APRIL
07, 2015 Tuesday
"WORK HAS STARTED, MAY IT END SOON"
Just
unfinished unpacking my stuff and putting some of it on my cabinet and my
locker for work. I tend to reflect and look back on my life in the Philippines,
on those nearly 3 months that have passed seems like just a dream, and that I
had to woke up again and find myself here in European waters. Frankly I wish I
had more time back home and there are still a lot of stuff that I wish to do in
the Philippines that was cut short because of my work as a sailor., Seriously
I'm not enjoying my life knowing that I'm imprisoned here and all locked up on
some floating vehicle that strides over water - I mean I should be spending my
life in making important memories than being trapped and doing work.
Anyway
being a sailor, One should be mentally, Physically and logistically stable
enough to endure its rigors. Most sailors overlook this factor and just
concentrate on their experience and knowledge on work and look on how they
turned out - a total social degenerate, unable to cope and fit in on the
outside world and a social outcast. Yes most of them indeed are very good doing
their respective jobs but anything beyond that , their just simply poison and
mentally handicap.
Being
a sailor myself, I not only focus my attention on the knowledge and experience
but pay attention on being mentally, physically and logistically stable, I
focus on those factors as well which sets me a bit different from the rest of
the litter. Not to brag but I can say that from the rest of the group here, I'm
one of the most well equip and advance when it comes to the gear I use on work.
Some of the folks here just relay on experience and skill alone to last for the
contract compared to me.
Honestly
I take pride that I excel on the logistics factor and knowing that I'd be away
from home for months on work and being Isolated and no going back until the
contract finishes. I brought along all
the necessary equipment needed to last for the long duration, this includes not
only work equipment but also personal equipment like external hard drives which
contains movies and a laptop which has national geographic documentary videos
to entertain me plus several video games and an offline journal. Aside from
that I had a PC tablet as a support device for my Laptop in case something bad
happens. I guess I excel on the logistical and this provides me comfort that I
will last out more than six months despite the conditions here.
In
matters happening on-board
A
lot of people might wonder why I put my stuff on the bathroom instead of the
locker room, it is because of security reasons and to prevent thievery from my
other crewmates, Aside from that is that I could easily get dressed up in case
I'm needed on work in a short notice. I started this tactic way back on my
second ship "Bow Ophelia" and was not perfected until my stay in Cape
Tallin which was in full use and was very effective against my enemies there,
providing isolation and security.
Anyway
I had just finished renovating and fixing up the bathroom of my cabin and
converting it as a makeshift locker room (aside from a bath room) and made use
of a bed sheet as a suitable replacement for a shower curtain to prevent my
working equipment from getting wet.
At
around 11:45 am I was getting ready to prepare for work and will take a meal on
the crew mess when suddenly I noticed that the crew mess was a bit different
and there were white sheets placed on the two tables, what added more to my
astonishment was that there are still no food prepared yet for the noon meal. I
went back to the kitchen and saw that Chief cook Pineda was still preparing
food, I asked him if there's anything special going on at the crew mess and he
said that there is indeed some sort of upcoming party or get together of sorts
two hours from now . I was asked back if I do recall a scheduled party of sorts
a few days back, I replied that indeed I do remember that there's a scheduled
party but never occurred to me that it was supposedly today and though earlier
that it was after this port that a party will be held.
At
about 2pm I was going down to the crew mess to get some chow when I heard my
phone cabin rang, It was A.B. Nelson Dominguito. Message was that I had to go
to the portside to prepare the pilot ladder, From that message I already knew
that this ship will know be leaving tarragona, Spain. I hurriedly got dressed
up and went there. When I arrived There was only BOSUN Diosana and O.S. Rafael
Crisostomo preparing the ladder and I joined up with them. Combination ladder
seems to be very easy now on my side knowing previously that Greenland and
Agulhas ship are exactly alike even on equipment and somehow believe it or not
- I'm not exactly afraid in going down on the gangway ladder anymore, it just
seemed now that everything makes sense.
