" i know it's bad to be taking videos on the deck in a
tanker , but the end justifies the means. I'm not greedy when it comes to
knowledge and i share it to the world , Compared to other filipino sailors who
withheld knowledge in the pretence of
"safety" as an excuse"
Never occurred to me that
my little rag tag group will outlast the other group on the internet, given
that the group I assembled for the internet wasn't met with much enthusiasm at
first. Anyway so far business is doing good and hopefully it will be that way
till our rental on the internet expires soon.
For the moment I had been
taking pictures and video on deck , but having a regular camera for recording
video's is way too exposed and noticeable for prying eyes especially if the
rules on work says "No electronics of any kind on the deck area" .
Despite the risk - I'm trying to record on video and capture on photos as much
as data as possible on this entire journey. I feel that surveying and recording
every detail on how we sailors work is an utmost priority for me and sharing
the knowledge to the public ,
Of course most people and
my own kind out there wouldn't agree of what I'm doing and often times they
would think that its "unsafe" working practices but I do not care of
such petty excuses on attaining results - what I want is to provide knowledge
to my own brethren and available not to a limited few people but to everyone
out there, even if it puts me on the risk . Most Filipino's seaman aren't
capable of doing than, nor have the balls to risk themselves for the sake of
others. just plain greedy hypocrites who
withheld knowledge in the pretence of "safety" as an excuse. What a
pathetic example . Anyway I should not be bothered on the bad side of Filipino
culture in writing.
In relation to this , I
had been thinking of how to get records of video's on the deck without being
noticed. I was thinking of two ways , One is to buy a specialized recording
camera like "action camera" , which is nothing more than a regular video
camera that can be mounted on a helmet. This method is good in the sense that I
can capture the video in good clarity and continuous recording, the bad part of
this plan is that since it’s a full standard action camera its very obvious and
expose, meaning that sooner or later some dip shit sailor here will yell at me
for saying no electronics on-board.
Another part on my plan is
to buy spying equipment - like the ones used for surveillance during the cold
war , this is effective and doesn’t draw
attention plus you can now easily but this equipment on any electronic and
surveillance store anywhere in the Philippines
but the problem with this ultra-small recording device is the battery
limitation , from my personal use it is only estimated that’s only last for
about 20 minutes on full charge or maybe less.
Power supply is a big limitation.
Anyway in the mean time
I'd still going to decide on which of the two will I choose to record
knowledge.
In other matters …..
The discussion and
settlement of our internet bill for Ecuador has been settled , and to the best
of the situation he (surveyors name is dick Prado) only charged us about 150
U.S. Dollars all in all on the 9 days it was used. Fair is fair , that’s what the
business deal was all about. Now most of the people from the other group who
had internet envy us because we settled and got the best deals on internet in
Ecuador.,
Midway on this ships stay
, O.S. Bantic and Chief cook Regidor Pineda disembarked and was replaced with
two new guys.
On Friday afternoon , this
ship departed and will be going to panama back again after two days, after that
there will be a crew change and our lovely dipshit captain will be replaced by
an equally ruthless bastard captain. I still have at least four months more to
get out on this hell ship but I had a feeling that everything will be fine. I
just had to sit tight and finish the contract.
I browsed one particular filipino sailor themed facebook group on the net , and i find it quiet amusing that most of these sailors think only nothing but sex , degrading as it may sound but this is actual evidence that proves that Filipino's often times think very "low class" on this job , reading the replies of a female Filipino mariner asking for advise and it is met with tons of reply from other male Filipino sailor asking or even inviting her to have sex with them .
Problem with us filipinos mariners is that a person ask us a decent question and we replied them with indecent proposals - talk about being ill mannered and low class ! (or specifically a horny sex hungry bastard) anyway i had screen captured it to show proof ( conversation text here is untranslated). question here is this IF FILIPINO SAILORS THINK (AND ACT) LIKE THIS ON THE INTERNET THEN HOW MUCH MORE DO THEY REALLY ACT IN THE ACTUAL WORK PLACE IN A SHIP ? this alone makes me (and anyone reading this) figure out on how tasteless and uncivilized typical Filipino sailors are . They may be college graduates but education doesn't have to do anything with character and this is a social norm in the maritime community here in the Philippines and definitely shows a clear example of "no gender equality" . us Filipino sailors always think that women sailors are nothing more than just walking sex toys - shame on us for being such a backward minded people
Could have
been more bad timing than ever, In fact never occurred to me that my Hp pc
would ever crash again - all because I was stupid enough to update my computer
here, Now as a result I'm back again from scratch and worst part is all my data
on my travels went to waste along with the computer games I registered with it,
I'm not sure if my recovery program can recover all the data . For now I'm
changing tactics on the backup systems and will let my PC / Tablet acer to be
the "main" computer I use. I was able to recover some of the video's
but not the whole entire data I made along with the articles I had to publish
on my blog. For now I'm starting again on scratch.
Given with
these problems and the frequent reformatting of my HP gaming laptop, I'm now
switching my base of operations (on the internet) and offline data to my other
Acer computer / tablet , so basically the data will now be stored there instead
of here on my HP . The only reason why im still able to access the data here on
my HP is because I had setup a local area network on my cabin. So simply say it
my HP laptop will be my work station while my acer tablet computer will act as
a "server" , so if in case something happens to my HP laptop I could
easily recover data.
