JOURNALS OF A FILIPINO SEAMAN

Journal Entry: August 26, 2016 Friday Location: OPL Anchorage area, Singapore     Every now and then since this whole tank cleaning operation began, we have been jumping work from one segment of this ship (called wings) to the other. The lasted news is that 2nd wing of this ship has been finally finished on the "hot wash"    (meaning wash the whole cargo tank with hot water) and were now moving in yet again on 5 wings on the same "hot wash" phase. As usual and no big surprise, the cargo tank cleaning machine are not working properly, its automatic version is broken and have now resorted to being operated manually using a 19mm wrench (term called "manomatic" in filipino) , and thats not the only problem plaguing the tank cleaning machine here in Eagle Boston. Hydraulic is frequently leaking on some machines and one machine even has a hole on the pipe from severe corrosion, spewing water riddled with black oil on a small portion in the deck area.   Man...

Journal Entry: August 23, 2016 Tuesday Location: OPL Anchorage area, Singapore     After the discharge operation this ship headed off to the OPL anchorage area to   do some tank cleaning, as a preparation for the dry docks scheduled by next week (or end of the month). Given with the limited time, it is thought that we won't get inside the cargo tanks and remove all the "black oil" residues, big convenience if we don’t as this ship doesn’t have the necessary equipment to get to that kind of job.      So far it seems that, the Indian Ship officers here are having a hard time cleaning all the grime and muck out of those cargo tanks and are repeating and having numerous delays on the "tank cleaning" ops. Don’t really mind the delays by the problem here is that the working schedule is pushed to the limit of having a 6 to 6 hour shift, the longer it stays this way. The stress builds up, Worst part is that I'm not getting paid or being paid less on this kind ...