CLOSE BUT YET SO FAR

February 21st 2014, Friday

After a day of delay due to bad weather (which i had nothing to do but look for rust and sweep it on the deck as my maintenance work), This ship has finally commenced in berthing with Vladimir tikonov at around 10am. We didn't do any deck maintenance work when we were standby at around 8am given that mooring and berthing are more important , and aside from that we don't kind of feeling like working at all since 7 Filipino crew will be disembarking (including me) on the turkey straights right after this operation.

Everything was ready before the this ship berthed to Vladimir , SOPEP , Fire fighting Equipment. So it was just directly going back to the security watch duties after Mooring.

From what i heard on the rumour that loading operations will be very short in "FCS Vladimir Tikhonov" , roughly just 12 hours to 16 hours since it pumps cargo much faster than "NS Lion" . After my watch , I did the usual packing of my luggage and couldn't sleep comfortably out of the excitement of disembarking soon. I was thinking whether i would be disembarking while this ship is in the middle of channelling away on Istanbul or when this ship is at anchorage ? Anyway this is just a minor detail and wouldn't matter at all.

Anyway in other rumours ....

I heard from homer (during our time on cargo ops) that 2nd officer "Bastard - O" is having a eye inflammation or eye strain of some sort and that he is going to be left out along with third engineer on the disembarkation from this ship. Seriously I'm normally not like this but this is the first time that I'm glad to heard about someone's misfortune , Serve's him right that pussy ass mother fucker !!! And that's what he gets for being a dickhead here onboard. I glad he's going to be left behind

During my night watch duties (12 midnight till 6am), I was kept pretty much occupied in assisting those Ukrainian Surveyors in taking cargo samples from slop cargo tank, It was chore assisting them as they made a big mess in collecting cargo samples - As in the whole tank hatch was covered with bunker fuel , and even my I as well .

Another worst thing that happened was chief mate instructed me to take cargo samples in slop starboard tank when loading operations was already over. Good thing i was able to remedy the situation by opening the cargo hatch and getting some equipment from the deck store and took the heaving line from the aft area.

14 bottles (1 liter each ) were the total number of samples I took and a shitload of a mess in the slop tank hatch when i finally got to finish the job. Hopefully The mooring team on the aft wont recognize that their heaving line will be a bit shorter than the usual by the time this ship reaches Cartagena Spain and when that happens I'm no longer around and will be most likely in the Philippines.

The pilot was expected to arrive at around 8am , but apparently it was already 10am when O.S. Del Monte knocked to my door and said its Unmooring time. Unmooring operations went on without any problems.

A few hours later after unmooring ops, A short notice memo just came in from career shipping informing that the crew change will be unlikely in Turkish Straights . Possibly the next crew change will be on next port , Cartagena Spain

FINAL COUNTDOWN

FEBRUARY 16, 2014 Monday

Wasn't exactly sure on Sunday if their is work or a rest day, So just to confirm i hanged out in the crew mess for a while until i was absolutely sure that it was really a rest day. I wont really go to so much trouble in confirming if it was a rest day or not if the chief mate wasn't Mr.Bezruchko , If it was Chief mate nagorny - It's definitely a 100 percent rest day on Sundays.

View if the FPSO ship NS Lion

Behold The EPES turkish Beer 

So what happened during my *hang out* time in the crew mess, well Fitter Sano was having an early morning drinking session on beer (as early as 7am in the morning) while it was only me who took a breakfast. Obviously Fitter sano invited me to join him on his ongoing drink, I joined in in seeing that there's nothing wrong drinking on a rest day , besides that i don't want to get into the wrong impression. I had a couple of drinks probably 4 to 6 bottles of EPES Turkish beer and had a few small talk with fitter sano.

We discussed about me taking a licensure exam after this. Maybe Fitter sano is right taking a licensure exam and getting a license may benefit me on the long run, after all at least any company could not dispose me easily if I have one.

On the latter part of the day, Finally got to clean my cabin after so many months ignoring it - specifically on my toilet area. Well i figured that I guess maybe before i disembark onboard this ship i better leave my cabin in shape for my successor.

Aside from cleaning my cabin , I also tested out the outfit I'm going to wear on my disembarkation day. I look glamorous on the outfit wearing semi formal clothes and with a tie on, and i bet my co-workers are going to be very jealous on it when i wore them.

In other news on Sunday

I finally finished playing the story of mode on the video game "Far cry 2" , so what can i say about it ? Well I'm not exactly sure if I got the good ending at all in this game, the end story on my game is that I had killed all my buddies over some few pieces of rock (diamonds) , let the bad guy named "Jackal" got away and made a self sacrifice by blowing myself up in the cliff , blocking the accesses to cliff to the horde of other bad guys planning to go genocidal on helpless citizens  (so that civilians can get out of the border).

I'm not so sure at all that i got the good ending nor if the story on this video game is non linear. Anyway bottom line is that I've finished the game.

On Tuesday February 18, 2014. The weather wasn't really going well in the morning and there was heavy fog yet again, it was even doubtful that berthing might be cancelled and when i came to work it was indeed cancelled - well its more called a delayed rather than cancel and at around 12:30 Pm, O.S. Del Monte knocked to my cabin door and said that were going to heave up anchor and be berthing soon. As expected  I quickly dresses in coveralls and got down to business.

After the anchor was successfully heaved up. We went to the crew mess to have a coffee break and wait further orders. Some how this ship was moving very slow and took four hours for it to reach the destination point, and obviously we were there in the crew mess waiting.

Ship that was berthed at is named "NS Lion" another SCF company ship (it's a ship to ship berthing ops) . It has a deep color red hull like the red we typically see in primer paints here onboard, and probably that ship is Korean made based on its structure.

