STEEL AND OIL

Mooring was a bitch years back, from all the work I had to do on-board a ship, the thing I most abhor at is mooring - I mean I could get to do some of the most dangerous work on-board a ship like go inside a cargo hold , or even dangle and rig the gangway ladder on the ships side and still be calm on work.

Mooring is something that I really hate the most and won't get along with up to now. Why ? The answer is simple. People there always yell at me even on the smallest of things, plus I get a nasty ridicule every so often. Honestly I can't really comprehend why Filipino's always act that way on mooring / unmooring operation - total fucking bastard's thinking that this simple work is some sort of warped Olympic contest.

just can't stand at all on those kinds of stuff and it only shows how shallow minded creatures are we Filipino's. Really pathetic of us , but that’s the grim truth.

Anyway enough of me ranting, I should get on in writing about what happened recently on work.

As expected this ship berthed at 19th of November in Barcelona , Spain. There wasn't really anything interesting to see in this place, basically this area is just another one of the so many industrial area's I had been into on so many countries.  They just all look the same to me now - The glitter and glamour of being "Overseas" has lost its shine on me a long time ago.

Soon after this ship got there , Provision Truck came in and delivered the supplies needed (which is mostly food). All was going well until , we received a notice that we shouldn't use the cargo crane in hauling off the provisions, things went horribly work after that and The outcome was that we had to one by one pick up the stuff from the shore and put them all the way inside the ship. We looked like a couple of ants getting a supply run and bring it back on the ant hill - in a single file ! . That kind of work was really terrible and very manual and I think I slightly strained my right ankle from all that walk going in and out on the ship.

Bosun Payopay saw that I'm terribly exhausted and told me to rest for a couple of hour then be back here at midnight to start my work shift as gangway watchman. On my watch , it was already past 9pm and I only had a couple of hours left. I made no waste on the remaining time and quickly slept, a good two hours rest should be enough to calm my weariness.

On my work shift in midnight, It was pretty average. Duties still include watching over the gangway and Manifold area, not really a big deal anyway. During the last two hours of my work shift, fatigue started to kick in again and had to endure again the effects of sleep deprivation and it seems two hours of sleep wasn’t enough to make me fully rested.

After my work shift, I resumed back again to sleep to recover . A 3 hour sleep may be very little for land based standards but for sea based work , it’s a big help in getting rest and avoiding fatigue from sleep deprivation. A good sailor should remember to make good use of the time and get his energy back by resting whenever its possible , aside from that he has also have to be trained to resist on sleep deprivation situations .

Midway on my afternoon work shift (12 noon to 6 pm) , I heard on the radio that BOSUN Payopay and A.B. Marlon was called in on the ship's captains office , later during my coffee break , they were in the crew mess talking and heard that it seems that BOSUN Payopay will be disembarking on an earlier basis (as soon as possible) for some court order in England , apparently it was an enquiry about his previous ship many years back about some cargo that "solidified". According to the story up to now there is still some enquiry going on and they had to interview everyone involve on the mis-handlement of the cargo by NSB.

In relation to BOSUN Payopay's situation, The BOSUN position in this ship will be vacant and from the memo CSM emailed to this ship , they are now endorsing A.B. Marlon's as a replacement BOSUN. So basically it will mean that as soon as BOSUN Payopay disembarks , A.B. Marlon will now be the new BOSUN who will give us job orders in maintenance. Indirectly connected to both situations is that , there's a possibility that me and Messman Montoya will be disembarking soon as well - if assuming that this ship will head off to a "Convenient port" . After all me, mess man montoya and bosun payopay have been here now for almost near six months and will be finishing our working contracts within just a couple of weeks . Hopefully we will all get back in the Philippines before Christmas and messman montoya is thrilled about this, probably because  Captain Kolev is giving the steward department a difficult time on his bitchin lately. Anyway couldn't blame them if they're already fed up with the captain - after all his manners aren't that well refined and a bit odd for normal standards. Like what kind of captain takes stuff on the bond store without notifying the person in charge of what items that were taken, or totally locking down the entire provision area (complete with padlocks and keys) thinking he's crew might steal something in there or removing the hooks on accommodation door and keeping them closed all the time at sea .

(convenient port means that this ship can have a crew change, you can disembark and join a ship on those countries. If the country is not a convenient port it means a crew will staying a bit longer on the ship despite having finished the working contracts - that is until a ship stumbles on a much friendlier country on the latter to send him home .F.Y.I. most western European countries are convenient ports while eastern European one's are mostly inconvenient ports)

At about 10pm, I received a call from my cabin phone that we should now be on standby and that this ship is already waiting for the pilot. Hurriedly dressed up for it and brought along my camera secretly to record the unmooring operation. I think this recording is essential given that mooring / unmooring operation is an integral part of being a sailor, There is no sailor that I knew of working on cargo ships that didn’t went on this work. So I guess the recording is very important for the general public to understand what do exactly a sailor does on board a ship.

Unmooring was short and easy and manage to get at least 8 minutes or so of footage , I didn’t get the whole thing but I got the very important parts so this video is ok.

After the unmooring, Me , One of the new O.S. and Bosun Payopay. Secured a few mooring equipment , and anchors. I had a minor accident while securing the starboard anchor and tripped accidentally on the anchor wash valve, nothing to worry and didn't got hurt that bad.

Just to add…

Before this ship unmoored, Chief mate Bayev and Chief Engineer Chavchandze disembarked (finish contract) - and was replaced with the new chief engineer and chief mate . I haven't got the names of the two yet but I can tell who the chief mate and Chief Engineer. C/E wears eye glasses and C/M looks more like Liam nelson (Actor who played "schindler's list" movie). Anyway good riddance that I finally got rid of Chief Mate Bayev !!! Well he's ok for the most part but the problem is that a crew can't get any privacy from him like from what happened on my " toilet incident" . I mean come on !! Are we going to talk about how dirty my room is all day long or check up the plumbing and see if my toilet still works. I'm a slob when it comes to room cleaning but it's my business and mine alone, his aim to knock on my door in the first place was to inspect my toilet and not tell me to clean my cabin like some 10 year old kid.   

I TRIED BUT I JUST CANT

Had so much anxiety that I couldn't think straight of what to do about my new assignments, and I had nothing to blame but myself over it. If there is anything I find relieving about my situation is the fact that at least , I had only one month left before I go home and my dread won't be that long. In the meantime I had to endure and sit tight on this horror show.