After
the ladder was Finished, the next thing to do was go to the Forward mooring
station and Unmoor the ship. The mooring arrangement 2-2-2 wasn’t a problem and
we hurriedly Unmoored and packed the ropes inside the BOSUN'S Store
compartment. While stowing I manage to have a small chat with BOSUN Diosana,
from what I learned from him my previous BOSUN. Mr. Payopay , was a total
badass as a BOSUN years back and it was only until recently when he lost his
son that his bad habit got toned down. Well it was good for me that Mr Payopay
toned down during my time in Greenland, and I never thought he was an asshole
before.
Soon
after work was done, We the party proceeded but I wasn’t exactly in the mood to
eat , probably because I'm more tired rather than hungry. During the meal time
I heard rumours that 2nd engineer Yuriy Pavlenko was gay (homosexual) of some
sort, I don’t know it that was exactly true or not and probably just some nasty
rumours of sort going on. Anyway during the meal despite everybody is tired and
wanted to rest on the next day , it seems that Captain Sorin wanted us to work
straight even on Sundays. Well looks that way. For now the alexandria, Egypt
destination got scrubbed and was replaced with Rotterdam, Netherlands
destination. If that will be the case then I guess I'd be seeing Sunny Euro
again (Europeans call it sunny radio).
THE
FOLLOWING DAY …..
First
day of maintenance, Seriously it's just like any other day when I'm on-board on
the past 5 ships. Usual deck washing "Baldeho" although some of my
current co-workers are having a difficult time adjusting on this new time
schedule Captain Sorin put up. Supposedly there shouldn't be any work but it
looks like Sorin never really cared about it. Anyway on my part I had no
problems with it given that I maintain a policy of readiness since I'm on-board
working, to simply put it never drink a lot of beer (and any kind of alcohol)
if I'm not sure whether there's work for tomorrow and we might never knew if
the Captain is truly an asshole and this is the instance that I'm well adapted.
On
the first day of maintenance work for us, Pumpman Sepulveda was very furious
about some guy in the engine room. I didn't ask further who it was or what was
the reason but it's definitely some guys there, saying that there a bunch of
cocky sons of bitches.
UGLY TRUTH ABOUT CAPTAIN SORIN SALVADORE
SAGETA.
Back on my last ship, I heard some stories about this captain, about
him being one of the meanest, toughest , son of a bitch in NSB. Sometimes I
even wonder when I hear those stories that it might be just an exaggerated kind
of circulating rumour of sorts. Anyway the story about this Captain is that he
is rumoured to be an autocratic high and mighty person who abuses his crew.
Based also on the rumours I heard was that most crew in the Philippines refused
to join any NSB ship when they find out that their ship captain will be Sorin,
In fact from what I heard was that CONTI Greenland ( the former ship I was
assigned with) went to a formal protest in NSB when they heard
"Sorin" was coming. The protest says that he wants that captain
booted out, NSB responded that they will reshuffle their list of captains so
that the crew won't have any idea , who's coming.
There's another rumour going on that one mess man committed suicide
when he heard that captain was coming. The mess man was mentally abused and
always demeaned on the previous captain and when he heard that the next captain
will be the same ( Captain Sorin Sageta ), he couldn't take it anymore and
decided to jump on the sea.
Another rumour I heard was that the person who saved him was in such
regret that he had to save that captain at all from a heart attack a few years
back, Story goes on saying that he should have let the captain died from it
rather than reviving him. The ship would be a better place without him and
despite its "unintentional murder" nature, story says it was for the
greater good of all the people on-board if he's dead.
Anyway to add there's a funny version of that story on how that
captain was revived from a heart attack , I'm not exactly sure as how it goes
but from what I heard , CPR wasn't exactly performed on him when he had a heart
attack , apparently from what I heard . Some guy literary pulled off his dick
from his pants just to save him, and according to tale. The captain was so
furious that instead worrying of his heart attack, he sprang up from
furiousness and told the guy to never pull off his dick from his crouch ever
again.
