BETTER THEM, NOT US

As this ship gets closer to Singapore, the weather gets hotter and hotter as it closes. So probably I'd be preparing my Anti-Heat Tactics once again and see how I fare well on this kind of weather , besides as far as I know this ship won't be staying long. It's going only for Singapore for provisioning and bunkering.

For the Job order today , I'm basically just tagging along with O.S. Dalida and the   general work now is washing the deck.

While doing this work there was once incident of a screw up when O.S. alvin along with A.B. Jun ,Opened the the water line used for the sprinkler in the Bosun Store , instead of the main water hydrant, as a result the whole Bosun Store got flooded with seawater. It was only found out when the third mate , radioed in and said that there's a bilge alarm on the Forward Bosun store area . Pumpman Carnaje immediately check which valves were opened and saw that indeed the sprinkler's for the Bosun store was opened and immediately shut down the valves. All three of them when inside the Bosun Store to confirm if it was flooded and it was. Soon cheifmate Merk  came and went inside to confirm it as well and left soon after.

Me and O.S. Dalida were just nearby and was basically scrubbing the deck area to get rid of the Seagull crap. We saw them  removing water , bucket to bucket first then later they used a wilden pump to remove all the excess water. Me and O.S. Dalida were thankful that we were not the ones who screwed up or else it’s a lot of trouble and will add more to the problem I have onboard.  It’s a bad thing to say but given on how bad the work reputation here of our co-workers are , I could say that "It's better them and not us".

After Coffee Break, O.S. Dalida told me that . Pumpman Carnaje simply made an excuse about the incident "all people make mistake"., But O.S. dalida just smirked the said comment and said "Yeah all people make mistakes but , If either both us made that kind of mistake, I'm sure that the only thing missing is that they forsake and curse us all to hell, ". He added that people like them "like to wash hands and pretend they themselves to be cleaned".

O.S. Dalida said that after the incident Pumpman Cranaje looking for someone to duke out his frustration , and said criticized him for working always in close proximity with me. O.S. dalida was definitely pissed about this , since its none of his business to be meddling on other peoples work and that Pump man Carnaje should mind his own. I just silent and listen to the whole of O.S. Dalida's grumbling. For me, I'm thankful  that it was not us who was involve on the screw up and I'm more than grateful because of it. 

As long as it's them and not us, its fine with me.

We proceeded on the whole day work removing all that bird crap on deck and later switch in using fresh water in cleaning the whole deck area ., Good thing it rained on that day and saved us most of the trouble in washing a huge deck area of this ship.

OUT OF POSITION

Since I'm officially don’t have an job order's since the incident., I just typically tag along with O.S. Dalida and assist him in any work he does., Unofficially I do get job orders from Chief Mate Merk ., but those job orders are unreliable, inaccurate and could change anytime depending on the situation - so I just only use it as a reference.

Such example was the job order meant for today , which Merk told me to paint the bottom area of the Pump room. On that morning I decided not to tag along with O.S. Dalida to proceed on his job order., later I found out via O.S. Alvin, while preparing the grey paint, that painting was not the job order meant to be done today coming from the other chief mate (there are two chief mate here onboard) and that it was just basically cleaning the whole pump room and other areas. I immediately halted my work and proceeded in finding O.S. dalida but I couldn’t find him and was immediately worried (and feared) that I have nothing to do for work and was all alone., It’s a good thing and by stroke of luck that I decided for myself that I should clean and rearrange the whole paint room as a filler time until I find O.S. Dalida., I was left there all alone for about an hour cleaning the paint room and tried not to be noticed that I had nothing to do. I located O.S. dalida after an hour and a half when he left his squeezer equipment at the front entrance of the accommodation and he was taking a leak on the toilet. After his leak on the toilet,  I immediately rejoined him on his work.

The thing I'm most annoyed , about O.S. dalida is that he keeps asking questions on why I immediately rejoined him like its a big deal or something and I had to answer them indirectly to cover up my "out of position" job order. Personally I don’t like people who ask a lot of questions especially question asked that are sensitive and too private, or would put me in a problematic position. I don’t like him snooping around on my own personal business., Honestly the only reason why I had to cooperate with him was the fact that I had no other choice but to tag along him for the job orders., Anything beyond that , I could just simply ignore him and he just a nuisance on my day to day activates. Its true that I don’t I like him , but I do need him for work. Our alliance is simply just made out of practicality nothing more and certainly not on mutual trust.