Before berthing "Bullfrog" Amican lectures me something about a load line, ( as if i don't know what it is, I already know that during my college years on where its located , what's it used for and what the symbol letters mean ) . I just let him talk and talk all that shit about it , Funny he lectures me on something as if like i was an ignorant illiterate and him implying that he's a "superior intellectual guy" - Seriously I do know better that "Bull Frog" Amican is no better off than any other regular joe around here and if he knows so much , how come he ended up being a BOSUN rather than a ship officer eh ??!  Asshole just plainly have an EGO problem.

During berthing, the Russian third mate said that i should now throw the heavy line , but on my rough estimation it was a few meters short on my throwing reach, i told him that about it and ignored it , saying it will be fine. I did throw the heaving line anyway to the other ship and my estimation was correct , it didn't make it on the other side and was probably 2 to 6 meters short of the target and as a result i had to coil back again the heaving and throw it one more time. O.S. Del Monte said he like to take a shot on the heaving line and i gave him the rope.

This time the distance between our ship and NS lion was so close that missing it will be impossible, as expected the end of the heaving line made it on the deck of NS lion and tied it to their messenger line (rope used to drag the mooring line). Then afterward we pulled our heaving line and tied it up on our Mooring lines - spring lines to be specific. The mooring arrangement on our STS ops is 4 : 2 just like before. After an hour it mooring ops was finished.

Soon after the mooring ops, I went to the mid ship manifold area to prepare the fire fighting equipment and SOPEP , as well as the ISPS box (as part of my work description as an O.S.). When i came there it was already prepared and basically i was left to do nothing for a while, I roamed for a few minutes finding any work when i saw chief mate Bezruchko having a conversation on some crew of NS lion , there was also BOSUN AMICAN and 2nd officer "Bastard - O" .

Apparently from what i heard NS Lion doesn't have any "baskets" at all to carry some of the personnel from their ship to ours and they suggest that we should use our  accommodation gangway as a means of a walkway. Unfortunately it wasn't possible given the circumstances and it would be very dangerous to do so and there's a possibility that people would fall from there. In the end the crew of NS lion used an improvised version of a basket to carry their people around, they used a wooden box with a safety net that would be lifted by their crane. Honestly the basket box really looks more of like a coffin rather than a basket when looked at.

After my watch, I went ahead to my cabin to fix a few other stuff and had difficulty sleeping and looks like i paid the price on not resting, as during my midnight watch i was feeling the severe effects of sleep deprivation. To make it short i was very dizzy and wasn't feeling well on that time, to make it more complicated the temperature dropped down again and there was another fog coming by. Good thing there wasn't much work to go around with.

On the late part of my watch, A.B. Mallorca heard a shout coming the accommodation direction and when he came out to check it , he saw it was 2nd officer "Bastard - O" yelling and shouting "Where's your radio" . Immediately A.B. Mallorca checked out his radio and it was dead apparently maybe because it was low on the batteries awhile ago, he checked mine and i had the same problems as well on the radio. He immediately sent me out to replace both of our radio's batteries in the CCR and when i was in the room , I saw 2nd Officer "Bastard - O"  and immediately let out a furious words, shouting in tagalog saying "Tatanga tanga kasi , Palitan nyo battery nyo" , not exactly sure the exact translation in tagalog but it sounded more like , "Change your battery, you incompetent imbecile" . I was going to let out a few words but i figured , he's not going to be my problem anymore in the next couple of days since I'm disembarking and low life cunt's like him are not worth it, So i just turned my back on him the CCR and ignored him.

Back in the cargo manifold area , A.B. Homer Mallorca asked what happened on the CCR , i just gave him a reply that its nothing serious and 2nd officer is bitchy as always.

At around 6pm NS lion operation were finished and the whole mooring crew was finished in the unmooring operations, we were in a hurry putting back again the mooring ropes and wire back , expecting that another berthing operations to FCS valdimir tikhonov would commence right after our unmooring with NS LION. Unfortunately much to our dismay mooring was cancelled for now and this ship anchored about 1.5 miles away from Vladimir Tikhonov. From what in heard we wont berth for now due to the late schedule.

PERPLEX POINT

February 15, 2014 Saturday

Saturday as expected wasn't exactly "half-Day" work at all, Apparently Chief Mate Bezruchko isn't very lenient when it comes to weekends compared to his predecessor Chief Mate Nagorny and as anticipated most of the crew here are not very happy about it. Usual practice here in this ship (Cape Tallin), Saturdays are half day work while Sundays are rest day. However ever since Captain valeriy and Chief mate Bezruchko arrived they started having idea's cancelling off rest days (It started on my entry "Pointing Fingers") and putting more work load, worst part of it is that were already over worked and the overtime pay got decimated to around only 55 hours instead of the usual 120 Hours as normal practice here.

Captain Valeriy is already gone and has been replaced by Captain Slabada (during this ships dry dock repairs last January 2014) however the practice of cancelling out weekends still haven't stopped, The insult to this is that they're cancelling out weekends on a normal maintenance operation and its not even an emergency at all  (Like cargo loading / discharge operations).

Having a weekends off is good , but on how are the things going here. Assume that weekends will be always cancelled out for the time being until chief mate Bezruchko gets disposed of.'

Anyway For the work on Saturday , nothing much was done, I just swept the whole ship from forward till i ended up somewhere in the mid ship area. Wasn't really a tiring job. By the way while I was in the middle of my work, temperatures suddenly drop near freezing level and there was a huge fog coming from the sea (sea smoke). I had to put on my winter coveralls as a precaution and i don't want to repeat the same mistake i did during the dry docks.