On the
latest news on what's going on aboard this ship
There has
been tensions lately over the internet rental on the other group, apparently it
looks like that the contact person they had on using the internet changed and
double crossed them, and charged them 600 USD for internet rental. Apparently
according to their contact their charged via bandwidth and not on the time
usage. Originally their deal was its supposedly to be 25 U.S. Dollars PER DAY but for some
reason their contact changed heart after the fifth day and said that he will be
charging via bandwidth and its already 600 U.S. dollars. Naturally 7 people who
originally joined in on the internet connection were furious over what
happened, they felt that 75 U.S. dollars per connection was overpriced and that
this was a rip off . They even said this is definitely a "Mafiaso"
As a result
, the leader of the group Chief Engineer Hernandez Navarro (Venezuelan
national) pulled out immediately the modem internet connection as a damage
control to stop further charging. Now their main problem is on how the hell are
they going to pay the money ?
Well the
other "internet rental" group I belong with, still has internet
connection and fortunately our Ecuadorian contact for us charges very fair and
doesn’t have any funny ideas of ripping us off - for now it's safe to say that
our contact just charges us 3 U.S. dollars and fifty cents per person per day
on the internet rental. Either way the subject of "internet" here has
been a hot topic and almost all of the crew had grievances on something about
internet.
Speaking of
the subject I got myself also in trouble because of it. Although its petty I
got in a petty misunderstanding with BOSUN diosana on the second day of
internet connection on our group because I changed the Wi-Fi modem password and
apparently enough my co-workers here are selfishly self-serving enough not to
inform BOSUN Diosana of the password changed. Obviously they came up with all
sorts of excuses and pretended not to hear anything from me that I told them to
"inform everyone on the password change" , in the end the whole blame
fell on me and what's worst I got the whole wrath of BOSUN Diosana and
ultimately withdrawing his membership on the group.
Anyway
what's done is done , I cannot change or go back on what happened and I had to
change the password of the Wi-Fi modem in order for it to be secure because I
found out on that day that our group were not the only one's using the
connection, and the other Ecuadorian mooring crew are tapping on the frequency
as well . Later on the days past I tried to persuade BOSUN Diosana back to join
but apparently he says he's not interested anymore and turned down the
invitation.
Anyway if
that was his case then I'd let him be , after all being a sailor is that were
not oblige to please anyone and its his choice. Besides it's not part of the
job requirement to be nice. I know this may sound ruthless but , as a sailor we
have no obligation to other people , we just have to look out for ourselves
In other
matters …
Laundry yet
again is a problem only this time the problem is on the washing machine itself
which apparently broke down and was disassembled for repair. The thing here is
that they disassemble the machine and found out later that there were no
on-board spare parts for the machine , leaving us crew without any washing
machine to use at all for the coveralls. Well technically we still have two
other washing machines but our lovely soviet officials here wouldn't allow us
to wash our coveralls on it. So bringing me to washing my coveralls via deck
brush inside my bathroom.
On other
news ….
Mostly I
only use the internet to update stuff on the net , specifically on the current
news about tech and lately the article I read recently says that windows 10
will be released in the U.S. at July 29 this year and from what I heard ,
UPGRADE WILL BE FOR FREE for windows 7 and windows 8.1 computer owners , which
of course I own three computers and all of them incidentally have windows 7 and
windows 8.1 operating system. On the news in gaming , Its seems that the
computer game titled "FALLOUT 4"
will be released on November 2015 and I had been a fan of this post
apocalypse video game franchise since its first game was released way back in
1997 on windows 98 O.S. . Hopefully the graphics are good and sharp as what the
preview I saw in youtube
FLOURA AND FAUNA IN ECUADOR
(Mafioso ,
in seaman terms is related to something criminal like activity in nature like
from the term Mafia which meant organized crime. The term is also used
continent wide in south America and they absolutely known its meaning)
I had done
a little research if the price was true and found out that indeed the my
co-workers are being ripped off , even if the costliest price is put up on
Ecuador subscription , I wouldn't go far around the 200 U.S.D per month and
this cannot be mistaken for currency exchange as I found out that Ecuador
doesn’t use its former currency called "Sucre's" anymore (THEY NOW USE U.S. DOLLAR AS
THEIR LOCAL CURRENCY SINCE 2001, information is based on Google travel and
Wikipedia).
I done a
little research on the net and this article I had found out about the internet
connection
In
2000, the Internet in Ecuador had yet to really take off. Here in Tena we only
had one Internet cafe, which had 2 computers. I worked there for a short while
and thinking back makes me laugh.
The
cafe had its own email address. Almost everyone who came in would write emails
from this account - hardly anyone had their own address. And then you'd come in
from time to time to check if you had received a reply - which would be sent to
that one email account. Talk about no privacy!
It was
at this cafe that I set up my first email account. The owner had to help me and
I remember running password ideas by him.
Back
then the Internet in Ecuador was s-l-o-w. I can't remember the by-the-hour
charge, but you needed a good hour if you planned to do anything substantial
online.
