13 HOURS TO SULU

September 04, 2018 Tuesday

Sulu Island Philippines, Enroute to Kwinana , Perth Australia

Working almost at the border of the Philippines., I never imagine or thought that this ship will be at transit on Sulu island Philippines. Never occurred to me that this ship transit is so close in the Philippines that the whole sulu island is visible on the naked eye., Of course the whole island is technically still a few kilometers away , but it's so close that signal reception of cellphones in Philippines telecom operators are picked up. This is good if the my cellphone was not registered for roaming function,. And perhaps I could even get an internet signal. Unfortunately reality check is that my cellphone is in "roaming" mode. ( Anyway maybe I could get some internet sim card and internet on australia later on )

The cellphone signal lasted for at least 3 hours before of being lost.

Speaking of which, During that time I was on the bridge because since this ship is transiting HRA , the Chiefmate decided that there should be a double watch on the ship bridge and incidentally the time slot 4am to 8am falls under me. I went there just barely for two hours - just during the night time.

ABOVE THE DISTANT CLOUDS

August 31, 2018 Friday

Moored at buoy in Kemanish, Malaysia

Ship has finally moored at Kemanish, Malaysia. The mooring is "SBM" (Ship buoy mooring) meaning a ship is tied up to a buoy on the forward area and the aft area is moored or guided by a tugboat (or supply vessel). The ship receives cargo from the buoy were its also has a cargo hose.

Apparently mooring in Kemanish, Malaysia has no nearby port., No shore leave for short.

Temperatures in Kemanish, Malaysia is exceedingly hot. As in tropical heat weather, like peak of summer in the Philippines. Anyway there is nothing I can do about this given that I had been thrown on the far side of the world because I don’t have a U.S. Visa around., If I had a U.S. visa - I'd definitely not be on this place., and would prefer the weather in the north Atlantic area, preferably european weather.

Work on an "SBM" type of mooring is relatively easy., Someone has just to stay put and routinely check for buoy position on the forward area and that's about it. And lucky me I'm the person assigned to baby sit on that buoy position. Loading operations was very short ., just mostly around less than 24 hours compared to my previous work experiences on other Oil tanker ships .

Unmooring was also easy and no effort (on my part) was made since I was just baby-sitting the whole buoy position for the whole 24 hours, I just saw my co-workers do the disconnection of the cargo hose , although I wanted to see more on how it is made , I cannot leave the area and just simply watched it via my binoculars.

Soon after unmooring , razor wire was immediately put up around the whole ship , in prep for HRA (High Risk Area) where supposedly piracy and robbery always take place in south east Asia.

Piracy and robbery here in south east Asia is not as violent (or not violent at all) and usually pirates here just steal some stuff on the ships, Its very rare that they harm or attack people,. They do get violent sometimes when of course provoke, other than that - it's nothing to be cause of concern. Personally I don’t think putting up razor wires is necessary at all here in this region, but who am I to say that right ? As long as I'm being paid extra for the efforts then it's none of my business, besides if in rare instance that we do encounter pirates then it’s the ships property they want and not people.     

THAT OLD GHOST

August 30, 2018 Thursday

Anchored at kemanish, Malaysia

While we wait for the day for this ship to go berth , We do the usual work that seafarers do when a ship is out to see.

MAINTENANCE

On this work in maintenance , we were tasked to paint the whole mast area just above the monkey island. In short we have to paint the tower that houses the radar equipment. The radar was switched off as per safety working practice.

We were already in the middle of work and painting the area, and I myself was right in front of the blow horn of the ship , when suddenly a big blasting loud "HONK" sound was made by the blow horn. Everybody on the whole Mast area, was interrupted by that deafening sound and me in particular as I was working in front of the blow horn, Sound was loud enough to be deafening. Good thing all of us were wearing a safety harness just in case.

No one was injured on that sudden sound blast, although it did scared the chief mate - thinking that someone might have been injured on that sound blast.

A day after that painting of the mast, we proceeded to work on another "high area". This time it’s the ships chimney, I didn’t get much action on this work, as I was only just assigned to be a look out (more like a guard dog) and just assist and bring in any working equipment the group might need. I did bring in to them a few water hoses, for cleaning and some paint.

Later on that day ,.

