ON STRANGER TIDES

August 14, 2018 Tuesday

Perth, Australia

"The ship approaches. from this distance, it holds similarity to the environments back on land. I must not take comfort on this. From comfort comes weakness and that is something I cannot abide. Although we have prepared for the world below, it will not be enough. If we are to survive and last, we need to learn more. To be vigilant. To adapt." 

----Unknown Filipino Sailor ------

Probably this is my shortest vacation ever recorded , and as of today while typing this entry , I'm just roughly 83 days that have passed since I formally left UPL - Shell  company to be here on this new company. 

Personally I never thought that I would have a replacement job too soon after my employment on UPL - Shell fell off on its ass. I was expecting that I would be off on the job for probably a few months or maybe as far as even close to a year like what happened on my transition phase from CF Sharp to UPL - Shell.

After all the reason I started out looking for work early was the fact that my U.S. Visa had already expired and that chances of employment without a U.S. Visa would be more difficult. Another reason why I started out early was that my money have already been depleted as soon as after a month. It was too soon for me to ran out of money, and whatever I had earned with was spent only in replacing equipment that I had used from my previous employer.

I found out via message on facebook saying that there is an opening for the position of O.S. and based mostly of the source of information I found out via face book, accepts applicants without a U.S. Visa and to make it more interesting is that they're financial bank they use is BDO.

Anyway now that the fiasco in UPL - Shell is sorted out and I am now here. The principal they assigned to me is called T.C.C. (tai cheon chen) , which is a Hong Kong based on the company profile I had read during on Google search. After a few process of interview and computer based test I was endorsed here and went off to the TCC liaison office located nearby (located near Victoria building , same building were far east maritime training center is located) , where I was interviewed by Captain Sicat. It took me a lengthy interview which lasted more than an hour before finally being approved.

The whole process of me finding work took only as little as three weeks , and before I even know of it , I was already being scheduled and lined up on the TCC ship , So on the eleventh day of August 2018. I was put on a fight to join this ship.

UPL - SHELL / NAKILAT REPORT

People from the social media often tell me that I should refrain from posting any negative comments about company. The problem about the seafarer life in the Philippines is that it's too dogmatic and too Fascist ., you can almost criticize everything save for the shipping companies, when it comes to discussing or even mentioning negative remarks on this - it is immediately labelled as "TABOO" as if like their authority are absolute, and should not be questioned at all

I remember an old saying in history channel about the history of European monarch or the roman catholic church in medieval times.  "Absolute power means Absolute Corruption"

For now I will discuss point here about the good points first in this company , Their selling points

• Both local Manning Company and its principal are generous (at least while you're still in the philippines). They will treat new hires to a hotel room and pay for everything.
• Their ships are one of the most advance and modern
• Well-known name for working credentials
• 6 Months contract
• Allotment is never delayed and arrive early.

• Almost no age requirement

For those who don’t want to know the dark side and negative comments . DO NOT READ BEYOND THIS LINE

• 7am to 7pm Working hours, overworked and underpaid There are no rest days on their ship, crew will work Sundays till Saturdays

• Filipino Crews here are practically moochers and booth lickers (sipsip sa filipinong salita at palakasan)

• CONTRACT RELATED ISSUES, Deceptive Contracts (you sign up a contract as a regular crew and end up being a riding crew , worst part they never mentioned the contract changes and you will only knew when you're onboard their ship, contract doesn’t even say specifically that you're a riding crew )

• "Uwak" Officers and "UWAK" Policies

• UNFAIR TREAMENT , Crews get fired over and sent home immediately over the simplest things without due process, like brining a cardboard cutter onboard , drinking beer while on shore leave, any form they consider a violation of their personal interpretation to "safety" - and yes they fire crews immediately without any due process , this how iron fisted the management is.

• Safety Equipment Advance but NOT WELL SUPPLIED or REGULARLY TO CREW . PPE is modern and yet they will never issue you a new one., In other words your practically stuck with the same PPE for the whole duration of the contract. If you really want to be issued a new PPE,. You will have to first show the old PPE you got before being issued another one and debate over it whether you should be given or not. 

• Too many Regulations and Rules of "SAFETY" (safety is questionable on the fact that they are too controlling and too severe , plus exaggerated safety policies. No medicines allowed , Injuries have to be concealed because the principal avoid paying for insurance,  etc

• NO SHORELEAVE and Almost impossible to get one if not limited. All persons who wish to have a shore leave must first sign a form a week or two weeks before port and have to wait for approval.

