LIFE OUTSIDE

Entry log at June 01, 2015 Monday

For a couple of days while this ship is at anchorage, we basically just did the basic maintenance work. Actually most of the time we just stayed for a few minutes pretending to be busy doing something.

At about 10:30 Pm May 30. I received a call on my cabin telling me that I had to prepare the pilot ladder on the starboard side, Basically it was always the same charade again - and as expected on work, I'm back doing my same old routines  before the ship berths. The channelling towards 'KINDER MORGAN" terminal in Houston took at about 5 hours all in all, BOSUN Diosana told me that while the ship is still channelling , I could go back in the accommodation block and take a quick nap. I did went back to the accommodation block to rest but I never took a nap and instead just waited out and let the time pass by playing Metal Gear Solid 5 : Ground Zero's video game in my PC. Around 5am I was called back and it was already to be on standby on mooring.

Mooring went fine without any problems.

Crew landing permit on the U.S.

24 hours later, I decided to go on shore leave for the first time since I arrived here on this ship. Shore leaves nowadays aren't that long compared to the days of yore where it last for days, In modern times its just roughly only a few hours. I decided to go out and see the environment around America since I have never set my foot outside (had already been here before but never set foot).

Rule in going on shore leave is that always go into groups, and never wander off alone. Since this is a foreign land there is always a possibility that there might be trouble. I decided to tag along with electrician Felix Rodriguez  and Fitter Rogelio  Lorenzo and took my shore pass from third mate corales along with a Xerox copy of my passport.

Due to security policies on U.S. port, We are to remain inside the ship until picked up by a cab. It was about noon when the taxi arrived and was asked by "Rosa" if we have anything on mind, Well for a start I was thinking of some place to shop, eating and drinking or checking out the place - something like that and not in any particular order.  By the way the taxi fee in the U.S. is 30 dollars one way per ride (doesn’t matter on how many we are), and another 30 going back (total of 60 U.S.D.)

Our first stop was "Best Buy" Store. There is nothing much to say about this really and compared to other malls this one is a very small one. Probably from my estimation it's just the size of any supermarket department on any malls in the Philippines. Anyway it's understandable why malls in the U.S. are small given that it's only a place to shop and not hang out. "Best buy" store isn't really much to speak of, it only has some latest electronics to buy like laptops, camera and video games - but not the complete set. On best buy due to budget and money limitations I had on my wallet , I only bought a stylus pen for my Acer Tablet PC and a laptop cooler pad for my HP - nothing more. Second stop was to go WalMart store, The three of us decided that since it is just nearby (according to Google maps it's just a 15 minute walk) we could stretch our legs a bit. Engine Fitter Rogelio Lorenzo was hesitant at first but Electrician Felix Rodriguez was able to manage to talk him out. Midway walking we received an SMS telling that third mate corales and messman galang are currently in walmart and asked if they could join in with us on the way hope. Electrician Rodriguez said that the reason why they plan to tag along with us was because they wanted to cut the cost of their transportation fee on the way back.

Google maps was pretty accurate in telling the directions and told us exactly which direction should we go along with the walkway for pedestrians. Took us less that 15 minutes on foot going there in Walmart. In Walmart, it was pretty spacious compared to best buy - but not as spacious as Philippine super marts like I saw went I was still a kid. Walmart is impressive went it comes to size but that just basically starts and ends there.

Once we got inside the store we immediately saw and tagged along with 3rd mate and messman, actually we never see and it was them that saw us .Out of necessity I had to borrow 100 U.S.D. from Electrician Felix Rodriguez to buy a few videogames, chocolates and soap. Aside from that I couldn't think of anything else to buy . We scattered all over the place to shop and was decided that around 4pm we would meet at the entrance of the super mart in McDonald's booth. After a couple of hours we all met on the meeting spot and by the time we returned to the ship, it was already around 5pm - an hour late on my scheduled shift. Fortunately O.S. bantic isn't a hot heat and was able to talk to him about why I got late.

At 11am close to midnight, I was suddenly awaken by the P.A. system. The voice speaking was no other than "Mr. Cobra" Sorin , telling us to go to out mooring stations. At first I thought that it was already time to sail off - after all I heard before I finished my working shift that loading the cargo will be finished sometime near midnight and its only plausible that unmooring operations will soon follow. When I got out , I only found out that "Mr. Cobra" wanted only to tighten the moorings of the ship and had to call the whole crew about it - for short it was unimportant and our friendly reptile is having another anxiety attack, he thinks that moorings will snap back because of the recent ship movements caused by passing ships nearby. We finally got to adjust the moorings despite the annoyance and got back to my cabin, I thought it was over and the next thing I will wake up will be the actual unmooring. Again after an hour I was awaken again by the P.A. over the same thing.

(God Damn ! does this fucker ever get tired of disturbing people over petty matters every now and then ? - I swear sooner or later someone out there in the crew will one day will get really pissed with him when their having a bad day and throw him overboard, what the fuck does he what to do now ?! )

After again adjusting the soft rope on the bitts , with a much more tedious task than before - I went back to cabin to only realize that it was only 45 minutes away from my next shift. What the fuck ?! Hmm so much for rest - no thanks to this bastard ship captan.

At about 5am the pilot arrived , and immediately this ship went unmooring, after the unmooring ops, I had only a couple of hours left on the internet signal to download a few files for my games before the communications got silent - so I had to make the best out of downloading as much as possible despite bad internet signal. at about 12 noon this ship finally exited the Houston area and was going south to panama for the transit

Electrician Rodriguez and Engine fitter Lorenzo

Well majority of the shopping is made by electrician 

Call this cab driver whenever youre in houston area, very friendly fellow and helps out us filipino sailors in getting the destination 

Word of advice from a buyer and as a sailor , As much as possible avoid getting a T-mobile internet sim card - this sucker is terribly expensive and internet connection is slow and dropping plus as an insult it is only limited to 5 GB usage. A much cheaper version is this "Simple mobile" though it has the same speed as T-mobile , it is definately cheap and virtually unlimited connection. Simple mobile cost only 15 U.S. Dollars