin anything against it nor do any sabotage. Besides hell I care on what they'd about to say, as long as I'm not violating any company policies that I know of - they cannot use any excuse against it.  It may take a while for them to get used on my idea , but they'd get around and I just have to endure and ignore their criticism over it.

In other news…

On a few days ago, the payroll pay slip came up and I was surprised on how things turned out in the pay slip. Apparently on what I read on the pay slip is that OSM - TCC , does pays its contribution on social security, health insurance and housing insurance, However although they do pay their contributions , when I looked closely on the paper - it looks like their rate of paying to social security and other insurance were bare minimum, From what I'm seeing , is that they're just paying those as a formality so that the crew (and government labor agencies) won't accuse them of negligence. I can't possibly imagine that their contributions on social security per month is as low as 500 Pesos, which is two thirds less than my previous employers would pay on social security. From 1750 Philippines , OSM - TCC's social security contribution pummels at 500 Philippine peso.

So what does this means for me ., Apparently based on today's social security premiums , my pension (if I retire one day) that the government will giving me will be just probably go below the 5000 Philippine pesos per month because my employer currently remits on the minimum scale of social security. From the looks of it my retirement pension will greatly suffer because of them. On how the way they handle social security contribution to seafarers is not illegal, but it's doesn’t necessarily mean that its fair.  

Social security is a big deal for me because I knew one day , I will not be a sailor forever and one day I will go back on a "normal" life and it really pains me to learn that if that ever happens - I hate having a small monthly retirement pension because OSM - TCC company is a stingy company. Other seafarers may overlook this but for me , this is simply in excusable.

In other matters ….

There was a recent cabin inspection conducted (OSM - TCC routinely conducts this every week). I cleaned my cleaning station and my cabin as what I used to., and I still got a comment and this time the comment I got was that my cabin has too many "gadget" devices - Specifically they are referring to my Nintendo Switch, Netbook computer, Digital tablet (which serves as a clock ) and my cellphone.

EACH TO HIS OWN THOUGHTS

September 25, 2018 Tuesday

Enroute to Papua New Guinea

Up to now I'm still puzzled on why TCC is avoided by seafarers here in OSM and reliever crew seems to be hard to find on Deck crews, I'm not sure or pin point on what's the main cause why seafarers here find TCC to be repulsive.

(Probably the reason , I suspect is beyond this ship. As what other crew said that this ship has the most lenient work practices compared to other tanker ships in TCC Fleet., its possible that other ships have a more brutal policy,)

In other matters

Given on that situation that there's a possibility that other ships have stringent measures on work, and its possible that my working equipment I use on everyday will be affected (because they might Ban in the future) ., I'm currently thinking of a solution on how to make my equipment less visible to prying "uwak" eyes. (I have no problems using my equipment with filipino's around but having "uwaks" is another story).

The proposal solution I was thinking was having more like a huge pouch on my belt to hid my tools around. I saw such a pouch thankfully in lazada online store. I think it's big enough to conceal my tools and yet have the enough capacity to shoulder the weight and accommodate all of my tools around. Anyway this tactic is still under development process and I will still have to do a lot of thinking on how this might work in the actual work place. 

In other news .,

The ship (Vanguard) finally berthed in Perth and I finally got and internet sim card from the seaman's centere. The first thing I did (aside from putting a top up load) is check out my social media sites and update them. Facebook, twitter, instagram, etc even check out my online banking.

For the social media, there is really nothing much I did but just post some pictures and reply a few messages. But when I checked out my online banking , I was surprised and definitely disappointed that no money was wired transferred to my U.S. Dollar account.,  Puzzled on why there is no money wired transffered to my bank account even though its already way past salary date, I immediately messaged my sister (via facebook) to contact the supervisor in charge and have things clarified. The following day , I received a reply from my sister and found out that the payroll system here is different compared to my two previous employer who use the same bank. BDO.

Apparently although OSM uses BDO as a bank in its payroll, their payroll systems is  somewhat similar to Career Ship Management. They simply keep tabs on the amount of salary I earned and not forwarding it to my bank account. To simply explain it,. All I have right now is simply numbers on a piece of paper indicating that was my salary and I won't get my overall salary until I finish my contract first.

Their payroll system sucks compared to my two previous employers.,…

I was under the impression that they have the same pay methods , since they use Bdo and they require their seafarers to open up a U.S. Dollar account. Turns out it was disappointing that they will not wire transfer my salary anytime soon. Practically it’s a waste and pointless on why they require their sailors to have a U.S. dollar account if they can't wire transfer the salary in the first place. Totally disappointed on how the way they handle the payroll.,

As for the regular allotment (and "special allottement" called M.P.O. or Master payment order) , They do pay on time , but if you ask what is the definition of "on time means" to them , is that it’s "the end of the month" , not early as like 3rd week of the month compared to ALL OF MY PREVIOUS EMPLOYERS.

