Journal
Entry: August 23, 2016 Tuesday
Location:
OPL Anchorage area, Singapore
After the
discharge operation this ship headed off to the OPL anchorage area to do some tank cleaning, as a preparation for
the dry docks scheduled by next week (or end of the month). Given with the
limited time, it is thought that we won't get inside the cargo tanks and remove
all the "black oil" residues, big convenience if we don’t as this
ship doesn’t have the necessary equipment to get to that kind of job.
So far it
seems that, the Indian Ship officers here are having a hard time cleaning all
the grime and muck out of those cargo tanks and are repeating and having
numerous delays on the "tank cleaning" ops. Don’t really mind the
delays by the problem here is that the working schedule is pushed to the limit
of having a 6 to 6 hour shift, the longer it stays this way. The stress builds
up, Worst part is that I'm not getting paid or being paid less on this kind of
work. So for now I'm stuck on the work schedule being woken up early in the
morning and then back again by noon till late afternoon. Little time to my
personal agendas and creative thinking,
So far
there's nothing significant going on aside on prepping for the shipyard - for
now this ship is still on its "Cow cleaning" (crude oil wash) and
some of the tank cleaning machines barely even work at all. Most of the working
shifts, I was just literary sitting around and waiting for a call on the
handheld radio waiting to do something, and if there is indeed some call from
the radio it just basically revolves around taking ullage from the cargo tanks
, or making a sounding on ballast pipes, opening or closing drop or cross-over
valves - more or less. Anyway there's at least some annoyance provided by O.S.
Marder Luib or A.B. Paulito Cordova to go around. Basically these two pathetic
riding repair crew are intolerable for any short tempered person, Lucky for
them I have a poker face and know how to ride along on the situation. They just
simply keep lecturing people around as if like they're some sort of Mr.
Know-it-all and yet when it comes to them doing those task - they skip the work
out and dump it to their fellow co-workers , For short - they're nothing but
full of shit.
In other
news …
Much to
other people's (all actually) surprise , the overtime sheet paper we had to
sign in the crew mess was quiet high this time - In fact twice as high that it
was compared to last month. Everybody was in disbelief that overtime pay would
be as excess as about 40 hrs to 56 hours. Usually overtime pay was just as
little as about 10 hours or 13 like last month , but now things have went
suddenly into a 180 degree turn, that there's speculation that our Neglectful
Myanmar captain is just doing this to dodge possibility that someone from the
crew would inform the authorities about his misdeeds - after all this ship is
in Singapore and any attempt to go to the authorities is just a few clicks away
plus as an added effect , the main office of pathetic Norstar is also in
Singapore. This ship's lame Myanmar captain is one neglectful son of a bitch
but he's no stupid dinosaur, my lucky guess is the same as the other
speculation as what the crew are thinking.
In other
news
On the
early morning of August 26, One of the 2nd barges that was collecting oil
discharged from this ship casted out, on my assumption probably it had already
filled its cargo with enough slop to collect. (bunker barge actuall, first
barge was a "water barge" to delivery fresh water for tank cleaning).
I was doing
fine on my working shift , then suddenly I'm puzzled why my co-workers here
suggested I should wear a safety helmet out of now where. I mean I got used to
work on a regular maintenance before and now all of a sudden I am being
required to wear a safety helmet - during regular maintenance. Honestly I'm not
really happy at all about this and wonder why the principal and management here
imposes too high safety practices , as if like they're good employers. Its fine
with me about a high safety culture - but with the exception if the company is
a good company and treats employee's fairly, if not - then they're just aiming
for some pipe dream. Before they start on a high safety culture - they should
look first on how they manage the company and how they MANAGE their employee's
(crew in my case) like providing sufficient and adequate needs. otherwise their
just having another companies wet dream of aiming for the top.
Speaking of
which , before I went to work. I can't believe that food in the galley is
scarce and I had to look every nook and cranny of the cupboards just to find a
simple pack of noodles and to mention also , I couldn't find any variety at all
to eat aside from noodles , cereals, and bread - as if like this whole ship is
in near close to the point of famine. I'm not exactly sure if chief cook
facundo is crapping on his work or the food budget here in this ship just got
shorten but from what I'm seeing I think chief cook has nothing to do with this
and that the latter is the likely cause.
Damn !! How
the hell does this company even maintain their business ?!! They always keep
short changing people on stuff including the food allowance , tsk ! Pathetic
norstar !!!