How things have changed
Since
then Internet in Ecuador has really changed. Now just about every block has one
or more Internet cafes. The Internet has become a huge part of life in Ecuador.
School kids are sent almost daily to look up something online as part of their
homework, which doubles as an excuse to check their Facebook pages.
The
increased popularity of the Internet has meant an increase in Internet options…
For the Traveler in Ecuador
Coming
through Ecuador as a tourist? You have options for keeping in touch.
Internet cafes: As I said before there is
an overabundance of Internet cafes in just about every decent size town or
city. The average price is 60 cents per hour (if anyone tries to charge you a
dollar or more per hour you are most likely being ripped off).
Speed
is decent. I wouldn't call it hi-speed, but we've definitely moved past the age
of dial-up.
WI-FI: Hotels and restaurants in just
about any tourist town now offer WI-FI. So if you are traveling with your
laptop, IPad, etc you will be able to use it. When checking in to your hotel
ask the receptionist for the password. Some hotels still charge for WI-FI
service, but I think this is a quickly dying trend as most hotels offer it as a
free perk.
Living in Ecuador
More
and more of us who have moved to Ecuador are working online. So having a decent
connection is very important. Back in the day, you had to have a land line to
get Internet in Ecuador...which in places like Tena meant you didn't even have
the option to have Internet at home. Thankfully, times have changed.
CNT (Formerly Andinatel and Pacifictel): The largest public
telecommunications company in Ecuador often offers the best Internet. The cost to speed ratio is the best
I've found. The downside, you need to have a land line phone and there must be
an Internet line available in your neighborhood.
CNT is
working on WI-FI, but it is not available in all areas. For example, here in
Tena you can access wireless, but only if you live downtown.
Claro and Movistar: These popular cell phone providers
also have good options for Internet in Ecuador. They offer
pay-as-you-go plans, which are great if you are using them as a back up
provider. There are
also monthly plans which often include data and speed limits.
Movistar
also offers an unlimited plan. I personally use it. It's ok. Nothing special. I
can get done what I need to. Loading videos can be problematic and sudden loss
in speed can be annoying. But at $32 per month, you can't beat the price.
Both
Claro and Movistar use modem sticks, which plug into a USB port in your
computer. This can be handy, since you can take the modem with you when
traveling.
Both
providers also offer Internet plans for your cell phone.
Out
of nowhere I was called by the cabin phone and was asked to get some sort of 20
U.S. dollars from the bridge. I had no idea what this is all about and was only
clarified that it was a sort of "Vetting Bonus" . Well I guess 20
dollars is better than nothing, but the thing here is this - according to
Electrician Felix Rodriguez , we shouldn't be just getting only 20 U.S. dollars
and apparently it should be roughly about 66 U.S. Dollars per person. Now the
question here is where the hell did the extra 46 U.S. Dollars per person went ?
Thirdmate
Corales and Electrician Rodriguez suspects that it just went to the personal
pocket of Captain Sorin Sageta and that he went greedy over the money. The
thing here is that we went all the trouble and hard work on the vetting and yet
the one's reaping the rewards was this so called "captain", making a
"cut" on other peoples wages, what a total corrupt exploiting bastard
!
After
collecting my 20 dollars and hearing Third mate and Electrician's chat about
this matter , I went to the crew mess to have a drink and saw more of my crew
mates discussing the same subject about the "vetting bonus" . They
even plan making an attempt to report this matter via email on NSB authorities.
Knowing Filipino's are , I don’t think that this plan of disposing Sorin will
ever materialize at all and I doubt that anyone of the crew has the guts or the
balls to fight for what is right. Pathetic as this may sound but this is what
Filipino's are, They grumble a lot and
discuss a lot of things and talk a lot of stuff on other peoples backs but when
it comes to the actual crunch time and moment of truth , they have little
courage to speak out and fight for their beliefs and report abusive ship
captains - for short , I hate to admit
it but Filipino's are a bunch of cowards.
My
crewmates hesitate to report this crooked captain, they even said (and fear)
that if we went into taking an action in reporting this to NSB, the principal
will respond on withdrawing this perk called "vetting Bonus"
altogether. Honestly how could they think about a small sum of money at a time
like this ? Think of the lives and other people they we are going to save if
sorin has been disposed of ! The perk to be cancelled is just trivial compared
to safety and long term peace it will bring if Sorin is kicked out of NSB , We
could earn the 60 U.S.D in other ways rather than be always plagued frequently
by this menace, could they live on the full duration of their stay here being
exploited and pushed around by him ?! . They should think first of the good it
will bring if Sorin is kicked out rather than the selfish desire of money, NSB
would be a much safer place without sorin and it will be one less Dysfunctional
ship captain out there in the maritime community to worry about if he's sacked.