Honestly the only reason why I joined up on OSM , was because of the reason of having their payroll system associated with the BDO bank, which has an online mobile banking system and instantaneous wire transfer and without this, I don’t see any reason why I should remain longer than necessary in this company.

The effects of OSM not having an effective payroll system for me is that , it's impossible for me to have an instantaneous wire transfer of money to my sisters bank account which is good for emergencies, all other money transfers here are sadly have to go thru the slow process. Another nasty effect is that purchasing items online. Apparently i use online shopping in prep for the equipment's I will use onboard the next ship. Purchasing of online digital games on my gaming console is affected also and other online banking transaction as well. This is definitely a huge set back.

Despite my annoyance and anger over OSM's pathetic payroll management, I have to restrain my anger and just keep it to myself. I just keep repeating the phrase for me to "be professional" if anything goes wrong on my employer. "Professional" in the sense that do only two contracts, never say a word against them but take action, finish the contract and leave (which mean that I should hop again on another company)

In other news …..

Since the ship berthed in Perth, we were allowed to go on shore leave which meant I can go on the nearby town to buy some needed supplies and equipment. Thankfully the shore leave here in this pathetic OSM , is really a shore leave were I get to wonder off in town, (unlike the sham shore leave, in UPL - Shell were they just only let people step on soil but never let them to go anywhere they want). On the shore leave I finally get to wander off in Fremantle Perth area, and did buy a few stuffs - on the second day, but on the first day it was just basically shore leave and have a drink on the local bar.

After long last I finally got to go on a proper shore leave , even though the chief mate was hesitant and said that I should first ask permission on going to shore leave before dressing up.         

full of stuff that i bought on the local store, good thing i have an extra tactical backpack with me

Nintendo eshop cards i bought at the local game stop store in Perth , Austria. I bought this because im going to buy digital games for my nintendo switch (incidentaly the region i registered it is australia)

GREY WATER ISSUE

September 15, 2018 Saturday

Anchorage in Perth Harbor, Australia

Based on the updated info I heard, this ships arrival will be berthing upon arrival. But on the last minute I was surprised that it turns out to be on anchorage. I was called by around 5 am in the morning by bosun and told that we were going to pay out anchor.

On what I saw the anchor given on this particular spot on Perth harbor Australia was 10 shackles.

Since it was a sudden change even the daily maintenance work from preparation of berthing was changed to the usual maintenance.

Currently the maintenance work involves, greasing of the provision crane wires on the right side of the ship. Unfortunately A.B. "roderick" who was assigned working on it got scared because of the height and said that it was too dangerous to work on that kind distance. So in a couple of minutes , we staged a platform for it to be worked on (scaffolding). Took two days to totally finish the job at the crane from greasing the wires to painting the whole machine in full coat.

In other matters

Being in the case that this ship has arrived at Australia, it was announced on the morning tool box talk that laundry will be closed for the time being until berthing, they reasoned out that they have to control the "Grey water" issue because of Australia's stiff environmental policy.

As a result to this , I went to resolve on this problem by washing my clothes in the bathroom and have to hang it to dry out (even the dryer machine is closed as well, reasoning that overheating problem might occur).  I remember this kind of tactic I used , way back during my time in "Eagle Boston" were I had to wash them and hang them over inside my cabin , but back then the problem was on the ship itself because of faulty equipment , Here It's the rules these uwak's imposed.

Anyway its fine with me , I had been in that kind of situation before and I know how to deal with it. Besides reasoning out on these uwak's are totally impossible, the only thing that I had to do is deal with it and get around on the situation.

DREAM GALAXY

September 08, 2018 Saturday

Enroute to West Australia

As this ship proceeds to Perth , west Australia. We spent the travel time in doing maintenance work, doing the usual task. As for me I am off doing the regular "Chipping, Brushing and Painting" loop work. There's one minor mistake I made during maintenance work and that is that I have mistaken that "CMP marine thinner"  was the same as a Paint thinner, turns out that I should use the red can rather than the blue can. The paint turned out to be blobby , and I had to dispose it. Anyway it’s a minor mistake.

According to the latest word I heard that this ship will arrive in Australia on the 11th of September by early morning.

Given that this ship will arrive on soon on Australian waters, I already saw on the stairway an order form for Internet simcards and top up loads for the crew, we had to simply just write down on how many one should order. For me I order a simcard and two top up loads.  Probably I should get a decent internet connection while in Australia (assuming that this internet sim card works), and perhaps I could get updates and latest news in the social media and check out the latest games in Nintendo switch for download. I had been off the grid for a month now and would be interested to see on how are things going on.  I wonder on what is the latest update on my Facebook and twitter account ?

