LONG VOYAGE

Log entry: June 15, 2016 Wednesday

 

Typing and sending Oiler's Allan Sta. Ana's message was troublesome but I had to send it anyway since I owe the guy in helping me out sending a message to my sister via putting TOP UP's on my phone. His personal message was very long and was absolutely littered with " blessing for us and pray for me - religious gibberish" which complicates my SMS sending given with the limited amount of time I had to squeeze those SMS before the menu refreshes.

 

His messages looked more like a standalone email than simple 150  character tweets for an international SMS standard and cramming a four page note on it was frustrating, Anyway I did manage to get it done because I owe him a favour. Oh by the way just to write for the record , the nearby mountain was blocking the cellphone signal and I had to smuggle on the workplace an instrically unsafe device because the only area that has a signal was on the forward part of the ship, everything else is dead spot and I had done that while I was in the middle of working shift. 

 

Speaking of which , On my equipment - it looks like that I had broken another set of expensive equipment on work,. Alas my kata mini tablet worth 5,000 Php I bought way back 2013 now lies badly inoperable and destroyed from getting soaked on sea water. Apparently I'm partly to blame why it got destroyed , I was looking for an effective device as a clock and being handheld decided that my kata was enough for "work operations" , Now that its commissioned and being used for work, Indian ship officers of mine , one day decided that I was to be put on work while in the middle of the rain and sea splash. As a result my kata mini tablet got water logged and never again functioned, a piece of expensive and usable equipment now lies destroyed. - Fucking Crows !!! 

 

In other news

 

Looks like the St. Eustatius berthing will drag now for 5 straight days from discharging to unloading of its cargo and it's not a surprise that fatigue signs are now showing on my work. 5 days straight of 6 hour long working shift and total of 12 hours a day, total that and fatigue will really show up on my part. If this "over worked" working schedule drags on for a long time, I'm not sure on how long can I keep up with this kind of environment. Working environment here is a big drag, imagine practically no rest days !!!

 

After work on St. Eustatius is finish , I'm sure I'd be dragged on again in the unmooring for again, meaning extended working hours. I'm having doubts that this ship and the principal norstar ship management is complying with minimal rest hours, I figure it is below 10 hours. 

 

During the whole berthing work, the ship made a few leaks on its cargo - all of it signs of poor maintenance and severely bad corrosion. Even some hydraulic Valves and pumps are leaking like in the winches for example, we had to get buckets to collect those leaks just to prevent them from spilling on the deck floor.  Plus not to mention the problematic gangway and pilot access ladders which sometimes work and sometimes doesn’t work.

 

When Unmooring time came, an unforeseen scenario happened. Turns out that the Indian 2nd officer had a heated conversation with Pumpman Mondiego Obina from pilot access gangway safety - actually indirectly related to that. It started when one of the bolts on the gangway ladder went missing, 2nd Officer notice that and told pump man about it. Pump man ignored it and said its of little importance , 2nd officer insisted and that’s the trouble started.

 

2nd officer told Pumpman that he should tell me to get some bolts , Pumpman refused on the fact that I'm not one of his "men" . In the end 2nd officer just told me to get some bolts in the starboard deck store, couldn't figure which size he wanted so I grabbed some few and when I returned they were still arguing. I just kept the silent on the whole ruckus to avoid any flak from both sides.,  A.B. Enrique Antiporta joined on the side of Pump man Obina.

 

It didn't bother me , after the two broke off and was busy securing the pilot gangway , problem is that O.S. Marden Luib seems to not help me at all on the work and just tells me on what to do, - tsk ! That lazy old tart ! Trying to cheat his way off on work again !!!! I wonder how he got that promotion he brags about in CSM ? Anyway he's been with CSM before so I expect that people who came from that origin on my previous company doesn’t have good manners compared to people from NSB principal. - Asshole doesn’t even know how to open a mast riser properly during work ! Pathetic !!!

 

Once the pilot ladder was secured , I got a few hours rest and back again on work on the following morning.  

FINAL VERDICT

Journal log entry : June 13, 2016 Monday

Area: St. Eustatius , (Somewhere in the Caribbean)

 

After much deliberation and thinking, I had finally made a verdict and I think it's best for me to sit tight and ride this whole contract out. Now the only problem I have for the moment would be notifying my sister, that I had changed my mind and will not go home by August.