As a preparation (and out of anxiety) , I had to be prudent and be at the bridge as early as 8pm, to listen over the "turnover" details my fellow A.B's had to say. Had to carefully pay attention to every detail they had to say, as like my life depend on it otherwise I'm crispy toast.

3rd Mate Vergel Acebo showed me around on the bridge and told me the stuff that really mattered. I wished I had more time to familiarize myself around more and see stuff - not on this emergency situation like these. "Vergel" told me about my predicament that most of the crew doubt my abilities being at the helm let alone handling of the work as an Unofficial A.B. , He added as well my most recent foul up during mooring time (which I mention on the entry "Trouble at the home front" ) , he said it on other peoples perspective, I told explained to him what really happened and on my perspective.

I thank 3rd Mate Vergel Acebo about being honest in my situation, I told him that I myself isn't that confident regarding my skill and wanted to withdraw being an acting A.B. even if I had to beg right of front of the Bulgarian captain , "Vergel"  said that if I plan that to withdraw now - its already been too late for me at the moment and that he already passed the paper. So in other words I'm terribly pinned down and trapped. He said that if I plan to back out at least give it a shot first.

At 12 midnight my work shift as provisional A.B. started, since the ships is currently at anchorage, my work is currently on maintenance - for now at night time. No big deal , what I did was just basically apply some "stripping" chemical on the floor of A deck accommodation area and remove it. I'm all ok doing that kind of work in maintenance.

After work shift , I haven't slept well thinking of what will happen next. Being so filled with anxiety that now even my sleeping pattern is disturbed,

On Friday , the day came out of surprise to test my skills, earlier I thought that mooring will be cancelled and will probably resumed sometime by Monday or if it did resume it will not happen during my work shift (midnight till four am or noon till 4pm). As a routine, I was there at the bridge and successfully piloted the helm till the anchored was heaved and the pilot arrived. After that things when on a horrible turn, and was later ousted on the wheel, apparently when I failed to maintain the course and was just roughly two degree's. A.B. Marlon was immediately called back from the mooring team to replace me.

Obviously a lot of people were surprise to see me back on the mooring teams, It didn’t matter to me on what was going on to their heads. I just did my task as usual. Somehow BOSUN Payopay noticed was wrong.

Mooring went out fine.

My first duty was at night time and my watch was shorten from 6 hours (as an O.S.) to 4 hours (as acting A.B.), It wasn't that difficult - only problem I have was this so called stopper which basically holds a mooring rope temporarily until its gets fasten. The stopper equipment here is very different from the ones I used on BOW Ophelia or even at Stolt strength, so it posted a problem for me in adjusting loose ropes. It took me at least an hour each in adjusting.

After my watch I spent some time thinking about my situation and rested till in the afternoon watch. When it was about 15 minutes from my watch, I suddenly heard someone knocking to my door and apparently turns out it was the chief mate bayev together with second engineer maksym who wants to check my toilet to see if it's still working. I allowed them in and that’s when all hell broke loose.  A simple check on the toilet turned out to be a horror show, Instead of focusing and check to see if the plumbing was alright - Chief mate bayev turned his attention on how my cabin looks like and ordered me around to clean it. Bastard never even bothered to check the toilet even threatened me that if I don’t clean my cabin he'd tell the captain.

So I ended up cleaning my whole damn cabin and being late on work for thirty minutes. My day wasn't really going well since I took the promotion and for some reason people around me are bitching me around every now and then. I'm starting to think that this so called promotion is a bad idea. I came to realize that few people here are no better than the ones in Cape Tallin, they simply lack the courtesy and proper manners to do so. Even spreads gossips and underestimates my skill in being an A.B. , those bastards can't simply mind their own business.

The thing that really pushed me over the edge to drop my claim on the promotion was during when loading was finished , when I was asked to take cargo samples and went to 5 starboard cargo area. Pumpman Sepulveda ask if I do exactly know how to take a cargo sample at all ? I do know how to take a cargo sample but I remained quiet, then he said with prejudice that I can't take a cargo sample and can't do the job right especially if I'd be left alone to do my work.  Still I kept silent on his insulting remark, The thing that made me snap was his last comment.

"the problem with you, is that you don’t ask any questions at all" he said .

What the hell ??? What the fuck does he mean by that ? If he means I should be  begging for his help and worshipping him , then that isn't going to happen. I Kept my composure and remained silent despite my outrage. From that on , it had firmly cemented on my mind that if I'm going head on for promotion, now isn't the right time as it obvious that some people here are jealous - damn fucking visayans !!! . If he glorifies himself as a Mr-know-it-all then he can keep it and shove it up on his ass. I don’t need his help ! And I'd figure things out for myself rather than ask help to those reprobate visayans !

Don’t get me wrong , I do ask questions a lot especially on work and even ask help sometimes - BUT ON THE RIGHT PEOPLE ! , Pump Man Sepul-fuck-a-veda simply doesn’t qualify on that category.

Unmooring came suddenly at about somewhere in 3pm . Then again people around here are trying to find faults on my work just to put me out and dismay me in holding an A.B. position.  This time opportunity for them finds a way in the form of a mistake I made on waking up people and putting them on "Standby" for unmooring operations. I had no idea that it was supposedly Wiper Evangelista, Anthony Cruzat that was to be notified instead I had notified Oiler Elbert Gallamaso Lague. (damn bastard didn't even told me that I'm making a wrong call) . As usual a lot of people blame me for the sudden confusion and no-show of some people on the forward mooring station and as expected my critics are swarming to exaggerate and fire up my latest mistake on work. Those damn fuckers wont simply stop in derailing me and as soon as I entered the crew mess after unmooring, damn assholes immediately fired up in saying to everyone about my error like a some sort of bill board sign.

The anchor dropped few minutes after…

While I went back to the accommodation block and saw A.B. Marlon , he told me that I should come to the bridge after a few hours to at least witness how the helm is handled at upheaving of anchors. I declined and said I wasn't feeling well, I never elaborated that I'm not emotionally well and most probably demoralized on taking a lot of shit from harassing critics.

He told me if then if it was the case, Then I should come at about 11pm , an hour earlier from my work shift to practice on steering. I did comply , but practicing during and before my work shift didn’t matter much. My mind has made up a decision.  I'm feeling so low emotionally that I'm not simply enjoying my work , all thanks to those fucking jealous visayans who constantly harass me and make my life as fucking miserable as humanly possible . I just simply loss the will in continuing any further on work as an A.B.

