Much as
people expect that Saturday would be at least half day work, It was far from it
- no thanks to our disregardful Chief Mate. Instead as it turned out - it was
whole day work , and much of it was spent on removing the ice accumulations on
the bollards and bitts. Now big question is why the hell are we (deck crew)
standing here and smashing this huge pile of ice in the first place ???
According to him we need to remove the ice ASAP as their is a possibility that
bunkering ops *MIGHT* begin soon.
( Geez -
Seriously ??? With this kind of weather, with all the blizzard and all , plus
the sun hasn't shined for almost two weeks and temperature going to and from
negative 9 to negative 11 degrees Celsius, - I SO REALLY NOT THINK SO !!! )
 |
| Does he seriously believe berthing operations will commence on this kind of weather ?! , Only stupid sailors would do that . Its very obvious that its cancelled until the snow storm clears |
Anyway we
still did the job order even with much protest deep inside, even O.S. Del Monte
frowned on the idea that were still doing work during rest day. As usual the
ice was very slippery and hard as rock, we had to bring out several tools just
to get it off from the bollards and bitts. Among the tools that was taken out
was a crow bar, a few hammers, a chisel, chipping hammer and a hand held axe
(both are my personal choice). As of expected when I used the mini hand axe to
chop off the ice that was stuck on the bollards, BOSUN AMICAN said to me that i can't use the
hand axe as ship officers may mistook me that I'd chop someone here onboard in
half.
(Seriously
??? Then why the hell do we hand a hand axe in the deck workshop in the first
place eh ? Hmm What i really think is that Zacarias here is jealous that i
grabbed a much better tool in the workshop than his and he doesn't want anyone
to use better tools - That bastard !! Well if there's anyone here onboard that
i would like to chop off in half using a min axe then it would be Mr. Zacarias
Amican)
Sunday came
and went and fortunately it was a total rest day , though i just most of the
day sleeping and playing computer games. It was a miracle on that day that the
sun came out and shone after nearly two week, bringing much warmth on the cold
weather - well at least melt some of the ice in the deck area
By Monday ,
given that its already a clear weather . Bunkering operations have started and
BOSUN AMICAN woke me up as early as 5am to be on standby , given that the
bunkering ship will arrive an hour later. As expect the bunker ship
"Hercules" arrived and went on to a ship to ship bunkering ops , The
deck only handles the mooring part and we let the engine crew handle the rest
on how to connect the bunker hose in the manifold area. At around 11 pm the bunkering operations was
all over and I didn't even handled the unmooring part , since i was in the
pumproom
In other
news...
Getting
food supplies on the bond store has been difficult in these past few weeks, it
was always either bad or worse. Worse in the sense that mess man Ferdinand
doesn't do his job well in the bond store and every time i would order
something and give the order form to him , he comes up with tons of lousy
excuses just to cover up his irresponsibility. Once incident I recall is that
he tells me that he's busy and that i need it to pass it directly to the new
Russian third mate - Bah , that bitch could have just easily told me he doesn't
want to do the job so i don't have to go to so much trouble in figuring it all
out for myself.
Another
reason why i hate mess man Ferdinand being in charge on the bond store is that
he has a *profiteering scheme* , were he charges me on something that he didn't
deliver in the first place. For example i ordered 5 pcs of M&M's chocolate
and a case of cola , he only delivers the case of coca cola and says that
M&M's have just ran out - later found out after a month that I'm being
charged both on the M&M's and cola on the bond store. See what i mean ?
Aside from
that he never delivers on time.
On the bad
news , lately from what i heard it seems that the new Russian third mate took
total control on the bond store. Bad part is that the bond store is only opened
3 days in a week and not 24 / 7 as to what the previous 3rd mates have been
doing (to be honest i like more "byron's " idea that its opened 24 /
7 ) , bond store is only opened Tuesday , Thursdays and Saturdays - beyond that
its closed. Never liked this restrictions on the bond store and i don't see any
point why bond store should have a schedule, anyway at least i got rid of Mess
man Ferdinand and his modus operandi.
Last
Thursday i was so eager to get those M&M's and cola that i finally decided
to find the Russian third mate and order some. I found him at the bridge and
regrettably he seems to be not in the mood receiving order slips. He bitches me
up on me saying that "did i ever read what he wrote in the white board on
the crew mess ?" , I did read on what was written at the crew mess and i
don't see any reason why he should be bitchy about it . It was exactly 6:20pm
and it was Thursday, right on the schedule.
Despite
being bitchy , he knew i was right and I did get the M&M's and the Pepsi
cola. Honestly I'm not really happy on how he reacted given that BOND store
should have been opened 24 / 7 in the first place. It doesn't really matter
anyway if he's pissed off - the end just justifies the means.
For the
moment i signed the "every two months " special allotment, form on
the crew mess which will forward some of my money (500 U.S.D. To be specific)
to my sisters banks accounts. Regrettably I didn't expect that career will
forward it on the latter - as in three weeks late from schedule and my sister
had to go to the trouble of verifying it and call up the office just to know
what happened to the said money. Supposedly this kind of money matters should
have been settled at least 48 to 72 hours upon confirmation from Career Ship
management that it has received the "Special allotement" request.
Anyway it seems that Career Ship management is a very difficult company to deal
with when it comes to money matters, 3 weeks late !!! Bah what kind of
remittance money transaction is that huh ??? Even land based Filipino overseas
workers remittance money typically takes only 48 to 72 hours for their
relatives back home to received the money - Go figure what seems to be wrong
with career ship management
In other
matter relating to career ship management, It looks like that the intended date
of my disembarkation has gone cold. Up to now there is still no word yet on
when will i be able to return to the Philippines, and looking on my situation
here in Kerch , Ukraine - its going to be very obvious that my stay here
onboard will be a little bit longer and will be extended unintentionally beyond
February 18 (date of my finish contract). Now I'm facing two problems with
this. One is the current supplies that i have and the second is the email
service onboard will be cut after February 18.
 |
| Some of the typical Meds I take onboard |
On the
email service. It seems that my free email service here will be automatically
cut off at the end of my contract in cape tallin (february 18) . There's a very
huge possibility that I'd be operating blind after February 18, and probably
this could be very much my last entry for my blog on February and the next
entry will be as soon as i get back in the Philippines (date of disembarkation
is still yet to be announced),
It very
obvious that after february 18 , the only communication i have to the outside
world will only be my roaming cell phone and the onboard satellite phone
iridium (both are very expensive to maintain and not definitely free).
In other
news ...
After
thinking of it for sometime i have finally decided that may its about time that
i should share my knowledge that i accumulated in the past years, What i meant
is
Sharing all
the information i got like eBooks', computer based training and such on the
internet and this blog. I guess It could be considered as a good will gesture,
after all most educational materials in this so called maritime schooling in
the Philippines is very inaccurate and very huge farawayness to the actual job
that is being done onboard.