There was one thing i could recall though about me giving my wenger Swiss army knife to O.S. De Monte before i disembark on this ship. Honestly I don't see anything wrong about giving it to him, and we were having a conversation when all of a sudden BOSUN Amican "Frog Face" butted in and said "We're is his gift, after  i disembark" , I replied and said he doesn't need it and that both of us are disembarking on the same time. He replied again and said "how about on our next ship ?" , I just kept silent. I said to myself "as if I'm going to see the like's of you on my next ship, This is a huge company and there is little possibility at all that i would encounter you on my next ship. Thank god we wont be seeing each other again and I'd be getting rid of you once and for all, otherwise its going to be another 10 month hell hole for me" , aside from that i don't give memento's to bad guys.

an example of a muster station bill

In the late afternoon, We had a security drill. The scenario is "a bomb inside the ship" , as what was written on my muster list ( a piece of paper or memo telling what are a person duties during an emergency) i had to search the starboard side of the ship from the accommodation all the way to the forecastle, My "Team mates" according to the card is the new Russian third mate and O.S. Del Monte.

We search for some time however we came up with nothing at all , it was chief engineer and his team who got the "dummy box" .

Anyway i think the security card drill I got has some problems and whoever wrote it haven't checked out the possibility that there are some parts there that overlap each others duties, like for example the fore castle part which from what i recall is the duty search of the BOSUN and A.B. 3 only.

As for the news regarding my disembarkation, there's currently a new word about it. Apparently from what i heard is that our crew relievers are already set up and ready to go and that they're already waiting for us to wrap things up here on the loading operations in Kerch, Ukraine. The only problem i heard is that both Ukraine and Russia is not a *convenient port* for Filipino sailors to disembark with,( meaning we cant join or leave the vessel while were here) and we have to wait until this ship arrives on the Turkish straights for the crew exchange, in the meantime both CSM and career are declaring  up a part of our contract that says specifically + / - one month (either 8 months or 10 months) , simply saying that were still going to be here on this ship until march.

Bottom line is that it only boils down on one meaning - I'm stuck here until we finished up the loading operations and transit out of the Baltic

USUAL ROUTINE

FEBRUARY 10, 2014 Monday

On the top right part of my Blog you can click the link for the Nautical Ebooks and learning materials , I also included some useful Nautical programs and Computer Based Training Programs (CBT) that is used in real life by shipping companies here in the Philippines. Hope this ïntelligence information " I gathered will be useful for the General Seaman Populace , especially to deck cadets  

Copy and paste this also on your web browser : https://onedrive.live.com/?cid=912A992BD6236A8A&mkt=en-US

A lot of people might be wondering what's the real motive behind me , *donating* to the general public my knowledge of my eBooks and computer based training maritime programs. Simple, its the main reason i already stated it on my introduction of blog.  To record and survey this knowledge for future generations plain and simple...

For now i have started my work in "Zipping" and compressing all the files that will be uploaded on my Microsoft Sky drive Online storage account, so that when i get back home in the Philippines - I wont go to so much trouble and just upload and upload all the knowledge and material needed for the future work that will be done .

For the latest work from the deck is that were just finished off unloading again the cargo that was loaded on one of the floating FPSO ships (named vladimir tikhonov) to another FPSO ship. The funny thing about this discharging operations was that we have the same loading and discharging port, which makes me wonder if this ship just " Heated " the cargo and stored it. Anyway its unimportant and I'm just a rank and file employee here.

The mooring arrangement given is 4 : 2 ( four headlines and two spring lines ) . Everything ran smoothly when the spring lines were given and the only difficult part we have was giving the head lines , basically because of the ice hasn't melted yet on the forward part - no big deal really, just plain old grunt work. Finished off my six hour work shift in a snap. By the way the name of the ship we discharge cargo is "Zarifa Aliyeva"

On the next work shift (12mn till 6 pm) , my last two hours part became busy when one of the rope tails (some part of a mooring wire) broke off from the large swell, well I wasn't exactly busy at all, but the problem was my attention was a bit distracted from the annoyance coming from MR. "Bastard - O" apparently because he demanded that i should have reported one of the other loose spring lines directly to him.

( Well excuse me , MR. Cock sucking Phylum Nematoda "Bastard-O". I'm not talking to you in the first place - I'm talking to homer Mallorca , and it's an A.B.'s job on maintaining the mooring lines - Unless you want to demote yourself to an A.B. - Asshole Filipino officers ! Ugh !!!)

On the afternoon work shift, On around 12noon , there was a P.A. That came saying that all mooring teams should proceed to the aft area. Apparently when i came there I heard that 3 stern lines snapped due to the increasing swell and that replacing the rope tails is imperative. The job was no big deal as i only assisted them in replacing the rope tails and pulled a rope tail or two to the nearest bollard or so, didn't have a difficult time with it since almost all of the engine and deck crew are at the aft . Doing all the replacement of the rope tails

Unloading ops was finished at around 3pm and I was busy assisting pumpman in blowing the cargo line with air (specifically i was on the air valve). After the said work , I'm off to the usual routine of securing all the fire fighting and SOPEP equipment back to its locker, Aside from that me and A.B. Bryan did also prepare the gangway ladder, the arrangement is combination ladder.  After that we waited for the pilot to arrived at 5pm.

Golden rule in any loading / unloading operations in an oil / chem tanker is always prepare and secure the SOPEP and Fire Fighting equipement

As for the food that was served for dinner , it was kind of a bit weird and some of my co-workers couldn't help but wonder on what the hell is going on in Chief cook olan's mind. It was weird in the sense that who have ever thought that hamburgers could be served for dinner? My Co-worker A.B. Homer Mallorca said he's disgust over it being served for dinner and said "Hamburgers are for a quick snack and should not be dinner at all" , he added also that he didn't ate his hamburgers. Me on the other hand just kept quiet , knowing that he is right after all.