We had an emergency drill, basically not anything new - just the usual fire drill, abandon ship drill and enclosed space rescue.

During the abandon ship drill, there was this minor incident in which a lashing broke off while lowering the starboard life boat. Apparently from what I heard they never released those lashings when the life board was being lowered which resulted for the wire to snap out.  Based on what I overheard from the chief mate ., the captain was stupid enough to said lower the life boat, not even knowing that the wire straps have to be released first. Totally dumb ass "Uwak's"  they only know how to make life complicated, by their self-made rules but they themselves are stupid enough to not know the basics, they couldn’t even follow their own rules. In the end of the drill , he called for a meeting and started the "blaming culture" Uwak's are known for and the poor old second mate was the one blamed.

After pointing the blame to someone else , that old crone even has the guts to brag and mention the word "resilience" lecture which came from Shell company , my former employer.  Yeah right ! Resilience ? - for all I know when I was with shell , their so called "Resilience" lectures were nothing but pure horse shit and as what I said earlier, they couldn't even follow their very own lecture or apply it correctly.

All that big talk about their so called lectures, rules and discipline - look has what lead shell into, An "uwak" infested company that every Filipino sailor should avoid at all cost, and on my personal experience - one of the worst companies I worked on my entire career as a sailor.

Save that "uwak" filth for another "uwak"

HAPPY BIRTHDAY OF AN OLD DINOSAUR

August 27, 2018 Tuesday

Anchored at Kemanish, Malaysia

Tomorrow will be my birthday, can't imagine that I will wasting 8 months of my life again on some worthless, pathetic, ignorant principal who couldn't understand the basics of instrically safe equipment I had.

Anyway what do I expect from Indians, those ignorants are nothing but trouble on a ship. It’s one of the main reason why I left UPL - Shell, because of these kind of people and the whole company is overrun by them. Now although they limit the number of Indians here on this company, They still cause problems - its seems that whatever ship I go to (and company) as long as there are presence of Indians, things will never be smooth. Currently the situation here on this principal is that they impose oppressive "Shell" like policies in a lesser extent, and that bastard Indian even have the guts to invade a person privacy and use the excuse of "safety" just to violate them. 

I do now fully understand why former crewmates in "EAGLE BOSTON" hate them.

I sure do hope that this is the only principal in OSM , that has an Indian presence. Otherwise as much as I hate it, I have to get out and look for another company that has no Indian presence. Despite the setbacks I'm scheduled to accomplish in this company to take in a two contracts, after that  if the results were unsuccessful , then I'd move along. The possibility of a third contract will be heavily based on what will be the results in the second contract.

At around 27th of August this ship has arrived in Malaysia and anchored and will be probably be waiting for the 31st of August for it to go to berth, which will take almost 24 hours of loading and depart and go back to Perth, Australia.

SEMI-HABITABLE

August 26, 2018 Sunday

Enroute to Malaysia.

There was last minute changes that happened, originally the ship was headed for Singapore and was later changed to somewhere in Malaysia. Another last minute change that happened was that instead of anchoring for five dance, it later turned out to be "BERTHING UPON ARRIVAL" . So as a result every routine work was put up in a hurry.

Like for example the installation and removal of razor wire fence and preparation of mooring lines. We didn’t have even enough time in laying out mooring lines in the aft area as a result.

During mooring , I had problems operating the winches because the lever didn’t have a "spring" time of mechanism were the lever goes back to normal stop position, instead it permanently stays on the angle until I pull / push it back to stop. I got scolded by the Filipino chief mate , saying that I pull the lever too hard , and that I'm going to get the two other O.S. killed.

I was never bothered on his scolding maybe because probably I'm not staying in TCC principal for long and obviously will be just hanging out with them only for this contract., I don’t want to get too involved in this kind of environment and just wanted to be just in the "professional level only".

During cargo operations , I found out from the A.B. that there will be two loading area's for this ship before it goes back to kwinana, Perth Australia. This ship will only stay for about roughly a day and then head off again somewhere in Malaysia. I also did learn about what "dry checking" means , which apparently I have never see during my days working in "EAGLE BOSTON" ship. Basically "dry checking" is very similar to "Ballast sounding" task. The only difference is that instead of using a sounding tape to measure the level, he there is a specific device used for it and both just simple determine the level of liquid left inside a container space.