At around 5am , I quietly approached chief mate at the bridge to request that I be returned on day work and someone would replace me immediately. I'm happy that Chief mate Bayev granted me my request.

CONCLUSION

It is sad to dismay that despite we live in the 21st century, Filipino's working on ships are still mentally backward. Some things like jealousy and all sort of anti-social behaviour are common here, so common that it’s a social norm.

On this entry I had describe that people here are so jealous on my improvements and progress in career that they are willing to do almost everything just to put me out and it doesn’t stop from there ! Aside from that I had describe they have an excessive amounts of arrogance that they see themselves as high and mighty over other people, to the point that they discriminate and underestimate they're Filipino co-workers abilities.

Filipinos here have a natural ability of starting trouble and friction , From the simplest head strap on a person safety helmet to the most complex as a job promotion. Expect that Filipino's jealousy has no bounds and will start trouble and intrigue out of almost anything.

Word of advice to readers , be absolutely very careful on the working environment and your co-workers on-board a ship . As much as possible show extreme caution and quickly identify the bad guys , CHOOSE YOUR NEIGHBORS CAREFULLY. 

ONE MONTH TO GO

As the name of my entry says , I had literary one month to go before my contract gets finish and possibly go back in home. I had already given a though on what will I do back home and most likely I'd be spending a lot of my time (and money) on taking another sets of seminar trainings to replace the soon to be obsolete ones (damn STCW Manila Convention 2010). It’s a shame that I didn't bagged a lot of money on this trip given about my predicament back home, but nevertheless I don’t regret my actions and in fact it was necessary.

Given a thought, I'd be making a few changes on my luggage arrangement specifically on my back pack. I had to make changes given on the rumours I heard going about lost luggage in airports on joining crew and that Career Ship management doesn’t even bother returning or sending it back to the crew on-board the ship.

Basically the changes will be the my back pack luggage will now include 4 pcs of T-Shirt, 4pcs of underwear, 1 pc of shorts, 2 pairs of socks, 1 sewing kit, 2 pcs empty cardboard box cutter case, 1 pc facemask, 1 pcs goggles and 1 set of headlight equipment. Aside from all the electronic equipment , documents and other miscellaneous items. Overall my hand carried luggage on the plane will be a bit heavier.

Main reason I considered why I had to distribute the luggage is in the event of an emergency that my two check-in luggage gets lost on the airport, I can still continue to function normally on work even with the most minimum of supplies.

On other news

On the night of November 13, 2014. 3rd mate Vergel Abalos formally gave the keys of the bond store to me and said that I am now the one to be in charge of the bond store after O.S. Ronnie Macalawa disembarks. He told me the basic rules and the ins and outs of the bond store handling, basic stuff really.

I was feeling lax that I could handle myself in the bond store, Unfortunately a day later things turned out for the worst and I was so confused on which of the two should I take (bond store or promotion) and ended up being an O.S. - O.T. (promotion for short). Honestly I'm not happy on how things turned out and It's my fault that I got myself on this situation and I should have damn turned down that fucking promotion - now I'm scared shitless on the consequences of my mistake, I should have insisted about being on the bond store rather than being an A.B. . Now I had put myself in harm's way and I'm now responsible in driving the ship and doing more work on cargo operations than ever before. I should have been a simple O.S. doing nothing more than guard the gangway - least there my life is simple and carefree, as long as no one escapes my watch on the gangway , I won't have any problems.

Seriously , I could kick myself on why I had to accept that promotion. Now looks like that I'm in very deep trouble. Why oh why this had to happen ?!!! I'm in totally in crisis mode :((

In other matters…

Messman Montoya approached me during lunchtime regarding about giving an early notice to the company about our soon to be finished contract. He said that  we have to give the notice to the company mid-week on November and would request that our relievers arrive at 2nd week of December, The part that I didn’t like about messman montoya's idea  was that we had to omit BOSUN Payopay, which basically means leaving him behind. Honestly I don’t see any good reason why we should leave him behind or even omit his name on the request besides I don’t have any quarrel with the BOSUN to do such a thing. BOSUN Payopay is an ok guy compared to my previous BOSUN in Cape Tallin,( I had observed BOSUN Payopay for Three months and come to the conclusion that he's an ok guy)

Messman Montoya reasoned that it's necessary that he should be omitted given that our Bulgarian captain wants BOSUN Payopay to hang around a little bit longer (at least till January until captain disembarks). In any case I'm not going to stop Messman Montoya about his idea though I admit not agreeing on about leaving BOSUN around - I just find it in some ways disrespectful. If the situation was different and if the BOSUN was the infamous Zacarias Amican , then I'd let Montoya do as what he damn pleases and even be the first one to urge to leave the BOSUN behind - it will definitely be "EVERY MAN FOR HIMSELF" for sure.

PARADIGM OF A MARINER

As soon as cargo operations began, I still have a few hours left to prepare for my shift. I immediately went to the showers to change my dirty grease stained coveralls, and as soon as finished I heard the ship's PA system announcing that a random drug and alcohol test will be conducted by the shore doctors and everyone must proceed immediately to the ships hospital room. Unfortunately for me I already took a piss on the toilet and there's nothing left inside my bladder for the moment. Good thing the test wasn't a rush-rush and I drank a litre of water and waited about an hour and a half before going to the hospital room. Random drug and alcohol test isn't really a big deal, just piss on the small container (60ml to be specific), sign a piece of paper and voila.

When I took over and went to my work shift as gangway watchman , I was seriously feeling the effect of fatigue and sleep deprivation. Had difficult time of concentrating nor even staying upright and awake, and had to endure the 6 hour long shift before crashing to my bed. During my shift , I had a chit chat with O.S. Dinglasa and found out that there's no internet provider here and the agent doesn’t sell internet sim card or even top up cards - well I guess this port sucks was hoping that I'd update my blog here or check my face book and do all sorts of social media stuff, Anyway turns out that this is just another boring port.

At about 9am in the morning I was awaken by the sound of my alarm clock and quickly went to my laptop and write. At about 12 noon I was back again on my working shift and was just basically guarding the gangway and was told that the vetting inspector will be visiting this ship to conduct inspection, So I had to keep my eyes peeled and notify them immediately if I see the inspector. As what was agreed I had to wear a different coveralls and gear , one that is totally unaltered (No headlights, No belts, No Zippers and extra pockets on coveralls) to avoid any misunderstandings on our incredibly skittish Soviets ship officers and very long discussions with the vetting inspector just in case. I keep my word anyway , after all its just only for a day.