• ANONYMOUS REPORTING SYSTEM . There exist an anonymous reporting system in shell that acts like a dreaded "secret police" , almost anybody can be fired on the spot and be sent home immediately if they get reported by any anonymous crew member if they find you're doing "unsafe" act. They just fill out a form and submit it and it directly goes to the principal. The unsuspecting victim then receives a plane ticket and be fired., they say that he was fired because of committing questionable "unsafe" acts.

• POOR TO NO PROMOTION TO CREWS   . Based on their odd and repressive working standards, Transition and promotion from one rank to another is almost practically stagnant. Before and O.S. get promoted to A.B. , he could be dealing with a lot of years serving on different ships before they would even consider promotion., aside from that The O.S. rank here is just practically "By paper" and that the real work and duties he would be doing are already as an A.B. ., To simply say youre hired as an O.S. and yet unofficially you're doing work as an A.B. and their paying you less than what contract you signed for. If a poor person is really desperate to get a promotion ., a lot of paper work should be done first (aside from work) ., 

END OF BT SEMINAR

July 14, 2018

Seminar in ZRC took very quick and 2 days was very fast if the company I'm hanging with is interesting. I had always thought that this seminar with just go along professionally and go along with our own lives without any attachment, guess I was wrong on that part. Probably because the class I encountered with was majority of it coming from passenger crew and that the crew there tend to be more civilized than cargo related crew.

On the second last day of the seminar (Monday) ., everybody had to come along on the attendance because "Mr. Benigno" was reassigned to a different class to teach., no more easy going when it comes to the seminar. Unfortunately for the class the instructor that was assigned wasn’t as lenient as Mr. "benny" and was a totally douche when it comes to handling people ., ABOSULTELY NO CELLPHONES around entirely even during breaks. Some of my classmates were unlucky and got scolded over this cellphone policy.,  A lot of people don’t like Mr. Santiago around and more than half the class hates him.

Turns out why Mr. Santiago was such a douche was because he's came from the infamous PMMA ( Philippine Merchant Marine Academy) and folks coming there typically lack in manners, I myself avoid these people like the plague. Of course people from the passenger crew don’t exactly know the real deal from folks coming from PMMA., for them this person is just imaged as a person with attitude problems.

Anyway luckily for us at the class ., Mr. Santiago gets only to be an instructor for only a couple of hours, he will be replaced after that by an assessor which basically will handle the exam for this seminar.

As expected the exam for the seminar was easy , everyone passed. Exams on this seminars should be taken lightly after all , I haven't seen any person flunked his / her seminar exam.

Now that the lectures on this seminar is over ., the practical exam will be followed on the next day. The practical part of this seminar is very easy , it has no exams and the only objective to accomplish here is sign the attendance sheet. The only problem I see is that I have to carry some working clothes for the seminar and that I have to wake very early to be on the meeting area , so I won't miss out the bus.

Its unfortunately that I won't be able to ride on the metro train this time and I have to commute from marikina all the way to ermita malate area since the LRTA trains isn't open yet at 5am. I did make it in time and almost all of my classmate did arrive as well except for two folks "Leni" and some other guy who will directly go on the training site.

We arrived on the training site at about 7am and immediately we dressed ourselves on working clothes for the drill,. The instructor on the site told us on what to do in the drills and such and what we should expect. The first drill we had was the fire drill , it was easy and just went by in a snap. And after that we took on a small break.

During the break I found out that one of my classmates came from the dreaded PMMA school , and I said to him that for a PMMA kid , he's a bit more friendlier than the rest of his kin

Now the second drill exercise we had was difficult on my part normally because I cannot swim and swimming drill for me is such a pain. Even with a life jacket I can be easily distinguished from the class because of my inept skills on water, good thing for me this will not be a problem on this seminar despite me having to jump on about 4 meters in height to the water and swimming my way toward the floating platform.

At about 2pm , the whole drill exercise is finished and we proceed back to the training center via bus., we waited for an hour or 30 mins for our certificates to be released  and after that we headed off in our own different ways     

BASIC TRAINING IN ZRC

July 08, 2018

Seminar on "BASIC TRAINING" started out over a week ago in ZRC., and honestly It took me by surprise that this seminar is the most interesting of all seminars I took so far.

