HeeeHA! I'm back... i'm back... i'm back... YES! I'm back!
How's every1? Getting along well wif ur work, exams, tests, projects and wat haf u? Still kicking? (sori jikok... u can do it soon too) No matter how busy you mayb, don forget to breathe! huuuuuuuuuuuuu... xiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii...
Jus had my final written exam on monday... sigh... i hope i'll pass. i had onli like one night, sunday night, to study a book as thick as our o-level physics textbk... shld haf started earlier. i did brought my book for the sea deplyment, but i'm jus too lazy... so, yuan bu de ren... sigh... the passing mark is 70%, so i reali donno if i'll pass tis time. i'm crossing my fingers, i realli hope i managed to grab hold of buddha's leg...
Forget it, lets tok about my sea training deployment.
ermm...how shld i start? ...? ... ...?
it's a training cruise where we hafta live, work, eat, drink, shit in the same conditions the junior sailors are facing...but at the same time bahave like officers. The experience was very, very diiferent from my last one, where the focus was more on navigation, bridge watch-keeping... Correct me if i'm wrong, i'm trying to recall the routine for my last deplyment...
0530 wakey wakey
0540 EME...rounds and rounds the tank deck wif onli one eye open... 1 2 3 4, 2 2 3 4, 3 2 3 4...
0630 [ . . - . ][ . - . . ][ . - ][ . . . ][ . . . . ][ . ][ - . . - ] and then breakfast
0740 Morning muster... in our perfectly pressed overall...
0800 Lessons... DCX... achoring plan... study... AOPs... sun run sun... gunnery... radar... HF... VHF... UHF...
1630 Dog watch... must look good, so every1 muster at the hangaar and we'll move to flight deck 2gether... more rounds...100 tis time!?
1830 Dinner... Argh, green chicken!!!
2000 Beeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeep... standby mess deck for rounds
...and e night was all ours to work on achoring plan, AOPs, study, task book x 3, port-pre and events preparation, etc... and how could i forget the watches in the MCR (midshipman can rest), the raido room (it's heaven) and the bridge (it's hell)... 1st watch 2100-2359, 2nd watch 0001-0300, 3rd watch 0300-0600. we wld b so grateful when we could get in the first (best) watch and haf 5 hrs of sleep for that night... we had so little sleep during the deployment that our little 'brothers' were not waking up b4 us!... haha... sigh... "sleep is a luxury, not an entitlement!"
^ ^ good old days...
what issit like tis time round?
Well, some things wld never change.
The sea, the horizon and the sky, they haven change a bit since my last deployment... That's all u normally get out in the middle of no where... what do u expect? Mountains? or cars? We did get visitors like sea gulls and albatross once in a while... the clouds changed it's form everyday too... and when we're lucky, we wld also find a dot at the horizon--"hey, we've got contact (finally)!"
The sun rises and sets everyday. They are beautiful and u'll b tempted to take fotos. At the end of the trip, u looked back at the fotos... hmm... which ones are sunset, and which are sunrise? hmmm... which is from monday, which is from tuesday?... and u started deleting those that look similar... but don worry, in the end u're still left wif at least 2 fotos... one wif clouds and one without :p
I was so glad that i din get seasick tis time round like when i was on seahorse, eventhough we'd got to seastate 4 for consecutive two days or so during our transit to Norfolk Is. HMAS Tobruk is a flat-bottomed landing ship heavy... and so it rocks like hell even at seastate two. So it is definitely worst at 4... It was a challenge trying to walk straight. Standing still for both watches wasnt easy too. It was a even greater challenge when taking aim at the toilet bowl! I'd got a few cuts here and there from falling cooking utensils while working in the galley (kitchen)... and i broke a glass too... opps
Other than these, life onboard TOBRUK was kinda different from that onboard RESO. We realli gotta work like a sailor and had lotsa interaction wif them...