It was about 5pm when the vetting inspector arrived, not much to tell about him. Just some friendly old guy with a helmet. After my shift I went back to my cabin and didn’t sleep and just killed the time playing videogames on my laptop (fallout 3). At about midnight I went back in again for my shift and everything was already on the finishing phase and after an hour , Me and A.B. Layos started cleaning the place up. Putting all the SOPEP equipment to its locker and waiting for the ship pilot to arrive. Unfortunately for both me and A.B. Layos , Chiefmate Bayev dumped us a lot of work , ordered us to do this and that - even rig both the pilot ladder and gangway ladder and rig both the fire wires on the forward and aft side of the ship. He dumped us in so much work that he even had me ignore being a gangway watchman and leave my post. Hmpf talk about ISPS compliancy eh !! - worst part of the job was that during that time the rain was quite heavy.

After that , I was put up again on another task, this time to put on the canvas of the rescue boat and I had to literary crawl done on the wet floor to get those damn lashing. So after securing the rescue my coveralls was damn wet and to make it bad , unmooring will start within 10 minutes.

Unmooring wasn't really that bad , even if I'm  doing my job with a totally wet coveralls and being covered yet again on wire grease - just part of the work I guess on always being in a difficult situation.

After Unmooring a small boat came alone and delivered two long steel pipes , and we had to haul them off using a provision crane. Apparently these pipes will be installed in the latter on the engine room in preparation for some modifications that will be made. (from what I heard this ship will switching to diesel kind of some sort of fuel and will be always in low sulphur thing)

By Sunday I just spent my whole day sleeping, I was so worn out that I didn’t even bother to get up on my bed, the only thing that got me out if was only during meal time and after that I directly went straight ahead to sleep.

The following day, I was back on regular maintenance work of chipping , polishing and painting primer paint - this time it was the winch machine on the forward area that were doing maintenance work. At night time this ship , stopped going adrift and went on its next destination - Sardinia , an island west of italy

In the next few days….

Basically after the discharge port of Algeciras, we were back again doing the usual maintenance work. This time the usual chipping, polishing and painting stuff on the forward winches - pretty basic stuff and that’s the reason why O.S. and deck personnel are here for anyway.

On November 11, 2014. All of us deck people are surprised to see that, all of the accommodation doors have been set to closed intentionally, we took a look on the doors and all of them have the hooks removed. All of us are figuring it out what's the motive behind these sudden shutting of doors, Usually we only shut accommodation door's when were just expecting a vetting inspector and such. Now that the vetting inspection is now over , we don't see any reason why these door had to be shut.

In other news…

Since its now confirmed that O.S. Ronnie Macalawa, A.B. Ruben Ganub and 3rd Mate Vergel Abalos will be disembarking (finished contract) on next port and O.S. Joseph Dinglasa will be moving up on the promotion ladder as A.B. , a big question now stands who will replace the position left behind Joseph as O.S. - O.T. ? Certainly the next most logical to the line is me since im the next senior O.S. around for the time being , however I'm not exactly sure if I could perform well as an O.S. - O.T. , Well I could certainly drive a ship or even do the usual deck watch keeping thing , but the problem is I haven't been exactly been on the bridge as main stream for some time now. Last I had been on the bridge for watch keeping was way back 2011 and it's been almost five long years now - My skills probably have gone "rusty" on the time lapse and will definitely need some refreshing (which I failed to do so). I still have up to now a lot of self-doubt about myself on staying in the bridge as part of my work, somehow I'm not comfortable and uneasy that I'm the one to be selected as O.S.- O.T. , Honestly I'm very much content in being an O.S. (like the name of the position implies "ordinary seaman")   rather than being an O.S. - O.T. , I think things will be more complicated for me If I'd be that.

Anyway being an O.S. - O.T. is still being decided and Chief Officer Bayev will have the final say on it and will find out on the latter. Aside from the "promotion" , I had already accepted that I'd be taking over Ronnie's work on the bond store thing (thought relunctant) , I had no problem taking care of it given that I'd had already have experience in handling (and delivering) the bond store items way before and on my previous ship. The general rule on that is that make sure that nothing is missing and everything is in check and accountable.

I think handling the bond store will be much easier, and I needed the extra 100 euro's per month anyway in buying extra presents for the folks back home.

In other matters ….

So much for the unloading operation of this ship at Algeciras Spain, only took one and a half day in finishing all the work and not enough time to go on shore leave and see the surroundings. Speaking of which I had been holed up here for 5 months now and haven't even set foot on any land that this ship has visited, I'm just simply trapped here on this rust bucket till I finish my contract.

Sometimes I wonder if the management here has some issues regarding shore leave - I mean come on !! , way back when I was still in a chemical tanker. I went on shore leave a lot of times even if the schedule was a bit tight .Now I'm in a product tanker (more like an oil tanker) which has a much lighter workload, the shore leave here 

I guess a lot of people might think that being a sailor meant to visit other countries like a tourist or so, but in reality sailors are nothing more than a construction workers stuck in a floating rust bucket in the middle of nowhere - and totally stuck. The time I'm living at is very awful for a Filipino sailor (the least to say) , This isn't you're grandfathers happy-time-in-la-la-land when he was a sailor, things have changed a lot since then and for the worst.

Anyway there's so much propaganda and bullshit going on that it clouds the harsh reality of this job. Hard to believe that a lot kids are still being fed with that kind of bullshit that being a sailor is like saving the human race ! Ugh !!! 

TROUBLE AT THE HOMEFRONT

News has just arrived via ship's email. More personal problems as what my sister emailed to me. To keep being professional, (in some extent too professional) I will not discuss minute details. I can only write that me and my sister are in a lot of financial trouble lately - not directly but indirectly, Bills, debts and financial matters have been piling up in huge overwhelming waves just to keep mom alive and maintain her dialysis treatment. Worst part is that my sister is taking all the "wrath and all of its fury" on the situation, I have no exact news on how is she holding up nor how bad it is - but from the looks of it and analysing the situation, my conclusion is - REALLY OVERWHELMINGLY BAD.

