JOURNALS OF A FILIPINO SEAMAN

Been some time since I last updated my journal, and I guess it's about time I write something. The days that went after this ships recent departure from kinder Morgan terminal in Galveston Texas have been relatively quiet. I had been busy doing mostly the usual routine maintenance work and some affairs related to the  bond store. Apparently the latest news is that , the bond store inventory is not that accurate as it was supposedly and as I suspect 3rd mate keith caduas predecessor (3rd mate german corales) never even bothered to update it before he left and finished contract. As a result me and Keith have now been updating the inventory every so often and checking out why the numbers have been inaccurate. Anyway doesn’t surprise me that German was always such a dick and dumped all the unresolved inventory to keith after he left, I mean he was an asshole back then in Cape Tallin and It hasn't changed when I encountered him again here in Conti Agulhas. For the moment I had been ...

AUGUST 06 2015 Ship has arrived and is waiting a couple of days now, Ship has arrive at around august 03, 2015 midnight. Supposedly I was the one (or two of the O.S.'s) needed to drop the anchor but turns out that BOSUN serafin has a new policy regarding anchor dropping / heaving - he only needs one O.S. at a time. So in turn my presence there was no longer needed. O.S. Joash was the one who dropped the anchor at that time. Weather on the past few days was cooler compared to what I experienced in Louisiana. A bit windy now in Galveston Texas probably because summer season in the U.S. about to end. On the days that this ship was at anchorage , we were basically busy in doing the same old maintenance task (chipping , polishing and painting rusted areas) plus washing the deck every now and then from bird droppings which littered the whole forward aft area. On the 7th of august there were rumours that this ship might go to berth sooner than expected. At around 5 pm on the same day ,...

Here's the events that happened during the Dominican republic stay. Monday work routine was done as usual , I was put on the task of segregation of garbage along with the disposal of food waste and then on the latter helping out O.S. Joash and A.B. Ryan Osiang in washing the deck. The whole work took us until noon time and was expecting or assumed that berthing will be sometime on the latter afternoon. During lunch time all of a sudden , it was announced that arrival in dominican republic will be in an hour and its berthing upon arrival schedule. (meaning this ships gets to dock as soon as it arrives). 1pm exactly when I was called in the cabin to rig the pilot ladder , then it was followed by mooring operations. Temperature in domincan republic (and the rest of central America was humid and hot. I had to bring along three purified water bottles filled with cold water just in case to keep us rehydrated. Mooring arrangement from what I recall is 3:2:2 and the spring lines will be wi...

july 24 , 2015 friday As part of the two part unloading cargo operations , this ship is now currently moored in Jamaica. Docking operations started as early as 6:30 pm and was told to immediately prepare the pilot embarkation ladder for the pilot. Soon after the pilot embarked on this ship, all crew was announced via P.A. to standby for mooring operations. Mooring operations proceeded very smoothly and without any problems , the mooring arrangement if I recall was 3:2:2 (3 headlines and 2 springs lines) The spring lines was of surprise, a soft rope was used along with the headlines. The breast line if I recall was a wire line. The whole mooring operation in the forward could have finished a lot sooner , if not for the Jamaican mooring boat crew which took its time in placing it on the dolphin platform. As for the weather , it has very few changes and was still very hot. - not much to expect on a tropical country , as a matter of fact the Philippines despite being a tropical country is ...

July 17, 2015  When this ship leaves port, it will have four new crew members. The thing here that concerns me is the new crew , Rumours have been going on that these new crew members are somewhat trouble makers and definitely not the kind of people whom can't get along easily. I don't know them personally but there are rumours saying that two of these new crew have serious attitude problems. Specifically the O.S. and the BOSUN. Anyway in just a matter of a few hours after they arrived , immediately two I had mentioned got into the wrong foot with some of the crew. And caused a bit of bad impression during then recent bunkering operations (Immediately after we unmoored). Apparently BOSUN Serafin left the whole six hour long transit outside lake charles to only me and O.S. Joash, each of us has to spend three hours each on the forward part being on "guard" , when supposedly he should be the one leading and staying on watch , but it turns out that he was the first to...