Anyway what matters is that I've made thru the day without any incidents

PROBLEM WITH LIVING / WORKING CONDITIONS

Titled "Two Minutes till Midnight" . Picture depicts a public swearing ceremony for enlistment in the Greater Terran Union Armed Forces 

Its been years since I had changed my wall paper and background on my computer , and now I guess is the time I changed it to a more abstract painting. Before I used the Painting type of wallpaper I got (or copied) from a computer game called "Civilization 5" . Now I changed it and copied the artwork from a fan made faction from a computer game called "Stellaris" (another strategy type of game by the way). Id, post it here on my blog the wall papers.

Anyway …

I'm writing about now about my situation here, and standard of living conditions and I could pretty much concluded that my situation here has similarities on what happened to me back in the "Eagle Boston" incident way back 2016. Here the only notable difference is that this ship is new and that I'd had been on constant at odd's which a shitty crew member called Pump man Carnaje. Beyond that I could say that living / working conditions here are not pleasant. First I would mention here is the food here is insufficient , to the point that I'm technically losing weight as of the moment while writing this - its possible that maybe after this contract I would be a "slim" again because of food shortages.

There is the problem on food not because of the chief cooks skills , but the supply given by this "Hartree" principal (he owner of this ship). The do give the "regular" three meals a day but anything beyond that is zero, So basically I mostly end up feeling hungry every early morning or sometimes in other cases , late at night. There is also another option called the "Bond Store" were I had to pay some food as a supplement to my nutrition needs, but unfortunately here on this ship they don’t regularly resupply it and was always basically empty. The only thing left in the bond store is basically cola which not very good for nutrition. There's another option which I could get food once this ship gets to land and have a shore leave there I could buy from the local food store, even a local convenient store is invaluable on this situation, but unfortunately this ship is a VLCC type and most likely given on its nature of operations , there almost no possibility that this ship will berth at port anytime soon or even if it does - there's no guarantee that it will provide shore leave to crew. To compound more of the problems with this option is that for some reason this ship does not given "Cash Advance" of any kind - meaning they don’t cash to crew at all which would be used to purchase items from a food store,

So basically my situation here is totally fucked up with no way of getting any supplementary food for my nutrition, and I have no choice but totally endure this situation for another 4 months (the least, worst is 5 to 6 months). In just hope I still have meat on my bones left on that time.

Another problem plaguing this ship (and principal) is the regular supply of PPE and working equipment. Every company has in mind to keep their expenses at a minimum level or probably very low , but to the point that regular issuing of PPE and working equipment is jeopardize - I don’t think it’s a good idea. For example working glove here are not issued regularly and that I'm stuck with only four pairs of cotton gloves for three months now (and still ongoing). I had to rewash that gloves regularly as to keep it clean, which in normal practice shouldn’t be because working gloves , in particular cotton gloves are meant as disposable PPE and shouldn’t be reused. It’s a good thing that I had extra working equipment brought along with me when I arrived here to supplement my working needs.  

Land force Command (Army) of Greater Terran Union 

BEEF UP SECURITY

Now that im back again on my cabin after nearly four days of stay at the ship's hospital due to the lack of room. I have now started to optimize and compact my belongings to my luggage for a much easier "pack and go" type of strategy, besides it would be beneficial to me to do this , in the sense that moving stuff around takes a lot of time, which exactly happened to me the last time when they suddenly told me to vacate my room and move to the ships hospital temporarily. So cleaning and being a pack rat won't hurt once in a while, Aside from that I'm doing this out of necessity.

Another thing why I'm doing this is also for security measure to prevent any information or hint on what I'm up to , especially what O.S. Dalida is always frequently visiting my room probably to spy and check on what I'm doing, plus get information on what I'm thinking so he can leak. I've already made a solution and counter tactic on the part of "what I'm thinking" by simply being secretive and mindful of my words. Now on the part of "what I'm doing" , That what I'm trying to solve so he can't figure it out. My best assumption and tactic is that its best he does not see anything laying around on my cabin and better keep it just inside my luggage., the lesser he sees (or seen nothing at all) will be better

I'm tiding up my cabin , not because of the pursuit of cleanliness or any other "goody too shoes" idea but because of the pragmatic belief of being defensive and security.

Of course I could just tell O.S. Dalida, that he should stop visiting my cabin frequently and bar him altogether , but that raises problem of him suspecting that I'm already have leads and as far as I know O.S. dalida is not that stupid. So definitely that is out of the option., (Unless I want to bring out another enemy on this ship). 

