August
31, 2018 Friday
Moored
at buoy in Kemanish, Malaysia
Ship
has finally moored at Kemanish, Malaysia. The mooring is "SBM" (Ship
buoy mooring) meaning a ship is tied up to a buoy on the forward area and the
aft area is moored or guided by a tugboat (or supply vessel). The ship receives
cargo from the buoy were its also has a cargo hose.
Apparently
mooring in Kemanish, Malaysia has no nearby port., No shore leave for short.
Temperatures
in Kemanish, Malaysia is exceedingly hot. As in tropical heat weather, like
peak of summer in the Philippines. Anyway there is nothing I can do about this
given that I had been thrown on the far side of the world because I don’t have
a U.S. Visa around., If I had a U.S. visa - I'd definitely not be on this
place., and would prefer the weather in the north Atlantic area, preferably
european weather.
Work
on an "SBM" type of mooring is relatively easy., Someone has just to
stay put and routinely check for buoy position on the forward area and that's
about it. And lucky me I'm the person assigned to baby sit on that buoy
position. Loading operations was very short ., just mostly around less than 24
hours compared to my previous work experiences on other Oil tanker ships .
Unmooring
was also easy and no effort (on my part) was made since I was just baby-sitting
the whole buoy position for the whole 24 hours, I just saw my co-workers do the
disconnection of the cargo hose , although I wanted to see more on how it is
made , I cannot leave the area and just simply watched it via my binoculars.
Soon
after unmooring , razor wire was immediately put up around the whole ship , in
prep for HRA (High Risk Area) where supposedly piracy and robbery always take
place in south east Asia.
Piracy
and robbery here in south east Asia is not as violent (or not violent at all)
and usually pirates here just steal some stuff on the ships, Its very rare that
they harm or attack people,. They do get violent sometimes when of course
provoke, other than that - it's nothing to be cause of concern. Personally I
don’t think putting up razor wires is necessary at all here in this region, but
who am I to say that right ? As long as I'm being paid extra for the efforts
then it's none of my business, besides if in rare instance that we do encounter
pirates then it’s the ships property they want and not people.
