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.