In other news …

Cleanup work in the pump room is finally over after a couple of days. We had to haul off tons of garbage bag off the area by using a crane, even the equipment we brought in the pump room had be brought out using a crane., Afterwards once in the deck area , we had to clean those equipment using diesel.

Once cleaned , we had to go back again in the pump room to wipe the floor area again, this time using a thinner chemical (JOTUN Thinner #10). Its assumed that were wiping the floor area to repaint it with a gray color paint.

PUMP ROOM LEAK OPERATIONS

During the discharge operations, a work incident happened were the Pump room was flooded with oil coming from a defective cargo pump. The whole oil leak was not a problem but it got complicated when excess water from the ballast got mixed up and added to the flooding in the pump. If the flooding was only just Oil then the whole mess would just be isolated and controlled.

Having a mix of oil and water going around on the bowels of the Pump room, made the problem complicated and out of just bad luck , the vetting inspector went inside the Pump room in the middle of us cleaning the said spill . For now its no my problem on what will be Vetting inspectors remarks (but for them , its their problem) . Most of my time during discharge operations was spent cleaning up the oil mess , I did clean a significant area , but since the oil had spread to a very large floor area of the Pump room , it would be impossible for me to clean this alone.

Then on the last days of the discharge operations (took three whole days) ., when the leak was nearly cleaned and about 3/4 of the whole floor area was cleaned , Disaster struck once again as there another ballast water spill again and flooded once more the bottom area of the pump room - Basically starting again back to scratch in cleaning the whole area.

As soon as the ship went unmoored from the SBM and went on a voyage again , work resumed in the cleanup. When I got there the following day , the water has already been drained and the only thing left was the film of sludge. The probably have used an "eductor' from the bilge to remove all the water along most of the oil floating around.

Clean up work is still ongoing up to now , and I'm expecting that this will keep me busy for a couple of days.

The whole floor area of the Pump room is littered with sludge oil

A SNITCH IS AMONG US

As I went back to my working shift during operations , I saw A.B. Jun on the manifold , he says that O.S. "Alvin" is in the forward area and babysitting the mooring buoy. He told me that I should be careful with O.S. dalida for being a backstabber, (in other words a "Snitch") and he revealed that there were two incidents on work were backstabbing occurred, One incident was while cleaning the said "bilge" pipe inside the Pump room on which the sensor was accidentally trip or triggered  ,

Apparently he reported me to chief officer "merk" , aside from that he used me as his scape goat and me taking all the blame. Honestly I can't exactly recall on that incident, nor I can't recall specifically that I myself was the cause on why the sensors was tripped. On my point of view I was simply cleaning the bilge thoroughly and was keeping it dry. In addition to what A.B. "Jun" told me , there is another separate incident also in the Pump room were apparently he reported to Pumpman Carnaje about my activities and included an insult that I do not know "How to mix paint" .,

The latter that A.B. Jun told me raised my alarms, as I know the whole incident well and that during that day., me and O.S. Dalida was doing fine on work , and I didn’t suspect him of snitching me at that moment on the fact that I was just doing my job and finished it well with no incident whatsoever, I'm not even acting aggressively or O.S. Dalida acting suspicious on that time . So it’s a surprise to me on what A.B. "Jun" Revealed. Another revelation that A.B. "Jun" told me was that, he is insinuating a renewed conflict between me and Pump man Carnaje and was more anxious and looking forward in a violent confrontation. Either way its apparent and clear that O.S. Dalida betrayed me and that I trusted the wrong person.  This troubling reports and revelation cannot be overlooked, and that I should watch my back often from now on and do not disclose any information that might lead to me being put on a problematic situation. Of course I'd act subtle , so that O.S. Dalida will not suspect that I'm counter acting. Besides this situation has already been a "cloak and dagger stuff" - and I'm not the one who started it.

Historically and by practice., Filipino Sailors have been notoriously known for betrayals and treachery. Such examples of it is that they intentionally give away information about somebody, and this O.S. Dalida is not above of this such examples and that his actions against me are a proof of that. This is also one main reasons why on work I do not reveal any personal information, and that if by no other choice or option is available., I only give half-truths or give false information for my personal protection. I keep a personal policy of "Protection of anonymity". If I didn’t practice this policy then I could point myself in harm's way unknowingly. 