As I had been telling on my previous blogs entries, Most people
think that Ship Captains are a reasonable , gentle and wise individuals like
the person portrayed in the movies like "Captain Phillips" (starring tom hanks). In real life however it
is exactly opposite, they are vicious, greedy and a total psychopath in any way
possible. Ship
Captains typically have antisocial personality disorder that act in a way that
disregards the feelings and rights of other people. Ship Captains often break
the law, and they may use or exploit other people and their job position for
their own gain. They may lie repeatedly, act impulsively, and get into physical
fights. They may mistreat, neglect or abuse crew members, and most likely
exploit their crew. They may even kill other crew members.You won't see on their faces the things like guilt and remorse -
Their just simply evil people that have a high salary. So if Pop Culture says
that ships captains are Good individuals then their absolutely wrong about that
impression
In
other news …
The
following day, the crew was still basically into discussion about this
"Vetting Bonus" of whether or not they should report this to the NSB
management. After work which lasted until 3pm (its Saturday it was supposedly
to be that working hours are only until noon time).All of the deck crew are
suddenly asked to go the bridge at 5pm for a so called "meeting" ,
well it turns out that it wasn't a meeting but a "scolding" session.
When
me, A.B. Ryan , A.B. Luis Allan Arriesgado, and O.S. Keith entered the doorway
, Keith had the courtesy to greet "Mr Cobra" good afternoon and was
immediately rebuffed and shouted by Cobra saying "Maybe good for you ! But
not for me !!!" . Dismayed on what we saw , we never said a word and just
when straight ahead . 5 minutes later all the deck crew were already in the
bridge and that was when the freak show started and half an hour full of
scolding from our reptile captain. From what I remember on the
"scolding" he says the following "I already gave you beer, I
already gave you money , what you want me to do ?! Give you my mother to look
after you !!!" and saying that we should continue working for the whole
day on Saturday and half a day on Sunday (in other words whole week of work) ,
I couldn't exactly remember the rest but everybody got the scolding but the
worse who got all was BOSUN Diosana and A.B. Ryan. After the scolding session
everyone was in a depressingly dark mood and were just hanging out on the crew
mess. It was difficult for me to give the case of beer (ordered by Mr. cobra
before the "scolding Incident" that this case of beer be distributed
to the crew ) to my crewmates knowingly that they're were in the bad mood , but
I still went on it in distributing it anyway as ordered to me by third mate
corales. I did gave the case of beer to them and let them decide what to do
with it.
When
I handed out the case of beer to them, It was obvious that they were not in the
mood and said that "they can buy their own beer" . As protest by
Pumpman Thanny Sepulveda, Bosun Diosana and the rest of the crew to send a
message that their not happy on the captain, they returned the case of beer
back right in front of the Captain's Cabin.
Later
at night, I received a call from third mate, informing me that three of cases
of becks beer have been unaccounted .
Caricature drawing i made of our "Mr. Cobra" , A very venomous Ship captain !! BEWARE !!!
For
a couple of days while this ship is at anchorage, we basically just did the
basic maintenance work. Actually most of the time we just stayed for a few
minutes pretending to be busy doing something.
At
about 10:30 Pm May 30. I received a call on my cabin telling me that I had to
prepare the pilot ladder on the starboard side, Basically it was always the
same charade again - and as expected on work, I'm back doing my same old
routines before the ship berths. The
channelling towards 'KINDER MORGAN" terminal in Houston took at about 5
hours all in all, BOSUN Diosana told me that while the ship is still
channelling , I could go back in the accommodation block and take a quick nap.
I did went back to the accommodation block to rest but I never took a nap and
instead just waited out and let the time pass by playing Metal Gear Solid 5 :
Ground Zero's video game in my PC. Around 5am I was called back and it was
already to be on standby on mooring.
Mooring
went fine without any problems.
Crew landing permit on the U.S.
24
hours later, I decided to go on shore leave for the first time since I arrived
here on this ship. Shore leaves nowadays aren't that long compared to the days
of yore where it last for days, In modern times its just roughly only a few
hours. I decided to go out and see the environment around America since I have
never set my foot outside (had already been here before but never set foot).
Rule
in going on shore leave is that always go into groups, and never wander off
alone. Since this is a foreign land there is always a possibility that there
might be trouble. I decided to tag along with electrician Felix Rodriguez and Fitter Rogelio Lorenzo and took my shore pass from third
mate corales along with a Xerox copy of my passport.
Due
to security policies on U.S. port, We are to remain inside the ship until
picked up by a cab. It was about noon when the taxi arrived and was asked by
"Rosa" if we have anything on mind, Well for a start I was thinking
of some place to shop, eating and drinking or checking out the place -
something like that and not in any particular order. By the way the taxi fee in the U.S. is 30
dollars one way per ride (doesn’t matter on how many we are), and another 30
going back (total of 60 U.S.D.)
Our
first stop was "Best Buy" Store. There is nothing much to say about
this really and compared to other malls this one is a very small one. Probably
from my estimation it's just the size of any supermarket department on any
malls in the Philippines. Anyway it's understandable why malls in the U.S. are
small given that it's only a place to shop and not hang out. "Best
buy" store isn't really much to speak of, it only has some latest
electronics to buy like laptops, camera and video games - but not the complete
set. On best buy due to budget and money limitations I had on my wallet , I
only bought a stylus pen for my Acer Tablet PC and a laptop cooler pad for my
HP - nothing more. Second stop was to go WalMart store, The three of us decided
that since it is just nearby (according to Google maps it's just a 15 minute
walk) we could stretch our legs a bit. Engine Fitter Rogelio Lorenzo was
hesitant at first but Electrician Felix Rodriguez was able to manage to talk
him out. Midway walking we received an SMS telling that third mate corales and
messman galang are currently in walmart and asked if they could join in with us
on the way hope. Electrician Rodriguez said that the reason why they plan to
tag along with us was because they wanted to cut the cost of their
transportation fee on the way back.
