NOT ALL IN EUROPE IS COLD

So far so good, after a month I finally figured out how an email station works here , but of course I still leave a benefit of the doubt if this every reaches print on my blog given that I'm not so sure about the email blog address I typed in or the
effectively of the email station computer here onboard.
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To describe the email system here onboard CONTI Greenland, the email here is much more primitive and crude compared to the "mariner mail" CSM uses. The "Globe email" is barely bare bones compared to the usage from my previous ship - but despite its
backwardness , as long as this so called "Globe email" is useful enough to transmit at the very least just plain text , then it will be fine with me.
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I haven't wrote yet the differences from NSB ship to CSM one's, so I guess this is the perfect opportunity to describe the dissimilarities between the two. Aside from having a much bigger salary and less contract time in NSB , the supplies here seemed
to be well maintained compared to the ships fully controlled by CSM. Purified water , Issued laundry and bathing soap, and even down to the food are never a problem.
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I never had the trouble of getting water here, and as a matter of fact there is not a quota of how much water I can drink here. If I ran out of purified water then just simply get a case of water down in the galley store below, no such thing as a so
called ridiculous "water discipline" (which unfortunately bastard sailors like Amican and German Tan Corales and so many more, are fond of doing ) like I experienced in Cape Tallin.
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They say that the working environment in NSB ship have already deteriorated from that its former glory days here , but from my observation there still a big gap between the standards of the two and NSB is way better, the crew here are well taken care
of.
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Speaking of working environment, the crew here seems to be a bit benign and not aggressive so far. I had been observing them for a month now and no such signs of any form of rudeness or "mean spirited" are showing up - at least for now. Perhaps people
here are not that mentally disturbed (or stressed out) given that contracts here are just six months. Way back in Cape Tallin , Most of the sailors there are already showing up signs of mental instability and aggression within just weeks of observing -
This only proves my theory that sailors who have longer ship work contracts are more mentally unstable compared to sailors who have shorter contracts.
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In other matters?
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Never occurred to me that the weather here in Italy would be this hot in summer as a matter of fact I never expected that it would be like this. I always thought that the weather here would be very similar to that in the Netherlands or something close
to that here, but it seems that I'm wrong. According to BOSUN Payopay, temperatures here in July and august are the hottest in this area - the area here is so hot that I might think I'm in the Philippines. Oh well I guess there's nothing I could do
about this and had to adjust, just had to wear little clothes inside my coveralls and bring my water canteen to prevent dehydration.
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Since the arrival in Italy would be less than 24 hours, as a usual daily maintenance work here , we had to do the "Baldeho" kind of work (translated to something like washing the whole deck floor area). I'm already familiar on what to do and prepared
the squeegee , mop , soap (teepol), a few water hoses and a bucket. We started washing in the Bridge deck all the way down to the deck floor area down to main floor deck.



Received: from MPD at Globe Wireless;
Mon, 28 Jul 2014 18:01 UTC
Message-id: 187079844

STATIONED PERMANENTLY

Never had occurred to me that despite having a full set of gear during work , my eye could be injured. Incident happened during unmooring ops in Netherlands. Me and BOSUN PAYOPAY was securing all the mooring ropes for the long travel, after securing
all the equipment on the fore and midship area we got to the aft part and lowered the ropes using the circular hatch at the aft. I was wearing my goggles at that time and peeked at the hole, nothing happened and was very much an ordinary hatch. The
temperatures were during that time of day was warm and for a second just simply adjusted my goggles for better comfort on the warm temperature, While adjusting a sudden gush of air came out of the hatch - along with it a puff of dust. A piece of the
dust caught my left eye and that's when the trouble started. Left eye was having difficult in opening up and can't even focus on an object or even look straight at it. Despite the problem I was able to finish the work.

Soon after the shift, I sought to get the emergency eye wash bottle located at the duty mess hall. The wash was ineffective and the dirt was still my left eye stuck and seriously impairing my vision, Thinking that I would go away , I just slept thru
it. When I woke up , it was still again on my left eye and things got bad during work - so bad that I sought help on Second Mate Olan and see if he could remove the piece of dust that was still on my left eye. 2nd mate Olan couldn't see were the dust
was on my left eye and Fortunately for me O.S. Joseph was around and removed a very small piece of metal using a cotton bud. 2nd mate Olan gave me an antibiotic ointment and taped my left eye with an eye dressing pad after it was removed.

I'm very fortunate (and thankful at the same time) that this accident happened on CONTI Greenland and not on my previous ship Cape TALLIN. Otherwise I would be a very serious problem for me and knowing how dreadful and awful the people are there. In
Cape TALLIN I had to rely on my skills and no one there to look after me - It would be a very costly if I get myself injured there and to make it worst Second Mate Renan Olis Oveda in Cape TALLIN is a cold hearted bastard who would rather see me go
blind than do his work in being a medical officer. The Filipino crew in CAPE TALLIN are simply not sympathetic to injured people (as what happened during A.B. Dondonilla's time)

I'm lucky that the people here are different than the one's in CAPE TALLIN.

