Our time in Chinhae, Korea has come to an end, and most of the crew seems relieved. I think we are all getting antsy to get on the move again. Most of that was due to the lack of activities to do in port, it quickly led to restlesness.
We conducted sea trials a few days ago. It consisted of going out of the harbor and running on a course for a couple hours at varrying engine RPMs to break in the repaird engine. After that we ran back to Chinhae. However, the engineers decided to wait to do the test where we run the engine at 95% power until we were in the harbor. Needless to say, the Capt wasn't too happy when the Chief Eng. called up and requested that we do some turns and keep going on full power. I'm sure it made some others around us a little nervous when the saw us doing tight circles at 20 kts through a crowded anchorage.
We made it through the sea trials unscathed and the engine still in tact. After that we offloaded a whole bunch of ammo for the base here in Korea and picked up a few hundred tons of old or expended ammunitions. We'll offload the old and empty ammo in Guam to another ship that takes it stateside to be taken care of there. I volunteered to get down on deck and help out the 2 cargo mates (cargo mates have license like I do, but instead of navigating,they work cargo) so I could learn the ammo end of this ship. I didn't get any overtime, but I got some sign offs and certs that will look good for promotion to 2nd mate.
So we are on our way to Sasebo, just a quick overnight trip. We''ll be there for a little while and then off to runs on a few bases in Japan and then Guam. Thats as specific as I can be without giving away sensitive information about the ship.Hopefully while in Sasebo I'll meet up with a couple guys I went to college with who are Ensigns in the Navy on a ship stationed there.
Meanwhile, I've been hearing from friends that the Gulf work is having another hiring season and I've looked into a few companies. If I can make the same pay and comparable benefits here, and have a month on/month on schedule, or even a 3 mo on/ 3 mo off schedule there's not much keeping me here. But I'm just seeing if the fish are biting right now.
I've put in for a ship to ship transfer in April. I'm hoping to get one of the duty oiliers that stay in San Deigo or Hawaii. These ships stay there and once a week or so go out and fill up Navy ship with fuel. I'd do another 4 months on there, getting off in August, which was when I was thinking about getting off here (the Matthew Perry). There are a few benefits of getting to transfer. I'll be on a different class of ship and will get my Tankerman PIC (person-in charge, I run the show loading/discharging cargo), which will make me highly marketable for 2nd Mate/Cargo Mate promotion at MSC and also marketable outside of MSC. If the transfer doesn't go through and I can't get a stateside ship, I'll probably just stay here til August. Oh, and being stateside, I'll make about twice as much dough as I am here. If you are in a US port and work between 5pm and 7am you get paid your overtime rate, something I only get when I work outside of watch here.
It seems like a long time, but time really flys by here. And when I get off, I'll be able to take around 3 months vacation (although only have of it will be paid). And, I'll only be a couple months short of upgrading to 2nd Mates, which I'll have no troubles getting on the following hitch.
Thats about all I got for now. Time to get back to it and do some work!
Sunday, January 29, 2012
Saturday, January 21, 2012
Chllin' In Chinhae
Wow, I didn't realize so much time has passed since I last updated. Thankfully, things haven't been too crazy so it shouldn't be hard to bring the world up to speed.
We are still docked in Chinhae. We have been having contractors come on board every day to fix the engine thats down. Along with the engineers keeping busy, there have been some contractors coming up to the bridge to test and inspect all of our GMDSS equipment. GMDSS is the system we use to send a recieve emergency calls to and from anywhere on the globe. However, we only have it set to the a particular grid area that we are operating in. Along with those inspectors we have had the Coast Guard here inspecting all the firefighting and lifesaving gear.
I still stand 8 straight hours of watch, and we still switch which watch we have every three days. I spend my time surfing the internet and looking at Camaros and reading. I've got my eyes on a particular 1969 beauty of a Camaro in Florida, hoping its still for sale when I get off in July. Though everything says don't blow that money on a car....I really really really want that car! Such a tough choice. I bounce between getting it and not about a hundred times a day. I'll probably get it.
We are set to do sea trials on the repaired engine on the 25th. This involves leaving at about 8am and going out on the ocean and running the engine at high RPM's, testing it astern, manuevering, etc. Basically braking it in and seeing if it holds together. We'll come back to the dock at around 4pm.
Then on the 30th we are scheduled to go back to Sasebo if the sea trials are successful. From there we have runs to Yokosuka, Okinawa, and a few other places in the works. I'm ready to leave, I've had enough of Chinhae and I'm hardly making any over time just sitting here. And not having any OT is not gonna pay for that Camaro. Plus, its gotten kinda boring. I can only surf the web for so long before going insane.
