ONE HELL OF A MESS

Finally here in Germany after only a day's travel (22 hours to be specific). For the moment weather is getting worse and rough as ever, and temperatures are dropping like sales prices on local electronic stores.

On December 10, 2014 was probably the most physically demanding day I had on my entire stay in conti greenland and it all started on a screw up on early 4am in the morning. Was called on the cabin phone and order to heave up anchor, pretty much thinking that this will be just another routine forget me work, I got outside the weather was terribly bitchy. High winds, nasty ocean swell and terrible cold temperature enough to be describe in "sea" related movie on Hollywood.

3:45pm winter time , already sunset 

To why our soviet captain decided to heave up anchor on such a terrible weather ? I had no idea , but it's obvious that captain is at it again doing his old cheap tricks of notify people late. It may work on mooring / unmooring situations but doesn’t work well on heaving anchors especially on terrible weather. Believe me this is the kind of person that will literary get you killed on his poor decisions.

We were heaving the anchor and got to the part where there was only 4 shackles was left on the water , when suddenly a huge swell pulled up the anchor chain from  hawser and all hell broke loose, I think a shackle or two was plucked out and slid off. Looking on the scène was frightening and seeing first hand a few tons of anchor chain terror crushing everything on its path in its way down to the sea is scary enough for me to run and duck for cover.  A second ago when that happened I thought the anchor chain would snap or the whole winch machinery would be ripped out from the deck , I didn’t saw which direction Bosun Payopay went and the same goes as well on O.S. tan.

I ducked for cover on the entrance of the bosun store, but I think it was a stupid place for me to get cover there as a few millimetres thick of iron wall is not enough to stop a 25 ton (to the least) anchor chain from dismembering a human. It was 20 to 30 seconds when the anchor chain finally stopped on its tracks, I didn’t snap but the machinery inside the winch was in bad shape, basically the whole starboard winch was inoperable and unresponsive after that.

BOSUN Payopay went to us and told us to conceal what actually happened , He told us to mention only the part that the anchors got stuck and the winch was unresponsive, we should omit the part that the anchor chain slacked violently as it may jeopardize us being blamed for it, Logically he's right and it's best we keep our mouth shut to exempt us from being blamed

Bosun Payopay Radioed in to the bridge that something was wrong on the anchor motors and Captain Kolev immediately sent in 2nd engineer maksym and Chief engineer to the scene, when they arrived they could figure out what was exactly wrong the anchor motor and had to get some time to think about the problem. After the engine personnel couldn't resolve the problem, I was ordered by the captain to wake up everyone to help us. A few minute after the call, the whole forward part area of the ship was swarming with crew members , despite the numbers no immediate action was taken until 2 hours later, we had to wait and sit tight until the weather clears up. Weather was really bad that the whole ship was rolling at a very sharp angle , so sharp that we wonder perhaps the whole accommodation area now is a mess.

No surprise when I got back to the crew mess to eat breakfast, everything turned out to be a disaster there. Some china wears were broken along with a few glasses and coffee mugs, as if like a typhoon hit the place and went back with a vengeance.

Another hour passed when I return to the forward area , I saw BOSUN Payopay and Captain Kolev taking to each other about the plan to recover the anchor and heave it back up to the deck. According to Captain Kolev's plan he plans to use the other remaining winch to help pull the stuck up anchor using mooring wires like a some sort of wind up machine. Most of the crew disagree on his idea given that its "Unsafe" that mooring wire are pulling such heavy weight objects.

Despite objections his plan went ahead and we went on the tiresome task of replacing and mooring wires and winding them up on the starboard mooring winch. After the "Recovery" was finished , it was shown that the anchor was badly twisted from the bad weather so twisted and bent. From my watch it was already 2:45 pm when the task was completed

15 minutes after the competition, all of us were badly tired when captain kolev ordered that berthing will resume immediately and we have to rig the pilot ladder on the starboard side. ( Damn bastard even forgot to say thank you on our hard efforts in pulling the anchor up again, ) So for the record I had been doing work all day long starting from 4am all the up to 8:30pm , If it weren't for bosun payopay taking pity and saying I should take a load off , I would have gone working straight till the following morning of 6am - 26 hours non-stop !!!! Damn !!!!

The rest was short lived and was only for two hours but enough to refresh me to take a light quick nap before being called back on the deck at 10:30pm for the mooring operations.

Mooring operations was easy , well at least for the aft mooring team - not so much on the forward though since one of the winches was badly broken.