 

Maybe surprising by now that a couple of weeks ago, I was blabbering about going home and all that shit. As a matter of fact I still do because I was deceived and coerced by CF Sharp in signing unfair contracts. However despite my reasons , I cannot set aside logic and reason that land base jobs are more easily constructed / deconstructed with minimal whiplash compared to overseas job. Basically having a land based job is more secure and the worker is more protect by law than the overseas one, As an OFW I have to consider that once I'm outside the Philippines, It's every man for himself - and that I'm at the mercy of my employer quiet literary. So its more complicated to quit a job overseas than quit a job locally because of this because Phil. Labour law doesn’t apply elsewhere. In other words I'm avoiding the risk of my whiplash if I don’t finish my contract

 

As for my teeth, apparently I had to endure this for a couple of months for now and imperatively need dental repairs as soon as I get back in the Philippines and hope that the damage sustained is not that extensive enough to made me lose my teeth. 

 

In other matters , ship has recently reached and berthed in St. Eustatius , an island somewhere in the Caribbean and began loading in cargo. As usual I'm off again on my usual task of the gangway watchman , and helping out in the manifold area. Honestly I'm not in the mood or even excited about my work , and the stinky contract adds more to my dissatisfaction here.

 

Speaking of which, I overheard Oiler Edgar being cheerful about the overtime pay, saying that there's a bonus or some sort of extra pay for the long working hours we had been working with. I could just giggle and smile about how stupidly naïve and clueless this guy is, and how he is ever falsely hopeful on the situation. It’s a surprise that my co-workers are idiotically blind about the contract we signed with that, they didn't have any idea that we signed on a FIXED OVERTIME PAY and that CF sharp / Norstar Crew Management has been deceiving us all along. - Pathetic Fools !!! It took me only a couple of days to figure this one out and them , up to now are still figuring out the situation. If I could only tell them on their stupidly tenaciously unwilling brains that they should wake up and do a reality check then they don’t have to realize first-hand about what is actually going on here.

 

There is no absolutely no chance that this ship nor Norstar Crew Management would be paying our excess overtime working hours. Why ? They put up a rude gurgle tongued PRO-COMPANY Myanmar Captain in charge of the whole damn ship ! And applease Norstar crew "fucking ship" management this Captain has been pushing the limits of comfortability to the limits, just to save money. Shipping companies nowadays like Norstar don’t care if the ship is comfortable of not and their the stereotypical money hungry company , they only thing they care about is the statistics that they're saving money and whoever does that has a ship's captains smelly spring time fresh name on it. Bottom line I don’t absolutely think that our beloved gurgle tongued captain would pay the excess overtime salaries they owe us, for the rest of my stupid crew member's - they'd just have to figure it out later this month about the real deal.

 

THEY COULDN'T MAKE THIS SHIP COMFORTABLE IN THE FIRST PLACE AND HAD TO LIE TO US POINT BLANK TO BE HERE, SO I DON’T EXPECT THEM AT ALL  THAT THEY WILL BE PAYING OUR SALARIES THE RIGHT WAY  

 

Despite all the misery and ignorance this ship has to offer, I had some relieving news that I learned the tedious procedure of "SMS TIPID" promo of smart roaming service on the cellphone, convenient in the sense that cost of international SMS is reduced drastically as low as 2 Philippine Peso. The drag is that I have to numerously type a set of numbers plus have to keep in mind to type in my SMS fast before the menu that pops up refreshes. The annoying part of this is that the service is more of a menu mania ,  but the overall point here is to send message internationally cheaply despite the cumbersome menu's

 

From what I recall here is what I have to Dial on my cellphone, first of course is that I have to subscribe first.

 

Dial *133*<amount of top up load, 100 , 200, 500 PHP> followed by #

Example *133*100#

 

After that , a message will pop up on the cellphone informing the number of international SMS available

 

After that the next thing to do is send a message and again I have to dial a set of numbers

 

Dial *133*<followed by the number of the receiving cellphone> followed by #

Example *133*09204785463# press call button

 

A menu pops , to type in the message then followed by the menu send text and voila !! International text in low cost served !!!