It is my estimated that by the time I finish my contract, I would be arriving in the middle of a shit storm back home and I'd be having my hands full clearing it. Honestly I'm already starting to picture myself in a bad situation by the time I finish my working contract here on conti Greenland and got back in the Philippines. For now I feel totally helpless and could only read the house news via ships email and hear my sister take all the beating on the financial trouble. Regardless of the situation , My sister has my full support , whether it be financial or other related matters.

In other news …

On October 25th, Captain kolev called in a short meeting at the bridge - deck department personnel only. The meeting was all about what happened on the recent flag state inspection on St. Petersburg Russia, obviously he wasn't happy that the port authorities found some inconsistencies on the visitors log. The first three entries to be specific on which it was only written that immigration officials came in and their names were never written down.

Captain Kolev and chief mate Bayev insist that under all circumstances , that visitors logbook must be properly identified and all people coming on-board should be inspected and identified. May sound very easy for them , but in reality its more complicated than what these soviets think. In anyway gangway watchman has no "police power" to hold anyone on the gangway entrance , especially if it's a Russian immigration official that has a 45 calibre hand gun placed on the holster - in actual practice , you'd just let them thru and write down their name in the visitors log. It may all sound proper to question and hold people but let us remember that this was Russia and Russian's aren't the nicest of things compared to the Dutch , or even the western Europeans and hate being put hold on one place, chances are they might point the gun at us , Captain Kolev should remember that it will be the gangway watchman that will be shot and not them . Probably there's a rumour going on that the reason why the port state authorities was very critical about this was because the captain never even bothered to be generous nor offer any drinks (for short bribe's) to the authorities.

Going back, it was a good thing that the time it was written down it wasn't on my work shift or else , I would get all the flak.

Following day.

There was a fire drill , the drill was very typical and we didn’t do any actual drill at all because of the bad weather and freezing temperature. Basically it was just simply a standard lecture about a SCBA (self-contained breathing apparatus) equipment and testing it out. Before the lecture started chiefmate bayev noticed the appearance of my helmet , apparently questioning the safeness of my headlight and ask if I could show some sort of "safety certificate" of such on the equipment. Of course I said yes and even added that I have a manual over this equipment, and its certified to be used in tanker ships as what it says on the manual and on the pamphlets in sunny euro brochure. Anyway to avoid any more chatter, it was agreed on the conversation that I won't wear this gear when the Vetting inspector is around as a precaution.

Soon after the brief conversation after the drill, few of my co-workers started telling me that I shouldn't use the damn thing at all (whether deck maintenance or at port). Despite what some of my co-workers tell me about it, I'm not fazed at all on using it, and if must I'm willing to put the extra effort in arguing on the use of my "PELI 2640 ATEX Category 3 certified " headlight if needed.

For the ignoramus co-workers of mine, I specially selected that headlight for use because of the characteristics being an ATEX Category 3 Certified equipment and not on the fact that it looks good around on my safety helmet.

The incident is caught also in video as evidence, (it was recorded on the last part and good thing I was wearing a "Spy Camera" during that incident)

Problem with us sailors is that , most people often (and if not always) get jealous on other peoples equipment especially if I'm wearing unconventional gear. Stuff that is not commonly used by a typical average Filipino Juan, like I said and posted several times on my blog the equipment I used does not in any way contradict the "safety working" guidelines . The only problem here is the nasty nature called "Crab mentality" (or simply say human jealousy).  I find it rather ridiculous that they had been around for decades and yet they haven't developed any tools or equipment to make their working conditions better. I find it surprising that despite being in the 21st century , a Filipino sailor hasn’t evolved anything beyond a simple chipping hammer , coveralls and a helmet , hmpf ! Most probably us Filipino's are busy using our grey matter in creating rumours and  defuncting other people works rather than inventing something. Filipino's are genius in respect but not in the way of inventing something like scientist or engineers do.

Years back I remember that most Filipino sailors told me that I can't use any ordinary flashlight around for work and it has to be "instrically safe", if it's going to be a privately owned flash light it should be the expensive "PELI" brand nothing more. Years fast forward - now that I got a "PELI" brand and took the efforts of acquiring it despite the cost , STILL people around me tell that's I shouldn't use the  fucking thing at all. GOD DAMN MOTHER LOVING COMMIE !!! What the fuck is the problem with Filipino's eh ???!!! Clearly and without mistake it only shows that Filipino human nature of jealousy. If their own kind gets a better stuff , they get angry. 

After a few days …….

Couple of days have passed since my last entry and the ships current position is now drifting somewhere in the middle of Gibraltar waiting for company orders on which country will it discharge its cargo. In the meantime, deck maintenance personnel (myself concluded) are doing the usual routine work of rust chipping, polishing , Painting primer paint to the area.

Speaking of maintenance related issue , I haven't discussed yet that even a simple maintenance related work could be so complicated here. On the big fact that there is only one functional (and working) jet chisel and Cup brush on the whole entire ship. I had no idea why the management doesn’t even bother buying an extra or two on maintenance tools at all, personally I think the management can buy those tools if needed be , but the problem here is that ships officers here namely the soviet chief mate and captain are more interested in being a schmoozer in the company and isn't exactly interested of even mentioning to the company the needed tools and spare parts. Probably they figure that if they can push the workers here "beyond the limit" of working with just the most primitive tools,  they'd get some extra nice flowery perfume on their name in the company.

As a result , were stuck here using the old and un reliable chipping hammer to get the rust off by banging it. Really primitive way of working for the maintenance. Anyway what do I expect from this soviets eh ? Their more interested in achieving goals and skipping out (and perhaps totally ignore at all )the smaller important details - the ones that really matter.

In other news

Officially my stay and expiration of my contract is just only around almost less than two months from now. If my memory serves me correct my working contract will expire by December 27th this year but being home before Christmas or perhaps before new year would be skeptical due to CSM / Careers company policy. Anyway I don’t really mind at all to be hanging out here for a little time longer maybe I could make something beneficial out of it after all my finances are really bone dry for the moment.

On November 7 2014, this ship has finally berthed to Algeciras and in such short notice. It’s a good thing that bringing up all the mooring ropes (loose rope) are much easier on storage rather than being stored. It took us only as little as an hour in pulling all the eight mooring ropes in standby (both forward and aft) and at around 3pm we've finished all the equipment that will be needed. As payback for the aft mooring team about what happened last time (I mentioned on entry "Snow Flakes" )It was decided that we leave the canvass cover on the aft winches and let the AFT mooring crew remove it themselves.