On the loading operation, loading cargo in Hamburg was very long and took 6 long days to finish (for tanker ship standards). There was plenty of time to go on a shore leave and see the surroundings, I took the opportunity there in going out and seeing the nearby seaman's club, bought there some souvenirs and an internet sim card. Seaman's club was basically average here in Hamburg but definitely more better than the rest. Basically it's just a club house with a souvenir shop, a library and nothing more, We stayed there for a few hours (to be specific only 2 and a half hours) .  me, A.B. Joseph Dinglasa, A.B. Marlon Layos, Chief cook and chief engineer, then head back to our ship.

To mention there are two internet sim brands available for sailors in Germany. One is "ORTEL" which I'm not familiar with and the other is "LEBARA". I'm already familiar with lebara internet since this company operates also in Netherlands, Unfortunately Lebara Netherlands is different from Lebara Germany, I can't use my internet dutch  sim here and have to buy a Lebara Germany internet instead.  Basically internet top ups here are not convertible even though both if these countries us "Euro" as their money. Anyway believe it or not Lebara Germany is much customer friendly than its Dutch counterpart and they gave away a 3Gb flat rate credit here ( in Netherlands they only give 1GB for the same price). For everybody's information the cost of internet in LEBARA Germany in the Seaman's club is 15 Euro's (or about 20 U.S. Dollars) as of circa december 2014.

All the six days stay in Hamburg was basically just trapped on this ship, doing always a six hour work shift on the gangway being the "guard dog" at the entrance. During my off hours , I spent much of my time inside the cabin doing internet stuff mostly social networking thing. To make full use of the 3GB credit on lebara , I had to download one of the news games in the civilization video game franchise titled "Civilization : Beyond Earth" .

It was a new game and the latest, but definitely not well known. To give you a sneak peak on the story, the game is set in the far future and earth has undergone a cataclysmic unmentioned apocalypse only referred to as "The great mistake" . World's remaining surviving population managed to build stellar ships in hopes of finding a new world beyond the stars , and it's up to the player as a colonial governor to lead the people of earth to the "Promise Land"  and that’s about it. Game starts off in a strange alien world and you either terraform the place to be more earth like or just simply evolve (or adapt) on this new world and go beyond human. Of course you're not the only civilization around and there's a lot of "Neighbours" who made it to the stellar trip from earth and you either co-exist with them or start a new world order on an alien world.

Factions are on this game is ARC (formerly north American countries), Franco-Liberia ( former western Europe states), Brasilia (former central and south American states) , African union (formerly African states) , Pan Pacific cooperation (formerly north Asian and pacific states), Polystrailan (formerly Australia and Micronesian states ) , Slavic Federation (formerly eastern Europe and USSR states) and Klavenine Commonwealth (formerly south asian states and middle east) .    

A PHILOSOPHICAL QUESTION

Idiot's Guide for gangway Visitors log (form may vary from company to company) 

After the attempt on bidding to return home in Rotterdam fell on its ass, Another rumour is sprouting again, this time the ships voyage will be in somewhere in Germany going to England, While both of these western European countries are convenient ports like Netherlands - it does not necessary mean that we could disembark there. A big factor to this is our captain and another factor is time in which holiday season will starts early as midweek of December, and when it comes normal business hours are temporarily set aside until Christmas and new year elapses.

Anyway I'm already tired on this news and I should let it rest, should concentrate on other matters aside from this one, besides no matter on how many convenient ports this ship has gone thru and even if this ships docks on manila harbour in the Philippines , as long as the captain on this ship is awful - THERE WILL BE NO CREW CHANGES AT ALL ! PERIOD ! I'm so seriously doubtful that me and messman montoya will ever get to disembark in Germany nor in Britain and return home to the Philippines

Anyway I haven't been exactly on both countries before, Germany and England should be a little interesting scenery though I think I'd still be seeing the same old thing like a refinery and industrial area and wouldn't be setting foot at all on either the krauts or the english. Anyway I'd be taking pictures just to show proof.

On December 06, 2014 Saturday in the afternoon this went to dock in Rotterdam port in VOPAK terminal to be specific. Mooring wasn't a big chore and accomplish it with minimal screw ups, The only thing I didn’t like about the docking was the fact that mooring ropes were brought out on the last hour before this ship arrives at port - again by poor decisions made by our soviet bosses. Literary we were still bringing out mooring ropes when the pilot arrived.