 

In other matters….

 

Since most of my contract will be spent on this hell hole Asia pacific , I had decided to make changes on my equipment as part of my "adaptive tactics". As I had been writing on the past few months, my equipment is suitable in European environment (i.e. cold environment) - this maybe good on European setting but troublesome and terribly uncomfortable in warmer (if not hot) Asia pacific environment (i.e. warm to hot environment). Basically the designs of my equipment trap body heat , and if to be put on Asian temperatures it would just basically roast me to death.,

 

Fortunately for me , I bought along the trip some stuff that have thinner clothing suitable in dispersing body heat. Although the equipment I had with me is few but certainly it will be invaluable for my work here, and will provide protection and comfortability at the same time. It’s a blessing that I had been a pack rat and it really paid off despite receiving a lot of criticism on a lot of ignorant people saying that I was carrying too much "unnecessary" luggage. Glad that I had proven them wrong and despite the hardship work here on this hellish "BOSTON EAGLE" ship , I am confidently saying that I'm well equip and more of a match on the rigors of work.      

COMPLICATIONS ON PLANS

Entry log : June 12, 2016 Sunday

 

Yesterday's talk with Oiler Allan Sta Maria had been fruitful on planning but it reveal some complications about our situation on getting out. Apparently my reason is valid, so there's little complication about my predicament, however regarding Oiler Allan's situation on "refusal to work" it’s a lot more complicated. From what I heard from him is that there's some sort of 4 months professional reason for any resignation, which rendered him to - if he submits his resignation to somewhere in August. So it means bottom line is that if I ever decided to proceed in quitting this job - I have to go thru it alone. If I submitted my "letter of repatriation" it's up to the company anyway, if they will approve it or not. For me the difficult part is going to it alone on this plan, But Oiler told me that it's not an issue with him if I went ahead first - If I manage to pull this off.

 

Aside from me and Oiler, another person on the race to leave this ship is Fitter Amiel Lorzano. I haven't talk to him about my plans, and never plan to, probably because I don’t want any screw-ups on some loud mouth guy like him, and Oiler Edgar is right that I should go on this one alone, Besides from my understanding bereavement reason / compassion reason is the best sure way to get home / escape this ship, without ruining my so called employment records as a sailor,. Although it unfortunate that somebody has to die first namely a direct relative in order to get this first.

 

For now I'd attempt to pass my letter of repatriation , after this berthing / loading operations on ST. Eustatius (somewhere in the Caribbean) or something and see what happens next. Of course I'm still thinking if I will submit it or not.

 

In other news

 

Fortunately since it's a Philippine holiday, It was whole day rest - well almost. I was  again put to work to assist Pump man and an A.B. in some forecastle business which went all up till 10am to finally be resolve. The rest of the day was spent with me getting my clothes lineup on the washing machine (which had a lone line since almost everybody on this ship haven't had their laundry done for a week) and either putting back all the stuff, I took out on my luggage in prep for what I mention earlier and checking out / repairing the equipment I had been using.

 

UNREST ON WORK

Entry Log : June 10, 2016 Friday

 

 

Looks like the environment here gets uglier and worst each day that passed. Latest update is that the laundry room will be rarely opened from now on, as in one a week to wash clothes, so basically it means I have only that chance to clean all my numerous coveralls and clothes on that very single day which I know will have a very long line. I have no idea about this illogical water discipline but its sure that life here will get worst as the time goes by. Anyway according to what I heard, fresh water production of this ship is very slow. Really now ?! And am I supposedly to believe on this kind of shit ?! Ha ?! For all I know I had been taking all the shit Norstar Ship Management has been giving me since day 1 when I arrived here. I think they're just saying that to make my life here even more miserable.

 

Just to add more insult on injury on this matter, I had only received an issued box of tide powder soap for the laundry ( 595 grams to be specific) until this ship arrives to china, which if my math is right while writing this takes more than 50 days' time to reach it. Wow very insightful of the management here, and how the hell am I supposedly to budget that kind of limited resources eh ?! Anyway no matter how much I grumble and complain about this , I'm sure it will only fell to deaf ears. The only possible way for me to this is to get out of here.