It was around 6 when the pilot came via tugboat and as the usual unmooring operations started . When all the Deck crew (O.S. And A.B.'s) are finally finished making the final few adjustments on the pilot ladder, I was going to my mooring station when Mr Bastard - O suddenly approached me and asked why am i going to the forward mooring station , I replied that its my mooring station. To his stupid ignorance he said "Your A.B. Jay right?? " . I replied I'm not and quickly left him (like being a snob)  , he asked another question on were is jay . I didn't said a word and just pointed my finger to the aft direction ,

This cock sucking fool probably didn't recognized he was talking to the wrong person because i was heavily wearing a bonnet that covers my whole face .

At around 8:30 we dropped anchor somewhere nearby , From what i recall we payed out about 10 shackles on the anchor and it was via gravity type drop. O.S. Jermon Del Monte was the one who operated the winches for the gravity type drop since he has a good "pulse" in handling the anchor brakes than I am.

On the next several days ....

Rumour mill again and this time according to it, the next loading scenario for this ship in Kerch Ukraine will be a two part phase. First will be 30,000 Tons and the rest is the remaining space left. From what i heard first it was originally planned to be a four part phase of loading cargo via four ship barges , but like any rumour its insubstantial and subjected to change on last minute notice - like what happened just now.

For now the latest current news about it is its another STS loading ops and the FPSO ship will be FSU Vladimir Tikhonov , the very same FPSO ship that loaded us the cargo a few weeks ago. (expect that mooring arrangement will be 4:2 again).

As of the moment news on what specific date of our batch disembarkation is still unclear and not determined at all, Supposedly my batch's disembarkation should have been scheduled right after the loading of FSU Vladimir Tikhonov. Unfortunately the scheduled was cancelled and currently has gone cold - no news whatsoever .

In the meantime while this is being sorted out , I went ahead in printing a PRC (Professional Regulations Commission ) Sea Service Certificate and asked for Captain Slabada's License number (so i can print it on clearly via computer), which he courtesy gave. Now i don't have to worry about the paper work and even printed some extra copies WITH A SHIP SEAL IN IT , Good thing that the ship seal is not that difficult to find and i easily saw it on the C.O.C. . In other words if in case I'm unable to get a Sea service certificate here , the only problem i would have is faking Captain Slabada's signature

(the requirements of making a "Sea Service Certificate" given by the PRC. Is to have the ship captains license number , date of expiration of the license and the ships seal stamped on it. Of course aside from that no erasure and all entries should be type written on it.)

Latest assignment on maintenance work was greasing a few wires from both gangway ladder (port and starboard) , and cleaning the oil residues that was left behind the cargo tank hatches when oil samples were taken (specifically tanks hatches 6,4, and 2 starboard).  chemicals I used is a combination of both "SEACLEAN" chemical and Oxalic ACID, - worked with wonders in removing those tough crude oil stains.

This is the chemical I'm talking about

THE BAD AND THE WORST

Much as people expect that Saturday would be at least half day work, It was far from it - no thanks to our disregardful Chief Mate. Instead as it turned out - it was whole day work , and much of it was spent on removing the ice accumulations on the bollards and bitts. Now big question is why the hell are we (deck crew) standing here and smashing this huge pile of ice in the first place ??? According to him we need to remove the ice ASAP as their is a possibility that bunkering ops *MIGHT* begin soon.

( Geez - Seriously ??? With this kind of weather, with all the blizzard and all , plus the sun hasn't shined for almost two weeks and temperature going to and from negative 9 to negative 11 degrees Celsius, - I SO REALLY NOT THINK SO !!! )

Does he seriously believe berthing operations will commence on this kind of weather ?! , Only stupid sailors would do that . Its very obvious that its cancelled until the snow storm clears

Anyway we still did the job order even with much protest deep inside, even O.S. Del Monte frowned on the idea that were still doing work during rest day. As usual the ice was very slippery and hard as rock, we had to bring out several tools just to get it off from the bollards and bitts. Among the tools that was taken out was a crow bar, a few hammers, a chisel, chipping hammer and a hand held axe (both are my personal choice). As of expected when I used the mini hand axe to chop off the ice that was stuck on the bollards,  BOSUN AMICAN said to me that i can't use the hand axe as ship officers may mistook me that I'd chop someone here onboard in half.

(Seriously ??? Then why the hell do we hand a hand axe in the deck workshop in the first place eh ? Hmm What i really think is that Zacarias here is jealous that i grabbed a much better tool in the workshop than his and he doesn't want anyone to use better tools - That bastard !! Well if there's anyone here onboard that i would like to chop off in half using a min axe then it would be Mr. Zacarias Amican)

Sunday came and went and fortunately it was a total rest day , though i just most of the day sleeping and playing computer games. It was a miracle on that day that the sun came out and shone after nearly two week, bringing much warmth on the cold weather - well at least melt some of the ice in the deck area

By Monday , given that its already a clear weather . Bunkering operations have started and BOSUN AMICAN woke me up as early as 5am to be on standby , given that the bunkering ship will arrive an hour later. As expect the bunker ship "Hercules" arrived and went on to a ship to ship bunkering ops , The deck only handles the mooring part and we let the engine crew handle the rest on how to connect the bunker hose in the manifold area.  At around 11 pm the bunkering operations was all over and I didn't even handled the unmooring part , since i was in the pumproom

In other news...

Getting food supplies on the bond store has been difficult in these past few weeks, it was always either bad or worse. Worse in the sense that mess man Ferdinand doesn't do his job well in the bond store and every time i would order something and give the order form to him , he comes up with tons of lousy excuses just to cover up his irresponsibility. Once incident I recall is that he tells me that he's busy and that i need it to pass it directly to the new Russian third mate - Bah , that bitch could have just easily told me he doesn't want to do the job so i don't have to go to so much trouble in figuring it all out for myself. 

