August
20, 2018 Monday
Enroute
to Singapore
Having
half day work on Saturday and off work on Sundays really helps a lot as rest
days and stress removal from work here. Compared to my previous employer
"UPL - Shell" which have serious rest hours issue and they dont let
they're crew to have rest days.
As
of the moment I'm satisfied and grateful that there is an actual rest days
here, and it’s the first Sunday I have in a long time to have actually rested.
On
news around this ship.,
I
have heard some grim rumours from an oiler here that other ships here on the
"TCC" fleet have brutal working conditions and that this is the one
and only ship in the tanker fleet that has a lax policies. Based on the rumor I
heard from him, the work there was so demanding that other crew nicknamed them
"Training Center". Probably I surmise that this is because of the
presence of "Uwak" ship officers there. From what I heard aside from
demanding work load, the crew on those ships are being forced to take computer
based lecture test often., and they use the excuse of "Safety
training" as a means to make life difficult and put more strain on the
crew there.
From
what I heard from the oiler one such example is a ship named "KWK
Excelsus" , the ship I was originally assigned to go until I was
reassigned to another ship on the last minute. ( Thankfully the reassignment
was a blessing, otherwise I would be facing again yet another " near shell
company" working conditions yet again.)
Hearing
that rumor from oiler makes me rethink again about my short term plans here on
this company and principal. I had a swirling thought again that maybe I might
consider to getting transferred to another principal, just to avoid those damn
persky "Uwaks" or better yet find another new company that has no
presence of any "uwaks"
After
all if I heard correctly from the Oiler, only this principal in this company
has an active presence of "Uwaks" and other principals have zero and
"uwak" free working environments. The rest of the other principals
from what I heard are managed by Europeans and have European ship officers (
which meant better treatment of Filipino crew and less oppressive working
policies)
Whatever
the case maybe, My Plan here on this ship is to have at least two contracts to
erase my bad rep on the resume, afterwards the third contract is optional and
heavily depends on the result of the second contract. The only main objective I
have here is to get a U.S. visa and finish the second contract. If in any case
I'm unable to secure a valid U.S. Visa , (which they won't even bother to give
me one) . I'd definitely leave and find another better company - One which
doesn’t have "Uwaks".
Mostly
this campaign I'm working with is just plainly a "Reclamation" , just
back tracking on filling up my financial losses on the previous two disaster
campaigns (Cf Sharp and UPL-Shell). I suppose that sailing on this for a while
might help recover my losses before moving on to the next company.
The
only thing I could guarantee is there will be a second campaign here , just to erase the bad reputation on me
resume.
On
other concerns ….
Since
the policies here are not as hard as "UPL - SHELL" ., I might be
planning to get a camera and take pictures all over the ship as part of my
survey. And if all goes well I might be even able to post it on the social
media as a means to distribute information.