In the Executive Department: sanding and painting bulkheads (walls) and guardrails, running around the ship ensuring everyting were secured, cleaning (the whole) ship... We still keep watches on the bridge, but onli for 4 days, and the concepts are kinda different. They have a life buoy sentry standing at the quarter deck maintaining constant look out for man-overboard. They don require lookout in the day, and when they do at night, the lookout stands on the deck above the bridge where 2 super binoculars will b available. It's still a four-hour watch system during peacetime cruising... but tat doesnt mean they hafta do helms or lookout for the whole of the 4 hrs like we do. They rotate every hour, and since the number of ppl on watch is greater than the positions available, they might even get an hour or two free time during tat 4-hr as spare hands in the cafe... watchin DVDs!!
Engineering Department: rounds, and cleaning of machineries and bilge. My watch din get the honour and luxury to experience tat and get our face and overalls black and greasy... prob we're lucky or they were all cleaned... haha... heng1 ar!! heehee...
Supply Department: carrying stores (like beer, soft drinks, vegetable, toilet rolls...) to where they are required, washing at the scullery, frying eggs, skinning carrots, serving the officers in the wardroom, mopping the cafeteria and galley... I'm kinda surprise that there are stewards onboard. They are sailors who take care of the officers--serve them food, do their laundry, clean their cabins... how nice is this? And the CO's has got his own pantry and steward... He is a lonely man though. He doesnt eat in the wardroom wif the officers... they seldom see him too.
I'd got a great deal of free time actually during the deployment... which we're supposed to spend on task book and journal, and 2 assignemnts due after the deployment. We still manage to find spare time for chess, cards, boardgames and tok cock sessions... and time to feel bored and turn insane too. One good thing: i seldom get less than 7 hrs of sleep :p
Vanuatu
This is where i had a little more fun than usual. I paid 1000 Vatu (ard $15) to ba shan se shui to cascade falls where me and another oppo showered under the falls and took lotsa fotos. The beaches are realli nice and the weather is realli good--warm and moist. And so on the second day, i did snokelling and kayaking at hideaway island, for a couple of thousands more vatus... This was my first experience wif snokelling and i swear i love it! ...it is awesome! I definitely wanna learn scuba someday and haf more fun in the water! Any takers? Their eateries and restaurants serve delicious and cheap food too! Yummy!
i only brought 300 sing wif me for tis trip and already i spent 200 here... i bought nothing... all of it was spent on transport and fees and food... but it was definitely money well spent.
Norfolk Island
My stay in Norfolk Island was a short one...jus two hours. Even though we anchored in the bay for three days. First day, i was granted leave at ard 1500, but onli got ashore at like 1600 bcos of long queue for the onli liberty boat! Kinda irony, Tobruk is a amphibious assault ship but she cant seem to get every1 quickly ashore... anyway, and leave expired before sunset. The second day, due to weather inclement, 2/3 of ppl hafta stay onboard. Having granted leave the day b4 (they don care how long), i hafta stay onboard...tough luck! The third day, the weather was better... and 2/3 gotta step ashore... sigh... i belong to the 1/3 who were on duty... ... Wat pissed me off most is tat there were ppl getting 2 full-day leaves...
It isnt an exciting island. It is roughly only as big as tekong and i managed to cover the whole town, looking thru most of the shops in ard an hour and still had time for a brew. In total, i spent less than ten bucks here... It is definitely a very beautiful place... greenery, flowers, i realli felt relaxed in that island... how i hope i could haf one more day, jus one more, to explore the untouched part of the island.
Lord Howe Island
Din get to haf much personal time here too, jus a total of 1hr 50min... sigh... We anchored two days here. The first day i was on duty. The second day, gotta do marching for their Remembrance Day and 30th (?) Anni of their airport, which consist of onli a runway and a small building... ... ...