In other matters Aside from the usual routine work - Weather here in Malaysia is absolutely hot and humid, and very uncomfortable for me. I had to take extra precautions to avoid dehydration and cool myself often. Anyway I'm already full aware that south east Asia region (far east ) is always in hot tropical weather, and this will always be a problem for me until I finish my contract in April 2019.

In other news …

Since I'm one of the new guys here on this company , I can't help but notice that people here have started pushing me around. From the Indian captain, who hates me using the elevator and thinks he owns the damn thing , all the way to my fellow O.S. who complains that I make too much noise inside my cabin . These things are really starting to annoy me right now., Aside from that there are also numerous annoyances from other people here telling me to do this and do that kind of stuff when it comes to work,.

Frankly I don’t need there lectures , and I'm old enough to do things my way.

I guess it's one of the bad cultures on working in a ship. The new guy always gets bullied by the old folks.

In other matters…..

The recent cabin inspection (which is weekly here) was dismaying for me., turns out that cabin inspection is not to inspect , but search the whole persons cabin. Never occurred to me that this will be the case and they searched what inside of my drawers and cabinets. Resulting to the discovery of my stash of coveralls and some emergency equipment I had been hiding away in plain sight. Apparently in this company , hiding my equipment inside the cabinet is not enough and that they do search the whole cabin like a police. I'm not exactly sure about this but , I think some privacy is being violated here ., The main goal of cabin inspection is to looks for compliance with sanitation and safety - not to search for a person's belongings ,

Even my possession of instrically safe head light for the safety helmet is being questioned when they found out I do possess one (actually two). Plus the safety helmet that I got on my luggage was being questioned as well.  

I don’t even think it's even legal in any way that this Indian captain is searching personal belongings , even if he uses the ruse the word "safety" just to get away with it.

Anyway what should I expect from Indian's right ? Certainly these vermin are one of the worst things to infest the maritime industry. Once they get inside a company. Expect that they are nothing but trouble and disaster for a Filipino seafarer. Their very primitive in thinking and certainly backwards in almost every aspect. I advise that if a Filipino sailor detects the presence of Indians onboard a company, it best he should not proceed in continuing the job offer., and look elsewhere on a company that has no Indian presence around.

Otherwise he will be dealing with a type of people who are arrogant, interfering with other people's business, and basically a snitch (tsimoso at sumbungero)  

On my end of the situation , I shouldn't be complacent that putting my stuff inside those cabinets will ease my mind that things will be safe from there, knowing that cabin inspection here are not cabin inspections at all but cabin searches.

For now I will be thinking of ways on how to counter this kind of tactic.

On the wake of the recent cabin search, I successfully thrown overboard most of the coveralls that was discovered , however despite doing what they said, I didn’t comply fully and kept some of my coveralls not on the cabin cabinets but inside my luggage. On there most of my "reserve working equipment" will be safe there, unless they really wanted to go over the top and violate a person's privacy rights, and from now on any working equipment on my cabin will be stored inside that luggage.

Its fortunate that I brought along a second check in luggage from start as this will serve now as a "portable locker" for me for the time being. Absolutely no equipment of clothes or any kind on cabinets, to avoid any kind of suspicion on cabin searches.

Anyway if there is one thing good that is brought about on cabin searches is that at least complains from my pesky co-workers (O.S. "ELI" )about cabin noise would stop since I won't be using the cabinets for good on this contract.

Funny that they make cabin cabinets and yet, the indian captain forbids crew from using them as storage and even conduct searches on personal belongings. Hypocrite Indians ! , I'd be better off with Europeans than this kind of people. In fact Europeans hate them , Australians hate them (during my land base work several years back) , and Filipino's even find them repulsive as well. In Russian managed ship , they rarely conduct cabin searches let alone on cabin inspections.

I had only been roughly three weeks here and things are really starting to go sour because of this Indians, I'm already starting to think that this is ship (and company) is another "Shell-Perfectionist- wannabe" , although on a lesser extent when it comes to brutality . Definitely it's going to be a very long contract from here on for me.

Whatever the case, I told myself that I'd be professional this time - I won't speak publicly about this and will just simply keep quiet and request for a transfer at the OSM office after this contract. Whether or not they grant my transfer is fine., I'd play along on their game until I get a U.S. visa. , then after that I'd ditch them.

