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| Gas freeing the entire compartment, SO that workers wont drop dead in the middle of their work |
Given that the five new Romanian crew members arrived without any luggage, The whole crew here on-board the ship is left nothing but to provide extra working gear (and clothes) on these new crew members. Immediately a few hour after they arrived we were left scouring for anything useful for them. Coveralls, boots, rain coats etc.
This ship
could provide the equipment they want but problem is that previous soviet ship
officer always omit ship supply orders in the past and as a result of their
haggling no sufficient equipment was provide for the five new crewmembers who
will work on the fuel oil tank below. Soviet style of work environment isn't really that enjoyable given that they
never provide (bother to buy) any equipment needed and just leave crew members
to "Buy" Their very own gear out of their own pockets.
Anyway
despite this affair being an all "Engine department" matter, it
turned out to be very different from the original goal and turns out that the
crew department got involved (or dumped at) in engine departments problems.
Deck department ended up being as a "Support" crew to the Romanian's.
On late
night I was doing a relief watch over A.B. Marlon who apparently got badly
drunk and run around butt naked at the crew mess during chief cook's birthday
(he fell asleep and missed work). During the watch keeping on the bridge , Me
and third mate Democrito Eslit was surprised to see the red light flash went on
at the mast and wonder what kind of alarm went on. After a few minutes of
figuring it out , he went to a conclusion that it was a bilge alarm, We weren't
exactly sure on what triggered the alarm but the point there was someone is
going to have to go to the fore castle and get inside and see what's going on
exactly. First idea was A.B. Marlon but wasn't exactly a good choice since he's
still asleep and badly drunk from chief cooks birthday party (same goes as well
as other crew members who at that time was still drinking on the crew mess) ,
Plan B was Me, Bosun Payopay and O.S. Tan would to go in there. Third mate
eslit went for plan B and within minutes after waking up BOSUN Payopay and O.S.
Tan . The three of us were already geared up to go in the forecastle in the
middle of the night and Third Mate gave us a green light to go ahead even if
this ship was experiencing rough weather at that time.
We brought
with us a small wilden pump and few hoses like air hose and immediately got
inside the forecastle, even on rough weather were sea waves were bashing their
way on the forward part of the ship. Inside we took a look on the bilge alarm
and as expected it was flooded, We hurriedly set up the hoses and pumped away
the water after clearing the alarm of water we looked the source on what
triggered it. We saw that some pipes on the portside had a few leaks , the
pipes was badly corroded that small amounts of waters was gushing out. The only
remedy we did for now was closed the anchor wash valve until it gets patched up
by epoxy the following morning.
On the next
few days Mess man Montoya was a bit tense and agitated, reason ? Well
apparently there hasn’t been a clear detail yet on when will we disembark and
CSM / Career has met it with silence. We were scheduled to disembark when we
get to Rotterdam but apparently there is not flight details yet, and he's
starting to get worried about it, me on the other hand is starting to get
idea's that there won't be any crew change at all .
On December
5th, It was finally confirmed that there won't be any crew changes at all and
that our local company here Career has finally confirmed that won't be anyone
replacing me and Mess man montoya when this ship arrives at Rotterdam. The
thing that puzzles me and up to now makes my head scratch is why ? Netherlands
is certainly the most convenient port in the world and we did everything on the
book (and by the book) to notify our respective companies of a crew change way
ahead of time. I could only suspect two major reasons why this happened.
First was
our beloved Soviet Captain-from-hell Mr. Kolev, I had no evidence to support my
accusation but It’s an intuition that he's behind it and suspects he blocks
every move we do in getting home. Mess man Montoya suspects this as well, given
that this has been cancelled twice, one is in Gibraltar transit and Here in
Rotterdam. Gibraltar is questionable and forgivable but in Netherlands, it's
pretty obvious that he's behind it (or has something to do with it) assuming
that Rotterdam is one of the most convenient ports for sailors in the world,
and any crew changes happening there on any company is always carried out. The
thing that supports my theory here is the fact that one time Bosun Payopay
accidentally mentioned to me about the crew change plan captain kolev has in
mind when he himself passed his request for "crew change", He
narrates that captain kolev confirmed there is a crew change but it was not
scheduled till way out on January 2015 - in other words it meant that any
people who plan to go home earlier in December 2014 WILL NOT BE ENTERTAINED AT
ALL.
So
basically this means clearly that Captain Kolev, is not interested at all for
any crew to be home before Christmas and new year and will not make any
"green light" to any crew who plans to go home. Bastard is probably a
very depriving son of a bitch if you ask me, he maybe a captain but makes very
poor decisions.
Going on
the second assumption is on our Career Ship Management / Columbia Ship
Management Part. I had been mentioning almost forever that Career / CSM isn't
exactly one of the best companies out there and has serious issues on
management - AS IN SERIOUS ISSUES, especially when it comes to crew changes.
Though it's not as worst as any Philippine shipping company out there that has
a Greek principal , still Soviet principal is terribly bad and no exemptions.
As what I had been describing crew changes takes a very long time and always /
almost of the time crew here are still working months after their working
contract has expired (takes note , months only ! In a Greek principal its YEARS
before going back home). So basically It meant for me and Mess man Montoya to
be stuck out here in this floating rust bucket in the middle of Europe for
another month because of company orders and company contracts.
Going back
Career Ship Management has a "provision" sentence on their contracts
specifically implying plus and minus a month, and they offer tediously long contracts. Currently my working contract
here on this ship is 6 months which technically meant in reality is seven
months. To simply put it Career Ship management has always had problems
returning their crew back to the Philippines , crew change is always delayed
and never on time. If you're not really planning to stay long working on board
a ship try to avoid working for Career Ship Management Company.
In other
matters
Recently
I'm not exactly feeling well emotionally , just received news from the ships
email that the cat I had been caring for a very long time now is very ill. My
sister says that "bhut bhut" (also known as batman) has a bloated
abdomen and she suspects that my cat has cancer and is dying. I made a reply to
my sister to take my cat to the vet and see what's exactly happening,
My sister
mentions that she sent a picture of my cat on the email , but apparently
there's no Jpeg or any pictures received. I suspect that my emails are being
censored by the fucking Bulgarian captain , before pictures normally come thru
on the email - now even this simple amenities are being revoked. This fucking
Bulgarian captain is one of the worst I've seen so far, and each day he's
around here on this ship make's everyday life a hell lot worse than yesterday.
What if it was a picture of a family member huh ? This is just only a picture
of a family pet and yet censorship is applied on emails - WHAT THE FUCK !!!!
There is no other alternate explanation to this other than
"censorship" on emails. When Captain Gorge pornitiche was running things
around, pictures on emails were normally received. Now totally no pictures are
coming thru , plus I even suspect that emails here are being read - no fucking
sense of privacy.
The only
thing why censorship is allowed is , one if you're in the military and second
is that a country is at war. On my situation I'm neither of both, Definitely
I'm not a military and I'm working as a civilian maintenance worker here on a
civilian ship, working on a civilian company !!! I don’t see any reason why
censorship has to be applied at all on emails. I'm terribly outrage on what is
happening around and how this fucking soviet Bulgarian captain runs things, I
don’t mind on his poor decisions on work, or how repressive his system is but
censoring pictures and personal emails coming from my relatives !!! - this is
definitely gets personal ! I already lost a beloved pet cat this year ,
"Niggy" is already dead and a victim of road kill. I simply find it
unbearable to lost another dear one on the same year much more on the fact that
I'm trapped here and in imprisoned while all the things I value slowly die
away.