After berthing , I did my usual specific task in setting up the SOPEP equipment and Gangway paraphernalia. A lot of visitors came in and I was constantly notifying the ship of this visitors, despite my frequent radio notification , nobody replies on my walkie talkie and later found out after an hour that walkie talkie channel was changed from channel 3 to channel 1 on short notice.

At midnight I was all prepared to start my work shift and was at the gangway when A.B. Marlon Layos approached me and said that I had to change outfit. Reason was that NSB superintendents are around and that They're afraid of me being seen around with a customized non-standard NSB coveralls and gear. Well there's nothing wrong on my gear in fact my equipment and gear complies with all specifications of safety for working in tanker ships, the only debatable issue here was that my gear is heavily modified and bears only little in appearance over the usual issued gear given by NSB / CSM. Anyway to avoid any further discussions , I decided to remove all my gear and shift to the low quality issued equipment - at least for a day only while NSB superintendents are still around.

In the morning at about 11am , received a call in my cabin phone that sunny euro salesman has just arrived and is now taking retails orders. Hurriedly went downstairs and gave the salesman the list of the duty free items I needed. One the numerous items on the list, only four items were available and on stock . Specifically two plush toys (local term in Filipino is stuff toy), a PELI flashlight, lebara internet sim card  , and a Samsung cell phone.

Some of my crewmates didn't like the sunny euro salesman and said he was quite rude in entertaining buyers.

During my work shift in the afternoon, Outside temperature in Netherlands fell close to zero and worst it was raining. Basically all of us here on-board can't get outside the accommodation without putting some thick jacket to keep ourselves warm.

Technically I set foot on land in Netherlands for the first time after 5 long months trapped on a ship - as least for ten minutes. So yes technically I got my feet connected to the soil , Anyway reason why I had to step on land was that apparently there was some problem on the sunny euro van making a delivery over the terminal security and someone has to go there to the security guard post to get the purchased items - since I'm the "guard" at the gangway at that time, it's part of my job description to go there and haul off those items for the crew. (irony of the job was a "security guard" of the ship got to talk to another security guard - at least a land based one). Had a cart wheel along with me and get those items.

So what was the odd stuff crew members had been ordering on sunny euro ? Well I couldn’t see clearly but from I hauled off several boxes and one of the boxes contains an entire tool case set , a set of frying pans , and assorted electronic stuff, and of course there was the plush toys I ordered - anyway good thing sunny euro doesn’t sell fucking dolls like the MTS store did, If I recall earlier a deck cadet ordered one fucking doll and sent a lot of rumour on-board a ship on what was main purpose of the cadet to order such.  I don’t have any issues with peoples preferences but buying a fucking doll on a ship isn't exactly as "private" and discreet as a person would normally purchase on land, remember that were dealing in an environment that has no exact privacy at all.

Cargo operations were finish at about in between 7 to 8 pm, but the ship was still in berth due to bunkering (refuelling). Somehow terminal regulation here on VOPAK in Netherlands do not allow simultaneous refuelling and loading / discharging of cargo - it's always one at a time.

Around 10pm Unmooring operations started and the easiest I did so far due to lack of loose ropes and we only used wired ones in mooring (mooring arrangement was 3:2). Basically we only did was loose the wire rope a little then heave it back up, very simple.

1am and 2am we were still up an told to be on standby along with my crewmates waiting at the crew mess , when it was notified that ship will drop anchor "8 shackles in the water - port side anchor". So I was off again along with O.S. tan and bosun payopay in the forward area to lower the said anchor via gravity type.

Seriously ? Dropping anchor dead in the night ? Well who am I to question? ORDERS ARE ORDERS right ? It’s a good thing that I had been fully accustomed to sleep deprivation and fatigue , otherwise I'd be going nuts over this. 

It was close to 2:45am when the anchor was finally secured. When I went back to my cabin , it was good to see that there's still a signal (internet signal) available and was able to make a few more changes on my blog.

About 4am in the morning I had received some horrible news that my Siamese pet cat passed away (mention on my previous entry "Uncertainty Component"). I felt empty upon hearing the news from my sister via Facebook, I want to mourn for the loss of one thing dearest to me and yet I do not have the luxury to do so - there is no time, As much as I want - I'm imprisoned here and there's nothing I can do to prevent my pets cats death or even at least ease the suffering or be there on its last breath. I guess this one problem of being a sailor, being "absent" and never there when I'm needed, This is only my pet cat and how much more if it was a close relative.

