JOURNALS OF A FILIPINO SEAMAN

JANUARY 23, 2016 MONDAY LOCATION: UAE , Fujairah - VOPAK TERMINAL BOUY       Now that the jokes regarding O.S. and Me have been cleared and is now official that I am the first batch who will be going home.   The latest updates about this matter is that apparently disembarkation on UAE, Fujairah is inconvenient for norstar - they reasoned out that disembarking crew here in Fujiarah is "expensive" and that this ship (and us) have to wait until this ship get to a more cheaper port for disembarking crew. Norstar even threaten us that if we insist on disembarking even thought our contracts with them are already near finished (as in less than a month left) , they will have to make us liable for the cost of our return home. - Geez what a total bastard company !!! Hope they get bankrupt soon !   To simply put the facts , I am not returning home soon and that disembarkation in UAE is impossible.   Despite the annoying news, it's not entirely bad for me. Given that n...

January 10, 2016 Tuesday Location : United Arab Emirates, Fujairah         New year's day just came and went , and up to now there is still no clear answer on the specific day on which I will disembark on this ship. Norstar hasn't given any details yet on when and how are we going to disembark . The only detail given as of the moment is "last week" of January. Apparently this has been my case, which norstar had made it clear and that if we were going to disembark earlier than a month left on the actual contract , were going to have to pay for our own repatriation fee. In other words, "Early Vacation" was a total lie from the very beginning and that "Finished contract" is still going to be the overall status on how are we going to get out on this ship. Anyway this is not surprising for me given that Norstar from the start was a total bullshit from the very beginning we started this contract.   Aside from the annoying situation , it is rumored t...

December 28, 2016 Wednesday Location : enroute to Fujairah UAE     Lately I had been diverting my attention and loneliness to social activism.   recently the events in the maritime community at the moment have been turbulent, or more like a "social media civil war" amongst Filipino sailors . It all started when a Worker Union leader named "Nelson Ramirez" (the person I mentioned on my journal entry February 2015) made an insulting statement and declared that "people who used a referral / backer system , to get employed are nothing more but a Pathetic class type of people" and that "only people who came from elite maritime schools like PMMA, MAAP, Nyk etc are the only ones worthy of being a sailor"     This caused a huge uproar on maritime college students in the social media, and immediately the topic in nelson Ramirez face book group became trending. He received lots of criticism and from these kids and, as a retaliation he tried to suppre...

December 25, 2016 Sunday Location : Enroute to singapore   Much has happened from my last entry, Christmas day has arrived, this day has to be a day of celebration but I can't exactly feel happy and to be honest its empty , very empty and incomplete. Probably because this is the first Christmas that my parents are gone, and I had a lot of flashbacks every now and then of the life I had with them before I came this ship. Now the feeling is just simply empty knowing that they're dead and its only me and my younger sister around.   Probably id be having a lot of adjusting at the house when I get back, trying to move on with life and see how things work out for me. I just don’t feel like smiling at this moment, but again merry Christmas.

December 05, 2016 Monday Location: From UAE going back to Saudi Arabia   It's now official, after much thinking and analyzing the situation I had passed to the captain myat my "early vacation" leave. I submitted my letter last November 28 and took the opportunity that Captain Myat was around his office. Good thing Captain was kind enough and didn’t ask any further question on why I was submitting the letter.   Originally I was planning to submit it on the 26th , but on that day I wasn't about to make a good timing and by the time I went to captains day room it was already closed - so I planned to go on the next day. On the following day again it was interrupted on the fact that the ship will anchor, so Its simply postponed and finally on the 28th around 7pm I finally got the good timing.   Felt so relieved in submitting my "early vacation" letter , as if like a big rock has been lifted to me - after all this company, principal and ship has been very unp...

Journal entry: November 22, 2016 Tuesday Location: Saudi Arabia     With a snap its already going near to the end of the month of November, and as what I had been long awaiting for is that I will get to finally submit my "early vacation" request to CF Sharp. I think it’s the best that I go ahead and hesitate   no further in submitting this request , and besides the working conditions on this ship are not that comfortable enough for any Filipino seaman.   So far the news on work is that after a brief loading operation in Saudi Arabia, this ship went back again here in Fujairah to await "For Orders" . While in Saudi Arabia , everyone here in this ship was distress to learn on the telex massage coming from the Saudi government that some sort of team will be boarding this ship as soon as it docks and that this "team" will be searching the whole ship for any signs of contraband to the Saudi Government like for example Magazines, DVD , Cd, Hard disk - any s...

Journal entry : November 18, 2016 Location: en route to Saudi Arabia     I Haven't wrote anything on these past couple of days , Probably because I was busy pondering things and received news from my sister that mom has passed away. I was totally devastated to hear the news and wasn't in the mood to do anything even on work - to me everything seems meaningless now, and there's no point in being a sailor anymore. I haven't asked the exact details on how mom died and was in no position to ask, I was simply too grief stricken to know what happened. The only known details I know on mom's death was she died of cardiac congestion, a result from too much creatinine levels in the blood from kidney failure. Before learning of my mom's death , all that I know back home was that the kidney dialysis machines of Amang Rodriguez Hospital broke down and mom was advised to transfer to another hospital for treatment until the machines were fix, the next news that came in af...