july 24 , 2015 friday
As part of
the two part unloading cargo operations , this ship is now currently moored in
Jamaica. Docking operations started as early as 6:30 pm and was told to
immediately prepare the pilot embarkation ladder for the pilot. Soon after the
pilot embarked on this ship, all crew was announced via P.A. to standby for
mooring operations. Mooring operations proceeded very smoothly and without any
problems , the mooring arrangement if I recall was 3:2:2 (3 headlines and 2
springs lines) The spring lines was of surprise, a soft rope was used along
with the headlines. The breast line if I recall was a wire line. The whole
mooring operation in the forward could have finished a lot sooner , if not for
the Jamaican mooring boat crew which took its time in placing it on the dolphin
platform.
As for the
weather , it has very few changes and was still very hot. - not much to expect
on a tropical country , as a matter of fact the Philippines despite being a
tropical country is much cooler compared to tropical countries in central
America. But if I could compare the temperature experienced in Louisiana and
here , I could say that its much better.
The loading
operations here in kingston Jamaica will only take a day based on what I heard
and it's not a full discharge , ( the other half of it will be in the Dominican
republic ).
So what can
I say in Jamaica ? First off this is a small island located south of Cuba ,
mostly this country is a tourist destination and people here speak English,
even their local television shows are in English language so there's basically
no problem, which is good since a lot of Filipino sailors understand English
(take note UNDERSTAND , I didn’t say their able to speak English). I'm not sure
if Jamaican's here are nice people given that this ship is only moored on a
platform. The internet from what recall here is bandwidth charge and expensive
. 20 U.S. Dollars for 250 MB of internet. The good thing about internet here is
its ready to use and no registration needed.
After a day
of discharge , pilot boarded this ship at about 10:00 pm and immediately went
into unmooring. Unmooring and securing of deck equipment was finished at about
close to midnight.
Travel time
from the Jamaica to the Dominican republic takes about a day.
Sunday was
a good thing a rest day , and we haven't have a good rest day for ages now
(which for some reason berthing and unmooring operations get timed always on
weekends).