Looks like for me things have went on an unexpected turn and that on this ship , I simply cannot trust anyone regarding about information and I'm all alone and surrounded by betrayals and snitches all over. Anyway the good thing I'm already accustomed on this "cloak and dagger Stuff' since time in memorial as a seafarer., 

PLAYING SWITZERLAND

Believe it or not New year's Eve here was spent on work and being on "standby" ., because of vetting inspections. A few hours later then came the discharge operations. It’s a good thing that discharge operations of this ship for now in South Korea is via SBM., So basically there's not much to prepare on mooring wires (In fact none at all) . When we were preparing for the pilot ladder and gangway accommodation ladder , A.B. "Noel" Approached me and said to me that my cabin should be vacated immediately for the incoming visitors of this ship (referring to the Korean mooring team , and surveyors). I told "noel" that as soon as I'm finished on work, I'd get my stuff out of my cabin, in addition I asked "noel" were will I stay for the time being ? , A.B. paused for a few minutes and didn’t know how to reply to my question and radioed back to bridge. A minute later a reply was given that I would be put to stay on the ships hospital for the time being, until the discharge operation of the ship is over.

As soon as I was finished I immediately went to my cabin in haste and grabbed everything I could carry from my belongs and put them on the nearby Ship hospital room. It didn’t took me long to pack all my stuff and transfer it. As soon as I was finished I went out again for the mooring operations

During Mooring operations in the forward area, O.S. Dalida and O.S. "Alvin" had a heated conversation about the winch operation. I just stayed out of their way and played Switzerland in their argument, I don’t want to get dragged down on other people's business especially heated arguments. They were having such a heated argument that even the Korean mooring master got their attention and had to yell to O.S. Dalida to focus in operating the winch rather than chatting with O.S. Alvin.

After mooring in the forward section is finished , I was ordered by Chief Mate "Merk" , to be the watchman on the bouy at the forward section. After my few hour long watch I was relieved by O.S. Dalida on noon time in the forward area. When I was on the starboard side section in the accommodation block. I saw A.B. "jun" , O.S. "Alvin" and A.B. "chris" talking to each other apparently from what I notcied they were still brooding over the mooring incident. As I passed by they said to me and told that I should be careful in hanging out with O.S. Dalida as he has a tendency for betrayal and has an attitude in backstabbing people around him. I was puzzled on what they said and just proceeded to my routine after work to rest and have a hot shower to warm myself from the freezing weather of south Korea.

Inside the ship hospital (where I temporarily stay), I immediately sorted out my belongings and compacted them on my luggage. So I could easily be more mobile in moving my stuff, when I go back to my cabin after this operation. After the hot shower , I just dried myself and slept to the hospital bed since it was the only bed around the room. As I lay I looked more like a sick patient rather than just simply taking a nap , but thankfully the hospital bed seemed to be more comfortable.  

My whole stuff just got transferred to the hospital room on the last minute 

UNINTERESTING NEW YEAR

"Your born , you live and you die, you cannot undo all this. No second chances to make things right if you Fuck up the first time - not in this lifetime anyway" "like i said you make your own choice and you live with them and in the end you are those choices"

All is well for now at the turn of the year 2020, but to my disappointment the new year's celebration here on this ship is desolate and empty compared on last year with TCC. Probably because of too much "budget constrictions" this principal has to impose , it's hindering so much that provisions itself were a problem. Aside from that problem , the adding factor is that the crew here are fractious and had no sense of unity. In any case although New year's eve celebration was dismaying , I'm hopeful that new year would be grand and fun on another ship and definitely not "Hartree" principal nor any of their ships.

As far as I can tell this experiment contract I went on "Hartree" is a big failure. Both in their crew welfare , and working environment. Pretty obvious that this will be the first and last contract I will have with them, no more other contracts slated for "hartree" or any of their ships and I will not even dare venture again on another VLCC kind of ship. For me I'd stick with the aframax type and below (better if not best if it’s a panama sized) .

Believe it or not New year's Eve here was spent on work and being on "standby" ., because of vetting inspections. 

(Incidentally this is also my 401st entry on my blog journal)

YOU ARE (NOT) RELIABLE

Had been doing routine jobs for a couple of days now at the Pump room along with O.S. Dalida. Recently I had been left doing jobs only to assist him after the "incident". I don’t mind tagging along with O.S. dalida up to now as this is the only option available after , as I have been refused to be given job orders from Bosun / Pump man Carnaje a couple of weeks ago. He acted like he's some sort of POEA and harshly dismissed and locked me out in doing work. Out of luck , chief mate "merk" decided that I could get jobs orders directly from him rather than getting it from Pumpman Carnaje.

This is the best solution - for now.

