Short
notice again as usual, honestly Russian Managed ships are always like these,
and i was in the middle of my work mopping up a few mud stains left from the
dry dock on BOSUN's store when i suddenly heard the hydraulic machine for the
anchor winch lit up , and the next thing in saw when i looked up on the gangway
ladder was O.S. Del Monte telling me to hustle up and mooring operations (ship
to ship) will be starting soon and were going to heave up anchor.
Good thing
that the mooring winch is just directly above and the bosun's store. I hurried
put on my bonnet for the cold and my jacket and hurriedly went up, as expected
BOSUN Amican was already there preparing the necessary equipment. He ordered me
find PUMP MAN Liscano, in the pump room - apparently because there's another
reducer that would be added to cargo line number three and its needed ASAP .
I had
difficulty finding Pump man liscano , i went to the pump room , engine room
work shop and even to his cabin and CCR but found no trace of him. I went back
and told that i couldn't find at all , BOSUN Amican then sent O.S. Del Monte
and A.B. Mallorca in finding him but both of them returned with same results.
After the
heaving of the anchor , we waited a few minutes . Then we then again proceeded
to our respective mooring stations and awaited on the mooring operations. The
first rope used was for the tug line, it was quiet difficult carrying the loose
rope that will be used for the TUG as the cold weather had frozen the rope
solid (temperature by the way is zero degrees Celsius in Ukraine) . To make it
more difficult is that BOSUN Amican seems to be rushing people on carrying the
loose rope and shouts at us like some wild ass bitch, Bastard didn't consider
on how heavy this rope is especially when its on solid ice.
Good thing
though that mooring operation is a ship to ship one which is way easier , (
much more easier if the weather wasn't zero degrees celcuis )and the ship that
will be going along side is a SCF ship named "Vladimir Tikhonov" , a FPSO kind of ship (layman's terms a VLCC
one). Berthing took only a few minutes and that's it.
As for the
loading operations , it was probably the same old usual basic stuff and i have
already been familiar on the M.O. (modus operandi ) Here every time this ship berths. Just
prepare the fire fighting equipment and be on the gangway watch - nothing
more. According to the new Russian 3rd
mate the loading operations will be as short as only 12 to 16 hours and no
more, Obviously because all the three cargo lines will used on the operations.
After my
six hour security watch, I went to the crew mess and found out that the crew
change plan had already been issued and i already knew who's going to be my
replacement O.S. When i disembark , in addition according to the memo , my
disembarkation point will be Istanbul turkey -Via transit. If its via transit ,
then it means that the exchange of crew will be as short and very brief as in
15 to 30 minutes plus the ship will be literary in the channelling process.
Well if
that's the case then i wont have any problems with it as my luggage's will be
very light and easy to carry , even my large travelling bag wont be that of a problem even though its
quite bulky. I have currently three luggage's , one back pack which carries all
the sensitive electronic gadgets , One travelling back that carries all my
equipment needed on maintenance work and the other is a stroller bag (one with
wheels) which carries all my clothes.
(standard luggage's capacity for a Filipino sailors is two
"check-in" luggage each with a 20 kilogram capacity , and a hand
carried luggage with a 10 kilogram capacity, THIS IS STANDARD - totalling up to as much as
50 kilograms all in all)
 |
| stroller bag were i'd be putting my luggage |
I was
thrilled on the news and as soon as i got to my cabin , i immediately made
preparations in packing my luggage's and cleaned my cabin (which i haven't
cleaned for months now, not even on the dry dock ops) and even gave a few
equipments that i have to my fellow co-workers, I think the memo was good
enough for me and that my departure is scheduled within 72 hours and less , So
I was in a hurry. Heck i didn't have any decent sleep also because i was in the
rush of finishing all the things that had needed to be done. I even sent a
roaming SMS to my sister to be ready to fetch me at the airport within 72 hours
.
EARLY MIDNIGHT (MORNING) 12:00 Am to 6 AM
there wasn't any real thing that i did on my
security watch during loading operations, and to be honest i just hid in the
port side mid ship deck store just to kill time, aside from that I'm trying to
stay warm as much as possible given that the temperature is already zero
degree's Celsius .