Google
maps was pretty accurate in telling the directions and told us exactly which
direction should we go along with the walkway for pedestrians. Took us less
that 15 minutes on foot going there in Walmart. In Walmart, it was pretty
spacious compared to best buy - but not as spacious as Philippine super marts
like I saw went I was still a kid. Walmart is impressive went it comes to size
but that just basically starts and ends there.
Once
we got inside the store we immediately saw and tagged along with 3rd mate and
messman, actually we never see and it was them that saw us .Out of necessity I
had to borrow 100 U.S.D. from Electrician Felix Rodriguez to buy a few
videogames, chocolates and soap. Aside from that I couldn't think of anything
else to buy . We scattered all over the place to shop and was decided that
around 4pm we would meet at the entrance of the super mart in McDonald's booth.
After a couple of hours we all met on the meeting spot and by the time we
returned to the ship, it was already around 5pm - an hour late on my scheduled
shift. Fortunately O.S. bantic isn't a hot heat and was able to talk to him
about why I got late.
At
11am close to midnight, I was suddenly awaken by the P.A. system. The voice
speaking was no other than "Mr. Cobra" Sorin , telling us to go to
out mooring stations. At first I thought that it was already time to sail off -
after all I heard before I finished my working shift that loading the cargo
will be finished sometime near midnight and its only plausible that unmooring
operations will soon follow. When I got out , I only found out that "Mr.
Cobra" wanted only to tighten the moorings of the ship and had to call the
whole crew about it - for short it was unimportant and our friendly reptile is
having another anxiety attack, he thinks that moorings will snap back because
of the recent ship movements caused by passing ships nearby. We finally got to
adjust the moorings despite the annoyance and got back to my cabin, I thought
it was over and the next thing I will wake up will be the actual unmooring.
Again after an hour I was awaken again by the P.A. over the same thing.
(God
Damn ! does this fucker ever get tired of disturbing people over petty matters
every now and then ? - I swear sooner or later someone out there in the crew
will one day will get really pissed with him when their having a bad day and
throw him overboard, what the fuck does he what to do now ?! )
After
again adjusting the soft rope on the bitts , with a much more tedious task than
before - I went back to cabin to only realize that it was only 45 minutes away
from my next shift. What the fuck ?! Hmm so much for rest - no thanks to this
bastard ship captan.
At
about 5am the pilot arrived , and immediately this ship went unmooring, after
the unmooring ops, I had only a couple of hours left on the internet signal to
download a few files for my games before the communications got silent - so I
had to make the best out of downloading as much as possible despite bad
internet signal. at about 12 noon this ship finally exited the Houston area and
was going south to panama for the transit
Electrician Rodriguez and Engine fitter Lorenzo
Well majority of the shopping is made by electrician
Call this cab driver whenever youre in houston area, very friendly fellow and helps out us filipino sailors in getting the destination
Word of advice from a buyer and as a sailor , As much as possible avoid getting a T-mobile internet sim card - this sucker is terribly expensive and internet connection is slow and dropping plus as an insult it is only limited to 5 GB usage. A much cheaper version is this "Simple mobile" though it has the same speed as T-mobile , it is definately cheap and virtually unlimited connection. Simple mobile cost only 15 U.S. Dollars
Internet
connection in T-mobile wasn't helpful, it was definitely very slow and
frustrating. worst part of this was that before I activate the sim card for
internet connection, I had to call the telephone operator and give her some
details about my phone and personal information. Seriously if I would compare
the American service to the European one when it comes to internet connection,
European internet connection is way much easier. Anyway based on the
experienced I had , here is the step by step process in activating a T-mobile
(internet) sim card I bought on walmart before my ship left in Charleston,
South Carolina. By the way the sim card cost 30 U.S.D.
Step #1 Setup your phone
1.Insert
your sim card into the back of the phone (duh !?)
2.Insert
the battery and charge your phone (duh !!!!)
Step# 2 Get Ready For
Activation
Prepare to
provide this information ,if an IVRS (answering machine) or telephone operator
answers your call
ACTIVATION
CODE (can be found on the paper attached on the sim card)
SIM Serial
# (can be found on the plastic credit card size that holds the sim card)
Phone
Serial # (number at the back of the phone, under the battery location)
Agent code
(optional)
Area code
(if unknown , just ask the operator )
Date of
birth (just provide this info)
Security
PIN 4digits (just provide any four digit number)
Step# 3, 4 and 5 .
Just ask the operator on what to do to access the web
In other
news
On last
Saturday , Since being the assistant bond store manager. I had no choice but be
present on the crew mess whenever there's a drinking session among the crew and
attend to their liquor purchases. For the moment the news about these purchases
was that Captain "Cobra" is interfering on bond store matters and
said that I'm only allowed to sell "beck's" brand beer to the crew , all other brands of
beer are prohibited until further notice. Wine and smokes have no restrictions
for the time being. So basically its was beck or no beer at all.
