Entry log is July
11, 2016 Monday
Location :
Port Elizabeth, South Africa
A lot of
people have been dissatisfied on recent developments on our working condition
here and it's no surprise that there are grumbling a lot as well, I can't blame
them , seeing that I myself is dissatisfied over the conditions here and it’s a
far cry from the good treatment I had received when I was in Career Ship
Management on NSB "Conti" Ships. Shame that I had to leave on my
former company due to very long "Waiting time". Anyway now I know why
CF sharp is not included on my list of possible suitable companies to begin
with, Working Conditions here and Company policies are not suited for a
seafarer and not built for long term employment. Frankly my employment here is
a big setback rather than progress on my career.
Despite the
battery of consecutive disappointments that plague working conditions here,
life goes on and so does the never ending process of work. I'm not in a good
mood to work but I had to keep on going, knowing that a few months more and I'd
get the fuck off on this ship for good which is my main goal. I still have at
least 6 months to complete the exact contract here.
About work,
currently this ship is expecting 4 visitors from some sort of "DNV -
GL" and rooms to accommodate them have already been prepared. Some of them
will be occupying the hospital and some on actual cabins ( and on my
disappointment me and "O.S mark" are compressed on one cabin ).
For now my
work involves helping Pump man out down below on the pump room. Apparently
recent events had the bowels of the pump room flooded again by water and we had
to scoop and take out the water. On that work I had to bring out and use my
safety helmet that has a headlight with it , but while working I found out that
it was too bulky and too heavy for my head plus I can't maneuver and do a mouse
look because of tight spaces and large pipes above my head. All the time I had
to crouch and bend in taking out the water because there's not enough leg room.
(which added stress on my neck and back)
Thinking of
that scenario, I needed an equipment that can get my headlight on tight spaces
without bumping my head into something and can make me move around a little bit
easier while working. The end result of it was that I had made and developed an
equipment similar to an NVG frame (night vision googles), actually it’s made
out of the inner plastic frame of a safety helmet, the plastic straps placed to
keep the head in place on the helmet and using some of the equipment I had with
me on the luggage and some equipment I saw here, I made a little tune up and
modification and tweaked it. I haven't tested it yet on my equipment made but
hopefully soon it will see action on the actual working conditions here.
Going back
about the visitors, It looks like that this ship is having another rumour about
altering its course away from Kenya and Madagascar, as in way beyond the waters
off on this countries. Perhaps probably away from GOA Somali area (high risk
piracy area), in order for the company to save money and not hire a security
team to protect this ship (mercenaries). There's no specific yet detail if this
is true or not, The only thing known is that this ship will alter course
because of "bad weather" according to the captain.
At about
6PM a small barge came in for bunkering of this ship (refueling), a few moments
later another small craft approached carrying the four surveyors followed by
another supply barge that carries razor wire supplies.
During the
loading of supplies, BOSUN Rodrigo was in the crane when he saw something
smoking on one of the plastic bags , and yelled out that we better get the way
out of those bags. Chief mate Douza saw it and yelled that I should get the
fire hose ready. I immediately came grabbing one of the hoses and putting it on
the water pipes, when I came to the location , O.S. "mark" was
already dousing the huge plastic bag that was making a smoke. Turns out later
when it was thoroughly searched that one of the car batteries inside the
supplies ruptured and spilled acid , Anyway it was just a false alarm in the
end.
After the
brief minor incident, Chief mate Douza said that we had to take out all the
razor wires out which we did only later to find out that he changed his mind
after taking out all the wires on the plastic bag and said that we should store
it on the starboard midship store, ( Hmpf !! What a total indian dick ! He
should have told us earlier about this to save us the trouble).
At about
8pm I had to leave on the workplace, along with BOSUN Rodrigo and O.S.
"Mark" and head out to the crew mess to grab some grub since we
skipped out dinner and left the "riding crew" to finish off the work
in the razor wire.
Midnight ,
Me and O.S. "Mark" was awaken again on the cabin.to heave up the
anchor after the bunkering ops. Heaving anchor was fine and got delayed when
the chain was tangled up a big on the anchor , fortunately it was resolved
quickly after two hours.