Problem with us sailors is that much is sacrificed on our lives for the sake of money, Imagine that you grow old without knowing anything beyond outside the ship assigned with. You'd never know your son or daughter's first birthday and baptismal , Parents last breath before they died, Your wife's wedding anniversary or even on my case see how your close relatives and pets live and continue with their lives. Basically being a sailor omits that part - Your absent when that moment in life happens and imprisoned on a ship , Simple things in life that can only be once and cannot be replaced or be repeated ever again - no matter if they pay you twice the normal salary or offer you freebies like fee electricity, food, water and shelter.

REPLY TO A PHILOSOPHICAL QUESTION

Before I end this entry, I saw one post on face book account from one user. Replying defensively and proud on one of my "picture" comments. His reply on one of my post was harsh and blinded by ignorance. I took a picture and this is what he says in Tagalog "Sa una lang naman yan eh, lahat ng seaman dumaan sa ganyan sahod . Nun call center agent kb libre pagkain, tubig, kuryente at pamasahe mo ? Now do the math"

TRANSLATION IN ENGLISH

"That was just a start, all sailors went on that kind of salary bracket. When you’re a  call center agent did they give you free food, water , electricity or transportation money ? Do the math"

My reply to this onslaught :

Well it's a bad start if you ask me, besides do you think freedom, human dignity and human rights can be replaced with free food, water, electricity or even transportation money ? - Go figure Einstein !!! No matter how you put it in different ways, treatment of deck cadets will never be equal - people and shipping companies will always take advantage of deck cadets and be treated as "2nd class citizens" .

Each year hundreds or thousands of helpless teenagers will be sent to ships to be horribly underpaid and face inhumane treatment, do you think you can live with that kind horror condemning these kids to such unnecessary hardship ? BASTARD ! Because of your ignorance to reality , Some of these kids will have nightmares for the rest of their lives ! If you don’t know what I'm talking about then take a look on the conditions of deck cadets in the "inter-island" industry !

Being a call centre agent may not offer free food, water, electricity or even transportation money but they offer a something more than that and cannot be replaced - FREEDOM, HUMAN DIGNITY AND RIGHTS !!! A term called "self worth" for you ignorant Filipino sailors out there ! . The thought of you being there with your family and loves ones both physically and financially are priceless, Plus as a freebie you get to live a normal life - something a sailor's life cannot match or get even with.

Being a sailor as a job is more of philosophical question rather than a question of logic. You get a shit load of money, but what's the price in the end ? The trade-off ?

UNCERTAINTY COMPONENT

Gas freeing the entire compartment, SO that workers wont drop dead in the middle of their work

Given that the five new Romanian crew members arrived without any luggage, The whole crew here on-board the ship is left nothing but to provide extra working gear (and clothes) on these new crew members. Immediately a few hour after they arrived we were left scouring for anything useful for them. Coveralls, boots, rain coats etc.

This ship could provide the equipment they want but problem is that previous soviet ship officer always omit ship supply orders in the past and as a result of their haggling no sufficient equipment was provide for the five new crewmembers who will work on the fuel oil tank below. Soviet style of work environment  isn't really that enjoyable given that they never provide (bother to buy) any equipment needed and just leave crew members to "Buy" Their very own gear out of their own pockets.

Anyway despite this affair being an all "Engine department" matter, it turned out to be very different from the original goal and turns out that the crew department got involved (or dumped at) in engine departments problems. Deck department ended up being as a "Support" crew to the Romanian's.

On late night I was doing a relief watch over A.B. Marlon who apparently got badly drunk and run around butt naked at the crew mess during chief cook's birthday (he fell asleep and missed work). During the watch keeping on the bridge , Me and third mate Democrito Eslit was surprised to see the red light flash went on at the mast and wonder what kind of alarm went on. After a few minutes of figuring it out , he went to a conclusion that it was a bilge alarm, We weren't exactly sure on what triggered the alarm but the point there was someone is going to have to go to the fore castle and get inside and see what's going on exactly. First idea was A.B. Marlon but wasn't exactly a good choice since he's still asleep and badly drunk from chief cooks birthday party (same goes as well as other crew members who at that time was still drinking on the crew mess) , Plan B was Me, Bosun Payopay and O.S. Tan would to go in there. Third mate eslit went for plan B and within minutes after waking up BOSUN Payopay and O.S. Tan . The three of us were already geared up to go in the forecastle in the middle of the night and Third Mate gave us a green light to go ahead even if this ship was experiencing rough weather at that time.