My Primary objective here is stay until a second contract just to erase the bad rep on my working credentials. Whether or not there is a U.S. Visa. What I'm certain is that TCC is no longer on my list., another principal will be replacing this soon after this contract.

Over all TCC is another "dead" place, and barely even habitable or desirable for a seafarer. Just finish my contract and be professional…..

IMPRACTICAL MANUAL

August 23, 2018 Thursday

Enroute to Singapore.

Ship had a drill in the afternoon , and it was all just lectures. I was surprise that the lectured said in the drill was a "Shell" manual about resilience. Immediately I loathed the whole course of the video lecture.

I'm already swapped into a new company and yet the garbage lectures of "Shell" company still lingers into another company. As far as I know this is OSM - ANOTHER DIFFERENT COMPANY AND NOT SHELL, we should have nothing to do with them,  and I don’t want to heard any more trash lectures on a pathetic company that is heavily infested by "Uwak's" .

Let the "Uwak's" sell their own garbage lectures to their fellow "Uwak's" , I'm a filipino and I don’t want to hear anymore of pointless impractical lectures of "Shell" about their so called "resilience" .

As far as I know (and experienced) their so called resilience is actually opposite of what they are preaching in the company. The crew there are exhausted, fed up and stressed., and instead will suffer Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder later on from what they're doing there. They're preaching's are exactly opposite of what they are practicing - total hypocrites and fools. 

No matter how these "uwaks" preach and lecture about they're so called "Resilience" garbage. There are some things in life (and work) that are not learned in the books but must be experienced ., It may sound good to any typical sailor but as far as I can tell in practice and application in the work place , their trash WILL NOT WORK.

I can't help but imagine that the reason why, these "Uwak's" advertise their trash is because they were successful in infesting one of the oldest and well known oil companies in the world, and as far as I'm writing this - Uwak's are still dominating that company. Probably they're so proud that they're infestation on a well-known oil company. 

Good thing other European shipping companies don’t give a shit about and ignore trash lectures of "Uwak's". Otherwise the whole industry will be overrun by them and will be heavily infested by these vermin.  

SPACE CONSERVATION

August 21, 2018 Tuesday

Enroute to Singapore

"Vanguard --> The position of greatest advancement or importance, leading position on any position or field"

"Vanguard" is definitely a Japanese made ship , even at first look I could easily tell. The architectural Japanese concept of minimalism and space conservation is evident amongst the structures of this ship. Almost everything here is miniaturized. Cabins, Laundry rooms, toilets, working spaces even at the bridge etc.

This maybe a cool concept back in land, however if you're a Filipino this concept is not ideal as Filipinos need a much bigger space to move around with. Everything here in view as a Filipino is cramped and not enough leg room. Even the pipings here have a lower vertical clearance which I might think that the Japanese who built this doesn’t have a human height of more than 5 and a half feet tall . For me I'm almost close to 6 feet and every time I had to go over on the other side of the ship (left to right , vice versa) I had to literary crouch down and bend my spine every now and then just to get on the other side. Really punishing for my knees.

Anyway "Vanguard" is the newest ship , I had sailed with so far and from the time writing this, the ship is just barely 2 years old (launched at October 2016). Almost absolutely rare to find rust in the deck area , and if there is rust its almost very small and not noticeable, Practically almost low maintenance. Most of the time the only maintenance job I could think of as of the moment which we had been doing for weeks is mostly painting.

In other news ….

I just found out a few moments ago that every week here has a drill, and same goes also on cabin inspection. So basically I had to deal with this complication for now for the next 8 months till my contract finishes.  Anyhow it's no surprise for me since the senior officers here are "uwak's" , usually when this people are around - they prefer more in meddling other people's business than doing their work and what are they being paid for. They spell and bring trouble for Filipino sailors.

"Uwak's" are so obnoxious that a majority of Filipino sailors population dislike them (I myself included) and these folks keep getting offensive that its even reported that most Filipino crew refuse to join a ship when they find out that ship officers are "Uwak's" . Even on recruitment in companies, some Filipino applicants , turn down job offers when the interviewer tells them that the principal has an "Uwak" presence. (and eventually some companies lie and hid the fact to job applicants that there are "uwak's" in their principals).

