JOURNALS OF A FILIPINO SEAMAN

Short notice again as usual, honestly Russian Managed ships are always like these, and i was in the middle of my work mopping up a few mud stains left from the dry dock on BOSUN's store when i suddenly heard the hydraulic machine for the anchor winch lit up , and the next thing in saw when i looked up on the gangway ladder was O.S. Del Monte telling me to hustle up and mooring operations (ship to ship) will be starting soon and were going to heave up anchor. Good thing that the mooring winch is just directly above and the bosun's store. I hurried put on my bonnet for the cold and my jacket and hurriedly went up, as expected BOSUN Amican was already there preparing the necessary equipment. He ordered me find PUMP MAN Liscano, in the pump room - apparently because there's another reducer that would be added to cargo line number three and its needed ASAP . I had difficulty finding Pump man liscano , i went to the pump room , engine room work shop and even to his cabin and CCR ...

For the past few days this ship has been sitting its fat ass out here on the anchorage area , probably waiting for the next destination. There hasn't been any word yet on the next unloading operation of this ship, but what I'm certain is that this ship is waiting for bunkering operations (refuelling). Winter season here in eastern Europe is harsher than i thought, with temperatures ranging negative below zero - it would be really unwise someone would go out in the deck area without winter clothing even for less than 5 minutes. For the moment the temperature now as while i write this already hit on the negative 9 degree's Celsius and possible could get any lower within the coming of days.  Rule of the thumb here in winter is that its not the snow that is actually giving the cold , but its the wind. Get caught on a small cold breeze or blizzard , and you'd find yourself (or any body part exposed ) frozen within less than 5 minutes. As for work, most of it is now on indoor...

JANUARY 18, 2014 Saturday After a successful dry dock operations in Varna Bulgaria, this ship is headed off again picking up cargo in the Baltic area. For the moment the next destination will be somewhere in Ukraine and its a ship to ship loading operations probably on the same size with this ship. Now that Christmas and new year has come to pass along with the dry dock operations as well , the big question now is when am I going home ??? . For now the only answer to could come up with is  just plain horse shit rumours coming from 2nd officer Renan olis oveda "bastard-o" , rumours that are just obviously his paranoid delusion grandeur. Anyway for the information of all. Apparently his delusions of disembarking as early as February on this ship has already reached record high , worst part is that its just all in his head and there is no proof notices whatsoever coming from CSM about the crew change. In other words , were stuck here until further notice. For the moment before t...

January 14, 2014 Saturday Things have been quiet been very busy lately and I didn't got the time to update my journal for quiet sometime now. Ok so were shall I begin first ? First off this ship arrived on the ship yard at the 4th of January 2014, but didn't exactly went ahead on the shipyard facility. First this ship was berthed nearby on  some sort of "Pre dry dock" facility , This ship stayed there for at least three days to conduct some inspections made by the CSM superintendent on which engine and part will this ship be repaired. Those three days were pretty much busy, as usual there were the usual dock workers who would come in and out to do some maintenance stuff and the like, and even board up their maintenance tool needed for the repairs. On the first day was pretty much quiet no work at all and I was just basically on the gangway watch and putting up notes on the ISPS logbook on who came in and out onboard this ship. Much to my dismay the work schedule th...

January 03, 2013 Friday Moment finally came that this ship had to transit it's way on from turkey Istanbul to Varna Bulgaria. As usual we heaved up anchor early in the morning and waited for the pilot to board the vessel . It was a very short transit lasting only for at least 3 hours and then the pilot disembarked, As for me my work on the whole day was only securing a couple of stuff , mostly stuff inside the deck store locker on the port side. This is the pictures i took during our transit, This is me overlooking on the nearby city a few small boats passing thru A lot of people might think that being a sailor is a very cool job and that i do get to see places where no typical filipino might ever even see for a life time, But i do remember that i only get to "See it" not touch it or step on this foreign soil and live on it.  Indeed this is a good and wonderful place however being there and living there are two different things. Most tales from the previous sailors i hear...

First day of 2014 was very much quiet, and i took that opportunity to repair and do maintenance work of my equipment (my personal working equipment). After all i needed a good rest since Saturdays and Sundays have already been cancelled off no thanks to our beloved captain. I think there won't be any Saturdays and Sundays off until the captain gets replaced on the "dry docks" and even so the superintendents are there so expect that there wont be any weekends for a long time and probably until i disembark. For now the only remedy is to adjust on this harsh policy.   Good thing for me that i just have roughly a month and a half or two months before I disembark on this ship. Since it was Wednesday and a holiday , almost everyone has free time. As a past time some of us played "Far Cry 2" video game on the multiplayer, there were seven of us playing the game at the same time. Byron, O.S. Del Monte , Mess man Ferdinand , Chief   Cook Olan, me , Fitter Sano and fourth...

This is one of the improvised tools sticking out on the cargo hatch , as what the picture suggest its a tripod and wooden derrick  As you can see on the picture , tons and tons of black plastic garbage bags are filled with oil sludge's  primitive equipement we have for the sludge removal no thanks to the limited equipement from CSM welcome to our lovely work place duh !!! December 24, 2013 Tuesday For the past two days , most of the deck crew are cleaning the water ballast tank, and for the past two days i was left out and didn't went inside the ballast , So I guess I missed all the action on going down (as in way down) and shovel a mountain load of mud. Since i was just staying outside on the water ballast entrance and being the look out , i did manage to do my work by providing coffee and a few snacks on the water ballast entrance. Unfortunately for me Mess man Ferdinand Penera didn't like my idea of borrowing the coffee and sugar and lectures me in front of everyone duri...