We brought with us a small wilden pump and few hoses like air hose and immediately got inside the forecastle, even on rough weather were sea waves were bashing their way on the forward part of the ship. Inside we took a look on the bilge alarm and as expected it was flooded, We hurriedly set up the hoses and pumped away the water after clearing the alarm of water we looked the source on what triggered it. We saw that some pipes on the portside had a few leaks , the pipes was badly corroded that small amounts of waters was gushing out. The only remedy we did for now was closed the anchor wash valve until it gets patched up by epoxy the following morning.

On the next few days Mess man Montoya was a bit tense and agitated, reason ? Well apparently there hasn’t been a clear detail yet on when will we disembark and CSM / Career has met it with silence. We were scheduled to disembark when we get to Rotterdam but apparently there is not flight details yet, and he's starting to get worried about it, me on the other hand is starting to get idea's that there won't be any crew change at all .

On December 5th, It was finally confirmed that there won't be any crew changes at all and that our local company here Career has finally confirmed that won't be anyone replacing me and Mess man montoya when this ship arrives at Rotterdam. The thing that puzzles me and up to now makes my head scratch is why ? Netherlands is certainly the most convenient port in the world and we did everything on the book (and by the book) to notify our respective companies of a crew change way ahead of time. I could only suspect two major reasons why this happened.

First was our beloved Soviet Captain-from-hell Mr. Kolev, I had no evidence to support my accusation but It’s an intuition that he's behind it and suspects he blocks every move we do in getting home. Mess man Montoya suspects this as well, given that this has been cancelled twice, one is in Gibraltar transit and Here in Rotterdam. Gibraltar is questionable and forgivable but in Netherlands, it's pretty obvious that he's behind it (or has something to do with it) assuming that Rotterdam is one of the most convenient ports for sailors in the world, and any crew changes happening there on any company is always carried out. The thing that supports my theory here is the fact that one time Bosun Payopay accidentally mentioned to me about the crew change plan captain kolev has in mind when he himself passed his request for "crew change", He narrates that captain kolev confirmed there is a crew change but it was not scheduled till way out on January 2015 - in other words it meant that any people who plan to go home earlier in December 2014 WILL NOT BE ENTERTAINED AT ALL.

So basically this means clearly that Captain Kolev, is not interested at all for any crew to be home before Christmas and new year and will not make any "green light" to any crew who plans to go home. Bastard is probably a very depriving son of a bitch if you ask me, he maybe a captain but makes very poor decisions.

Going on the second assumption is on our Career Ship Management / Columbia Ship Management Part. I had been mentioning almost forever that Career / CSM isn't exactly one of the best companies out there and has serious issues on management - AS IN SERIOUS ISSUES, especially when it comes to crew changes. Though it's not as worst as any Philippine shipping company out there that has a Greek principal , still Soviet principal is terribly bad and no exemptions. As what I had been describing crew changes takes a very long time and always / almost of the time crew here are still working months after their working contract has expired (takes note , months only ! In a Greek principal its YEARS before going back home). So basically It meant for me and Mess man Montoya to be stuck out here in this floating rust bucket in the middle of Europe for another month because of company orders and company contracts.

Going back Career Ship Management has a "provision" sentence on their contracts specifically implying plus and minus a month, and they offer tediously  long contracts. Currently my working contract here on this ship is 6 months which technically meant in reality is seven months. To simply put it Career Ship management has always had problems returning their crew back to the Philippines , crew change is always delayed and never on time. If you're not really planning to stay long working on board a ship try to avoid working for Career Ship Management Company.

In other matters

Recently I'm not exactly feeling well emotionally , just received news from the ships email that the cat I had been caring for a very long time now is very ill. My sister says that "bhut bhut" (also known as batman) has a bloated abdomen and she suspects that my cat has cancer and is dying. I made a reply to my sister to take my cat to the vet and see what's exactly happening,

My sister mentions that she sent a picture of my cat on the email , but apparently there's no Jpeg or any pictures received. I suspect that my emails are being censored by the fucking Bulgarian captain , before pictures normally come thru on the email - now even this simple amenities are being revoked. This fucking Bulgarian captain is one of the worst I've seen so far, and each day he's around here on this ship make's everyday life a hell lot worse than yesterday. What if it was a picture of a family member huh ? This is just only a picture of a family pet and yet censorship is applied on emails - WHAT THE FUCK !!!! There is no other alternate explanation to this other than "censorship" on emails. When Captain Gorge pornitiche was running things around, pictures on emails were normally received. Now totally no pictures are coming thru , plus I even suspect that emails here are being read - no fucking sense of privacy.