At about 6:30PM , despite the initial information that berthing will be at 10pm or to the least expected that any activity regarding berthing will begin at about at least 8pm, I was surprised that I was  "ringed" on my cabin phone that early. Upon answering I was told that we have to heave anchor in a few minutes. I heard that after heaving the anchor , our lovely pathetic soviet captain was too anxious to start the work - much to my annoyance. Damn Bulgarians !!!

Had a minor problem on the middle part of mooring operations in the aft, a slight confusion to be specific about connecting those lines. Apparently O.S. Dinglasa keeps saying that there was no need for me to connect the other heaving to the other as the length was sufficient enough to reach the other side (mooring wharf) , while the 2nd mate, pump man Sepulveda and A.B Ganub kept saying that I should now connect the lines while there still time. Adding more annoyance was that these people can't make their minds up and keep saying contradicting orders like for example I should tie the other end to the monkey piece end , while the other says I should connect it on the other end - resulting to more confusion. Damn fuckers can't really make up their mind. To my annoyance after that , I left O.S. Dinglasa and others on how to figure things out on the heaving line and grabbed my metal hook and just stayed position near the winch along with fitter Chaingan.

On the forward mooring team has its own share of problem during that time as well, From what I heard over the radio. Our Bulgarian Captain keeps pushing around the crew there and saying that there too slow in mooring , enough to displease the folks there. Like I said the problem with these people is that they're saying things that are "easier said than done". Bulgarian dumbass thinks that mooring wires and rope are "hand-held" equipment but in reality it's so heavy that it takes both hands and at least two persons to drag the damn thing.

Things got really messy to the point that aft mooring crew had arrived and assisted them on the mooring. From my perspective by the time we arrived , the breast line (soft ropes, mooring arrangement 3:2:2 ) was the ropes that were being moored. We assisted them and finished the job.

When me and A.B. Layos got back on the locker room to change coveralls , I briefly went outside to get my gloves and saw 2nd engineer Maksym Plokhotnichenko and asked me on what happened on the forward mooring and what took them so long, I replied plainly without giving any details that there some problems encountered. After hearing that "Maksym" said a nasty remark saying that these "crew" are lazy and took them a long time to finish. I never said any word on his remarks and kept quiet but it was clear to me that it was very rude to say things like that , I was there and helped the forward mooring crew finish the job and does he have any idea on what kind of shit storm people are handling there ?? How could he say that ?!

When I went back to the locker room and A.B. layos ask what 2nd engineer Maksym was talking about, I said "you don’t wanna know, You'd just get pissed about it" .

Size of actual mooring rope in comparison with an adult human hand, do they have any idea on how heavy this shit is ??? 

I COULD MAKE YOU CARE

European EMSA audit is causing a lot of stir lately on the Philippine sailing community and some huge changes on how things are run. Apparently from what I heard in the news is that EMSA is really determine to wipe out every Filipino off the face of any European flag (or owned) ship, but come to think of it lets say that indeed Filipino's get kicked out by EMSA ( all the 80,000 plus Filipino sailor  which equals to one third of the entire active Filipino sailor population - TAKE NOTE ACTIVE , DOESN’T INCLUDE THE INACTIVE SAILORS) . Now who do you think will replace the vacuum that we will be leaving behind when that time comes eh ? Europeans ? Hmpf ! For all I know Europeans have a much a higher salary value that putting them on the workforce thread mill bracket would be 21 flavours of stupidity for any "European" shipping company who are budget conscious, plus European sailor's don’t like the idea that their salaries will be haggled by any shipping company and doing manual labour - only us Filipino's are stupid enough to accept those kinds of terms .

Alright so how about other "Asian's" , like say Indian's , Indonesian's or better yet the Chinese were they have a much lower salary bracket and they come on bigger pool of numbers than Filipino's ??? (just check the statistics on their population) hmm well I don't think so. Well there was an incident that happened eons ago were I was still in grade school learning how to write , that Filipino's were actually being phased out by (surprise !!!) by European companies. Heck they were so determined on exterminating us for cheap labour that they even invested in putting up a huge number of "quality" facilities outside in the Philippines just to replace us. Apparently it ended up less than they wanted to, facilities turned out to be in tattered condition in a couple of months and companies just ended up throwing their money to the grand canyon. To make the story short , Filipino's sailors are still around and those installations are not.

Personally I think EMSA is not the kind of thing that could be bargained or reasoned with , They'd still try to put us out of business no matter if we even complied on their terms. So it's basically this decision is already rigged from the start and even if they try to phase us out again , they can't exactly exterminate us all , Filipino sailors are too many and too widespread, that they'd have a very difficult time trying to get rid of us and most probably they'd be begging us back in a couple of years or so.

For Marina (Maritime Industry Authority ) , This agency It Isn't exactly the best solution out there but it is definitely better than dealing with multiple government agencies for maritime related affairs. Unfortunately this will be the only sole heir left on any maritime related needs of sailors in the near future (as of circa 2014), Bad for us Filipino sailors in the sense that their giving a despot too much power and I had serious doubts that their dealings will be fair and just like what the fiasco they did on the COP's document, let alone handling of the professional license of sailors nor handling of the maritime schools in the country. The thing here is this -  things will start to get worse than it is getting better before we even know it. 

Anyway that's not the reason why I'm writing about this. Recently I came up on the list about "the official maritime schools" sanctioned by the education department called "CHED" which has a  connection on the upcoming ban of EMSA , unfortunately when I looked on the list - my school was not included on the 2013 (or 2014) list of qualified schools. The school I graduated from is already been on this business for nearly half a century , and that’s the big problem . Since they had been so long as people could remember  , they started to lax and become complacent , to the point that they never adapted anything or made innovations to their facilities - nor even improve at all. Overtime their system of education rot and got the attention of the education department, If I recall correct CHED sent a warning to them way back in 2006 and basically they just ignored it and it was only up to 2012 when CHED decided that it's about time they get slapped in the head.

