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| Yet another Tedious and boring drill, Seriously this is just a big <YAWN> |
Finally it's about damn time, that I saw something wrong here on board this ship, as expected on my theory of "observing people for two months" to check for anything wrong really paid off. My "buffer period" yielded to discovering some people here actually think of me as "inferior" and "lacking intellectually" . It may not be much compared to what I had experienced in Cape Tallin or Stolt Strength, but only proves my theory (and rule) of the "two month buffer period" in checking out the environment for any threats. For now my observations include that people here have so far "benign" ego problems, - I'd continue my observations further to see any more threats.
Anyway
aside from proving that theory, on the bigger picture. I could assume that at
least two thirds of the entire Filipino sailors have behavioural issues - as in
serious anti-social behavioural issues !!! , Main reasons why new comers (and
deck cadets in particular) should watch their backs.
On my case,
it’s a good thing that thru experience, observation and careful analysis that I
had develop anti-personnel tactics. People reading this blog would really know
the value of "Never talk to strangers" and protection of being
anonymous. The only thing they know about me here is that I came from CSM
principal and I had been a sailor for quiet sometime - nothing more, they don’t
known my previous work done before being a sailor or my background. I am
thankful that I had practiced all the precaution rules on this ship and I'm
living comfortably that the bigotry here is checked.
Working
relations tend to get sour as time goes by , though I'm not exactly involve
here but other people around me. The latest from what I heard was that extra
working hours done by the mess man and chief cook , will not be paid at all.
Technically although work was done on a normal schedule, the Captain wanted
them to write on their "weekly job done form" to be less than the
actual hours of work done. To make it simple some working hours will be
regarding as somewhat "free" - really bad news for them in the sense
that no workforce in the world will definitely agree on working for free, and
who the hell would want that ? (except slave labour). Really bizarre on how
these soviets handle their work force like that.
In relation
to the reduced workforce labour. It seems as well that the deck department is
having its own share of reduced hours, and to my surprise during the transit
going out in the black sea via Istanbul. The captain said that we should take a
day off after anchoring early in the morning, probably on the fact that regular
working hours will be shifted temporarily on night time because of some sort of
provisioning thing (resupply , as a layman's term put it). At first I wasn’t
exactly sure if I heard correct on the radio that the whole day work is off and
we will be called back in night time, I confirmed it to my co-worker O.S.
Ronnie and said indeed there won't be any work on the daytime temporarily.
Later on
the evening on that day, we heaved anchor. I had plans to record the heaving of
anchor work but I hesitated and decided that I'd do it maybe next time. Soon
after the anchor was heaved, The three of us (me, BOSUN Payopay, and O.S.
Ronnie) when on standby to await the pilot while channelling and await as well
the coming provisions. Based on what I heard from them - provision boat will be
arriving by somewhere midnight or past it.
11pm at
that day I was waken up from a quick nap by the phone. I quickly wore my
coveralls and headed outside, it was pitch dark and I could see a thing
outside. Took me quite a while for my eyes to adjust , Good thing that I could
hear the sound of the cargo crane machinery being switched on so I had an idea
were I'm headed. At about 30 minutes later, almost everybody from the deck and
engine department were awake.
Provision
boat came close to midnight , and we quickly carried all the stuff to the provision chamber as soon as the crates were
loaded up on the deck area. It only took us a short time to finish the task.
Over the
next two days, we were busy doing the usual maintenance work on board. Myself
for now was assigned on the work in the garbage, really smelly job and dirty
work but that's my assignment for now on segregation of these materials. Both
NSB and CSM is very critical about the garbage related issue - given that CSM
has been caught in a number of times throwing garbage at sea, latest I heard
from them was the U.S. Coast Guard got them red handed and they paid a huge
fine plus got them into some sort of probation up to now.
In other
matters
To my
surprise and astonishment, Friday's work schedule turned out to be half day and
Saturday's to be whole day rest. From what I heard there might be a huge work
on Sunday and they moved the rest days to a bit earlier just to compensate for
the rest hours in a week.
We had a
routine drill this Saturday which was an abandon drill and fire fighting
scenario plus some boring familiarization about how to operate an emergency
generator , emergency breathing apparatus etc.
During the
abandon ship , I came into a close call from being bitched out by captain gorge
potirniche (the guy has a nasty habit of blaming other people on his mistakes)
. Fortunately Bosun Payopay told me to quickly get the pyrotechnic flares and
bring it to the lifeboat station. By the time I got there , the captain was
making a check on the equipment on each crew member and turns out it was my
turn be checked on the equipment part.
As for the
fire drill, I had difficulty attaching the fire hose to the nozzle , attaching
the hose to the hydrant was easy but on the nozzle it was a totally bitch and
wouldn't connect. As a result my whole time on the fire drill was wasted in
trying to attach the nozzle.
After a
brief boring discussion on the crew mess after the drills, I hurried got out of
the room and to my surprise, mess man Montoya followed me and rudely ranted
something about me not putting back the chair I sat at on its proper place plus
he mention that whenever I would eat beyond the normal "eating"
hours, I would have to wash my own dishes and glasses because they have a thing
called a working hours cap. Fine by me if that’s the case, but I don't think
it’s a big deal about the chair thing being away only for three feet from its
original location, plus do I have to really get to know his working hour
limitations ? - it's not my problem if he's too damn lazy to wash the dishes or
hates going to work , and I never said anything about him working beyond his
working hours - nobody is forcing him to do shit ! . If he hates washing those
fucking glasses and dishes beyond his working hours, then don’t wash them , you
moron ! - simple as that ! I don’t need lectures ! Especially from self-proclaimed
righteous people. I had been doing mess
man task a few years back and I know what kind of shit he's talking about and
during my time I didn't complain because It's my job as a mess man to clean
other peoples crap which includes the job description of washing the dishes and
putting all the stuff in any mess room back to its proper place !