The only thing why censorship is allowed is , one if you're in the military and second is that a country is at war. On my situation I'm neither of both, Definitely I'm not a military and I'm working as a civilian maintenance worker here on a civilian ship, working on a civilian company !!! I don’t see any reason why censorship has to be applied at all on emails. I'm terribly outrage on what is happening around and how this fucking soviet Bulgarian captain runs things, I don’t mind on his poor decisions on work, or how repressive his system is but censoring pictures and personal emails coming from my relatives !!! - this is definitely gets personal ! I already lost a beloved pet cat this year , "Niggy" is already dead and a victim of road kill. I simply find it unbearable to lost another dear one on the same year much more on the fact that I'm trapped here and in imprisoned while all the things I value slowly die away.  

NIGHT RENDEZVOUS

I'd be quick on this entry…

December 01, 2014 1am in the morning ships engine stopped to give way for the incoming 5 crew members in Gibraltar area, Was already prepared at that time and was expecting that we will pick them up in the middle of the night, besides I couldn’t sleep very well so I just simply waited for the queue.

Bosun Payopay knocked to my door and said its time and I should wake up O.S. tan while I'm at it. After getting on my coveralls , I went to the Crew mess room to wait for the announcement. BOSUN Payopay told me to wake up pump man sepulveda , Fitter Chaigan and Wiper Evangelista. Didn’t get the instructions clearly and added to wake up A.B. Marlon Layos to the list, Good thing I didn't proceed to wake up everybody or else I'm going to be in more trouble.

When Marlon woke up , I told him that I made a mistake in waking him up and told him to go back to his cabin. Good thing Marlon was in a good mood and said its ok, (if this was another A.B. with a bad temper, I'd definitely be hearing some nasty stuff from their dirty mouths). Wiper said on the phone that I should only notify him again if the service boat is already there , So basically means a NO but that's not my problem anymore - as long as I gave him a notification.

1:20 am Service boat arrived carrying the expected 5 crew members, no luggage's were brought in from the crew. Found out from one of them that there luggage's was lost on the airport. I escorted them on the ships office and escorted back the ships chandler back to the service boat.

1:30 am everything was cleared and all equipment used was secured. Went back to my cabin to pass time and wrote this entry. 

FULL CIRCLE

Rumour and intrigue keep coming up around. Guess that any ship with a Filipino crew will definitely have these and from my point of view I haven't encountered any ship without it. For the moment the main news running around CONTI Greenland is about the upcoming disembarkation of me and mess man montoya, a lot of speculation that both of us might disembark in Gibraltar or in Rotterdam Netherlands.

Earlier it was thought that the crew change will be in  Gibraltar, given that this ship will received another set of "irregular" crew members for the soon to be retro fitting of this ship, but now it seems that speculation has moved it to be in Rotterdam. From what I heard arrival in Netherlands will be in December 5th this is only on the arrival part and doesn’t include the time of anchorage and actual time we get off on this ship and into the airplane. My rough estimate is probably by second week of December me and mess man montoya will be in the Philippines

Speaking of which, I had no idea why Mess man Montoya is in such a hurry to get off in this ship - not exactly sure in his ulterior motive. In addition Mess man Montoya speculates that captain kolev has something to do about the cancellation of disembarkation in Gibraltar, I don’t exactly know if that’s true since this is purely speculation

By the way I had no idea on the matters regarding the soon retrofitting since this is mostly an "Engine" department business. For us deck department , these set of irregular crew will be staying at the Suez cabin for the duration of the work and the rest will be staying on some extra rooms on the accommodation.

In other matters …..

Bosun Payopay seems to be unhappy lately, cant figured out why but I speculate that this might be something to do on my upcoming disembarkation on this ship, probably because Bosun payopay is part of the batch that should be included to disembark in Rotterdam. Due to him being left out this and being omitted from the crew change request this has caused a rift and friction between mess man montoya and Bosun Payopay and eventually putting up intrigue on each other, He seems to be pretty quiet lately about this matter , No idea what goes on his mind though.

If I would asked on what would be my opinion on this matter, I say I wouldn’t sent a crew change request letter and my contract run along on its course - I'd wait for NSB to send me a notice informing me to disembark . Unfortunately of course messman montoya sent a crew change request pre-emptively and hasten our disembarkation

Anyway despite my opinion - it would be best I keep my mouth shut and choose my words carefully, Being on-board a ship isn't exactly the same as it in back land where a person can freely speak out . The environment here is way different and very similar to conditions to that in a prison - minus only the violence and killing, you cannot in anyway put a trust on any person on any information or comments whatsoever. If I had something in mind , its best I think twice before opening my mouth and always speak in neutral comments and decisions.

