Onboard Experience : Good and Bad

My Shipboard Experience


8^th November 2015. I marked that day as a memorable day for me because at this time I am going to leave my family , friend and everyone away for 1 year to pursue my lifelong dreams. I have to join a ship named MT CHULAN 1 with a contract of 1 year in Singapore. I was greeted well by the ship crews and all of them are Burmese from Myanmar. At first, I had trouble time to communicate with them but luckily they could speak simple English.
 

To be honest, this piece of metal I’m going to live in for 1 year did not go as I expected, for example tons of food are made of things that me, myself as a Muslim cannot eat. So, I requested the Captain to order our Chief Cook to prepare a simple meal that I can consume. Sometimes, I even separate my bowl, cup, fork and spoon and cook for myself!.

Four months passed with a lovable memories to be written in the book and then came the day of all seafarers are waiting for, the sign off day. This time it was not me who is going to sign off but my crews and some officers. New faces new experience. Everything runs smoothly until that one day, a few weeks before the ship going for dry-docking in Pasir Gudang, Johor. We had to clean our ballast tanks with a total of 10 ballast tanks. 10 tanks to the last tank, my duty as a cadet is to take a picture of the bellmouth before and after cleaning. I have reported my entry to the Bosun , Ab on duty and Chief Mate. Because of the last tank, journey to the bellmouth is very narrow, dark and full of mud and both of my hands are full because I was holding a camera on the right and a torchlight on the left and a walkie-talkie on my pocket. As I was snapping some pictures suddenly the water level increases up to my knee. I did not panic and keep on snapping and a few moments later it increases up to my chest. At that time I know I need to get back quickly as the water level keep on rising and only god know what will happen if my torchlight went off. After I got up I asked the bosun what happen. He told me that he ordered the O/S to open the sea chest just a little bit so that the suction of the ballast pump can run smoothly but he did not know that the O/S has never done that before because this ship is his first ship.

. No work is so important that it cannot be done safely. So, I continue my journey with this ship for 10 months and completed my seatime to join back ALAM on July 2017. Everything was a roller coaster ride, valuable and memorable knowledge and lessons I have gained and it will be a colorful mark on my path in this career for sure.