I haven't really been back out in Chinhae much since last time. Once or twice to grab a bite to eat when dinner just looks dreadful (really cook, fish heads?!). Beyond that, I'm just content to stay on board and work out and watch movies. I do go for runs on shore though. There just isn't much to do out in town except spend money. Hopefully some of the other ports are more interesting. I'm really looking forward to Guam coming up sometime soon.
Thats about all I got. I'll do the next update after we leave Chinhae. I think it'll only take a day or so to get back to Sasebo.
We are still docked in Chinhae. We have been having contractors come on board every day to fix the engine thats down. Along with the engineers keeping busy, there have been some contractors coming up to the bridge to test and inspect all of our GMDSS equipment. GMDSS is the system we use to send a recieve emergency calls to and from anywhere on the globe. However, we only have it set to the a particular grid area that we are operating in. Along with those inspectors we have had the Coast Guard here inspecting all the firefighting and lifesaving gear.
I still stand 8 straight hours of watch, and we still switch which watch we have every three days. I spend my time surfing the internet and looking at Camaros and reading. I've got my eyes on a particular 1969 beauty of a Camaro in Florida, hoping its still for sale when I get off in July. Though everything says don't blow that money on a car....I really really really want that car! Such a tough choice. I bounce between getting it and not about a hundred times a day. I'll probably get it.
We are set to do sea trials on the repaired engine on the 25th. This involves leaving at about 8am and going out on the ocean and running the engine at high RPM's, testing it astern, manuevering, etc. Basically braking it in and seeing if it holds together. We'll come back to the dock at around 4pm.
Then on the 30th we are scheduled to go back to Sasebo if the sea trials are successful. From there we have runs to Yokosuka, Okinawa, and a few other places in the works. I'm ready to leave, I've had enough of Chinhae and I'm hardly making any over time just sitting here. And not having any OT is not gonna pay for that Camaro. Plus, its gotten kinda boring. I can only surf the web for so long before going insane.
I haven't really been back out in Chinhae much since last time. Once or twice to grab a bite to eat when dinner just looks dreadful (really cook, fish heads?!). Beyond that, I'm just content to stay on board and work out and watch movies. I do go for runs on shore though. There just isn't much to do out in town except spend money. Hopefully some of the other ports are more interesting. I'm really looking forward to Guam coming up sometime soon.
Thats about all I got. I'll do the next update after we leave Chinhae. I think it'll only take a day or so to get back to Sasebo.
Saturday, January 7, 2012
Oh Hey. Chinhae!
Happy New Year! Another week or so has gone by and the adventure continues. We had an uneventful 2 day stay in Yokosuka and started for Chinhae, South Korea. Although we had a liberty boat in Yokosuka, I didn't go ashore. From hearing what little there was to do ashore, the spark for any motivation to mess around with the liberty boat just didn't fire and I stayed aboard.
The ride over to Chinhae went pretty smooth. We went through the South China Sea and Philippine Sea primarily. Most of the time it was as calm as the lake usually is, and sometimes even calmer. It took us about 50 hours to reach port. During that time I got the whole shebang of scenarios with heavy traffic. I had guys to overtake, people overtaking me, people crossing my bow, sliding between ships, and a few times of reduced visibility (<5 miles). If that wasn't a test of my skills, I don't know what is. For the most part, I like having to deal with traffic, it helps watch go by quicker.And I'm pretty much the best at it, so I got that going too.
So we pulled into Chinhae and now we sit. We are here for 4 weeks, mainly so the engineers can repair an engine and get it back online. So while in port, we (the other third mate and the 2nd mate) have divided the watch into 8 hour blocks and we each take one. Every 3 days we 'double back' and someone gets a 32 hour break. For instance, when we pulled in I was standing the 4pm-Midnight watch, we doubled back and I had an 8hr break and then went to the 8am-4pm watch. We doubled back again 2 days ago and I got an 8 hr break and then am now on the 12am-8am watch. I think the next time we double back is when I get my 32 hrs off.
I don't mind doubling back, its nice to get time off. But doing so every 3 days reeks havoc on any sorta sleep schedule (which is pretty much nil anyways), but I suppose I'm slowly getting used to it. There really isn't much for me to do on watch. I just hang out on the bridge and do general admin work. After I get off watch I usually pull a couple hours of overtime doing inspections of lifeboats and lifesaving equipment about the ship.
I have gone ashore here in Chinhae. We have a bus that takes us into town and drops us outside the gates to the base. I went and wondered about town and then went to base to the bar for some cheap drinks and a live band that was playing American cover songs. Though there were only about 10 of us in the bar, all from the ship, it wasn't too bad. The base is crazy small, so it wasn't a big surprise.