( Now I understand clearly why my fellow Filipino co-workers in "Eagle Boston" acted so harshly when they found out that there were "Uwak" officers rather than Myanmar ones. )

In the afternoon we had a drill and for a long time , I haven't worn a fire fighting suit (except on the training center) and not even shell's harsh and punishing policies were enough to make me even wear one. But this time around, I wore it and there is no pressure coming from my co-workers this time, I just did it voluntarily and I'm happy that no one here is saying any bad comments on me donning a fireman's outfit, and I'm glad no one did - if anyone does , then I don’t give a fuck and I'm old and experience enough to handle myself. 

FIRST SUNDAY IN A LONG TIME

August 20, 2018 Monday

Enroute to Singapore

Having half day work on Saturday and off work on Sundays really helps a lot as rest days and stress removal from work here. Compared to my previous employer "UPL - Shell" which have serious rest hours issue and they dont let they're crew to have rest days.  

As of the moment I'm satisfied and grateful that there is an actual rest days here, and it’s the first Sunday I have in a long time to have actually rested.

On news around this ship.,

I have heard some grim rumours from an oiler here that other ships here on the "TCC" fleet have brutal working conditions and that this is the one and only ship in the tanker fleet that has a lax policies. Based on the rumor I heard from him, the work there was so demanding that other crew nicknamed them "Training Center". Probably I surmise that this is because of the presence of "Uwak" ship officers there. From what I heard aside from demanding work load, the crew on those ships are being forced to take computer based lecture test often., and they use the excuse of "Safety training" as a means to make life difficult and put more strain on the crew there.

From what I heard from the oiler one such example is a ship named "KWK Excelsus" , the ship I was originally assigned to go until I was reassigned to another ship on the last minute. ( Thankfully the reassignment was a blessing, otherwise I would be facing again yet another " near shell company" working conditions yet again.)

Hearing that rumor from oiler makes me rethink again about my short term plans here on this company and principal. I had a swirling thought again that maybe I might consider to getting transferred to another principal, just to avoid those damn persky "Uwaks" or better yet find another new company that has no presence of any "uwaks"

After all if I heard correctly from the Oiler, only this principal in this company has an active presence of "Uwaks" and other principals have zero and "uwak" free working environments. The rest of the other principals from what I heard are managed by Europeans and have European ship officers ( which meant better treatment of Filipino crew and less oppressive working policies)

Whatever the case maybe, My Plan here on this ship is to have at least two contracts to erase my bad rep on the resume, afterwards the third contract is optional and heavily depends on the result of the second contract. The only main objective I have here is to get a U.S. visa and finish the second contract. If in any case I'm unable to secure a valid U.S. Visa , (which they won't even bother to give me one) . I'd definitely leave and find another better company - One which doesn’t have "Uwaks".

Mostly this campaign I'm working with is just plainly a "Reclamation" , just back tracking on filling up my financial losses on the previous two disaster campaigns (Cf Sharp and UPL-Shell). I suppose that sailing on this for a while might help recover my losses before moving on to the next company.

The only thing I could guarantee is there will be a second campaign here  , just to erase the bad reputation on me resume.

On other concerns ….

Since the policies here are not as hard as "UPL - SHELL" ., I might be planning to get a camera and take pictures all over the ship as part of my survey. And if all goes well I might be even able to post it on the social media as a means to distribute information.           

EARLY SURVEYS OF TCC

August 17, 2018 Friday

Enroute to Singapore

News came by coming from my house and apparently it looks like that things went bad when I left. Based on what my sister told me flood destroyed nearly more than half of our house appliances and the flood height was even higher than it was on typhoon "ondoy" ten years back.

I'm not sure on how high is the extend of the damage caused by the flood but I reckon I might consider investing on life jackets in the future and air seal tight containers for protect on electronic devices., After all I never expect that the flood would be that high after ten years.

In other news …

Life in Vanguard seems to be peaceful , and less busy compared to any other ship I've been around so far. I'm still adjusting on the daily routines here on this ship and observing carefully their schedules.