Hanging out with cruise line crew Trainee's is much more entertaining than folks from cargo crews and honestly they are more liberal and easy to talk with compared to trainee crew coming from cargo ships which are plagued with Ego problems (tankers, bulk , gen cargo etc) . They're so liberal that they are not afraid to speak out on what inside their minds and they just act normally as what folks back in land behave. I could really tell the difference from trainee's coming from cargo ships to trainee's coming from cruise line / passenger ships.

 They have good social views favoring reform and progress. Personally I like my fellow cruise line trainee's here in this class and they are not bound by the autocratic environment (which is typical in cargo ship crews). It didn’t matter to them what is the background of a person, as long as were working together. Reminds me a lot of my time when I was still working back in the call center., People there are liberal and respect each person's civil rights.

I envy them and wished that the environment on how people behave in cargo ships should be like this., if that ever happens - then being a sailor in cargo ships is  a lot more meaningful and a lot better to live in. I'm very lucky to have that 95 percent of this class came from the cruise line / passenger ships.

Within two days this training seminar is going to end and I will certainly have mix positive feelings about this class., Overall I wished that I should have known more of them better  and longer before reality check comes in on me.

C.M.P. COMPLETE

For the moment, I'm currently in disposed on finishing phase one of my employment plans. Which is updating my training seminars. The first seminar I took is "CONSOLIDATED MARPOL" subject which is basically a compressed series of training seminars before. Years back getting  MARPOL certificate in the Philippines is per "annex" , which meant getting the whole subject thru six certificates (which is more costly because you pay the whole training six times) . Glad that now they have compressed it and not only do I have to pay it only once but the cost now in getting this has drastically been reduced, no thanks to stiff and fierce competition among training centers.

Now I only got the certificate by 850 PHP in ZRC training center located in Ermita manila (just beside U.S. Embassy). Fairly good price compared to my previous training center which is PNTC that cost around 6,000 PHP.

Honestly the whole training was a pain in the ass., because of its cheap price. They scheduled me to a night class which later on the last day shifted to a morning class, and ended me staying only on the house for three hours. Aside from that there's also a plague alert when one of my fellow trainee's arrived in classes with a high fever and rashes., Thankfully the instructor sent him home early and as a bonus he won't have to take a remedial class for it. 

Anyway due to budget concerns ., I will only take two training subjects. "Consolidated MARPOL" and "BASIC TRAINING" which is previous called "SOLAS" ., Only the important ones. The rest if there will be any trainings I had to take, will probably be announced on the next company I'd be hanging out with. If with luck ., I hope they won't announce any more new trainings.

Consolidated Marpol subject is now finished and the next subject will be Basic Training. It will take roughly another week and a half to finish this whole agenda before I move in on the next phase which is job hunting.

ANOTHER CHAPTER

It's been a month since my arrival in the Philippines again , and roughly about two months or three since I wrote anything.

For the moment I'm still trying to get the settling feeling and making myself comfortable now that I'm back home again. During that time I didn’t waste any minute in upgrading and replacing most of my equipment that I had on my luggage in preparation for the next ship work "tour". Well most of my equipment was replaced but the electronic equipment I will be carrying on my next ship work will be relatively unchanged, because I wasn’t able to upgrade them during and after on my previous ship. So it’s a huge possibility that the electronic equipment I have will be just simply be carried over on the next ship work I'd be into (in a different company).

On other news aside from the upgrades and overhaul on some of my gear., My separation with the UPL - Shell company was met with hostilities., especially with the crewing manager Jasmine Salvador which even threaten me that they'd have me being BLACKLISTED ., and denied of a sea service certificate.

Now black listed for what ??? I'm not sure what they'd put up but as far as I'm concern ., I'm a so called "contractual employee" and once the contract is over , I can freely leave the company - No strings attach ! . Besides I didn’t even spoke openly that "UPL SUCKS" in the social media like what I did in Cf Sharp. Heck I didn’t even sign on anything that might put me in debt or owe them money. So basically they got nothing on me and have no leverage on how they can trap my ass. Just to add they're so called threats are illegal to begin with and I could complain anytime on the department of labor about this issue.

Obviously that old shit bag is making hallow threats, Anyway that shit stick can threaten as much as she wants and it won't stop me from my decision in ditching  her crappy company. It makes me even thinking more that my decision is right all along.

