Mooring was
a bitch years back, from all the work I had to do on-board a ship, the thing I
most abhor at is mooring - I mean I could get to do some of the most dangerous
work on-board a ship like go inside a cargo hold , or even dangle and rig the
gangway ladder on the ships side and still be calm on work.
Mooring is
something that I really hate the most and won't get along with up to now. Why ?
The answer is simple. People there always yell at me even on the smallest of
things, plus I get a nasty ridicule every so often. Honestly I can't really
comprehend why Filipino's always act that way on mooring / unmooring operation
- total fucking bastard's thinking that this simple work is some sort of warped
Olympic contest.
just can't
stand at all on those kinds of stuff and it only shows how shallow minded
creatures are we Filipino's. Really pathetic of us , but that’s the grim truth.
Anyway
enough of me ranting, I should get on in writing about what happened recently
on work.
As expected
this ship berthed at 19th of November in Barcelona , Spain. There wasn't really
anything interesting to see in this place, basically this area is just another
one of the so many industrial area's I had been into on so many countries. They just all look the same to me now - The
glitter and glamour of being "Overseas" has lost its shine on me a
long time ago.
Soon after
this ship got there , Provision Truck came in and delivered the supplies needed
(which is mostly food). All was going well until , we received a notice that we
shouldn't use the cargo crane in hauling off the provisions, things went
horribly work after that and The outcome was that we had to one by one pick up
the stuff from the shore and put them all the way inside the ship. We looked
like a couple of ants getting a supply run and bring it back on the ant hill -
in a single file ! . That kind of work was really terrible and very manual and
I think I slightly strained my right ankle from all that walk going in and out
on the ship.
Bosun
Payopay saw that I'm terribly exhausted and told me to rest for a couple of
hour then be back here at midnight to start my work shift as gangway watchman.
On my watch , it was already past 9pm and I only had a couple of hours left. I
made no waste on the remaining time and quickly slept, a good two hours rest
should be enough to calm my weariness.
On my work
shift in midnight, It was pretty average. Duties still include watching over
the gangway and Manifold area, not really a big deal anyway. During the last
two hours of my work shift, fatigue started to kick in again and had to endure
again the effects of sleep deprivation and it seems two hours of sleep wasn’t
enough to make me fully rested.
After my
work shift, I resumed back again to sleep to recover . A 3 hour sleep may be
very little for land based standards but for sea based work , it’s a big help
in getting rest and avoiding fatigue from sleep deprivation. A good sailor
should remember to make good use of the time and get his energy back by resting
whenever its possible , aside from that he has also have to be trained to
resist on sleep deprivation situations .
Midway on
my afternoon work shift (12 noon to 6 pm) , I heard on the radio that BOSUN
Payopay and A.B. Marlon was called in on the ship's captains office , later
during my coffee break , they were in the crew mess talking and heard that it
seems that BOSUN Payopay will be disembarking on an earlier basis (as soon as
possible) for some court order in England , apparently it was an enquiry about
his previous ship many years back about some cargo that "solidified".
According to the story up to now there is still some enquiry going on and they
had to interview everyone involve on the mis-handlement of the cargo by NSB.
In relation
to BOSUN Payopay's situation, The BOSUN position in this ship will be vacant
and from the memo CSM emailed to this ship , they are now endorsing A.B.
Marlon's as a replacement BOSUN. So basically it will mean that as soon as
BOSUN Payopay disembarks , A.B. Marlon will now be the new BOSUN who will give
us job orders in maintenance. Indirectly connected to both situations is that ,
there's a possibility that me and Messman Montoya will be disembarking soon as
well - if assuming that this ship will head off to a "Convenient
port" . After all me, mess man montoya and bosun payopay have been here
now for almost near six months and will be finishing our working contracts
within just a couple of weeks . Hopefully we will all get back in the
Philippines before Christmas and messman montoya is thrilled about this,
probably because Captain Kolev is giving
the steward department a difficult time on his bitchin lately. Anyway couldn't
blame them if they're already fed up with the captain - after all his manners
aren't that well refined and a bit odd for normal standards. Like what kind of
captain takes stuff on the bond store without notifying the person in charge of
what items that were taken, or totally locking down the entire provision area
(complete with padlocks and keys) thinking he's crew might steal something in
there or removing the hooks on accommodation door and keeping them closed all
the time at sea .
(convenient port means that this ship can have a crew
change, you can disembark and join a ship on those countries. If the country is
not a convenient port it means a crew will staying a bit longer on the ship
despite having finished the working contracts - that is until a ship stumbles
on a much friendlier country on the latter to send him home .F.Y.I. most western
European countries are convenient ports while eastern European one's are mostly
inconvenient ports)
At about
10pm, I received a call from my cabin phone that we should now be on standby
and that this ship is already waiting for the pilot. Hurriedly dressed up for
it and brought along my camera secretly to record the unmooring operation. I
think this recording is essential given that mooring / unmooring operation is
an integral part of being a sailor, There is no sailor that I knew of working
on cargo ships that didn’t went on this work. So I guess the recording is very
important for the general public to understand what do exactly a sailor does on
board a ship.
Unmooring
was short and easy and manage to get at least 8 minutes or so of footage , I
didn’t get the whole thing but I got the very important parts so this video is
ok.
After the
unmooring, Me , One of the new O.S. and Bosun Payopay. Secured a few mooring
equipment , and anchors. I had a minor accident while securing the starboard
anchor and tripped accidentally on the anchor wash valve, nothing to worry and
didn't got hurt that bad.
Just to
add…
Before this
ship unmoored, Chief mate Bayev and Chief Engineer Chavchandze disembarked
(finish contract) - and was replaced with the new chief engineer and chief mate
. I haven't got the names of the two yet but I can tell who the chief mate and
Chief Engineer. C/E wears eye glasses and C/M looks more like Liam nelson
(Actor who played "schindler's list" movie). Anyway good riddance
that I finally got rid of Chief Mate Bayev !!! Well he's ok for the most part
but the problem is that a crew can't get any privacy from him like from what
happened on my " toilet incident" . I mean come on !! Are we going to
talk about how dirty my room is all day long or check up the plumbing and see
if my toilet still works. I'm a slob when it comes to room cleaning but it's my
business and mine alone, his aim to knock on my door in the first place was to
inspect my toilet and not tell me to clean my cabin like some 10 year old
kid.
