JOURNALS OF A FILIPINO SEAMAN

"DISCHARGE OPERATION IN MOHAMEDIA MOROCCO " JUNE 26th and 28th 2013, Morocco, Mohamedia Position North 33 degrees 47 minutes, East 7 degrees 22.5 minutes This ship has already been at anchor for more than a week now and finally from what I heard on the news is that the ship will be berthing soon by tomorrow at 1500 HRS (3pm), and of course I'm going to do again the dreaded mooring again, Seriously I don't mind doing the rope type of mooring and I had already mastered it way back in Bow Ophelia, Unfortunately Cable types are a bit heavy on my part and I cannot (or having difficulty) carry it single handedly. Aside from that of all the work here onboard a ship the thing I most dislike at is the mooring operations, I fare well in unmooring and all other things except that. During the past few days I had been occupied in talking to A.B. "Patrick" during anchor watch, Nothing really significant but based on what I heard from him is that he's having terrible...

"WAITING FOR SOMETHING " JUNE 23rd 2013, Sunday Anchored at Morocco. Never been on my previous sailing years did I experience the longest anchorage time yet, but here on this product tanker named Cape Tallin. Before several years earlier, my former vessels are always on the "berthing on arrival" status and Anchor watch is a very rare occurrence. Honestly up to now I'm not still used to the long anchorage time here. So what has been happening on me since my last log on my journal. Well quiet a couple of things, especially on work On work, I could tell there had been two incidence were I'm furious over the BOSUN. One incident was during lunch were they are talking about A.B. "Patrick" on his recent incursion with the third mate, I was only listening to their conversation and was minding my own business eating my own food. Then all of a sudden I was brought up on the issue and said that I forgot to relay the information, Upon hearing it I just smiled ...

"ANCHORAGE WATCH " JUNE 17th, 2013, Monday Anchored at Morocco. Anchor watch went along fine in the early morning (1am till 6 am), and as usual the whole anchorage area here on morocco is peaceful. A few small fishing boats came nearby or close to this ship, however to my dismay they don't conduct business and whenever I approach them just went away. I'm not sure why this is happening because three years earlier, fishing boats always approach ship nearby to conduct business and do barter stuff. Hmm probably it may be on the port terminal security thing why local fishermen here refuse to conduct business. Early morning after my work shift A.B. "Patrick" came knocking on my door asking where did I put the Morocco Flag. I said to him that It was in the work shop rather than the safety locker, unsure I went down to the main deck from my cabin and check the flag on the safety locker and there it was. I told "Patrick" that I made a mist...

"THE MISSING LINK " JUNE 15th, 2013, SATURDAY Anchor at Morocco. So far so good. From what I heard this ship will be going to Holland after Morocco and next to the dreaded pirate infested region of west Africa (Nigeria, probably) afterwards it's a rumor that this ship will be dry docking soon in either Portugal or in most likely in China since this is a Chinese built ship anyway. For the work , could say that laundry is getting a bit of a problem and that there powder detergents just ran out. For the moment the measure I took up in washing my working coveralls is just plain old hot water, Not effective but it will do for now in washing my clothes. Washing machine I used to wash my clothes with Our laundry area onboard Cape Tallin For the latest news around here. A.B. Malorca keep's hovering around me and ask what's my connection between Captain Betts, I said to him that Captain Betts is my backer here in Career and he's the one responsible who got me into t...

"DO I EVER DREAM AT ALL ? " JUNE 13th, 2013, THURSDAY Near Morocco. Iridium actually is the brand name of our satellite phone here in Cape Tallin and based on my perception it's more like a prepaid one, this phone is more like a typical black handheld wall telephone in appearance. When using it just dial 02888 + the country code number (in my case the Philippines which is 63) then the telephone number. Haven't used a satellite phone for more than 2 years now and I only used it way back then as sending a message out of my desperation, Seriously using a satellite phone may seem cool but it isn't really that effective at all as compared to simply just email a person or sending a PM to face book, or even using a local land based phone at all. IRIDIUM is an expensive and inefficient way of communication , on top of that it slashed 34 U.S. Dollars off my onboard pay for this month. This is what an Iridium Phone looks like Anyway Since any broadband communication here i...

"RATIO IS 1 : 4" JUNE 11th, 2013, TUESDAY En route to Morocco. Aside from A.B. Ronald giving me a set of working clothes, 4th engineer Henerson Patino Gonzales gave a set also and what's more a blue sweat shirt which will need for winter. For the moment we were informed by our chief officer yesterday evening at the bridge about what happened on the crew of the capsized fishing vessel, he says that's its owner's are Portuguese and the crew have already been rescued days earlier. He says that thing we say yesterday was just a ship wreck floating adrift pose only as a minor navigational danger. Aside from the minor safety briefing, After long last I have now finally washed (in secretly) all the leather gloves and cotton gloves I had collected ever since I had arrived here. Of course I did washed it secretly away from the prying eyes of my crewmates , I had to wash it secretly since I don't know on how will they react if they saw me doing it. So what's my moti...

"ON BETTER CONNECTION" JUNE 9th, 2013, SUNDAY En route to Morocco. After weeks of figuring out on how I can communicate to the outside world , or at the very least have an entry on my blog - I had now finally solved the problem and found out that there was an onboard email here in CAPE Tallin, I just simply have to register on the computer at the C.O.C. office on this ship and viola - I have now an email address and can do emails. Plus it's a good thing that I had managed to program my blog to publish blog entries via email. Another thing that I could add about is the Status update of my official FB account, good thing that face book has an email status update feature ( face book mobile option I think) which of course I also program when I was still back on land. I cant wait to get my hands on the ships C.O.C. computer and start emailing there !!! The PC here that A.B. Patrick is using is the PC used for crew email, Before using it, a sailor needs to inform 3rd officer fi...

"DAY OF DAYS" Manila, Philippines en route to Corpus Christi, Atlanta U.S.A. Past few days have been relatively quiet, No sign of Career calling me up and saying that "Its Time". For the moment based on what I had read on the website "CAPE TALLIN" is on the united states and will probably take a month of travel to reach Europe, If my rough estimation is correct there is a possibility that I might join there given the fact that career has upgraded my SCHENGEN Visa (European Union Visa). For the moment I could not exactly figure it out whether it is in Netherlands at all or some country in the European Union, But what I am sure of is it is in the some country in Europe. As what I mentioned earlier, the days have been quiet since my last log in this journal. I had been busy doing some other stuff in the house, playing video games, taking care of the sick kittens and making rounds like a vet and such. Aside from that I also optimized the Ubuntu Linux Operatin...