In other news …

Had already finished packing up my things, wasn't really that of a hassle rolling everything up on my luggage - most of my stuff anyway is still packed from the day I arrived here 5 months ago. For the record this ship is the shortest I had worked since my job began , if my estimate is correct that id disembark on 2nd week of December , my stay here is just 5 months and 10 days- assuming that I disembark this december.

Anyway I'm fine with that duration, and let it end that way. I had no quarrel with anyone and didn't do anything stupid plus I'm not stressed out in anyway on work. Working relations here stable and co-workers here pose little threat at all compared to my previous ship CAPE TALLIN.

Currently I'm busy cleaning my cabin in preparation for my soon disembarkation.

News on work …..

Soon after this ship was finished on Libya, were doing what we do best in maintenance. Chipping , polishing , painting and usual stuff like any ordinary rank and file employee in maintenance would do.

On Saturday November 29, 2014 we opened up two fuel oil tanks located on the ship to "Gas free"  it (meaning ventilate) . It's a usual procedure for any tanker ship to remove all toxic fumes and vapours on any enclosed area, so that maintenance workers who would go there won't drop dead from suffocation or poisoning. Anyway not my problem since deck department here will not be involve in the retro fitting of this ship, the 5 new crew members arriving in Gibraltar will be the one's doing all the manual labour.

At about 10:30 am, we had an oil spill drill. Pretty boring stuff and did what my usual task of carrying some "anti-oil pollution" equipment like a shovel and a few mops. After the drill we proceeded to the crew mess for monthly "safety meeting" which only discussed the already known 5 new crew members and crew change.

Soon after that Bosun Payopay , me and O.S. tan went to finish the work on the portable vent machine to ventilate the Fuel oil tanks, everything was going along fine until Captain Kolev arrived and meddled with Bosun Payopay decision on where to place the vent machine. As a result the inlet water that powers the machine burst and let out a fountain of salt water, Soaking Bosun Payopay , O.S. Tan and Captain Kolev in the process. Me I managed to stay dry by hiding behind the Vent machine and immediately shutting off the fire hydrant (vent machine is powered by the fire hydrant, no electricity needed). Can't really paint on the look on Bosun Payopay's face and Captain Kolev , They were obviously caught surprise by the accident. Good thing I was wearing a face mask, so they didn’t notice the smirk on my face, Anyway serves Captain Kolev right for meddling on work and he got what he deserved hehehhe ;)

After that the rest of Saturday and Sunday was free time and rest. Personally I liked the idea that Saturdays are half day work and Sundays are totally rest compared to some ships in Career Ship management and CSM have a more cruel and less humanitarian approach. From what I heard on O.S. Tan tales some ships like for example Cape Tampa and such have no rest days at all and crew there work non-stop from Sundays to Saturdays and work from 6am till 6pm , and they only give you roughly 130 hours of overtime work pay for it. 130 hours only ??? What the hell ?!!!

Count that on how many Saturdays and Sundays there are in a month plus calculate the 12 hour long work every single day and working hours will logically exceed the 130 hours - any person can logically figure it out that, however CSM only pays you 130 hours and it violates a standard ILO / STCW conventions about working and rest hours. To simply say the soviet system of working standards is cruel, repressive and totally unfair for any normal individual who has brains to question the working practices by CSM.

Anyway for the time being let's hope that my next ship will not be that bad , landing on a nice ship is only by chance and luck.

OUT OF TIME

Marsa el brega - where the fuck is that place exactly huh ? I know its somewhere in Europe and take's a couple of days east from Barcelona, Spain but where the hell is that specifically on the map ? I assumed it might be somewhere again in eastern Europe as we had adjusted the ships clock by one hour advance - but on what country its located is still I have to find out.

Anyway there's been some news lately about this voyage (marsa el brega to Rotterdam), not exactly general news but news about my possible disembarkation (along with bosun payopay and messman montoya). Its only plausible that my batch would disembark in Rotterdam Netherlands after the loading operation in this Marsa el brega, given that it’s a convenient port.