Unfortunately for me , this is just a temporarily solution and that as soon as Chiefmate "merk" will disembark and finishes his contract , I will be left out with the big question on whom will I get "Job Orders" after. (Although as much as I want Chief officer "Merk" to be gone soon, given that he's some sort of close to Pumpman Carnaje and also talks against me behind my back and cannot be trusted. The only reason I'm cooperating with him was because of practicality). So probably the rest of this winter season will be left for me to figure out, the whole 4 to 5 months left. So it’s a big uncertainty for me when we goes out (thought much to my liking).

In other news …

South Korea's weather is close to zero now , and can't go anywhere outside without some sort of protection from the cold weather like a winter jacket or putting on sweater inside before wearing my coveralls. Good thing for me, I always come pretty equip (and in some extent far more equip than the standard issued equipment by the ship / principal)

Work has been , for now been light . I just tagged along with O.S. Dalida in removing water on the bottom floor of the Pump room and aside from that just washing and removing Oil Carbon stains on the aft deck. Lately we just took out the mooring loose rope out of their stowage and just put in the deck area for later use.

Based on what I heard , this ship will be making a discharge operation by exactly new year's day and that by Monday early morning this ship will move to the inner anchorage (and drop anchor there until further notice) and from there will conduct a vetting inspection first. After the vetting inspection finishes, then it heaves up anchor then proceeds directly on the berthing via SBM.

On Sunday , and I was latter informed by A.B. "Chris" that we will go out for work at 1pm. I was in disbelief at first and wanted to verify this information to O.S. Dalida, but to my surprise he too was unaware of this and even asked that if this is true then I should give him a call and inform him immediately . Honestly I was expecting that he should be the one to know this info first and that it was the other way around, anyway I guess it's foolish of me to even depend on other people knowing that they themselves have limitation.

To be blunt, O.S. Dalida is not that reliable as what I initially thought, however despite of this - it's better than nothing or going alone blinded on what to do. O.S. Dalida is still a big help and trustworthy , although not to the point of the "no secrets" category. Basically if I would look at it , my cooperation with O.S. Dalida looks more of like an "alliance"  rather than a treaty of "amity". For now this my situation and have no other choice, I have to figure out a way on how to at least last and make it for the next 5 to 6 months.    

ACCUSATIONS

On the night of Christmas day , a Phone call rang to my cabin when answered , its was O.S. Dalida and he says the he wants to discuss something that he can't discuss with over the phone in regards with the sudden change of behavior of Pump man Carnaje, and something to do with the Filipino chief officer Merk.

At midnight he knocked to my cabin and I let him in. Inside he said he overheard Merk blabber at the dinner table , speaking bisaya furiously (local ethnic dialect in the philippines) that Chief officer Merk was furious over some reports he received that some sort of complaint has reached the main office of OSM regarding the incident about me and Pump man Carnaje and that the report included (or added) 2 O.S. we're allegedly being treated badly (maltreatment). O.S. Dalida added that they suspect me ,that I'm the one behind the said report.

I told O.S. Dalida , that if ever what he overheard was true, I had nothing to do behind it and someone else made the said report. Although it was my plan to make a complaint and report it to the OSM Office later on, I didn’t proceed on it until I can guarantee and have reached the safety of the Philippines, which unfortunately will not happen at least until May 2020 or June 2020 or speaking easily 6 months away at least. I added that I specifically told my sister that no action will be taken until I reached the Philippines in fear that there's a possibility of retribution and revenge will soon be followed while I'm onboard.  At least if I made the report in the Philippines, there's no possibility that retribution can be made on their side.  

Whatever the case and whoever made the report , did not consider that factor and was probably brainless in making one. Assuming what O.S. dalida said was true, it’s a probability that I'm not the only one who has a grudge with them and whoever it is has direct access to the OSM Office. As far as I know , the only person who has a Grudge with Chief mate Merk is the Indian Chief engineer and exactly fits my bill of suspicion, but like I said its only suspicion - nothing solid.

Anyway I told O.S. Dalida, that I'm not the one and whoever it is , its definitely not me, I didn’t further tell him that about the incident merk and the chief engineer had a heated argument which the captain and another chief mate saw publicly . I didn’t tell him for security reasons.

For now, because of this so called report. I'm obviously getting spooked again and will have to take extra measures for my safety, it is apparent that they will target me because of this suspicions. It’s a shame that Filipino's do this to other Filipino's onboard and there's a saying that there is no greater enemy of a Filipino but a Filipino itself.