July 19, 2014 Saturday.
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Ship is currently headed off to Italy after the loading operations in Amsterdam. Upon further chit chat with A.B. Marlon , I found out that this ship is permanently stationed here in Europe and doesn?t go as far as north west Africa or even a
transatlantic trip to the U.S. . Convenient for me in the sense that airports here in Europe are not that rigid in case I would disembark and make a flight trip back home, luggage searches will not be a problem - bad in the sense that I can't buy
cheaper electronic goods around here, all prices here are unfortunately in euros (monetary here in Europe, has more value than a U.S. Dollar)
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On matters regarding work. Currently were doing the usual maintenance work like chipping rust of this ship these past few days , but on Saturday we had a fire drill as a little change of pace on work. My role in the fire Drill based on my card is that
I get and prepare the fire hose, and "boundary cooling" - not bad for a first timer such as myself in handling something bigger than fire extinguisher, Though I might need a little practice in controlling the fire hose and the nozzle. After the drill
, we immediately set up the table for the upcoming grill party. Me and "Ronnie Macalawa" brought up the grill down from the steering gear room, while the BOSUN Payopay and O.S. "Joseph Dinglasa" arranged the tables and the tarpaulin roof (as a
makeshift cover).
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At first the weather seemed to be going bad as it had a few rain showers, but after an hour the sun went out and we immediately started the fire on the grill. After I think another hour or two everything was ready and chief cook Regidor Pineda was in
charge of the grilling. After another hour the rain started pouring agin and we had to immediately put inside the crew mess room all the grilled food (plus the cake), but despite the rain the grill party didn?t stop and continued back in the crew mess
until everybody got drunk , I had a few drinks and had to stop because I'm already starting to feel nauseous ( from sea sickness). I didn?t went out on my cabin until 9pm to do my laundry.
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The following day , Sunday . It was just mostly spent on two things sleeping and playing videogames called sims 3, playing that PC game was really absorbing and no doubt some people on the internet forums and surveys consider it one of the greatest
video games of all time.



Received: from MPD at Globe Wireless;
Mon, 21 Jul 2014 19:23 UTC
Message-id: 184130663

DISTRESS SITUATION BACK HOME

July 04, 2014 Amsterdam Port Netherlands

I shouldn't be writing this and shouldn't be dragging my personal problems on this journal , but how else am I going to record my thoughts ? . These past few days for me have been difficult for me not on my professional life but on my personal one. News have reached me when I called my sister over the phone that our mom is in bad shape soon after I left, I have no details on what exactly happened but it seems that our mom is in the hospital and her condition is getting worse - she is now undergoing dialysis to save her life. Based on what my sister told me , one day Aunt Tess just found mom unconscious when she visited our house and she immediately rushed our mom to the hospital. She contacted my sister on latter and informed her of the situation.

Mom Medical Bill for the moment

When my sister went to the hospital to check mom, she discovered that mom's kidney disease has progress in an advance stage and it is imperative that she undergoes dialysis. Aside from the kidney failure, it was also discovered that mom has other complications related to her diabetes or resulting from kidney failure or combinations of both. A few to mention was her heart condition as well as lungs , doctors tell that they're not exactly sure if our mom's heart can take all the beating from the continued dialysis in the long run plus her lungs is filled with liquid (probably from infection). On mom's kidneys alone the doctors tell that its already in decaying condition, It's not determined on what will be the fate of it.

To simply say it Mom's has already multiple organ failures , and currently now threading on the thin line of life and death. The thing that frustrates me most on this situation is that , I'm very much helpless and couldn't do anything. I'm stuck here on this ship for the next 5 and a half months just helplessly watch on what is happening back home and hear the news on what my sister's efforts are doing. Frustration creeps me up in the sense that I feel powerless over what is happening and I'm worried sick about it.

I guess this is the problems in having a job as a sailor, its either were incredibly brave or incredibly nuts - I should have fully realized that while I'm gone the implications will be that the possibility that everyone and everything I knew and care of will either be gone, dead or buried. An implication that I should have taken very seriously.

Emotions and memories of my mom overflow my head right now, remembering a few days before I left that she was crying on her bed , saying to herself what will happen to her if we ran out of money ? What will be her fate ? Really breaks my heart seeing her like that. She was badly ill on her bed and crying , she really wanted to go to the hospital at that time but due to financial difficulties at that time it held her from doing so. She felt that if we used the money, dad won't be have the operation for his bones. Really breaks my heart seeing my mom on that kind of state.

Now things have gotten far worse - way worse than it was since mom's kidney disease was found out two years ago on November 2012 , Things will never going to be the same for my mom. Dialysis is never a cure just only a remedy to buy more time and stall the inevitable.

July 14, 2014 Monday.

It's been days and I haven't heard of any news on what is happening back home to my mom. It was a big mistake for me to use all my credits in the internet connection for a long distance call, Now I'm stuck here blind and helpless not knowing what's going on in the house - Another big mistake I made is that I shouldn't have bought a new USB modem dongle if I knew earlier that my old Smart Bro USB modem dongle wp cards for the internet (as well as International calls). Big fatal mistakes that I had to live with for the rest of my life. My mind as of the moment is floating ,orks here as well. I could have saved 80 USD money to buy at least top u thinking and wishing that somehow someway my sister has manage to keep our mom safe and alive, and that mom has made it out on the hospital. I had to get any form of communication whenever, where ever I can .