In the end it was relieving that I finally got rid of them for good., Those bastards even took my marshal island seaman's book along with the Filofax holder with a shell logo that they gave me half a year ago. Anyway its fine on me since they're Filofax sucks and it's too bulky for my back pack anyway

As far as I'm concerned , I'm not going to change my mind over leaving them - even if I'm threaten or they have perks that I really wanted to have. The risk is greater than the reward for me if I stick around with them a little longer.       

THINGS TO TALK ABOUT

April 27, 2018 Friday

There's a lot of things I should be discussing (or writing) right now ., and I don’t know where to start.

For the moment my recent transfer on "watch keeping" duties has lead me to a grudge between two second officers here. I didn't start any trouble but they did ., and I'm just defending myself against this kind of people . For now I can say that im in a long standing feud with them for their psychological maltreatment I had been receiving to them ., like being shouted and labelled "Stupid" almost every day, and saying "I should use my brain" .

Personally I don’t think it is right to call people like that , and I dislike it. As a retaliation I'm giving them the "cold treatment" and simply ignores them.

In other news .,

Recently me and O.S. "Pamorada" ., that the contract we signed up here for in UPL - Shell / Nakilat was deceptive. From what I recall almost six months back ., we asked the office a number of times on what will be our salary rate for the job and they repeatedly said that its 1,129 U.S. dollars per month. Now six months later me and O.S. "Pamora" re read the contract we signed up for and did the math ., and what we discovered was very disappointing. From the looks of it ., we were actually just being paid by only 1001 U.S. Dollars per month and not on what the office said a few months back that’s 1129 U.S. dollars.

To add more insult to injury - the 1001 U.S. Dollars we had been receiving for a month does not include deductions ., Like Social Security , Housing Loan , Health Insurance , Seafarer Union dues etc. . Overall our apparent guess is that we had only been making money at around somewhere 800 (minumum) to 900 (maximum) U.S. Dollars per month.

To simply say .. UPL - Shell / Nakilat lied to us about our salary scale., and personally right now I feel I was cheated and being manipulated by this company.  

"E.V.L" GOT SHOT DOWN

April 23, 2018 Monday

Couple of weeks ago. Desperate to find a solution on my situation , I finally manage to think of a plan on how to get out and get rid of the bad treatment here PERMANENTLY. And it came be on what we Filipino sailors call in the contract "Early Vacation Leave" .

I immediately got to work on it way back when this ship was still back in Korea ., but never fully considered it as an escape plan here. Although I'm not in good terms with A.B. "Windel" I did got a good idea about the early vacation . As soon as this ship left for Korea , I passed it immediately to a "FAO" (Fleet administrative officer) onboard

(A FAO IS PRACTICALLY A "SECRETARY ONBOARD" AND PRIMARYLY DOES WORK RELATED TO PAPERS, THIS POSITION IS UNIQUE ONLY HERE IN AN LNG TANKER)

F.A.O. never gave any question on why I wanted an early vacation leave and simply got to work writing. I easily got my way around without any problems and he just simply told me that the letter is finished and it will be passed to the captain.

FEW WEEKS PASSED BY.

I was surprised one day , while having a coffee break that FAO came back and told me that I did not informed BOSUN about my early vacation request and I should have done it first before making the letter . He said it won't be a problem since he has already submitted it and I'd have just to inform bosun the next time.

Later that day I did informed Bosun "Jerrymine" and as usual got disrespecting comments along with some of the crew who heard it especially Oiler Monta.

(Next time, I'd be reminded not to do any favours to Oiler "Monta"  - such an ungrateful son of a bitch)  

AGAIN A FEW DAYS PASSED BY

I was doing the usual coffee and believe that everything will be fine and proceed in me getting out of this ship for good (despite numerous criticism from ungrateful crew members). Then all of a sudden BOSUN Jerrymine said and asked if I had a problem with him because Chiefmate Ivan blames him that I "by passed" Several steps and that the only reason he thinks I did that was that I had a problem with the crew. He added that Captain Vedran spoke to me and suspect something is bothering me which I denied to avoid any more complication on my situation

Obviously I had to deny publicly that I had a problem with the crew as to avoid trouble , ( in reality I DO HAVE A PROBLEM WITH THEM AND THE CRAPPY POLICIES HERE) and reassured him that the reason why I'm filing for an early vacation is that my contract is already almost finished when this ship arrives at Ras Raffan , Qatar.