Crew
wouldn't mind having a Beck's beer and seems to be suitable but the bad part
was that this particular brand is a bit expensive compared to other brands of
beer stored on the bond store like "ASTRA" , San miguel or even Dutch beer. A case of
becks beer cost at about 15.5 euro's on the menu and some of the crew refrain
from ordering because of the price. So as a result most of the crew ended up
ordering wine instead given that its way much cheaper (only 3 euro's per bottle
on any brand)
During the
drinking session that lasted up to 4am the following morning. I noticed that
some of the folks here are still basically the same grunt sailors
subconsciously afraid of authority and very critical even for people with minor
mistakes, they even brought up on the topic of my recent fiasco in the gangway
no thanks to 3rd mate german tan corales. Anyway I'm not bothered if it was
brought up and just went along on their self-righteous lectures. Those
hypocrites even warned me that I'd be send home if ever I get careless and
manage to destroy the gangway. Frankly I'm not bothered at all and would even
consider it a blessing that I get out of this job and start over something new,
I'm not saying that I should be careless or lax on my job but what I'm saying
is that I'm not afraid on NOT being a sailor anymore.
The thing
here why people are so scared on making even the slightest mistakes was on the
fact people will get sent back home and eventually lose their jobs and not even
be rehired on other shipping companies. Their afraid of these so called reports
that will come up on our shipping agencies. I guess this is one of the dark
sides of being a sailor in the Philippines. "BLACK LISTING AND BACKGROUND
CHECKS" , according to new international employment laws Blacklisting is
already illegal and violates basic human rights (and workers' rights), sadly in
the Philippines this is still in practice and as a matter of fact a normal part
of employment for overseas Filipino workers
Another
thing that was brought up on the drinking session that I didn’t like was my
association with Captain Nick betts. I don’t deny that he's my sponsor and
backer in getting a job in Career Ship management but apparently 3rd Mate
German Corales simply can't get his fat mouth shut about this information,
worse part is that he spreads this rumor here in Conti Agulhas. This info has
already been around in Cape Tallin and unsurprisingly made its way here - no
thanks to Mr. Blabber mouth. No matter how I start fresh , My past keeps
catching up. Anyway I'm still lucky that this contract in NSB Conti ships just
last six months and there's no guarantee that the folks I encountered here will
be on the next ship - So basically that means that there's a possibility that I
will start fresh again on my next ship.
In other
news
By Monday
May 25th. The summer heat of Texas area weather is simply unbearable and I had
resort again on the same old tactics I knew (and use) to counter the hot
climate problem. Through the years I had been so adapted on cold weather
environments that I'm somewhat resistant to it by now, however despite my
adaptability on cold weather , I have no effective tactics or methods in a hot
weather environment and this becomes a problem for me especially in central
American climates. Well I do still use the tactics like wetting my coveralls to
keep myself cool but , it's not that effective and has a nasty side effect of
temperature stress to the body.
For the
moment there is nothing much that can be done about the weather and according to rough speculation , this ship
will still be on this environment for at least a month until Ecuador.
Again in
other news.
Much to the
dismay of crew , the anchorage position this ship is located is very much far
away to get a clear internet signal. Obviously a lot of the crew are not very
happy that most of their top up loads for the internet will go to waste because
of this - and apparently the person to blame why this ship is put on this
location was of course Mr. Captain Cobra. The crew says that he sabotages this
because he's jealous that our internet connections are working while his is
already gone.
Anyway it
seems that much to the amusement of our "Cobra Captain" which loves
people being miserable , he orders us to pull out and prepare the mooring ropes
during late at noon , where the environment temperature is at the highest.
Unsurprisingly we had a difficult time preparing those mooring ropes because of
the hot weather, we had to finish the job as quick as possible - so that our
heat exhaustion won't get any worse.
Good thing
for me I had come prepared for the said work.
10.30 pm
the berthing operation of this ship commenced, and much to the annoyance of
BOSUN Diosana (and most of the crew). Captain Sorin is rushing people to heave
up anchor A.S.A.P. thinking that starting up the hydraulic system is just as
simple as like opening a water faucet.
During the
transit , after the pilot has already boarded and me and O.S. Keith are at the
crew mess. I heard on the radio that Bosun Diosana asked both of us to come to
the aft area to help him out in clearing the soot off. When both of us came to
the aft area I found out that Bosun Diosana wasn't referring to a small spot
but the whole area of the aft part was covered with ash and it was an inch
thick. We tried to use a broom to clear it off but with the strong winds and
was totally pitch dark we made little progress , So basically it ended up to
open the fire pump instead and wash the whole aft area before someone notices.
We washed the whole aft area in short notice and effectively cleared off the
ash.
We haven't
had a 5 minute rest yet on the crew mess when again another message on the
radio came in and ordered us to standby on our mooring stations. So as again I
was off at the crew mess and went to the forward area (my current mooring
station) and stayed there for almost an hour.
