JUNE 13th, 2013, THURSDAY
Near Morocco.
Iridium actually is the brand name of our satellite phone here in Cape Tallin and based on my perception it's more like a prepaid one, this phone is more like a typical black handheld wall telephone in appearance. When using it just dial 02888 + the country code number (in my case the Philippines which is 63) then the telephone number. Haven't used a satellite phone for more than 2 years now and I only used it way back then as sending a message out of my desperation, Seriously using a satellite phone may seem cool but it isn't really that effective at all as compared to simply just email a person or sending a PM to face book, or even using a local land based phone at all. IRIDIUM is an expensive and inefficient way of communication , on top of that it slashed 34 U.S. Dollars off my onboard pay for this month.
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| This is what an Iridium Phone looks like |
In other news.
Every time I wake up here on my cabin in Cape Tallin, I always have this eerie feeling that I'm waking up on a different place like the feeling that I'm waking up on a different dimension, a sad and desolate place. weird right ? Well compared to my previous ship BOW Ophelia , where I have a feeling of being inside a cryo hibernation tube (like the one's you see in SCI-FI films) every time I woke up. I could say that Cape Tallin is a change of pace.
For the dreams, believe it or not I don't dream of home here as to what happened on me during my work on STOLT Strength. For some reason my mind is mentally prepared for this and I feel more relax now whenever I sleep, I just simply thought to myself that
In work related news.
My task for this day was to De grease both spring line winches located on the port side of this ship (forward and aft respectively). The task wasn't really that hard , Just remember to bring a can of diesel fuel, a bucket full of rags (by the way its called "stoopa" here) , chemical gloves and that's is. The thing that I had only trouble with was that since this is a Product Crude Oil Tanker, There no shade at all to hide from the sun with and I'm bare exposed to the heat.
One tactic I learned to cool myself from the summer heat at sea was wet my coveralls with fresh water, I had just simply had to find a fresh water outlet nearby, open it and apply the water to my coveralls like lotion going to my skin. Seriously it relieved me of all discomfort of the hot weather and effectively dissipates the heat I'm receiving from the sun. Plus subliminally the BOSUN might even think I'm working hard as it may confuse it as sweat being soaked on my coveralls, and no way could I be accused of just slacking around the job. By the way the color of the fresh water outlet here on Cape Tallin is Color Blue, (Red is the fire hydrant and basically is the symbol for sea water). Here on this ship most of the fresh water outlets are located on the cargo manifold area of the ship , but I saw two outlets at the forward part and one outlet at the aft part. The main problem here is that fresh water outlets here are very few and very far apart compared to a chemical tanker that each cargo wing has its own fresh water outlet.
In the afternoon work after finishing the de greasing of the spring lines, I was put on to painting the cargo lines with gray paint (Admiral Grey color) and had to climb the cargo lines to paint them. The problem in painting cargo The line here is that, there is no other metal piping's to climb around with and had to circle around in the cat walk area before going down to the said cargo line to paint with, plus its very troublesome and that I had to watch my step every now and then since there is too few cargo lines to step on. This ship is truly bizarre and I guess id be better off on a chemical tanker (preferably 20,000 GRT and below) rather than in a product tanker. Good thing A.B. Malorca was around to accompany me on my work here.
The following day...
Since this ship is already getting near morocco, ( or its estimate that it will berth upon arrival within the next 48 hours ). The work we've done for the whole day was to wash the whole main deck area with sea water , from forward to aft, and it only means one thing - I'm going to be soaking wet with sea water for the whole day. There was a few minor problem that was encountered on this task as the hose we used was general a steam hose which by all term is not suited for the task, as a result the hose frequently burst every now and then , and BOSUN AMICAN had to frequently adjust a few screws or even cut the whole steam hose on the process.
On lunch, I saw a few boxes of Pringles Potato chips being given freely to the crew mess room. I later found out that those potato chips are already near expiration date, so in order for it not to be spoiled the management here gave it here for free, Aside from it Free orange cola was being given also and was on the same situation as the Pringles Potato chips. Well pretty generous of the management , and quite honestly I never expected it at all to happened - not at all.
After lunch I went off along with A.B. Ronald Caldona, Over some water on the Bilge Pump Room. Had no idea here that the bilge pump room was located below the BOSUN store area at the bow of the ship and was an enclosed space as far as I knew. Worst was that the oxygen detector they gave to "ronald" was not working properly and could not detect the oxygen levels, So basically me and "Ronald" entered the enclosed space blindly. We just simply keep the water tight door of the Bosun Store open and let the air come through, "Ronald" is the one who went down and removed all the water out on the Bilge pump room and me only getting a bucket and lowering it for him to put all the water, I never saw the bilge pump room on what it looks like "Down there" but based on what "Ronald" the bilge Pump room is a small tight space and he can fit himself around with. After removing all the water , "Ronald" radioed in to the bridge that all the water has been removed.
Late afternoon, I was busy helping out O.S. Hall in finishing the remaining areas to be washed off in the aft part accommodation area and later sorting out the plastic garbage in the workshop. Last part of the work for the day was securing all the equipment used during the washing and I had to coil those thick rubber hoses before storing them to the work shop room.