As I was getting ready to leave, one of the supply guys asked if I wanted to go into town and get some good Korean food...and of course I said sure. We took a cab to this place that was AMAZING. They brought us a whole bunch of marinated and spice pork and we had this mini-grill on the table where we cooked it ourselves. From there we put it in a lettuce leaf, put that whole thing in another green leaf, put some kind of sauce and sauteed onions on, rolled it all up and ate it. It was sooo good. I'm definitely going back. I have no idea what the place was called, but I the place had lighters with its name written in Korean on them, so I can just show a cabbie that for him to take me.
After that, we were just out walking about and I popped into a Mcdonald's to use the restroom. I caught some Korean girls eyes that were sitting at a booth and figured what the hell and stopped to chat with them. An hour later through choppy conversation and hand gestures I had some numbers and a date set up with a Korean hottie! I met up her today and she took me to another great Korean place to eat and she took me on a walking tour of the city showing me statues, parks, etc. It was pretty fun. I really need to invest in a Korean/English dictionary. Hopefully we'll meet again.
So that's pretty much all the excitement that I've been up to. We'll leave here towards the end of the month and go back to Sasebo and after that I have no idea. The only thing I know is that we should be going to and making runs around Singapore, Thailand, and the Philippines around May-ish, though I haven't decided if I'm going to stay on for that long.
Thanks for reading!
The ride over to Chinhae went pretty smooth. We went through the South China Sea and Philippine Sea primarily. Most of the time it was as calm as the lake usually is, and sometimes even calmer. It took us about 50 hours to reach port. During that time I got the whole shebang of scenarios with heavy traffic. I had guys to overtake, people overtaking me, people crossing my bow, sliding between ships, and a few times of reduced visibility (<5 miles). If that wasn't a test of my skills, I don't know what is. For the most part, I like having to deal with traffic, it helps watch go by quicker.And I'm pretty much the best at it, so I got that going too.
So we pulled into Chinhae and now we sit. We are here for 4 weeks, mainly so the engineers can repair an engine and get it back online. So while in port, we (the other third mate and the 2nd mate) have divided the watch into 8 hour blocks and we each take one. Every 3 days we 'double back' and someone gets a 32 hour break. For instance, when we pulled in I was standing the 4pm-Midnight watch, we doubled back and I had an 8hr break and then went to the 8am-4pm watch. We doubled back again 2 days ago and I got an 8 hr break and then am now on the 12am-8am watch. I think the next time we double back is when I get my 32 hrs off.
I don't mind doubling back, its nice to get time off. But doing so every 3 days reeks havoc on any sorta sleep schedule (which is pretty much nil anyways), but I suppose I'm slowly getting used to it. There really isn't much for me to do on watch. I just hang out on the bridge and do general admin work. After I get off watch I usually pull a couple hours of overtime doing inspections of lifeboats and lifesaving equipment about the ship.
I have gone ashore here in Chinhae. We have a bus that takes us into town and drops us outside the gates to the base. I went and wondered about town and then went to base to the bar for some cheap drinks and a live band that was playing American cover songs. Though there were only about 10 of us in the bar, all from the ship, it wasn't too bad. The base is crazy small, so it wasn't a big surprise.
As I was getting ready to leave, one of the supply guys asked if I wanted to go into town and get some good Korean food...and of course I said sure. We took a cab to this place that was AMAZING. They brought us a whole bunch of marinated and spice pork and we had this mini-grill on the table where we cooked it ourselves. From there we put it in a lettuce leaf, put that whole thing in another green leaf, put some kind of sauce and sauteed onions on, rolled it all up and ate it. It was sooo good. I'm definitely going back. I have no idea what the place was called, but I the place had lighters with its name written in Korean on them, so I can just show a cabbie that for him to take me.
After that, we were just out walking about and I popped into a Mcdonald's to use the restroom. I caught some Korean girls eyes that were sitting at a booth and figured what the hell and stopped to chat with them. An hour later through choppy conversation and hand gestures I had some numbers and a date set up with a Korean hottie! I met up her today and she took me to another great Korean place to eat and she took me on a walking tour of the city showing me statues, parks, etc. It was pretty fun. I really need to invest in a Korean/English dictionary. Hopefully we'll meet again.
So that's pretty much all the excitement that I've been up to. We'll leave here towards the end of the month and go back to Sasebo and after that I have no idea. The only thing I know is that we should be going to and making runs around Singapore, Thailand, and the Philippines around May-ish, though I haven't decided if I'm going to stay on for that long.
Thanks for reading!
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