Obviously when it got to the public that my school got closed , no one could argue the reasons why it got closed - they knew basically that my school deserved what it got . Last I heard from the school was that it was still in business but only a court order prevents its closure. I'm not exactly sure on how long my school could hold out that long with only a piece of paper as a life line from being shut down PERMANENTLY, eventually I'm not going to be surprise one day if that happens. The school management knew it had it coming ,

Maybe somewhere along the line , my school made a lot of poor decisions along the way, Things that proved to be fatal to them in the long run. I still remember the days during college that my school was heavily investing on propaganda rather than taking care of the welfare of their education system. They always blabber about how the schools founder discovered some islands on the ass end of west Philippines. They were on so much propaganda that I sometimes think that they're building a "cult of personality" on the schools founder. Yeah sure there is no doubt that my schools founder has some achievements during his time but those accomplishments he made during his life has no relation at all on the schools situation. The worst part is that almost all of their instructors are corrupt and ruthless, to the point that a college students lunch money end up being on the pockets of these instructors. Even the descendant of the schools founder was ruthless enough to practice these (which happened to be an instructor as well on this very school).

One of the worst instructors there on my school was this person named Mr. Malacas (translation in English "Mr. Strong"), he was a viciously ruthless sociopath in any way a person can think of - he was pure evil incarnate. Aside from using coercion to force his student in handling over their money, he's infamously known to bring a 45. calibre hand gun in the classroom while literary counting the loot he got in his students and even arrogantly shows it off openly on the teacher's desk and makes threats that if any NBI or police shows up (or any law enforcement) the first person right in front of him will be shot. Hmpf I guess that's how he got his rank of second mate , shooting innocent 15 - 16 year olds teenagers. Aside from that he is also infamously known to harass any student he comes across, doesn’t matter what time or place as long as he was in the mood of harassing people , he do whatever he can think of to cruelly harass people. Now What kind of a fucking teacher is that eh ??Another incident is that apparently he coerced a female student in another college department to have sex with him , sad to say the student really ended up a local motel with him.

Going back. my school never made any progress in improving their facilities hence as a matter of fact as time goes by , basic facilities and overall look of the school campus deteriorates beyond any passing rate to the point that  even a public elementary school looks even better than my college maritime school at that time.

By the time I'm writing this MARINA will come up soon on the list of "EMSA" qualified maritime to verdict CHED's decision, Unfortunately my school's  fate will finally be decided by that.

Don’t get me wrong I support my alumni school PMI, I came from that place , but I'm not some blind, Flag saluting , founder worshipping do-as-they-will PMI Lover, Their family like a kid brother, but let me tell you what family really means .  You ever had a kid brother ? Some dumbass delinquent younger brother, say, who banged up the pastor's daughter, can't hold a job, and his home away is a jail cell? - that’s what PMI is. All I'm saying is it’s a good wake up call for them that CHED kicked them in the nuts , I just wished that sometimes MARINA should slap the heads of PMI school official instead and tell them on how really a maritime school should be run.

SNOWFLAKES

Ship is currently proceeding eastward on the north sea and just passed by on Denmark. During the transit a two ship pilots came in for the 24 hour long channelling (they boarded sometime near midnight and disembarked at around 1pm the following day), I'm not exactly sure on which direction in Denmark this ship went to but I heard that this ship is passing thru some sort of "short cut" trip . I looked on the geographical map on my installed encyclopaedia program (Encarta Microsoft) and saw that there is indeed some sort of river or canal running all across Denmark. I assume this ship went there.

It’s a good thing that these pilots has a side business in selling sim cards (both internet and call cards) and I was able to buy some of those stuff for personal updating of this blog and as a plus they were polite enough to give me a change for the U.S. dollar bills I had on my wallet. Seriously this Danish pilots are a life saver - I badly needed the internet connection cause I need to check out my sister and see what's mom situation on the hospital. Anyway I'm very happy they're selling these as a side business and not Danish cookies :D

By the way it’s a good thing that Danish people speak clear English and I had no problem with them transacting sim cards. I sure hope that I could get to use fully the internet sim card on the way back to Rotterdam Netherlands

In other news  , temperatures here are pleasant and somewhat a bit chilly cold for Filipino standards. Based on the thermometer I had brought along on the trip, it registers at about 15 degrees Celsius and possibly might get even lower when this ship reaches St. Petersburg Russia.

On October 20th this ship finally reached that place at about 5pm and as early as that I along with O.S. Macalawa and BOSUN Payopay are already station on the forward part of the ship waiting for any orders to drop off the anchor via gravity. Weather temperature already dropped at that time to somewhere between 8 degrees Celsius and according to what I heard from the radio , chief mate Anatoliy Bayev wants us to drain the fire water line and fresh water lines as soon as after we finished anchoring, Evidently to prevent those lines from being blocked by ice. (no water inside means no ice blockage) . To add he said that temperature outside will go as low as negative 1 degrees Celsius at around mid night.

Took us at least 30 minutes to finish and secure the anchor and a couple of more  minutes to drain the water lines.

The following morning , this ship proceeded to berth in the morning at around 10am and the pilot came in at around 7am.  No problem for us given that we were already awake as early as 5am in the morning. During the mooring operation , the weather was getting bad - snowflakes were falling off the sky and the temperatures have already dropped to negative one degree's Celsius , worst part of the work was that this ship has no proper supply of winter gloves nor winter boots and I had to run around on the aft area using only standard gear (which is not suitable for winter). Fortunately for me I'm more resistant to cold weather than a hot climate - but of course that doesn’t necessarily mean I'm immune to it, my hand was so cold that it felt numb as well as my two feet during the mooring work.  I kept in mind as a tip that if a person charges  into work ill equip during winter time , just keep moving to make the blood flow and lessen the chances of my feet and hands from getting frozen. Good thing for me that there was plenty of work around to keep me moving as there are no mooring boats around in St. Petersburg Russia, no mooring boats means that mooring wire had to be moored in the dolphin on the wharf via heaving line (usually throwing the "monkey piece" end to the wharf and the other end of it tied up to the "eye" of the mooring wire)

Before we got to finish the mooring , I had to take from the tug boat some piece of paper which happened to be a receipt for the tug boat services. I recovered that piece of paper using only a heaving line and the tug man eventually tied it around with a piece of string. I immediately took it to the bridge for the captain to sign it up and stamp it then afterwards take it bringing it back to the tugboats the same thing I mentioned earlier.