 

In other news

 

It looks like two crew members here fitter Amiel Lorzano and Oiler Allan Sta Maria are very open about leaving this ship. As a matter of fact, most of the crew are been talking about them resigning to this ship, which I overheard. I'm not sure about fitter but about oiler I think he's dead centered as I am in getting out of this place and we have been talking very meticulously about it a couple of days ago. Anyway who would want to stay on this place right ?! Everything here was deceitful from the start. No Internet, NO sattelite Phones, No bond store, Bosses are Indians , working hours are very long, Low pay, Resource onboard are scare and limited, food is also limited, etc everything that I pictured in my mind that I hate to be, has materialized here. So I can't blame the two for wanting the same to bust out of here. But for now the only thing we can do is sit tight and wait till the next payroll comes and hopefully will be enough to send us back home. Oh and for the record, the only person who knows that I'd be leaving this ship is Oiler Suarez - I don’t plan revealing my intention to any other crew aside from him and let's say I have trust issues with the rest of the crew.

 

In other news

 

Currently the laundry rooms floor have been repainted with the colour green, which looks better and nicer than its previous look, But like I said despite it new cosmetically changed look , the laundry area isn't opened yet and some of the washing machine there are still broken.

SCHEMING ON THE BLOCKADE

Journal log entry : June 08, 2016

 

For the past two days I had been planning my move to get out of this ship. One such plan is that I use a "bereavement / compassion leave" which despite my sadness losing dad last month , can be used as an excuse to get the hell out of this ship.

 

There are two scenario's that would lead this plan. One is that the company will honor my request and grant me an all-expense paid ticket out of here, second scenario is that they will still honor my request by in the expense I have to shoulder the cost of travel from my point of disembarkation all the way to the Philippines, and same goes also for my replacement. Lucky for me this ship is bound to Asia , were air fares are cheapest. The only question is if I do have enough money by the time I send a request for an "early vacation" . On second though I don’t give a shit about money at all - safety and lives is in questioned here , and I don’t want to risk my neck dying on this ship.

 

So in the face of overwhelming odds, there is only one thing for me to do and I had to science this shit out of here. My main goal is to get out of here and my only chance lies on that request for repatriation.

 

Anyway I had enlisted (or at least made a conspiracy) with oiler and supports his plan that he was just generating airfare for the time being just to bust out of here. Same idea goes with me on planning a "jailbreak" here, so basically I'm "in" on his plan to get the fuck out of here. , We talked about it and laid out carefully the plans and with luck will execute on the latter month.

 

 

On news related to work…

 

This ship has recently berthed Columbia and god ! I can't imagine working for exceeding 12 hours on the whole day. It’s a total slave work , I'm not sure on what's exactly an article in STCW or ILO or whatever violates the minimum 10 hour rest period in a day , but definitely this is clear that it’s a violation. To be prudent the management here doesn’t even have a work / rest worksheet , to sanitize any evidence against any person who has the balls to report this to the authorities. The most recent annoyance is that after going thru all that hassle of casting off - I was put back again to maintenance work until 5pm for some dumb fuck removing of water on the bilge in the forecastle , then in midnight the following day to "heave up anchor" - not a very comfortable of work schedule as if like an emergency and imperative work is to be done, on a normal work schedule.

 

People here says that our indian chief office is to be blamed on the brutal work schedule, as if like he doesn’t know how to manage and handle people. Either way I think "Gandi" here is doing his management skills very poorly and he's crew are more annoyed because of this (and so am I).

 

WORK TACTICS IN E.B.

Entry log: June 06, 2016 Monday

 

With the difficult working environment and lack of resting hours , here is most of the tactics I had worked with on "BOSTON EAGLE" . I had to focus in order to stay alive here on this ship for a few months, actually I draw inspiration on the NASA survival movie like the martian (starring Matt Daimon), I feel like an astronaut on a space mission here and in the middle of it something went wrong.

 

Basically my situation here as of the moment is solving one problem over the next - usually related to daily maintenance and space saving measures, Of course in general this doesn’t matter at all if I can't get the hell out of this slave ship, but on the short run till I figure it out - I'm solving one little problem to another. Fortunately for me I brought all the needed equipment I need for the trip (and god !! it was worth every ounce of weight on my luggage) and I have to science this shit up to get out of BOSTON EAGLE.

