After
three flight cancellations and almost a month of waiting., I had finally been
deployed on the new ship called "Hunter Saga" . Initially I was
assigned with the ship called "Hunter Atla" but later on got changed
to "Hunter Saga". Soon after that a series of flight cancellations
and Reschedules followed and on the later minute of Sunday October 13, 2019 . I
finally received a message coming from 'Annabel Aviso" that then
deployment is going to push thru and that I'm required to go back to the office
to claim my new plane ticket along with the signing of a new MLC Form again by
the tomorrow morning.
This
is the first time on my career as a seafarer that I'd be informed on short
notice , as in only less than 12 hours. Fortunately for me there the family car
that my sister and I bought years back , so travel time will not be an issue
and traffic on EDSA is nonexistent as far as I'm concerned., and I couldn't
imagine myself traveling on public transportation in the Philippines in this
kind of situation especially with the recent fiasco that happened on the Light
Rail transit system where they had to shut down the entire facility and let at
least a million people stranded on roads and I was one of those folk who got
stuck.
Whatever
the case, traffic and public transportation problems won't affect me this time
as I'm using the family car
The
following day, I came to the office and got my tickets . My whole luggage just
stayed on the car and parked it in the nearby Robinsons Mall. It didn’t took me
long to get the new company forms and my plane tickets, Just 20 minutes and
that just about it. Ms. "Aviso" did speed things up. There was no
extra chit chat and just right down to business.
When
my sister (the driver of the car) and I met at the mall ., It was decided that
we should head to the local airport early to avoid traffic and wait there until
the "check in" time for the plane. We arrive at the airport at around
4pm .
It
was about 8pm when the "Check In" procedure started , and there on
the last minute I had already found out who will be my crewmates for this ship.
From what I saw there area was about roughly 11 of us all in all catching for
the flight. Based on the tickets , we have a two kinds of flights one bound for
Incheon , and the other is a local flight to Busan. The flight to Korea was short and was just
roughly under 4 hours , then the local flight was just an hour. Once there we
were immediately greeted by the local agent on the arrival area.
To
some of my crew mates relief they were thrilled to hear that , we will not be
proceeding immediately to the shipyard and instead will stay at the local
transit hotel. Joy soon turned to doubt when we heard from the agent upon
arriving there that we will start immediately on work in a couple of hours.,
and that we will be just using the transit hotel as a storage for our luggage
and of course to sleep for the night (which sounds more like a bed spacer
,rather than a hotel a person stays). In any case I have no complains about it
and usually (being a negative thinker most of the time , or more like
pragmatic) , I had already expected this to happen that once we stepped out on
the airport - work will soon follow , as in very soon.
 |
| The Transit Hotel that were staying at , in this picture is my room, |
We
just put our luggage in the respective room and headed out in an hour to the
working site. The towering image of the ship when view afar was really
mesmerizing to look at ., like some sort of giant. We took the elevator going
up to the deck area and immediately went to see the deck area. As expected the
deck area was very busy and littered with all sorts of shipyard workers. Even
inside the accommodation bloc upon entering was filled with people doing their
work.
As
soon as we got on B deck , we were given our coveralls immediately and put them
on. The rest of the day till later on the afternoon was spent working on
hauling stuff and deck materials onboard., and of course familiarizing us over
to the ship's deck area , on which equipment is located at on how to operate
the machinery.