Mooring
operations didn't have any problems even if we were mooring in pitch black, My
headlight was pretty useful in times of mooring in night time as it provided
illumination on hard to see spots. After the mooring it was pretty much the
usual routine, Place the fire safety equipment near the gangway, prepare the
gangway items needed etc. It was about 3am when everything was prepared and had
an hours rest, eat and take a shower before my working shifts starts
When my
working shift starts, first few hours was normal and had helped Pumpman
Sepulveda and A.B. "Lyndon" in connecting those cargo. After that
fatigue starts to kick in and I started to lose focus especially on keeping an
eye in the gangway. More that distracted me was that when the operations to
discharge cargo started - cargo hose number 3 started to show sign that it was
leaking. The leak was huge enough that its looks more like a gash and Naphtha
was flowing like water on a faucet at a pressure bar of 2.5 , A.B. Lyndon was
quick enough to notice and immediately grabbed the small SOPEP drum and placed
it underneath the leaking cargo hose. Immediately the new Chief mate and pump
man Sepulveda was notified of the leaking cargo hose. Pump man immediately went
out to determine what was the cause and later found that it was the Teflon
gasket. The new chief mate asked if there are any more spare gaskets around to
use but Pump man informed that there are no available new gaskets around and that
NSB is stiff in issuing these needed materials, as a matter of fact he added
that his predecessor didn't ordered any new gaskets at all.
The leaking
of the cargo hose was solved when it was decided that two gaskets will be
placed rather than just one.
Soon after
the leaking cargo hose problem was solved, Pump man Sepulveda noticed that the
gangway was having problems and was already being pinned on the concrete.
Immediately me and A.B. Lyndon corrected the gangway position and heaved up a
little bit. At first the gangway wasn't basically responding and A.B. Lyndon
had to go down on the shore jetty to see on what he can do. After forcefully
heaving it up via the gangway motor , it pop out with a sharp jerking upward
motion and there it was , the gangway was now free from being pinned down.
It was
plain luck that these problems were corrected before captain cobra noticed ,
and more fortunately "Cobra Captain"
was asleep went it happened, otherwise knowing his nature of hysteria
and being meddlesome - He'd spin like a twister and spit venom all over us, if
he would knew. As what Pumpman Sepulveda jokingly said to me after resolving
the gangway problem " Looks like angels are on your side "
After my
working shift had ended , I went to the accommodation area to take a rest but I
didn’t went directly to my cabin yet and stopped by first on the ship's clinic
to take a piss for the random drug and alcohol test. When I got back to start
my working shift, the cargo operation (discharge) was near completion. At
around 9pm this ship unmoored , everything was going fine but by bad luck our
neurotic captain decided to dumb us more workload and said that we should
secure all mooring ropes and stow them.
We weren't happy when we heard this and asked ourselves that this work
could wait in the morning and why the hell does he want it now ? It was already
close to midnight when we finally finished securing all the equipment.
Finally
arrived in South Carolina, U.S.A. and the first thing that greeted me was to
drop anchor at around 7 to 8 pm. Anyway turns out that this anchoring session
wasn't very pleasant and our beloved "GOD Captain" yelled at the
radio that I was putting a break while the anchor was dropping, bastard even
mention that he was looking at us.
Whatever he
meant he's not looking clearly and most probably he assumed that I was putting
the break when it fact I was just adjusting the speed and pace of the drop.
Anyway I'd be very glad that he will be disposed of when this ship reaches
Panama canal (sign on / drop off point for sailors, In other words a convenient
port), just two more ports and my problems with him will be a thing of the
past.
In relation
to this topic , I do admire BOSUN Mario Diosana's efforts in defending me on
the screw up in dropping anchor and from our captains hysteria. He has
basically no obligation to helping people and yet he does his best in defending
his subordinates, Most BOSUN's wouldn't do things like that. He's a good man in
this very bad joke - A good man inside this whole rotten maritime community
full of wicked people. He has my respects on protecting me.
Despite the
good news and to the joy of all the crew that Sorin Sageta will soon be
disposed of, It appears that it will be short lived and rumored that the person
who will be replacing him is far worse, From what I heard from O.S. Keith
(person who replaced O.S. Ralph Crisostomo) this person doesn't have an
hysteria problem but is referred to as a "Silent Killer" and came
from CONTI Humbolt, and equally as deadly and fearsome as Sorin. It's possible
that I'm going to have my hands full in dealing with this, Lucky for me that
NSB contracts are just around 6 months and I still have a remaining four months
left - so it's not going to be a long dragging problem.
In other
news
I
encountered a minor problem at the bond store in which the numbers do not
tally, specifically on a beer item called "ASTRA" . From the count it
looks like that were missing one case, but after a thorough search it was later
found out that it was just in the vegetable room - no harm done, well maybe,
but by bad luck turns out that 3rd mate
German Corales already spread the gossip to the whole crew that someone stole
it rather than confirm it first that it was just missing. Anyway it appears
that his nature hasn't changed at all since Cape Tallin days, still a blabber
mouth unsurprisingly . Good thing I still remember what A.B. Patrick
Dondonilla's on how to deal with him,
In other
matters
It is
confirmed that after this port in south Carolina, the next port will be in
Houston Texas , and of course the port in Houston will be loading cargo then
after that somewhere to Ecuador and will be transiting via Panama Canal. From
what I heard the transit time from Houston to Panama will take at least 10
day's time.