Fucking
bigots !!!!
From now on
I'm starting to distance myself away from him as humanly possible , that
bastard thinks he can push people around ….. Well he's screwing the wrong guy.
In work….
Filling out
this so called work time sheet, is very chore some and to make it more chore
some is I have to write all the jobs I had done in detail for whole week. I
don't see any point why I had to write done my work in detail as it clearly
understood that 90 percent of my work here is on the deck maintenance.
Apparently this NSB work form is much more tedious than the one made by CSM,
why the hell do I have to write it in full detail ? Would It be a lot easier
for me just to write done "Deck Maintenance" or like in a CSM form
that I just only put an "X" mark on the specific time I made work.
Probably
NSB think's that its crew is cheating on their work, well not as much as what
NSB ( Niederelbe Schiffahrtsgesellschaft buxtehude )does on its worker's. Damn
fucking Soviets ! Ever since they took charge on running the show on the
principal , all they do is haggle on other peoples salary and think that we
work for free, shit !!! no workforce labour on this planet would like to work
for free ! . It was better before when the western European's were in charge.
Damn Soviets they still have their communism attitude of forced labour (people
working without getting paid) with them even though communism already fell on
its ass more than 20 years ago !
On Monday
August 18, 2014
It was
expected that this ship will arrive at Barcelona Spain by around 10am in the
morning and it will be berthing upon arrival but unexpectedly it turned out to
be going to anchor first and we dropped anchor at about 10 am, after the
successful dropping of anchor, Me , O.S. "Ronnie" and BOSUN Payopay
went to the crew to have the routine coffee break.
Exactly
after the coffee, We heard on BOSUN's Radio that captain Potirniche is now
ordering us to heave anchor and prepare the pilot ladder on both sides. We
immediately went to the forward and heaved the anchor, while I was busy
lowering the anchor ball and we got only two shackles left on the chain for the
anchor to be recovered. We received another order from the radio that we should
stop heaving up anchor and prepare again to drop it at sea.
What drop
it off anchor again !! You got to be kidding me ?? (that's what I said to
myself) . Apparently from what I heard, Captain Potirniche made a mistake on
what he heard on the pilot station and had to wait for another for further
notice before going into port.
The
following morning..
I was busy
segregating trash when I heard it over the radio that the anchor will heaved
soon, O.S. "Ronnie" came to the trash compartment where I was working
and said that we better hurry up.
August 16, 2014….
In a few
days' time will be my birthday, that means I'd be adding another year again on
my age - it's nothing special I'd be just a bit older than the previous year.
For the
moment, things are not really looking good to me financially. I just recently
received my payroll form and it turns out that this will be the second month
that I had negative values on my salary. To be specific I now had a - 101.49
USD salary. I'm not absolutely happy about this and what on earth is Columbia
Ship Management doing on its payroll system ?!!! Last month I was charged for
the so called "Overpaid" salary of 300 U.S.D. , so which pretty much
explains why I had a -52.53 $ , Now not only that I won't receive a salary for
this month ( my salary by the way per month is $ 1262 ) but I'd have to payback
101.49 US dollars to CSM , - WHAT THE HELL !!!! What the fuck is going on with
this company ?!! , I'm not very good at numbers but I'm not definitely stupid
on what the hell is going in my salary, and I seriously think that CSM is
pretty much ripping me off.
If they
keep doing this fiasco next month , then expect that I'd be leaving Career Ship Management for good. What kind of
company doesn’t keep accurate tabs on
their employee's huh ? Surely if they keep doing this up expect that retention
on their sailor's will be very poor.
Anyway I
had already scheduled to be leaving this company by around 2016, the time where
all my documents will be fully updated in preparation for the totally renewal
of Seminar training of all sailors by 2017. I think I can still shift to
another company given that my U.S. visa will still be valid at around April 18,
2018 which that will put me in plenty of time regardless of what rank I'd be
and whether or not I got a license. As long as I got a U.S. Visa valid and
updated transition from another company won't be that hard.
(Rule of
the thumb in labour workforce is that if a company has issues with salary
payoff, it would be best advice to leave the job and find another company that
doesn't have issues with the payroll. This rule applies to both overseas or
local employment , either seabased or landbased)
In other
matters…
During the
anchor drop via gravity, I could say that my performance in dropping the anchor
gets better and better (on my personal perception) I could now at least
"control" the rate of the chain paid out when it drops. Now the only
thing I have to get used to is how to quickly put on the brakes without scaring
BOSUN Payopay and O.S. "Ronnie" .
The rest of
the week was doing the typical routine maintenance such as painting , chipping
and polishing and removing rust from the hull, typical sailor stuff of work if
were in the middle of nowhere. The only thing different for now is that I had
some sort of injury on my point finger, can't exactly say what kind of injury
it is but my joints on the point finger is badly inflamed and I can't hardly
bend my finger at all, whenever I bend my finger it hurts like hell. Guess I
had to use now my middle finger temporarily whenever I'm clicking something on
the mouse. This has been going on for more than a week now.