Another reason why i hate mess man Ferdinand being in charge on the bond store is that he has a *profiteering scheme* , were he charges me on something that he didn't deliver in the first place. For example i ordered 5 pcs of M&M's chocolate and a case of cola , he only delivers the case of coca cola and says that M&M's have just ran out - later found out after a month that I'm being charged both on the M&M's and cola on the bond store. See what i mean ?

Aside from that he never delivers on time.

On the bad news , lately from what i heard it seems that the new Russian third mate took total control on the bond store. Bad part is that the bond store is only opened 3 days in a week and not 24 / 7 as to what the previous 3rd mates have been doing (to be honest i like more "byron's " idea that its opened 24 / 7 ) , bond store is only opened Tuesday , Thursdays and Saturdays - beyond that its closed. Never liked this restrictions on the bond store and i don't see any point why bond store should have a schedule, anyway at least i got rid of Mess man Ferdinand and his modus operandi. 

Last Thursday i was so eager to get those M&M's and cola that i finally decided to find the Russian third mate and order some. I found him at the bridge and regrettably he seems to be not in the mood receiving order slips. He bitches me up on me saying that "did i ever read what he wrote in the white board on the crew mess ?" , I did read on what was written at the crew mess and i don't see any reason why he should be bitchy about it . It was exactly 6:20pm and it was Thursday, right on the schedule.

Despite being bitchy , he knew i was right and I did get the M&M's and the Pepsi cola. Honestly I'm not really happy on how he reacted given that BOND store should have been opened 24 / 7 in the first place. It doesn't really matter anyway if he's pissed off - the end just justifies the means.

For the moment i signed the "every two months " special allotment, form on the crew mess which will forward some of my money (500 U.S.D. To be specific) to my sisters banks accounts. Regrettably I didn't expect that career will forward it on the latter - as in three weeks late from schedule and my sister had to go to the trouble of verifying it and call up the office just to know what happened to the said money. Supposedly this kind of money matters should have been settled at least 48 to 72 hours upon confirmation from Career Ship management that it has received the "Special allotement" request. Anyway it seems that Career Ship management is a very difficult company to deal with when it comes to money matters, 3 weeks late !!! Bah what kind of remittance money transaction is that huh ??? Even land based Filipino overseas workers remittance money typically takes only 48 to 72 hours for their relatives back home to received the money - Go figure what seems to be wrong with career ship management

In other matter relating to career ship management, It looks like that the intended date of my disembarkation has gone cold. Up to now there is still no word yet on when will i be able to return to the Philippines, and looking on my situation here in Kerch , Ukraine - its going to be very obvious that my stay here onboard will be a little bit longer and will be extended unintentionally beyond February 18 (date of my finish contract). Now I'm facing two problems with this. One is the current supplies that i have and the second is the email service onboard will be cut after February 18. 

Some of the typical Meds I take onboard 

The current supplies i have for the moment only last as far as 7 months and as obviously intended , my supplies that i brought along with me have already been depleted. I no longer have the antibiotics and painkiller on my luggage. Even the necessary maintenance med i take like vitamin C, B complex and E have been used up as well , at my rate here staying longer would be a persistent problem on where i could get these supplies. Aside from the essential med , equipment i used on work is already been used up. There are a lot of my work equipments here that needs serious repairs and maintenance and , some of the equipments i have only have spare parts available in the Philippines.

On the email service. It seems that my free email service here will be automatically cut off at the end of my contract in cape tallin (february 18) . There's a very huge possibility that I'd be operating blind after February 18, and probably this could be very much my last entry for my blog on February and the next entry will be as soon as i get back in the Philippines (date of disembarkation is still yet to be announced),

It very obvious that after february 18 , the only communication i have to the outside world will only be my roaming cell phone and the onboard satellite phone iridium (both are very expensive to maintain and not definitely free).

In other news ...

After thinking of it for sometime i have finally decided that may its about time that i should share my knowledge that i accumulated in the past years, What i meant is

Sharing all the information i got like eBooks', computer based training and such on the internet and this blog. I guess It could be considered as a good will gesture, after all most educational materials in this so called maritime schooling in the Philippines is very inaccurate and very huge farawayness to the actual job that is being done onboard. 

CANCELLED FOR THE TIME BEING

Short notice again as usual, honestly Russian Managed ships are always like these, and i was in the middle of my work mopping up a few mud stains left from the dry dock on BOSUN's store when i suddenly heard the hydraulic machine for the anchor winch lit up , and the next thing in saw when i looked up on the gangway ladder was O.S. Del Monte telling me to hustle up and mooring operations (ship to ship) will be starting soon and were going to heave up anchor.

Good thing that the mooring winch is just directly above and the bosun's store. I hurried put on my bonnet for the cold and my jacket and hurriedly went up, as expected BOSUN Amican was already there preparing the necessary equipment. He ordered me find PUMP MAN Liscano, in the pump room - apparently because there's another reducer that would be added to cargo line number three and its needed ASAP .

I had difficulty finding Pump man liscano , i went to the pump room , engine room work shop and even to his cabin and CCR but found no trace of him. I went back and told that i couldn't find at all , BOSUN Amican then sent O.S. Del Monte and A.B. Mallorca in finding him but both of them returned with same results.

After the heaving of the anchor , we waited a few minutes . Then we then again proceeded to our respective mooring stations and awaited on the mooring operations. The first rope used was for the tug line, it was quiet difficult carrying the loose rope that will be used for the TUG as the cold weather had frozen the rope solid (temperature by the way is zero degrees Celsius in Ukraine) . To make it more difficult is that BOSUN Amican seems to be rushing people on carrying the loose rope and shouts at us like some wild ass bitch, Bastard didn't consider on how heavy this rope is especially when its on solid ice. 