(The words that came out of my mouth were practically half lies and half-truths, as just to avoid myself from dealing with a more escalated problem).

Later that day ., I was summoned on the captains office on similar suspicions , This time Chiefmate Ivan and Bosun Jerrymine are also present. They tried to inquire and interrogate as much as they can to find out the real reason why I'm trying to get a leave. The meeting was more like a battle of words ., and I had to be manipulative as possible on what I'm saying just to dodge them.

I was successful in dodging them and just pointed out that my contract will just expire and I just came in an early notice , Although I was successful in avoiding suspicion however it came on a very high price. I was left to abandon my desire of getting out here on this ship. And as a result I have to endure another month of annoyance and bad treatement .

From the looks of it,. If I'm trying to get out of this ship for good. It looks like that I had to find another way out and that my "early vacation leave" excuse just got blown away by sabotage.

REASONS WHY I DONT

April 18, 2018 Wednesday

Things are not going well here for me onboard., as far as I can tell by now almost everyone here is having a grudge against me and there is not a day that goes by that I am not being mistreated, Its serious enough for me to decide to discontinue being a watch keeper and will talk to BOSUN later on to quit the job.

From what I'm describing , I am now being maltreated here and at the moment have a very low self-esteemed. I am always being critized here and insulted even on the smallest mistakes (or none at all)., it's like I have been singled out here as a target for their bullying.

Not a day goes by that I am not being scolded by both of these shitty Indian and Egyptian second officers. And I can't imagine that I had been almost 8 years now as a sailor and this is the first time a person would insult me by saying "Your stupid !" and "Use your brain !". 

Anyway this is the reason why I try to avoid doing work on the bridge in the first place because of this kind of people, and yet Filipino people here are stupid enough to keep pushing me around and persuaded me to work then when it failed , they started taking matters by pressuring me and saying that its "part of the job description". It resulted in me being forced to do work that is not what I signed for,. In any stand point I don’t see the logic of why an O.S. "Riding Crew" should be doing a work that is meant for an A.B. , especially if there is no assurance or guarantee of being promoted anytime soon and on the fact that the contract I signed for definitely states "Ordinary Seaman"

In any case , for the moment I am now experiencing the full brunt of my situation being forced to work on the bridge and up until then that I can find a solution, I am stuck taking all the verbal abuse these shitty Indian 2nd officer can throw at me.  

EXTENTION OF MISERY

April 14, 2018 Saturday

Its been a long stressful day again., I did went thru the hurdle of struggling as a pseudo A.B. here until I would get a chance to disembark ., Unfortunately it is to my dismay that "Early Vacation leave" didn’t pushed thru as some work politics here prevented approval (or somewhat sabotaged my efforts). I'm not sure if chief mate "Ivan" had something to do why my vacation leave was turned downed or it was the previous captain "douglas souza" . It was ok before and the "office" even approved and agreed to send me home by the time this ship will reach Ras Raffan, Qatar.

The newly arrived captain Kolonovic from singapore, approached me yesterday  during my work shift and wanted to know the reason why I filed tha "early vacation leave" ., I replied saying there is no particular reason and I just wanted to have an "early vacation"

(officially, that’s I would say just to avoid trouble here) ., while im still onboard and my "personal safety" here is not yet Guaranteed. The truth and real reason why I'm submitting that leave was because the environment here is very uncomfortable to work with from the start and to complicate things here furthermore is my co-workers both Filipino and non- Filipino nationalities have poisonous personality. Bosun "jerry" is practically full of shit and he doesn’t have the skills to have a normal conversation for three minutes without pissing off people off.,

The same situation goes the same also on the ship officer's specifically 2nd officer amir ., who pushes people around. He always find fault on anything I do ., even the most simplest and most non sense of things.

Recently things with him went sour , and I didn’t started it. One day I was just simply doing my usual routine on work and he then lashed out saying I'm not doing my job right complete with shouts, intimidation and insults. I took all of the brunt for the whole 3 hours and after that , I got fed up and confronted him and said that if he's so frustrated in my work performance and find me incompetent then he can replace me anytime as a watch keeper , after all im a "riding crew" category and in the first place i shouldn’t be doing this work in the first place.

2nd officer amir feeling my annoyance and anger quickly changed his tone and just said that he was just doing that for my own good. Honestly I don’t believe on any crap he said and his just excusing himself from my retaliation.

A.B. Erwin came by and saw mg anger