On work related news …

The new muster list duties came out, and apparently it's always a joke that the new duties im aside with will also be the hardest. Anyway as long as I figured out on how to do it , then it won't be a problem for me until I signed off from this ship. There are also a few minor changes in the muster list, now the starboard quarter will be the main muster list station instead of being port side.

By the way I'm surprised to see that they changed the muster list. From what I heard on the most recent safety meeting as said by the captain that "muster list cannot be changed as it is written in the ships safety manual and approved classification design". Now a week later , it looks like that the captain is just horse shitting people and that muster list can be changed. Anyway I'm not surprised that things tune will start to changed - after all the captain is an "Uwak" and as far as I know "uwaks" are always obnoxious to filipino's  

In other news ….

There's a rumor going on that this ship might head off to south korea, Incheon. But if I based on the records on where this ship has been - there is no record that it ever went to Korea, besides that in thinking I never knew that south Korea has oil. Probably this is all just a "you wish" factor spreading out, as far as I can tell this ship will never leave south east asia and its PERMANENTLY stationed here, only going to area like Malaysia, Indonesia, Thailand and Singapore nothing more beyond that aside from Fujairah, UAE.

If it does go to south Korea (although I highly find it doubtful) , the voyage plan might be that we get oil somewhere in Malaysia then drop it off in south Korea. After that I don’t know any place where it can get oil in east Asia. The only thing concrete here in this that this ships "home base" will always be Australia as BP Oil company have chartered this ship. 

In other news ….

Its O.S. "Chris" birthday and almost the whole Filipino crew gathered in the smoking room to celebrate or at least hang out. There's the typical karaoke and people here keep pushing me to sing,

I did sing two songs. One is more like a pop song and the other is a local kids song from the Philippines just to quell the annoyance of the crowd and I thought singing was enough to shut them up ., it turns out that they started asking more personal question about my life. Obvious I don’t talk about my personal life onboard and never will - I just have a personal rule of never to talk about it and keep things always in the professional level.

Aside from that I can never be sure that not none among them is a gossiper, and as far as I can based on my experience Filipino sailors are one of the most gossip mongering kind of folk. I am never comfortable divulging personal information about myself nor interested in hearing personal information about other people. Anyway if things are unavoidable , I just give false personal information about myself. So that even if they do gossip I'm comfortable that those gossips aren't true. A counter gossip tactic I had learned during my years as a sailor.

After that singing , I just made an excuse to leave the area saying that I had some things that I forgot to do. Good thing I'm very good in hiding my annoyance over that matter.     

13 HOURS TO SULU

September 04, 2018 Tuesday

Sulu Island Philippines, Enroute to Kwinana , Perth Australia

Working almost at the border of the Philippines., I never imagine or thought that this ship will be at transit on Sulu island Philippines. Never occurred to me that this ship transit is so close in the Philippines that the whole sulu island is visible on the naked eye., Of course the whole island is technically still a few kilometers away , but it's so close that signal reception of cellphones in Philippines telecom operators are picked up. This is good if the my cellphone was not registered for roaming function,. And perhaps I could even get an internet signal. Unfortunately reality check is that my cellphone is in "roaming" mode. ( Anyway maybe I could get some internet sim card and internet on australia later on )

The cellphone signal lasted for at least 3 hours before of being lost.

Speaking of which, During that time I was on the bridge because since this ship is transiting HRA , the Chiefmate decided that there should be a double watch on the ship bridge and incidentally the time slot 4am to 8am falls under me. I went there just barely for two hours - just during the night time.

ABOVE THE DISTANT CLOUDS

August 31, 2018 Friday

Moored at buoy in Kemanish, Malaysia

Ship has finally moored at Kemanish, Malaysia. The mooring is "SBM" (Ship buoy mooring) meaning a ship is tied up to a buoy on the forward area and the aft area is moored or guided by a tugboat (or supply vessel). The ship receives cargo from the buoy were its also has a cargo hose.

Apparently mooring in Kemanish, Malaysia has no nearby port., No shore leave for short.

Temperatures in Kemanish, Malaysia is exceedingly hot. As in tropical heat weather, like peak of summer in the Philippines. Anyway there is nothing I can do about this given that I had been thrown on the far side of the world because I don’t have a U.S. Visa around., If I had a U.S. visa - I'd definitely not be on this place., and would prefer the weather in the north Atlantic area, preferably european weather.

Work on an "SBM" type of mooring is relatively easy., Someone has just to stay put and routinely check for buoy position on the forward area and that's about it. And lucky me I'm the person assigned to baby sit on that buoy position. Loading operations was very short ., just mostly around less than 24 hours compared to my previous work experiences on other Oil tanker ships .