Good thing though that mooring operation is a ship to ship one which is way easier , ( much more easier if the weather wasn't zero degrees celcuis )and the ship that will be going along side is a SCF ship named "Vladimir Tikhonov" ,  a FPSO kind of ship (layman's terms a VLCC one). Berthing took only a few minutes and that's it.

As for the loading operations , it was probably the same old usual basic stuff and i have already been familiar on the M.O. (modus operandi )  Here every time this ship berths. Just prepare the fire fighting equipment and be on the gangway watch - nothing more.  According to the new Russian 3rd mate the loading operations will be as short as only 12 to 16 hours and no more, Obviously because all the three cargo lines will used on the  operations.

After my six hour security watch, I went to the crew mess and found out that the crew change plan had already been issued and i already knew who's going to be my replacement O.S. When i disembark , in addition according to the memo , my disembarkation point will be Istanbul turkey -Via transit. If its via transit , then it means that the exchange of crew will be as short and very brief as in 15 to 30 minutes plus the ship will be literary in the channelling process.

Well if that's the case then i wont have any problems with it as my luggage's will be very light and easy to carry , even my large travelling bag  wont be that of a problem even though its quite bulky. I have currently three luggage's , one back pack which carries all the sensitive electronic gadgets , One travelling back that carries all my equipment needed on maintenance work and the other is a stroller bag (one with wheels) which carries all my clothes.  (standard luggage's capacity for a Filipino sailors is two "check-in" luggage each with a 20 kilogram capacity , and a hand carried luggage with a 10 kilogram capacity, THIS IS STANDARD - totalling up to as much as 50 kilograms all in all)

stroller bag were i'd be putting my luggage

I was thrilled on the news and as soon as i got to my cabin , i immediately made preparations in packing my luggage's and cleaned my cabin (which i haven't cleaned for months now, not even on the dry dock ops) and even gave a few equipments that i have to my fellow co-workers, I think the memo was good enough for me and that my departure is scheduled within 72 hours and less , So I was in a hurry. Heck i didn't have any decent sleep also because i was in the rush of finishing all the things that had needed to be done. I even sent a roaming SMS to my sister to be ready to fetch me at the airport within 72 hours .

EARLY MIDNIGHT (MORNING) 12:00 Am  to 6 AM

 there wasn't any real thing that i did on my security watch during loading operations, and to be honest i just hid in the port side mid ship deck store just to kill time, aside from that I'm trying to stay warm as much as possible given that the temperature is already zero degree's Celsius .

This is the first time i ever witnessed that snow would be falling from the sky, even during my cadet years i never encountered winter before, it was always incidentally during my cadet years that I'm always in Europe during summer time - never in winter. Oh well i guess there's always the first time.  Before i went to work , i decided that i should give my foldable pliers and plastic knife to A.B. Jay - after all i wont be needing it as soon as i disembark on tis ship. I putted it in his locked just to make things easier and secure for me that he gets those items

After my early morning watch , i went to the crew mess and was surprised to see that there's another memo again coming from career shipping company, this time unfortunately the memo is a bad one. According to the memo it seems that our departure on this ship is rescinded and that our "crew reliever's" are yet unprepared, Apparently based on what i read some of our replacements haven't even undergone yet (or even got cleared yet) from their medical test and even the replacement for 3rd engineer cranz and 2nd officer "bastard - O" haven't finished their trainings yet and will probably be ready as far as mid week of February.  Plainly speaking our batch is stuck here on board for the time being.

Filipino Ratings class on sailors are very much expendable and career shipping could easily find a replacement if ever our  so called "reliever's" have problems ,( just pick another one from the litter that is set to go and that's it) - However the big blow why we couldn't get off on this ship was because of the issue involving the reliever's of  two officers on our batch (i mentioned earlier).

Honestly i cant figure out why career wants us to go on a batch , maybe because plane tickets are cheaper if we go on by batch perhaps ??? , well if they can't get us by "batch", we can always leave behind 2nd officer "bastard - O" after all i don't like the guy. Our batch can also leave behind BOSUN AMICAN , he's an asshole as well and i don't mind at all if both of them can be ditched out.

Drats !!! I already gave some of my things ... , good thing i haven't gave my Swiss army knife yet to O.S. Del Monte

During the afternoon work , it was the same old routine as usual and was just basically helping out the surveyor get some cargo samples on the cargo tank. I heard from A.B. Mallorca that this ship might sail off by 5pm since there's a possibility that pilotage wont be available after 6 pm and will be by tomorrow, but knowing have these soviets operate  - i assume that this ship will sail off beyond 6 pm and will be calling us late on the intent schedule, always in bad timing as one might simply say.

I was right... Exactly at about 6:30 to 7pm, Me , O.S. Del Monte, BOSUN AMICAN and Oiler Rogel were put on standby at the our mooring stations in preparation for unmooring ops. We waited there for an hour and a half and yet there was no order given out

After waiting for a while we decided to go inside the crew mess and take a coffee break at least for 15 minutes , then all of a sudden in the middle of our coffee break. A radio message came in to the walkie talkie and instructing us to go back in the forward mooring station to release the mooring ropes.

Like i said this soviets are always in bad timing....

Unmooring operation wasn't really that hard and I'm already used to the drill of filing up these mooring wires with hooks, There was one incident thought that Oiler Rogel had an argument over the new Russian 3rd mate over some decision on which rope would be retracted first. From what i heard on the incident is that one of the mooring crew in the other ship (vladimir tikhonov) nearly got an accident over our mooring wires when it almost snapped , did scared the shit out of the mooring crew on the ship. The details on what i heard is that the third mate wants to heave up our wire while Oiler Rogel (he's the winch operator)  reacted on the machinery by slacking the wire so it wont snap.