My Personal life really affects me, I'm a family oriented guy and seeing an immediate relative in trouble really bothers me a lot. I still continue my usual daily work but things appear to me to be very empty and void , couldn't think straight and sleep as well.

Last known Picture of my mom take this 1st week july 2014, as pictured she is all strapped down in a dialysis machine (left side) and incision on her neck is shown on where the tubing is connected  

GREENLAND PLUS SIX

JULY 02, 2014 Wednesday

GREENLAND PLUS SIX

After waiting for two day and one night at the local maritime hotel in Rotterdam, the mess man and I received a phone call informing us that we are going to be fetch by a cab and accompany us to CONTI Greenland ship. The three of us checked out on the room at about 10am and waited in the hotel lobby until 11am. As expected a cab came to fetch us.

Before we headed to CONTI Greenland , we had to pass thru on a nearby immigration post then on the local port terminal before going to the ship. I had no problem on those security checks and passed thru without any problems.

Conti Greenland on first glance is very much an average ship for my standards, not that large nor not that small. From what I can describe its deck floor is coloured orange and most of the deck equipment is medium in size including the mooring equipment. Not a problem for me in handling and wielding those equipment even if I haven't done some workout for almost 6 months. From my observation the deck (or ship) is built in south Korea and I can easily tell the difference of the structures from the Chinese made or Japanese made ships.

For the locals here, for now I could say that none of them pose any sort of threat compared to what I had face in CAPE Tallin - which is good news for me that there are  no assholes around (at least for now). Another best part is that nobody knows me directly here, they have no idea that I had worked before on a call centre and just knew only the basic info I gave them (that I'm from CSM and my previous ship is Cape TALLIN - and that all they needed to know). For now I'm just another guy with a safety helmet around. For now I'm holding my judgement yet and will observe the behaviour of my crew mates for two months for me to determine who's the asshole and who's not.

I haven't checked thru on the crew list yet , and typed in yet the names of the crew but I had already made a quick browse. From what I saw on the crew list the ship captain now is a Romanian while the other three ship officers are Ukrainians, the rest of the crew including me are Filipino's. the setup of the ship has it usual set of ship officers, a BOSUN,  PUMPMAN, Fitter,  Mess man, Chief cook  - the difference is that there are three O.S. and only Two A.B's . Like last time no deck or engine cadets around here.

After the ship left on Rotterdam port , it's now headed off somewhere in Norway

July 03, 2014 Thursday..

For today's work, we were off changing the steel wires on the cargo crane. Very messy job in the sense that aside from changing the wires, we have to remove the old gear grease coating and coat it with a new one by hand.  We had to get a makeshift platform called Bosun's chair (Gendula in tagalog term) for the Bosun to disassemble some gears on the crane.

For some reason when we got the "Gendula" in the Bosun store (located on the forward part of the ship) there's a coffin located right next to it on where it stowed. I asked my fellow O.S. what's the deal about this ship carrying a coffin with it ? He replied that it's got something to do about having good luck on the ship having a coffin around. Hmmm  probably the owner has a  ghoulishly superstition.

Never been into Norway before - as in ever , guess there's always the first time eh ? On my previous working contracts as a sailor I had only gotten as far as Netherlands but never way up north in the Scandinavia area. To be honest I haven't really felt that I have gone that far in terms of distance, as the place were  a ship will always berth are just always the same. Always the same old dock yard with a nearby refinery - same old ambiance. To my astonishment 12 midnight here in Norway Isn't exactly "Dark" compared to other countries in Europe, the skies look here like its early morning day break even if it's already midnight - Anyhow it figures given that summer season is here in Europe

Anyway as what I'm writing about , since Norway is a just only a day's travel by ship from Netherlands. We only got to do the usual maintenance work of washing the deck area in preparation for this ships arrival, equipment's used here are a bit smaller compared to the one's used on my previous ship. Despite their small sizes , I could easily wield those water hoses equipment with ease even without heavy exercise from the gym. Maintenance work stopped at 3pm to give time for us to rest before the berthing operations that will be done soon.

At about 10pm yesterday I was awaken by the ringing of cabins phone telling us to prepare for the combination pilot ladder. Immediately I put on my coveralls and hurriedly went outside and a few minutes later I saw my fellow O.S. co-worker Ronnie Macalawa near the pilot ladder , I helped him out and a few minutes later BOSUN Nilo T. Payopay joined in helping us on the ladder. It was a bit scary in donning in a safety harness then go down and put up the railings on the gangway - even if only for a short time. Next thing I did was secure and check all scupper plugs if all of them are in their proper places, then wait for the pilot boat to arrive.

Once the pilot boarded this ship we headed back to the crew mess to wait for further announcement about berthing. Two hours later, we were ordered on the radio to proceed on our mooring stations for the mooring ops.

Mooring was very easy here.