 

• All equipment that I had should be stored with inside along with my cabin to prevent some crews stealing or getting my stuff without permission.
• Assembled inside my cabin facilities like a clothes hangar etc., anything that we will make me self-sufficient and self-sustaining .
• Sharing of any entertainment and Data is restricted, given that Filipino's I'm working with are not that friendly or even welcoming as a co-worker.
• "Isolation Tactic" again is in place , like what I did back during my time  in Stolt Strength and Cape Tallin.
• Store food and water for at least a couple of days inside my cabin.
• Triple "S" Tactic is in place meaning Search , Salvage and Save. Meaning find anything Salvageable equipment left behind, repair it and store it for later use - we might not know when are we going to need it. Basically it's more like a maritime version of "Hunt and Gather" kind of stuff on the stone age
• Wash and wear tactics, after wearing clothes and coveralls immediately wash it and hung it up to dry. I don’t have an exact idea when will laundry room be open again and the soap given was limited, and laundry won't be a problem dealing with on the latter.
• "Silence is Golden" tactic is also applied here, given with the situation that most crew here have attitude / behavioral issues,. I had decided not to talk much and remain silent, So that people here will have trouble reading my motives and intentions. What I can confirm for now is that some crew here are gossipers and some are arrogant cocky sons of bitches.

SOMETHING TO BE GREATFUL?

LOG ENTRY June 05, 2016 Sunday

 

Despite being Sunday , there is still work going on here on this nightmare ship "BOSTON EAGLE" .

 

Pay slip just came out , and as expected it was unsurprisingly disappointing.

 

Some of the crew here were very ignorant on what is actually going on the salary, actually almost all of them are smoochers (translation in Tagalog "sip sip") hoping that Norstar Ship management will be fair on the employments terms. I guess that’s the problem with Filipino crew, Most of them are arrogant and cocky sons of bitches thinking they're the high and mighty when it comes to manual labour but almost all of them don’t know shit when it comes to paper management works like this on the pay slip and pay roll issues. PATHETIC !!! People who don’t have balls to do what needs to be done.

 

Now these ignorants are figuring it out for themselves on how to solve the payroll and are even hopeful that norstar might hold up to the end of the deal on the contract. Haven't they even though theoretically that filling up past beyond the 85 overtime hours on work is almost impossible to achieve ? That would mean for us to practically work almost every day without a rest day (Sundays to Saturdays)  And there is no absolute guarantee that this principal Norstar Ship Management will even kept the promise of compensating to the overtime pay., My Filipino crewmates are total fools for even expecting good pay to this company. Worst part is that they are ignorant and don’t have the iron balls to stand up and investigate on what the fuck is going on.

 

Some of the crew doesn’t even know what and where is the leave pay going to be claimed, Can you believed that ?! What total idiots are they to think that leave pay is going to be claimed while onboard ?! As far as I know leave pay is going to be claimed when the sailor reaches home. So basically for us here the dollars is just nothing more than just ink marks on a piece of paper and that this principal , this so called norstar shitty company is doesn’t let us handle our hard earn money. In fact if I recall correct, they're not going to hand us any money at all while onboard, So practically there won't be any shopping done while I'm here or when I'm disembarking few months after this at the airport. Big question is - what the fuck am I supposedly to buy , when their not giving me any money at all , What ? Are they supposed to let me barter my way out ? And sell my underwear for a burger and soft drink ?.

 

Even the so called

 

I guess that’s the difference with me from them , I'm not afraid to lose my job just to uphold my beliefs and putting my neck on the line, I'm not afraid to speak out. Filipino's easily shit on their pants when the subject is already about losing their jobs, even if safety and health is already compromised.  The former principal I work with was a soviet run type of principal, they are brutal in some aspects but reasonable people. They even let us take week ends off as a rest day and the overtime is pay is 120 hours per month, and we don’t have to go to great efforts and hardship just to fill that 120 hours of pay. It's more like a semi fix and semi open overtime.

 

 Here on this Indian infested principal things are much worse, and are already violating ILO work standard violations. Practically no rest days at all , and work starts 8am till 5:30pm.

