Journal
Entry: September 04, 2016 Sunday
Location:
OPL Anchorage area, Singapore
While in
the middle of the whole De-mucking ops here on deck, There has been a quick
news that the "repair crew" will disembark this ship on September 05.
The news was really sudden and big surprise but not totally unexpected - after
all their contracts have already been finish a couple of weeks ago and its long
overdue that they should return home. While the Repair crew is rejoicing that
they will go home soon, most of the people wonder here on what will happen on the work they will leave vacant. For short
there is a huge vacuum on some of the task here and we're wondering who will
fill in on those. Actually it's not that big loss that they will disembark, as
long as they can solve the problem about the work on pilot ladder and gangway -
not to mention the mooring operations issue, I think everything will be fine
despite the downsize of the crew.
Personally,
Im relieved that I'd be getting rid of A.B. Paulito Cordova for good. I had
already had enough on his berating and rebuking attitude, that he's mere
presence on the work place is annoying enough. Basically he's just another one
of those typical asshole's sailors in the maritime community,. I disliked people who think themselves to be
high and mighty, and lectures me about things about work, on top of that,
conversation with him lasting for more than three minutes is highly impossible
without him insulting and scorning me. I'm really glad that he's going home and
good riddance !! This ship will be a little bit better place for me without him
around.,
(Scorn means
open disrespect accompanied by intense dislike)
Aside
from that , another news I heard was that O.S. Marden Luib received a negative
feedback from his evaluation report to the office (also known as "appraisal" report in seaman
terms) written by Chief Mate Dsouza. In
response and protest as well O.S. Marden Luib didn't sign the paper, and left
it to our local company to figure it for themselves - after all it is his right
to question under MLC law any negative comment reflected to his in a bias way.
As
for A.B. Edgar tiu and O.S. Rosendo Molina, they're apparently don’t want to
leave yet but just got dragged along on O.S. Marden's request to leave. It's
obvious that O.S. Rosendo won't be coming back due to the poor job offer CF
sharp (and norstar principal) gives , However in the case of A.B. Edgar Tiu -
there's a rumour, I heard from BOSUN Rodrigo that there's a possibility that he
might return, in the special circumstance that there's at least a need for two
new additional crew members to work on the deck. It's up to Edgar if he take the offer despite
poor working conditions and environment here and salary problems this company
and principal offers - if the rumours are true.
In other
news.
It has only
been hours since the "repair crew" left this ship and , total
disarray has come in due to the lack of manpower. Our Indian bosses seemed to
not know properly on how to handle people and basically even suggesting that we
should be on another 6 to 6 hour watch. It's a good thing that it was changed
and my work schedule was back again to "day work"
In relation
to this, 6 people came and from what I saw they're some sort of DNV-GL
surveyors, conducting a some sort of survey. Some of these folk were actually
from the shipyard making estimation and close up look on the overall status of
the vessel. On first glance one of the personnel from the shipyard made a
comment that the deck area is in very bad shape and estimated that this ship
will have only at least 2 years of life span left before it gets scrapped, the
accommodation area along with pipes and such are in very deteriorating
condition - no surprise because this ship is 20 years old now. For now while
writing this, they're still evaluating on what will be status for ship repairs.
In other
matters,
Most
of the "de-mucking" crew that have cleaned this ship have been gone
now and only a few are left to finish just to finish off the remaining fuel oil
tank left. Unmistakably our Myanmar Captain here, supposedly received a message
from the Norstar office informing that there's another crew that will arrive to
continue the work and to clean up the ballast tanks. Based on our Captain
understanding it’s the 100 plus
"De-mucking" crew and kept continued persistent demands to extend the
work not only on the cargo tanks but to the ballast tanks as well. The foreman
of the "De-mucking" crew said that he received no such order from
their company and will not continue the work. He said clearly that our
principal (Norstar) should talk first on his company to order them to
continue the work , otherwise he cannot authorize such work order to his crew.
Despite the
annoyance and insistence of my shitty Myanmar captain, The foreman of the
de-mucking crew had his way and it was only right of him not to authorize any
further work without any official statement coming from his local agent . For
now any word put up by the captain should be considered just a
"rumor" and they can't dictate or pressure the foreman - he doesn’t
have any power to do so.