Don’t really mind getting off on this ship, but problem is my finances. I haven't exactly fully recovered yet on the money part and would at needed at least a month more to get some little extra for my money, anyway as if I got any other choice at all, but there's no need for me to panic or be tense - after all they haven't brought down yet the names on who will be our replacements, what is definite is that this ship is going on Rotterdam.

On Sunday November 23, 2014 in the afternoon, we had a barbecue party. Helped out in setting up the tables, barbecue grill and the like. When it started at around 4pm. Everything was going fine until his lordship Captain Kolev saw me having a camera and taking pictures. He called me and ordered that I had those pictures be deleted, Fine by me - problem is what followed after. As usual 3rd engineer Jerry Aguila Gonzales started preaching again like some sort of righteous Infallible pope, Criticizes me about the rule in which no cameras are allowed during barbecue parties, heck and that’s not all - it didn't stop only on that. Preaching even dragged to the part that I'm being lectured on the civilian clothes I'm wearing along with the design of my working coveralls specifically me wearing a full facemask. I don’t really see the point of this being discussed and so definitely way off the topic and has no relation at all in me having a camera around.

There's so much bitching around on the grill party that I lost my mood and left early without saying goodbye - just took off and hid on my cabin. Besides there's no point in me staying that long if I'm not enjoying something especially if there's a "helicopter" hovering and bitching me around.

Anyway I don’t exactly understand why Soviet Ship officer's here are afraid of those pictures coming up - for Filipino standards it's no big deal , Apparently from what I heard they will get some nasty reprisal from CSM if ever one of the photos will surface on the internet.

The Following day

We resumed on the usual maintenance work , this time washing the whole deck area including the accommodation bloc with sea water. Everything was doing fine until I heard from BOSUN Payopay that maintenance work is only up to 3pm, I asked BOSUN Payopay on why it's only 3 / 4 of a day. He said that he has no idea, My co-workers O.S. Vicent tan said that he overheard that it might be that this ship might drop anchor. Whatever the case regular maintenance work isn't going to be interrupted if it weren't for something.

Aside from washing the whole deck area. Me and Bosun payopay was ordered by our lovely soviet captain from hell to hid 3 card board boxes of full cigarette on the aft peak ballast. Seriously I find "hiding stuff away from the bonds store to  the ballast" scheme a so waste of time and total unnecessary, I don’t think that Libyans (heard from messman that were going to Libya) are a  bunch of thieves. They may have some difficult times but they're no "Dorobo" . Anyway who am I  to have these such opinions ? My task is only to hid these items , doesn’t matter on how twisted our soviet captain thinks - only matters is that we get the job done.

3pm came by and turns out that after the coffee break , This ship went on "berthing upon arrival scenario" . Not a very appealing to our approach considering that most of the crew are all dead beat tired from maintenance work and they never informed us that this would be the scenario. Sadly our lovely communist captain never bothered to inform us sooner about this and would result in us going to work straight till 8pm and missing out dinner. This would seriously took a toll on my upcoming work shift by midnight - I had no rest and proper sleep - no thanks to that mother loving commie bastard.

Soon after the mooring ops and after preparing the necessary equipment , I went straight ahead in the crew mess to get some grub. While eating I overheard  from our "soviet captain from hell" talking to BOSUN payopay that he'd disembark when this ship will transit in Gibraltar area for bunkering, So basically its confirmed that he'd be going home soon after few days. - No such mention of me and messman montoya on which date will we both disembark on this ship.  Messman Montoya overheard the conversation on the crew mess as well and was immediately hyped to heard the news, He told me that I should to pack stuff soon as there's a possibility that we too might disembark on the ship unannounced.

In other news…

The effects of exhaustion and sleep deprivation were really affecting me when I began on my work shift in midnight. I was so haggard that a lot of times I immediately feel into a light sleep whenever I close my eyes or remain in one place for a few minutes. Disorientation effects from sleep deprivation was becoming visible, - couldn't concentrate and focus that well , My mind was totally floating and a lot of times I was blabbering nonsense on simple chatter . As soon as I finished my working shift - I immediately crashed to my bed on my cabin and totally skipped breakfast, I'm more tired than hungry.

In the morning much to everyone's disappointment , internet service didn’t arrive. We had been requesting internet for a few days before being here in Libya and yet no such thing arrived at all. There was an offer from the agent when we arrived but turns out the terms aren't really fair and a total rip off of money. Agent says that he only has one Wi-Fi internet modem equipment and that modem can only support three connections out of almost everybody here on this ship that need internet connection.

Guess that Internet connection in Libya will just have to skip and updating of my blog will have to wait a little further.

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.