This is the
first time i ever witnessed that snow would be falling from the sky, even
during my cadet years i never encountered winter before, it was always
incidentally during my cadet years that I'm always in Europe during summer time
- never in winter. Oh well i guess there's always the first time. Before i went to work , i decided that i
should give my foldable pliers and plastic knife to A.B. Jay - after all i wont
be needing it as soon as i disembark on tis ship. I putted it in his locked
just to make things easier and secure for me that he gets those items
After my
early morning watch , i went to the crew mess and was surprised to see that
there's another memo again coming from career shipping company, this time
unfortunately the memo is a bad one. According to the memo it seems that our
departure on this ship is rescinded and that our "crew reliever's"
are yet unprepared, Apparently based on what i read some of our replacements
haven't even undergone yet (or even got cleared yet) from their medical test
and even the replacement for 3rd engineer cranz and 2nd officer "bastard -
O" haven't finished their trainings yet and will probably be ready as far
as mid week of February. Plainly
speaking our batch is stuck here on board for the time being.
Filipino
Ratings class on sailors are very much expendable and career shipping could
easily find a replacement if ever our so
called "reliever's" have problems ,( just pick another one from the
litter that is set to go and that's it) - However the big blow why we couldn't
get off on this ship was because of the issue involving the reliever's of two officers on our batch (i mentioned
earlier).
Honestly i
cant figure out why career wants us to go on a batch , maybe because plane
tickets are cheaper if we go on by batch perhaps ??? , well if they can't get
us by "batch", we can always leave behind 2nd officer "bastard -
O" after all i don't like the guy. Our batch can also leave behind BOSUN
AMICAN , he's an asshole as well and i don't mind at all if both of them can be
ditched out.
Drats !!! I
already gave some of my things ... , good thing i haven't gave my Swiss army
knife yet to O.S. Del Monte
During the
afternoon work , it was the same old routine as usual and was just basically
helping out the surveyor get some cargo samples on the cargo tank. I heard from
A.B. Mallorca that this ship might sail off by 5pm since there's a possibility
that pilotage wont be available after 6 pm and will be by tomorrow, but knowing
have these soviets operate - i assume
that this ship will sail off beyond 6 pm and will be calling us late on the
intent schedule, always in bad timing as one might simply say.
I was
right... Exactly at about 6:30 to 7pm, Me , O.S. Del Monte, BOSUN AMICAN and
Oiler Rogel were put on standby at the our mooring stations in preparation for
unmooring ops. We waited there for an hour and a half and yet there was no
order given out
After
waiting for a while we decided to go inside the crew mess and take a coffee
break at least for 15 minutes , then all of a sudden in the middle of our
coffee break. A radio message came in to the walkie talkie and instructing us
to go back in the forward mooring station to release the mooring ropes.
Like i said
this soviets are always in bad timing....
Unmooring
operation wasn't really that hard and I'm already used to the drill of filing
up these mooring wires with hooks, There was one incident thought that Oiler
Rogel had an argument over the new Russian 3rd mate over some decision on which
rope would be retracted first. From what i heard on the incident is that one of
the mooring crew in the other ship (vladimir tikhonov) nearly got an accident
over our mooring wires when it almost snapped , did scared the shit out of the
mooring crew on the ship. The details on what i heard is that the third mate
wants to heave up our wire while Oiler Rogel (he's the winch operator) reacted on the machinery by slacking the wire
so it wont snap.
I don't
really know the exact details since i was one on the other side of the winch
machinery. But what i do heard is that were having an argument. Anyway it seems
that the new Russian third mate is very unpopular among the crew , and compared
to his predecessor 3rd mate "Byron" , he's not that even friendly at
all to begin with. Anyway not my problem ...
After the
unmooring operations this ship was put on anchorage nearby , there was still no
message yet on were this ship is headed to ... For the moment it is currently
on standby and waiting
For our
batch , we might have just had to wait a little longer as crew as crew
replacements have been cancelled for the time being...