I don't really know the exact details since i was one on the other side of the winch machinery. But what i do heard is that were having an argument. Anyway it seems that the new Russian third mate is very unpopular among the crew , and compared to his predecessor 3rd mate "Byron" , he's not that even friendly at all to begin with. Anyway not my problem ...

After the unmooring operations this ship was put on anchorage nearby , there was still no message yet on were this ship is headed to ... For the moment it is currently on standby and waiting

For our batch , we might have just had to wait a little longer as crew as crew replacements have been cancelled for the time being... 

NEGATIVE NINE

For the past few days this ship has been sitting its fat ass out here on the anchorage area , probably waiting for the next destination. There hasn't been any word yet on the next unloading operation of this ship, but what I'm certain is that this ship is waiting for bunkering operations (refuelling).

Winter season here in eastern Europe is harsher than i thought, with temperatures ranging negative below zero - it would be really unwise someone would go out in the deck area without winter clothing even for less than 5 minutes. For the moment the temperature now as while i write this already hit on the negative 9 degree's Celsius and possible could get any lower within the coming of days.  Rule of the thumb here in winter is that its not the snow that is actually giving the cold , but its the wind. Get caught on a small cold breeze or blizzard , and you'd find yourself (or any body part exposed ) frozen within less than 5 minutes.

As for work, most of it is now on indoors like going to the pump room painting on something or inside the accommodation cleaning on my cleaning station. Going outside on the deck area is almost nearly as impossible as the whole area is covered with ice especially on the forward part. For now my latest assignment is painting some sort of heating machinery in the pump room and i have to paint it with an aluminium colour paint afterwards i have to clean all the oil residues with a chemical known as "Aquatuff" (some sort of heavy duty alkaline chemical , in the words its a soap). Aside from that i did also helped out Pump Man Liscano in changing rubber gaskets off from this heating machinery.

On January 29th Wednesday...

At 9pm, I Was busy playing Far cry 2 in multiplayer mode along with my co-workers. When suddenly i saw BOSUN AMICAN came to my cabin door (my door was open to let a clear signal from the WI-FI  modem) and said that " its time to heave up anchor" , at first i thought that this ship has spent too much time in anchorage and maybe its about time this ship has left in Ukraine and go to turkey . As usual i immediately put on my winter gear and headed straight to the forward part, Immediately when i opened the water tight door, I was totally caught unexpected on the weather - The winds were blowing very strong and furious like a hurricane and i nearly slip a couple of times because even the main deck was covered with ice (not snow) . Even O.S. Del Monte was caught by surprise on the strong weather and slippery deck floor, he said that i should go ahead cause he's going to get something first and change foot wear.

I tried as hard as i could to maintain my balance while walking as i could easily lose balance from the wind and the slippery floor . I walked on the middle side of the deck as their isn't much ice in there and the pipes break off the blow of the wind, by the time I'm almost at the forward part area, i saw A.B. "Jay " going on the opposite direction and said that chief mate Bezruchko said that our presence in the forward part of the ship is no longer need. I asked why ? He replied that some small ship nearly collided with us and just passed a few feet away from the bow , now that the ship has passed by without ramming us then there's no reason why we have to heave up the anchors 

Upon what A.B. "Jay " said, i finally figured out why me and O.S. Del Monte was called in the middle of the night to heave up anchor. Immediately i went back to then accommodation and saw O.S. Del Monte going in on the same direction as i am earlier. I just relayed the information I got from A.B. " jay " and both of us returned on the accommodation.

As for A.B. "Jay", last i saw of him was that he was talking with pump man Liscano over some heating valves that need to be opened at 3 portside

On January 31st Friday...

I was busy continuing the usual job of painting when this ship suddenly gave the order to heave up anchor, To the reasons why the anchor is being heaved up , i have no idea why. Nevertheless to whatever reasons , as part of my work as an O.S. Here onboard i have to go to the forward part of the ship and assist (and operate the winch) the heaving of the anchor,

Before we heaved the anchor, we chipped the ice off from the winches - the whole machinery was envelop like an ice cube. Took us at least 3 hours to get the ice off and we used a couple of tools we have in the work shop, some of the crew preferred the fire axe to chop off those chunks of ice, others the "Ice Pick " (a handheld stabbing tool)  , me on the hand preferred the chipping hammer as its ends is a bit pointy (not sharp)compared to a typical hammer. Its very good hand held tool and there's no danger of it endangering myself (or others) if it ever slips on my hand.

Seriously it was a bad idea that they heaved up the anchor at this day as winds were quiet strong and to make it worst the temperature dropped to negative 11 degrees Celsius, and on top of that there was this huge sea spray going on and off at the forward part of the ship. Obviously all of us (BOSUN , O.S. Del Monte, A.B. Bryan, and chief mate Bezruchko ) were all wet with freezing sea water and the whole forward part in the deck area are already covered with ice.

It was a very tough anchor heaving operations because of the wind and the temperature. My whole winter clothing was wet from the sea spray, then shortly it gets frozen from the low temperature , I was very much covered with ice that i couldn't even put the hood on my winter jacket as it was already frozen. I didn't even knew that it was already frozen until O.S. Del Monte told me that it wasn't stuck on my jacket- It was frozen.  Aside from winter jacket even the red goggles i use became frozen and its plastic lens broke.  Both me and O.S. Del Monte take turns in operating the winch every few minutes or so , if I'm the one operating the machinery, O.S. Del Monte is the one who warms his hands using the steam pipe on 1 starboard side - and Vice versa.

the whole aft part area is covered with ice

The steam pipe was really helpful in warming the hands during a blizzard , though i have to keep in mind that steam pipes are so hot that it would be best I'm wearing my gloves  while touching in , so it wont burn my hands.