From what I learned a few hours ago , "Tool box talk" starts at 7.30 am in the morning and coffee break, lunch break, midafternoon break, and work end , starts at exact time compared to any of my previous employers which start 15 minutes early. Anyway exact time water breaks doesn’t bother me and it's just minor. Another thing that I might add is the "maxicare" private health card insurance that  recruitment brags to TCC is mostly a sham. From what I heard to O.S. Chris , the chance a sailor only gets to have this maxi care is when he has already signed up for three contracts. So in other words , it's not available for me since this is my first contract with them

I'm not really bothered in not getting a maxicare heath insurance as this option is only available when something bad happens to me (like an accident), so it's not a problem with me and I'm fine with that. In any case as based on my experience on several shipping companies , they usually never tell what the catch on their so called "Perks"

On work schedules ., apparently TCC principal is lenient , Sundays are off work, while Saturday is basically half day work and Week days like Monday to Friday have normal working schedules starting 7:30 till 5pm. And the day before and the day after mooring is automatically rest day.

As for the supply of water and other necessities , it looks like that mineral bottle and such here is sold on the bond store and is not given freely. Again this is only trivial on my part , since I have my salary at my disposal to cope with on the cost.

I'm fine with the 1270 USD per month salary as an O.S. , Its not plenty but its sufficient here to cover up my losses after two disastrous campaigns. (CF Sharp - Norstar, and UPL-Shell)

Speaking of water , the normal water here that is supplied comes from a fountain hook up in a filter (which in turn is hooked up on the fresh water supply). I'm not exactly sure if the filter here does its job as what local folks here say , the water coming from that taste a bit different like a metallic taste. (rust maybe ??) . Whatever it may be the situation on water is similar to the incident "EAGLE BOSTON" which I encountered two years back. If the crew didn’t complained about it, the Norstar management wouldn't even bother to respond and resolve it .

Another problem about this Principal "TCC" (called Tai Chon Cheang Steamship CO H.K. LTD) in O.S.M. , is the presence of "Uwak's" . Although it’s a lesser extent and the place is not entirely overrun by them compared to my previous employer UPL - Shell.,  its still doesn’t mean that they're not a threat. Most Filipino sailors avoid companies who have "Uwak's" , I know so because , "Uwak's" are difficult people to deal with, and they treat Filipino's worst. Here on TCC I had heard rumour's that filipino crew avoid this principal like the plague not because of the salary but because the presence of "Uwak's".

Personally I myself don’t like any presence of "uwaks" on a company , and would rather prefer Europeans. For me they are one of the worst vermin to infest a shipping company, It’s the primary reason why I left my two previous employers in the first place because of "uwak" policies are very oppressive and anti - Filipino.    

Aside from that work load here for an "O.S." sailor is a bit on the borderline with an A.B., here when on it comes to port. I'm not exactly sure if this is a policy given by the Indian Management or just a company policy.

Any Filipino crew who would be sign up here on TCC principal would notice that this principal and company is stingy ( "KURIPOT" sa tagalog). They don’t bother to give filipino crew's a travel allowance when they join the ship and they don’t put the crew on a transit hotel, after or before a flight. They immediately put the crew straight away on the airport. 

READJUSTING

August 15, 2018 Thursday

Enroute to Singapore

72 hours have now passed since my arrival on this ship., and I'm still adjusting life back at the Oil tanker.

For a start , I'm having motion sickness again but not as severe as during my early years as a sailor. Nevertheless its still unpleasant being sea sick again, probably because I got too comfortable on the LNG life were the ship rarely has a "rolling" movement.

Anyway despite the modern and complete equipment in the LNG , I'm still thankful being here in the liquid tanker than a gas tanker, UPL - Shell (My previous employer) . Is still far too brutal and too oppressive for a typical Filipino sailor. There is no force on earth that would make me go back on that god forsaken company.

Liquid tankers may not be as abundant or as well equip as UPL Shell gas tankers , but at least here THERE IS FREEDOM.

For the news on work.

Discharging operation in Perth Australia, went along fine and there is almost little to no problems for me handling my job. ISPS work here (guard duty on the gangway) is a piece of cake., no incidents whatsoever.

As for the discharging ops , I still have a few adjusting on some work here mostly related to piping systems throughout the entire deck area,. I don’t think those piping systems would be problem on me at all , I just need to be well acquainted on were its located.

For the moment , the first impression I had in working in Vanguard is generally positive. But I still have to be on my guard as usually positive things is just a tip of the ice berg and there's a huge possibility that the "dark side" is well hidden. For now I have to be always on guard .