 

In the late morning,

 

I was caught surprised that an AB is even grateful that have an 90 hour over time bah !! And asked myself should we really be grateful on such absurd employment terms ????! , and we have to go to great lengths of work just to fill that ? Probably this stupidly pathetic A.B. doesn't even know what he's exactly talking about and most likely he hasn't been to a good company as well, . This A.B. is so full of shit !   

 

 

NO HELP , NO RESCUE

LOG ENTRY June 04, 2016 Saturday

 

Losing dad was the first blow, now another blow hit me. As in literary hit my face and broke of two of my teeth, both near on my front tooth. Worst part is that there is no possible way for me to get my teeth repaired , second part is that any possible repair done is going back home after 8 months and the annoying part is that if I go see a doctor , either here , Singapore or China Dry docks is that it will take days to fully repair. Time that is not plenty here on this ship.

 

So how did it happen ? First is that I was assigned for a couple of days now to fitter number 02 , thing here is that a deck person doing the work for an engine personnel was bad enough, let alone get injured because of it. As expected shit started to hit the fan for me soon when I was helping out fitter get the iron pipes out of the skyline on the engine room, the first long heavy pipe was ok and got it out - the second small pipe was the one that got me hit. I knew from that moment it landed on my face that something was wrong and felt the sensation that teeth "Snapped and Fell off" , I took my mask and was spitting blood out for a couple of minutes. The sensation of me feeling the wind during a hot day made me knew that something on was exposed on my teeth but haven't determined yet the extend of the injury. Damn old sod fitter number 02 didn't even bothered to ask if there was anything wrong on , and just said that its coffee break.

 

Having sustain injuries , I went to see the 2nd officer at the bridge and see if he could patch me up. Much to my dismay , the Indian wasn't really helpful and just told me that I'd be fine and just practice now eating on my left side of my jaw, (injury was on my right side). Fine if that was the case, but can they do at least SOMETHING to seal off the wound on my teeth (at least for 8 months) like a dental sealant, the nerves is still sticking out and from the way I'm feeling on how sensitive my teeth is at the moment there is a possibility food particles get inside and had it infected. Hmpf so much for Indian healthcare.

 

Went back to my cabin to check the extent of the injury. For both teeth the injuries are extensive, The front tooth is though injured can be repaired on a dentist as long as there is no exposed nerves. The right incisor teeth has extensive damage , almost all crushing of the enamel and exposing the pulp and nerves (which has a sensation and sensitive at the moment).

 

After a few minutes somebody came knocking to my cabin door and opened it up it was BOSUN, apparently word came out quickly that I got injured and wanted to see me injuries and report it to the chief officer.  So we went to CCR to explain myself on the injuries. As expected nothing was done to my situation and just answered a few question by the chief mate. After the questioning I returned back to my cabin, rested and went back to work again

 

On the work area, I received a lot of mixed reactions about some even blame me that I wasn't careful enough , and some could just ask what happened. The thing annoying about Filipino's is they prefer more of mocking gestures rather than helping out injured people, saying youre stupid blah blah blah …... , not exactly going to help or solve my problem. Anyway as a Filipino this is our nature so it's not a surprise. In fact some of the crew here are more happy to see me injured, because their jealous of me

 

Anyway at least I'm off the hook doing work that was supposedly meant for the engine crew. Besides I don’t like working along with fitter no. 02 "Lorzano, Amiel" given that he most of the time an asshole, and berates me on how I work,

 

For now the bottom line is this ….

 

I'm stuck here with no point of rescue and medical help anytime soon, My only hope of dental repairs is in the Philippines, My situation is as hopeless as ever here and I'm stuck eating sideways till I solve this one out. Luckily in the history humanity nothing seriously bad ever happens from having a broken teeth

FLOWERS TO CASIMIRO

LOG ENTRY : June 03, 2016 Friday

 

Recently received news via SMS roaming that my dad recently died from cardiac arrest. I haven't known the details yet on his demise and was only informed by my younger sister. Given with the limitations of communications here, I couldn't get even the details, The only thing I knew about is that it was  abrupt. Nobody both me and people on the house expected that this would happen, Dad was despite suffering a stroke 15 years ago which paralyze half his body and having a fracture on the leg two years ago was more physically fit for his health to last at least 2 decades.