Out of
nowhere and without warning , I heard on the ship P.A. system "ALL FORWARD MOORING CREW PLEASE SECURE THE
TUGBOAT LINE" . Immediately I went in such a haste from my cabin
and dressing up on the locker room that I was the first to arrive on the scene
in the forward area to help BOSUN Diosana in securing the tugboat line, most of
other people arrived at least 5 minutes later. Never really comfortable to hear
announcements on the last minute as what happened , but of course I just had to
ride along on the show on the management says despite they have a nasty habit.
Mooring schedule was unsurprising and expected, no thanks to the information I
got on the crew mess 3 hours earlier.
For the
details regarding what happened on the mooring, it was relatively smooth with
only a few minor complications dealt with such as insect bites and half an hour
unexpected rain. The first complication was preventable if I just only wore my
face mask, but unfortunately our dip shit captain said some smart ass rule that
nobody on this ship can wear these kind of outfit saying an excuse that’s it's
an ISPS matter. The jealous prick is just making that up to hid his jealousy
that I had better equipment. Anyway it’s
the reality as a sailor that some people will just say anything about almost
anything in order just to prevent some people on doing (or using) good things ,
an old saying in tagalog " Ingittero, kung ano lang ang masabi na
dadahilan para di magamit ng tao yung magandang gamit" . One thing I hate
on a person , is the one who meddles on
what gear and equipment I use on work.
Aside from
banning the use of face mask, Captain apparently bans also the use of my tools
I wore on Port , WHAT THE FUCK !!!! Seriously my patience is starting to
becoming really thin on this endless rules and regulations. Problem around here
is that the captain always wants to be the center of attention, by the means on
stepping on other peoples foot ( and business) pestering them with bogus
regulations like he some sort of Mr.-KNOW-IT-ALL , fuck !! For I all know this
captain doesn’t know the real shit and deal on the situation !
Lucky for
me, I have was to counter this harassing and restricting set of rules, and it’s
the simplest of all solutions. Ever wonder why I have sewn extra pockets on my
coveralls ? Well it's there for a purpose, not because they look great on
appearance but on the fact that’s its primary purpose is to hide my tools -
simple solution and yet very effective. Reminds me of an old scientific saying
called " auckhums razor" - The
most complex of problems can only b solve on the most simplest of solutions.
Anyway
going back, as a result my head area gets bitten off by insects every now and
then - and it’s a blessing that it rained and cleared off those insects during
mooring, despite being wet at the very least I don’t have to worry about the
annoying bites (and a blessing too that there's no malaria or any mosquito
borne diseases here in north America , new York area).
For the
moment the terminal where this ship is berthed at in new York is pretty boring
and is in the middle of an industrial area. Honestly being in the U.S.A. isn't
alluring as what is told on television, Internet connection is very slow and
limited, can't watch local television (T.V's can't pick up the signal), cant
wonder of and go sightseeing or shopping, the port terminal is in dilapidated
condition and in some ways look very backward -
for short the place definitely sucks compared to European ports. We
can't go ashore and do shopping because of tight and exaggerated security
measures by homeland security and port authorities, thinking were either
attempting to become illegal aliens or terrorist. Really frustrating that this
ship has to do business on a militaristic xenophobic country like America and
sailors such as myself are basically stuck and trapped here on this floating
tin can, not exactly a warm hospitality as what American television always
portrays .
In other
matters revolving on this ship.
The
replacement crew for the four disembarking personnel here has arrived and
probably I'd be seeing new faces soon at work. The replacement crew that
arrived are mostly veterans and have been sailors for NSB for some time now and beyond doubt that they know exactly what to
do on their work in NSB. What I can say is that they're friendly and no sign
yet of any aggressive behavior, which is a relief. Anyway Filipino crew from
NSB principal are more mentally stable compared to Filipino Crew coming from
CSM principal , ( probably because of the short six months contract ) , so I
guess I won't have any problems getting along with them on my remaining 5
months stay in CONTI Agulhas.
By the way,
a few days ago I wrote about Captain Sorin "Cobra" brags about his newly acquired sim and even
taunts Filipino crew that we can't afford a 40 dollar unlimited internet sim
service. Now things have made a different turn and turns out that the shipping
agents offer was really a rip off ( no such thing as unlimited data usage
service) and the outcome was that Captain Sorin was only able to use the
internet sim on a very short time eventually just wasting his 40 U.S. dollar
internet service. Serves him right !! And now guess what who has the last laugh
:D
In other
news …
Ship
recently passed another vetting inspection with zero deficiencies in new york ,
apparently from what I heard there is some sort of "bonus pay" that the crew will receive for their efforts
- but for the money to be given away by the NSB managements is questionable on
the fact that NSB itself is stiff when it comes to crew amenities and perks ,
If ever NSB principal will ever give one it is not certain that it will not
just end up in the private pockets of the Captain , especially to Mr. Sorin
Salvadore Sageta. Either way the crew shouldn't expect much in it and its
plausible that the crew will not benefit on such claims and will lead
eventually to poor performance and bad motivation.
After
clearing off the work in new york , this ship will be heading south to
charleston , South Carolina within the
next day and a half. After that it will be another big guess on what area this
ship will be loading cargo.