F.Y.I. --> Tugboats and mooring boats work alongside during mooring operation, function of tugboats is to either push (or pull away) the ship in getting near the berth. While mooring boats role during mooring operation is simply deliver the ships mooring line (or mooring wire in our case) to the dolphin wharfs - nothing more. Aside from that Tugboats are larger than mooring boats. PICTURED HERE ON THIS VIDEO

At the night of October 21st , temperatures have reached an all-time low of negative 4 degrees Celsius . It was so cold that my co-workers here have already donned their winter coveralls , me on the other hand didn’t don the standard NSB issue winter coverall as it was ineffective and do not provide proper insulation against cold - I was better off in a parka since it has a thick layer of foam which is a good advantage in cold weather.

Winter Gloves that was tested, got it from a sports store

Aside from the parka , I had my modified red NSB cover and underneath it two layers of sweat shirts to keep me totally warm in the body area also on my clothing underneath the coverall is two sweat pants and three layers of sock to Keep my feet warm plus a winter boots (standard NSB issue) that I found under my locker.  Did also have an opportunity to test some of my equipment which were winter glove and an attachment device for the Motorola radio walkie talkie used on board.

The test drive on the winter gloves was ok , but for the headset attachment I think it was a failure in testing it out on actual working conditions namely for the fact that the headset was only designed for use by ship officers inside a cozy CCR and not entirely for use by any ship rating. It is totally incompatible and cannot be used by a person with a safety helmet on, plus the volume sound coming from the headset is too weak to be heard if it is just only worn on the neck.

The following day …

This ship was boarded by some sort of flag state authority to conduct some sort of inspection. It was my work shift when both of them arrived and I was at the gangway watch, of course I did the usual procedure of checking peoples identification cards with pictures before letting them in and escorting them to the CCR.

snow on the stairways , temperatures are falling rapidly

Everything seemed fine until half an hour later, I was called in over by the radio by Chief mate Anatoliy Bayev and was asked if I could bring the "Visitor's log" on the gangway to the Ship captains office (just right beside CCR). Before I brought it along I was told to check thoroughly the entries made there and if every box options there were ticked, I checked it thoroughly before giving it to the ship masters office. After 5 minutes or so I was told to go back again and get the visitors log , thinking that everything was in order, I went out then inside Chief mate bayez told me that the first four entries of the visitors log didn't had a name written on the visitor's. The chief mate asked me if I was the one on the gangway watch when this was written, I said I wasn’t. (my gangway watch was 6am till 12 noon and 6pm to 12 midnight).

At about sometime on 2pm to 3pm , it was announced that there will be only a single watch and O.S. personnel are on standby and await further announcements for the unmooring ops. The information was relayed to me by O.S. Ronnie Macalawa when I was in the mess room at about 4:42pm.

7:30pm when I was ringed by the phone being informed that the pilot had arrived and we had to assemble on our respective unmooring stations. Unmooring went out without any problems and after that I was told by my co-workers to go to the forward mooring station and assist bosun in putting back the "loose rope" (also called soft rope) back inside the bosun's store. After finishing the said ropes , when we got back we found out that , the rope on the aft part were not secured and they didn’t even bother to put it back - resulting to the fact that the soft ropes got frozen and would be now difficult to put back on the steering gear room .

In other matters,

There's a rumour here going on board going around that captain Ivaylo dimitrov kolev will be taking over the bond store after 3rd mate Vergel Abalos disembarks (finished contract) in Rotterdam on the way back. I'm not exactly sure on what's the overall motive why captain Kolev is so interested will taking over the bond store, but one can easily perceived it to be just plain greed. Apparently several weeks ago Captain Kolev saw the report on how much a bond store earns from crew purchases and probably figure that it’s a lot of money going thru it.

Honestly a ship captain taking over a bond store and cashing out the profits ??? hmm were did I heard that before ? Kind of reminds me of a greedy bastard Filipino ship Captain named Alfredo Pascual of Sea Cap Shipping company. Anyway it only proves one thing, - there is no small or larger amount of money for greedy people.

EYES ON THE PRIZE

Few days after this ship left Senegal, the next location it was headed was in las palmas islands (territory of Spain just west of morocco)to do some bunkering. By the time this ship arrived , the sea was a bit rough and had postponed bunkering operations and waited until early morning when the sea calmed down. the bunkering ship was also having difficulty and was "Shakey" going up and down, to the point that we ask ourselves if bunkering at this time was a bad idea.

I was at the monkey island at that time doing maintenance work in painting the tower with white coloured paint (Along with O.S. Macalawa and Bosun Payopay). At that height I was able to see it very clearly on what is happening on that bunker ship and saw as crystal the rolling and heaving motion. Hopefully bunkering was Finished at noon without any incident even if the sea was rough. This ship resumed going northward to Gibraltar to wait further announcements from the shipping office on when will be the next loading port.

On the next few days that this ship was going northward, we went on the usual deck maintenance work in the "monkey island" area of the ship. Painting white paint all over the area and doing a "full coat" on anything we could see. After that we went busy on the aft part changing the paint of the deck level from orange to red.

On the night of October 14, 2014, Ship got a nasty rolling motion , it was so bad that most of my stuff on my cabin fell off from cabinets and rackets and had to put them on a much safer area around my cabin, I haven't experienced this kind of terrible roll in years (since my time in Bow Ophelia) . Apparently from what I heard on the following morning , it turns out that captain Ivaylo Kolev fiddled with the steering controls which in resulted to make the ship roll badly - the rolling motion was so bad , that I might think that this ship is going to make a "Barrel roll". Anyway the moral lesson to be learned on that is that never fiddle with the Auto-pilot steering when in transit on bay of Biscay - OR ELSE !!! . Well don’t really mind if the captain wants to fiddle the controls once in a while but of all the time and place on this planet he had to pick, why does he had to manipulate the controls while in Biscay huh ?! , He could meddle with the controls inside the Mediterranean - heck I don’t even give a shit if he messes it even if were in the north or south pole , but never interfere with the auto pilot steering on the north of France, the sea area there is fucking terrible and hellishly rough - enough to make everyone sea sick, or sink the ship.  What a total dumb ass !!!

At October 14, 2014. We received word that this ship will be heading northward all the way back to Netherlands Rotterdam which is one of the busiest port in the world and well known popular among the sailing community worldwide. Anyway honestly the only thing that comes up on my mind on Netherlands is "Sunny Euro" store and "Botlek" , and I had come up with the list of items I would buy if this ship would possibly berth in that port ,unfortunately latter in the afternoon plans for going to Rotterdam were cancelled and was replaced instead of going to St. Petersburg Russia by the NSB management , maybe there's a possibility that this ill go to rotterdam on the way back (meaning discharge operation)