 

Aside from that my movement is restricted here, being put on a "slave ship" were working situation here are extreme and worst that I had previously faced before. Recent news now has informed me that working hours has increased from the usual 8am to 5pm, now to 6:30am till 5:30pm - totaling of about 11 full hours from Monday to Saturday. Basically not enough time to attend to my personal needs and maintenance of my equipment, Now I'm starting to figure out why Majority of Filipino's hate Indian management - definitely unfair and inhuman to Filipino standards. If I recall correct, working conditions here are now violating the contract I signed up with which was supposedly working conditions are 8am to 5pm and Saturdays are half day work ONLY and Sundays ARE REST DAYS. Probably I suspect there is more disaster to come that will test my endurance and versatility to breaking point.   

 

I wanted to grieve a lot for my loss - but right now , I don’t have the luxury of doing it and have to get out of this ship first before I can do anything, I had to work out on my safety first before attending to dad.

 

This contract was basically from the start full of lies and deceit, people from Cf Sharp and Norstar had been lying on the details just to lure people on signing up for their unfair terms and if I had known this earlier I would have instead opted paying the 100 U.S. Dollars debt I had in cash rather than face this much hardship. I came to much obsessed on the cost and ignored the general safety of my well-being and now I'm responsible for this shit storm I'm facing. I am thinking this now because if I haven't proceeded , I could have still be seeing my dad right now and enjoying every memorable moment. Now the only thing left for me is see his grave stone when I get back home.

 

By the time writing this, dad would have been almost two weeks dead by now. Two weeks that I had been grieving but do not have the indulgence given with the hardship situation I'm facing with, I have to concentrate on how to get the fuck off on this ship. 

REVERTING TO CLASSIC DESIGN

Blog entry for : June 02, 2016 Thursday

 

Despite the moderness of my equipment, I still kept reverting (or looking back) to my old designs I used a few years back. Probably because of the fact that my old designs were lightweight, easy to use and easily constructed. The designs of my equipment date as back as 2010 and might consider it nowadays as obsolete but however it is now phased out.

 

In relation to this entry, I recently received a lot of flak from my fellow co-workers , both Filipino, Indian and Singaporeans alike. Apparently they haven't saw any sailor before that arrived on a ship with so many working equipment, and much to my suspicion some of them are even jealous that I came here well prepared and are doing everything to discredit my work (don't they all). Bosun even tells me openly that I should stop using my equipment, so I don't get any nasty attention. Frankly I think I already have and he's the one who's jealous of my equipment and he's just putting up an excuse.

 

Anyway I'm not really fazed on their horse shitting, and I'm already used to the fact about this and have been expecting that these imbeciles will not understand my methods, In any case I'm not bothered on their meddling - they just look at me as much as they can and drool on what I'm doing. As far as I know there is no such rule onboard any ship that forbids the use of my tools, And if there is some equipment that is in question like my headlight and flash light - all those equipment complies with the "instrically safe" standards imposed in Europe. So technically I can use it not only in this ship , but to among other ships as well  

 

Anyway going back on the main subject , No matter how much I change or "evolve" my designs from the earlier it still finds it way from back. Probably as I mentioned earlier. Good thing that despites the designs obsoleteness it still has plenty of uses up to now.

 

In other news….

 

On the working environment here in this ship, Indian working system is much more crueler and more brutal than the soviet type of working system and I had to go to all the trouble of waking up early in the morning just to attend to my personal agendas . Back when I was with NSB, I didn't have to do this because I had a lot of time for myself, Here it's obviously a shit on a stick.

 

What's more is that the perks and special privileges I enjoyed back in NSB are none existent here in Norstar. There are no bond store here , no liquor , no chocolates and worst is no soft drinks of any kind at all (be it either sprite, coke, Pepsi or 7up). Plus I'm drink water from a questionable purifier hooked up on the ships fresh water tank.

 

Another thing more annoying is that despite the modern of MLC, and technology. There is no internet connection of any kind here whatsoever, not even the basics of emails which is imperative to contact a sailors family in the Philippines. So for short , I'm working here blind on what is happening back home and the same goes back home where they have no idea what going on or how the hell are they going to contact me while I'm trapped here