Entry
log at June 01, 2015 Monday
For
a couple of days while this ship is at anchorage, we basically just did the
basic maintenance work. Actually most of the time we just stayed for a few
minutes pretending to be busy doing something.
At
about 10:30 Pm May 30. I received a call on my cabin telling me that I had to
prepare the pilot ladder on the starboard side, Basically it was always the
same charade again - and as expected on work, I'm back doing my same old
routines before the ship berths. The
channelling towards 'KINDER MORGAN" terminal in Houston took at about 5
hours all in all, BOSUN Diosana told me that while the ship is still
channelling , I could go back in the accommodation block and take a quick nap.
I did went back to the accommodation block to rest but I never took a nap and
instead just waited out and let the time pass by playing Metal Gear Solid 5 :
Ground Zero's video game in my PC. Around 5am I was called back and it was
already to be on standby on mooring.
Mooring
went fine without any problems.
 |
| Crew landing permit on the U.S. |
24
hours later, I decided to go on shore leave for the first time since I arrived
here on this ship. Shore leaves nowadays aren't that long compared to the days
of yore where it last for days, In modern times its just roughly only a few
hours. I decided to go out and see the environment around America since I have
never set my foot outside (had already been here before but never set foot).
Rule
in going on shore leave is that always go into groups, and never wander off
alone. Since this is a foreign land there is always a possibility that there
might be trouble. I decided to tag along with electrician Felix Rodriguez and Fitter Rogelio Lorenzo and took my shore pass from third
mate corales along with a Xerox copy of my passport.
Due
to security policies on U.S. port, We are to remain inside the ship until
picked up by a cab. It was about noon when the taxi arrived and was asked by
"Rosa" if we have anything on mind, Well for a start I was thinking
of some place to shop, eating and drinking or checking out the place -
something like that and not in any particular order. By the way the taxi fee in the U.S. is 30
dollars one way per ride (doesn’t matter on how many we are), and another 30
going back (total of 60 U.S.D.)
Our
first stop was "Best Buy" Store. There is nothing much to say about
this really and compared to other malls this one is a very small one. Probably
from my estimation it's just the size of any supermarket department on any
malls in the Philippines. Anyway it's understandable why malls in the U.S. are
small given that it's only a place to shop and not hang out. "Best
buy" store isn't really much to speak of, it only has some latest
electronics to buy like laptops, camera and video games - but not the complete
set. On best buy due to budget and money limitations I had on my wallet , I
only bought a stylus pen for my Acer Tablet PC and a laptop cooler pad for my
HP - nothing more. Second stop was to go WalMart store, The three of us decided
that since it is just nearby (according to Google maps it's just a 15 minute
walk) we could stretch our legs a bit. Engine Fitter Rogelio Lorenzo was
hesitant at first but Electrician Felix Rodriguez was able to manage to talk
him out. Midway walking we received an SMS telling that third mate corales and
messman galang are currently in walmart and asked if they could join in with us
on the way hope. Electrician Rodriguez said that the reason why they plan to
tag along with us was because they wanted to cut the cost of their
transportation fee on the way back.
Google
maps was pretty accurate in telling the directions and told us exactly which
direction should we go along with the walkway for pedestrians. Took us less
that 15 minutes on foot going there in Walmart. In Walmart, it was pretty
spacious compared to best buy - but not as spacious as Philippine super marts
like I saw went I was still a kid. Walmart is impressive went it comes to size
but that just basically starts and ends there.
Once
we got inside the store we immediately saw and tagged along with 3rd mate and
messman, actually we never see and it was them that saw us .Out of necessity I
had to borrow 100 U.S.D. from Electrician Felix Rodriguez to buy a few
videogames, chocolates and soap. Aside from that I couldn't think of anything
else to buy . We scattered all over the place to shop and was decided that
around 4pm we would meet at the entrance of the super mart in McDonald's booth.
After a couple of hours we all met on the meeting spot and by the time we
returned to the ship, it was already around 5pm - an hour late on my scheduled
shift. Fortunately O.S. bantic isn't a hot heat and was able to talk to him
about why I got late.
At
11am close to midnight, I was suddenly awaken by the P.A. system. The voice
speaking was no other than "Mr. Cobra" Sorin , telling us to go to
out mooring stations. At first I thought that it was already time to sail off -
after all I heard before I finished my working shift that loading the cargo
will be finished sometime near midnight and its only plausible that unmooring
operations will soon follow. When I got out , I only found out that "Mr.
Cobra" wanted only to tighten the moorings of the ship and had to call the
whole crew about it - for short it was unimportant and our friendly reptile is
having another anxiety attack, he thinks that moorings will snap back because
of the recent ship movements caused by passing ships nearby. We finally got to
adjust the moorings despite the annoyance and got back to my cabin, I thought
it was over and the next thing I will wake up will be the actual unmooring.
Again after an hour I was awaken again by the P.A. over the same thing.
(God
Damn ! does this fucker ever get tired of disturbing people over petty matters
every now and then ? - I swear sooner or later someone out there in the crew
will one day will get really pissed with him when their having a bad day and
throw him overboard, what the fuck does he what to do now ?! )
After
again adjusting the soft rope on the bitts , with a much more tedious task than
before - I went back to cabin to only realize that it was only 45 minutes away
from my next shift. What the fuck ?! Hmm so much for rest - no thanks to this
bastard ship captan.
At
about 5am the pilot arrived , and immediately this ship went unmooring, after
the unmooring ops, I had only a couple of hours left on the internet signal to
download a few files for my games before the communications got silent - so I
had to make the best out of downloading as much as possible despite bad
internet signal. at about 12 noon this ship finally exited the Houston area and
was going south to panama for the transit
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| Electrician Rodriguez and Engine fitter Lorenzo |
 |
| Well majority of the shopping is made by electrician |
 |
| Call this cab driver whenever youre in houston area, very friendly fellow and helps out us filipino sailors in getting the destination |
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| Word of advice from a buyer and as a sailor , As much as possible avoid getting a T-mobile internet sim card - this sucker is terribly expensive and internet connection is slow and dropping plus as an insult it is only limited to 5 GB usage. A much cheaper version is this "Simple mobile" though it has the same speed as T-mobile , it is definately cheap and virtually unlimited connection. Simple mobile cost only 15 U.S. Dollars |