Unmooring was also easy and no effort (on my part) was made since I was just baby-sitting the whole buoy position for the whole 24 hours, I just saw my co-workers do the disconnection of the cargo hose , although I wanted to see more on how it is made , I cannot leave the area and just simply watched it via my binoculars.

Soon after unmooring , razor wire was immediately put up around the whole ship , in prep for HRA (High Risk Area) where supposedly piracy and robbery always take place in south east Asia.

Piracy and robbery here in south east Asia is not as violent (or not violent at all) and usually pirates here just steal some stuff on the ships, Its very rare that they harm or attack people,. They do get violent sometimes when of course provoke, other than that - it's nothing to be cause of concern. Personally I don’t think putting up razor wires is necessary at all here in this region, but who am I to say that right ? As long as I'm being paid extra for the efforts then it's none of my business, besides if in rare instance that we do encounter pirates then it’s the ships property they want and not people.     

THAT OLD GHOST

August 30, 2018 Thursday

Anchored at kemanish, Malaysia

While we wait for the day for this ship to go berth , We do the usual work that seafarers do when a ship is out to see.

MAINTENANCE

On this work in maintenance , we were tasked to paint the whole mast area just above the monkey island. In short we have to paint the tower that houses the radar equipment. The radar was switched off as per safety working practice.

We were already in the middle of work and painting the area, and I myself was right in front of the blow horn of the ship , when suddenly a big blasting loud "HONK" sound was made by the blow horn. Everybody on the whole Mast area, was interrupted by that deafening sound and me in particular as I was working in front of the blow horn, Sound was loud enough to be deafening. Good thing all of us were wearing a safety harness just in case.

No one was injured on that sudden sound blast, although it did scared the chief mate - thinking that someone might have been injured on that sound blast.

A day after that painting of the mast, we proceeded to work on another "high area". This time it’s the ships chimney, I didn’t get much action on this work, as I was only just assigned to be a look out (more like a guard dog) and just assist and bring in any working equipment the group might need. I did bring in to them a few water hoses, for cleaning and some paint.

Later on that day ,.

We had an emergency drill, basically not anything new - just the usual fire drill, abandon ship drill and enclosed space rescue.

During the abandon ship drill, there was this minor incident in which a lashing broke off while lowering the starboard life boat. Apparently from what I heard they never released those lashings when the life board was being lowered which resulted for the wire to snap out.  Based on what I overheard from the chief mate ., the captain was stupid enough to said lower the life boat, not even knowing that the wire straps have to be released first. Totally dumb ass "Uwak's"  they only know how to make life complicated, by their self-made rules but they themselves are stupid enough to not know the basics, they couldn’t even follow their own rules. In the end of the drill , he called for a meeting and started the "blaming culture" Uwak's are known for and the poor old second mate was the one blamed.

After pointing the blame to someone else , that old crone even has the guts to brag and mention the word "resilience" lecture which came from Shell company , my former employer.  Yeah right ! Resilience ? - for all I know when I was with shell , their so called "Resilience" lectures were nothing but pure horse shit and as what I said earlier, they couldn't even follow their very own lecture or apply it correctly.

All that big talk about their so called lectures, rules and discipline - look has what lead shell into, An "uwak" infested company that every Filipino sailor should avoid at all cost, and on my personal experience - one of the worst companies I worked on my entire career as a sailor.

Save that "uwak" filth for another "uwak"

HAPPY BIRTHDAY OF AN OLD DINOSAUR

August 27, 2018 Tuesday

Anchored at Kemanish, Malaysia

Tomorrow will be my birthday, can't imagine that I will wasting 8 months of my life again on some worthless, pathetic, ignorant principal who couldn't understand the basics of instrically safe equipment I had.

Anyway what do I expect from Indians, those ignorants are nothing but trouble on a ship. It’s one of the main reason why I left UPL - Shell, because of these kind of people and the whole company is overrun by them. Now although they limit the number of Indians here on this company, They still cause problems - its seems that whatever ship I go to (and company) as long as there are presence of Indians, things will never be smooth. Currently the situation here on this principal is that they impose oppressive "Shell" like policies in a lesser extent, and that bastard Indian even have the guts to invade a person privacy and use the excuse of "safety" just to violate them. 

I do now fully understand why former crewmates in "EAGLE BOSTON" hate them.

I sure do hope that this is the only principal in OSM , that has an Indian presence. Otherwise as much as I hate it, I have to get out and look for another company that has no Indian presence. Despite the setbacks I'm scheduled to accomplish in this company to take in a two contracts, after that  if the results were unsuccessful , then I'd move along. The possibility of a third contract will be heavily based on what will be the results in the second contract.

At around 27th of August this ship has arrived in Malaysia and anchored and will be probably be waiting for the 31st of August for it to go to berth, which will take almost 24 hours of loading and depart and go back to Perth, Australia.