After the anchor was successfully heaved we received orders from captain slabada that we should hide somewhere as the anchor will be dropped again in a few minutes via gravity type drop. Without hesitation all of us went to the bosun store below as it is the only safe place from this kind of weather. After a few minutes we went out again as we need to drop the anchor. A.B. Bryan was the one who dropped the anchor via gravity type. 11 shackles was dropped over the water and soon after the anchors were drop, I was told by BOSUN AMICAN to go back to the accommodation as the weather is already getting worse. Me and O.S. Del Monte hurriedly pulled away from the forward area and used the catwalk in going back to the accommodation because there was less ice on that path and its not slippery at all.

at my back is what used to be our deck area ,  fully littered with ice

BLACK AND WHITE

JANUARY 18, 2014 Saturday

After a successful dry dock operations in Varna Bulgaria, this ship is headed off again picking up cargo in the Baltic area. For the moment the next destination will be somewhere in Ukraine and its a ship to ship loading operations probably on the same size with this ship.

Now that Christmas and new year has come to pass along with the dry dock operations as well , the big question now is when am I going home ??? . For now the only answer to could come up with is  just plain horse shit rumours coming from 2nd officer Renan olis oveda "bastard-o" , rumours that are just obviously his paranoid delusion grandeur. Anyway for the information of all. Apparently his delusions of disembarking as early as February on this ship has already reached record high , worst part is that its just all in his head and there is no proof notices whatsoever coming from CSM about the crew change. In other words , were stuck here until further notice.

For the moment before this ship arrives, my work is consisting of just cleaning inside the accommodation area and putting back equipment here and there - nothing special and just the regular maintenance work typically done here onboard.

JANUARY 19, 2014 SUNDAY

Should have known from my gut that Sundays rest off are cancelled yet again, For some reason the new chief mate is getting a nasty habit of putting the people on the working thread mill on weekends, Ignoring the typical modus operandi here in cape tallin that weekends are off work. Honestly i find it quiet unnecessary that were still out here doing work and all , i mean all the crew are still basically tired from the previous operation of dry docking this ship and haven't recovered yet from the rigors of fatigue. Can't they give us at least a break ? At least a day of rest ??? How can the chief mate be so ignorant about the basic needs of people here ? They should have at least considered that fact an be humane. For a Russian this new chief mate is doing a good job being cruel to his crew, and i don't like it.

As usual we were doing the regular maintenance work of putting back all the equipment on its storage for the whole day.

Late in the afternoon this ship arrived in Ukraine, and dropped off anchors in the anchorage area. The difference was that the type of procedure that the anchors will be dropped by will be via "Gravity" type meaning its not assisted by a winch. O.S. Del Monte is the one who dropped the anchors this time on the starboard since he has a better handling when it comes to gravity type drop rather than me. My only role there was to count the number of shackles that was dropped (which by the way is 7 shackles)

Early at night , O.S. Del Monte knocked to my cabin door and said that new equipment (as in winter equipment) was being issued now and I must go to the smoking room to get them. So what did i get ??? A new pair of winter coveralls that looks more like a gardeners coverall (you know the one being worn by "super Mario" mascot in Nintendo), plus an orange coloured ordinary coverall , a winter bonnet and a pair also of winter gloves, not bad eh ???  Some of  my co-workers are joking that i might put it on my luggage when i go home, but i assured then that i have no intention of bringing this equipment along with me. It stays here and i will leave it here (except for the orange coverall, which i plan to modify when i get back home)

JANUARY 20th, 2014 Monday

Still feeling tired and fatigued from yesterdays work , Honestly i still think that yesterday should have been a rest day.

For the moment rumours are still spreading that there's a possibility that , our batch might disembark on turkey, on our way back to be specific after this loading situation in Ukraine . I don't mind at all if that was the case , but the problem is it appears to be just a paranoid delusion of 2nd officer Renan "bastard-O" and there is no substantial proof yet showing any memo regarding on the crew change , whether in the ships email (via MS outlook) nor via paper notice.

Sweet as it may sound that I'd be going home soon enough after this loading operation cargo in Ukraine however relaying on somebody else word is a bad choice here , as i do know very well that people here have no sense  "word of honour" and its a poor choice taking their word for it. I'd hold my judgement yet until i get a paper notice about a crew change - for now i could only dismiss the rumours as a wild bitchy ass paranoid delusion of 2nd officer "bastard-O".

That asshole is so eager to get home he disregards logic and fact , first before he makes statements - we need a written proof of "crew change" list  otherwise "bastard-o" is just horse shitting people here.

Late at night , even though i wasn't in the mood playing multiplayer "Far Cry2"i decided to accept Chief Cook's invitation to play the game , after all according to him  he said that were going to play in inside our cabins and their just going to bring out the modem somewhere near the alley way on B deck (the deck were all rating cabins are located).

JANUARY 21st, 2014 Tuesday

The whole day work was only spent on scrubbing the deck area with chemical known as "Sea care" on 6th wings and 5 wings deck area. I was holding the water hose and was basically rinsing the washings. By the way i did found out one thing , that a raincoat has more practical uses during winter time, this time i used the raincoat as a form "Thermal insulation" (given that raincoats are made of some form of rubber) and it worked perfectly fine , as in no problems at all.

At dinner time, O.S. Del Monte and Mess man Ferdinand had a nasty conversation which eventually led to Mess man Ferdinand challenging O.S. Del Monte into a brawl. Good thing that O.S. Del Monte isn't going to back down on this one and that stood up against Ferdinand. I applaud what Del Monte did and its about time somebody teaches this mess man a lesson on manners.