67 days onboard Cape Tallin (M / T Cape Tallin Plus 67)
Enroute to New Orleans, United States of America
Much to the surprise of everyone , Vetting inspections of this ship will be done in the U.S. and this time it was announced a bit late. I'm not exactly sure on how the vetting inspections are done here in a crude oil product tanker but on what I recall about the Vetting inspections done on a chemical tanker when I was still a deck cadet, it was a tedious and laborious objective , and on what I recall I had to stencil from forward of the ship down to the aft part for two weeks and the work was from sunrise till sun down (unfortunately I was in Europe in that time and the sun doesn't come down till 10 pm during summer time). Nevertheless it's a horrible work from what I recall. A.B. Patrick says that vetting inspections on a product tanker aren't that meticulous as in a chemical tanker.
In other news related to work..
Not feeling absolutely well this time and I feel that I'm going to have a fever of some sort from heat exhaustion, Unfortunately I'm trapped onboard this ship for the next 6 months (half a year) and there's pretty much nothing I can do about it but work, work and work until I drop dead, bed rest is near next to impossible here unless I'm lucky that its weekends. The only remedy I had for now to keep me well is that I take antibiotics, painkillers and a few vitamins to hold me up, (fortunately I bought these along for the journey). Heat here is simply nailing me,
For the work we done (which resulted to my heat exhaustion), Me and the new pump man had to go down to the pump room to test two kinds of alarms. One is the gas detector alarm and the other is the emergency switch, Going down the pump here is honestly not a very good idea , as this is a poorly ventilated room and the heat from the engine room (or some other heat source inside this ship) is somewhat "Trapped" , Both me and the new pump man was heavily sweating from the heat inside within minutes upon entering. Had no idea why ventilation is very poor on this ship and compared to the previous ship I worked with, this one is worst so far. Good thing that I had with me is a flask of water and I doused my head with water just to keep myself cool.
We tested the gas detector in the pump room by simply filling up 1 / 8th of an empty mineral water bottle with thinner and then we simply inserted it on a small tube protruding on some machinery and within minutes the "alarm" went on. There are two gas detectors in this room , one in the starboard side and the other is in the port side.
Aside from test the alarm. We also tested the "High level" Alarm and "Overfill" alarm on the deck area, as well as the bilge alarm on the forecastle area ( inside the BOSUN'S store). If I had the spare time, I'd secretly take pictures of these sensors for educational purposes.
The following day.
The hot weather is simply not that comfortable at all and It resulted to me doing a work tactics to wear my coveralls wet to cool myself. The process involves wetting my coveralls and then spin dry it on the washing machine for a minute or two then wear it. the resulting "evaporating" effect of water on my coveralls is enough to cool me temporarily on the hot environment.
For the rest of the work , I was off painting the emergency towing appliance located in the port side with the color "Admiralty Gray" paint and painting a few railings as well on the manifold area, I did also painted a two boxes that serves as a pneumatic machines for the fire wire. Aside from that I also helped out the new Pump man in inspecting the isolation valves and replacing Teflon gaskets of it , I even accidentally bumped my head on one of the valves wheels over head ( damn I should have worn a safety helmet) . Wasn't really that serious but it doesn't hurt having my head hit the metal.
Another thing is that after working hours, I took a few pictures of the "High level alarm and Overfill Alarm sensor" on the deck area, I had uploaded it on my computer via blue tooth and wrote notes here using the Microsoft one note program. Unfortunately I didn't took pictures of the emergency stop in the pump room as temperatures there are exceeding hot , maybe I'd took those pictures next time or maybe when the temperatures are a bit cooler.
In other news , the rest of the crew were busy making a wooden ladder for the aluminum gangway we had onboard. BOSUN AMICAN along with A.B. Homer Mallorca was busy doing the carpentry work, others like O.S. Hall, A.B. "Patrick" and A.B. Bryan were busy cleaning the aft deck from grease with a chemical known as "Sea Clean". ( I found out later on from "Patrick" that Sea clean chemical is different from Metal Brite)
July 24, 2013 Wednesday……
Another terrible hot humid weather again, and keeps getting worse. This time the weather is so severe that I wore my coveralls wet - as in soaking wet to keep me cool. This is the part I really hate on U.S.A. , specifically in the "Southern" part. A lot of people might think that U.S.A. is a cold country probably as cold as Europe - well they're hell wrong about it and wait till they get to Houston, Texas U.S.A. on summer time (or nearby area). If my coveralls isn't wet with water then its wet by sweat from the dry heat, Seriously the weather here is very bad and if didn't drank lots of water or even wore my coveralls wet then I'm certain I'm going to faint from dehydration or heat stroke, either way.
It's a good thing that deck works today involves washing the deck area with sea water, at least getting myself wet on work provides some sort of comfort. Took us at least half a day to finish the said job order ( work in nautical terms), did learn a new chemical today and what it is exactly used for, the chemical "Cold Wash" was apparently and anti grease agent (like sea clean) but has of a less or a bleaching effect on using in the deck. After lunch I heard that there was a drill scheduled at 4pm, During the 1pm to 3pm I was busy hauling off garbage from the garbage collection area to the workshop for segregation and later painting "machinery green" to the air motors of both pilot access gangways and fire wire winches.
Before the drill most of the crew hanged out on the gymnasium just to chill the time, the gym looked more like a "seaman's club" from the people waiting and doing other stuff like ping pong, pool , boxing etc.
During the drill, I went well on the abandon ship duties, As for the Oil Pollution I did found out later on that my duties and task there was put the scupper plugs on the port side (on actual oil pollution emergency) then radio back then proceed to the foam monitor equipment nearby the Oil pollution area. On the Emergency Steering Drill It was pretty much the same old thing on how the emergency steering equipment operates like to my previous ships , the only difference is that Japanese made Ships are more comfortable to work with compared to Chinese One's. The Steering Gear room (like the pump room) has very poor ventilation and a person just simply standing inside the room would be sweating his / her cover alls within minutes.
After the few drills, we were ordered to wait to the CCR of the ship (Cargo Control Room), I hurriedly went to my cabin to change my shirt as it was soaking wet then proceeded to the CCR. Inside the CCR , we were debriefed by the New Chief mate and Captain Igors Slabada on the Do's and Don't in entering U.S. Ports. Notably on the gangway watch and the Garbage disposal related issues. Segregate the garbage, never leave the gangway watch unattended , etc. stuff like that. Captain Slaba told us that there's a possibility of "Berthing upon arrival" and that Vetting inspections will soon follow. He also added that he will be disembarking on this port also and it's a pleasure on working with us.