Tis island wasnt any bigger than Tekong too. It is well-known not for it's town but it's beauti... sadly, i din get a chance to explore the treasure hidden within... And at the end of the day, i looked into my wallet... i only spent 5 bucks!
tat's all folk... i am tired, my brain is half-dead, my eyes are hurting... cant type anymore... i din even bother read wat i haf jus typed... if it doesnt make sense, jus too bad... i'll clarify them some other day... i've got more than a hundred fotos loaded in my gallery too
good night...
How's every1? Getting along well wif ur work, exams, tests, projects and wat haf u? Still kicking? (sori jikok... u can do it soon too) No matter how busy you mayb, don forget to breathe! huuuuuuuuuuuuu... xiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii...
Jus had my final written exam on monday... sigh... i hope i'll pass. i had onli like one night, sunday night, to study a book as thick as our o-level physics textbk... shld haf started earlier. i did brought my book for the sea deplyment, but i'm jus too lazy... so, yuan bu de ren... sigh... the passing mark is 70%, so i reali donno if i'll pass tis time. i'm crossing my fingers, i realli hope i managed to grab hold of buddha's leg...
Forget it, lets tok about my sea training deployment.
ermm...how shld i start? ...? ... ...?
it's a training cruise where we hafta live, work, eat, drink, shit in the same conditions the junior sailors are facing...but at the same time bahave like officers. The experience was very, very diiferent from my last one, where the focus was more on navigation, bridge watch-keeping... Correct me if i'm wrong, i'm trying to recall the routine for my last deplyment...
0530 wakey wakey
0540 EME...rounds and rounds the tank deck wif onli one eye open... 1 2 3 4, 2 2 3 4, 3 2 3 4...
0630 [ . . - . ][ . - . . ][ . - ][ . . . ][ . . . . ][ . ][ - . . - ] and then breakfast
0740 Morning muster... in our perfectly pressed overall...
0800 Lessons... DCX... achoring plan... study... AOPs... sun run sun... gunnery... radar... HF... VHF... UHF...
1630 Dog watch... must look good, so every1 muster at the hangaar and we'll move to flight deck 2gether... more rounds...100 tis time!?
1830 Dinner... Argh, green chicken!!!
2000 Beeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeep... standby mess deck for rounds
...and e night was all ours to work on achoring plan, AOPs, study, task book x 3, port-pre and events preparation, etc... and how could i forget the watches in the MCR (midshipman can rest), the raido room (it's heaven) and the bridge (it's hell)... 1st watch 2100-2359, 2nd watch 0001-0300, 3rd watch 0300-0600. we wld b so grateful when we could get in the first (best) watch and haf 5 hrs of sleep for that night... we had so little sleep during the deployment that our little 'brothers' were not waking up b4 us!... haha... sigh... "sleep is a luxury, not an entitlement!"
^ ^ good old days...
what issit like tis time round?
Well, some things wld never change.
The sea, the horizon and the sky, they haven change a bit since my last deployment... That's all u normally get out in the middle of no where... what do u expect? Mountains? or cars? We did get visitors like sea gulls and albatross once in a while... the clouds changed it's form everyday too... and when we're lucky, we wld also find a dot at the horizon--"hey, we've got contact (finally)!"
The sun rises and sets everyday. They are beautiful and u'll b tempted to take fotos. At the end of the trip, u looked back at the fotos... hmm... which ones are sunset, and which are sunrise? hmmm... which is from monday, which is from tuesday?... and u started deleting those that look similar... but don worry, in the end u're still left wif at least 2 fotos... one wif clouds and one without :p
I was so glad that i din get seasick tis time round like when i was on seahorse, eventhough we'd got to seastate 4 for consecutive two days or so during our transit to Norfolk Is. HMAS Tobruk is a flat-bottomed landing ship heavy... and so it rocks like hell even at seastate two. So it is definitely worst at 4... It was a challenge trying to walk straight. Standing still for both watches wasnt easy too. It was a even greater challenge when taking aim at the toilet bowl! I'd got a few cuts here and there from falling cooking utensils while working in the galley (kitchen)... and i broke a glass too... opps
Other than these, life onboard TOBRUK was kinda different from that onboard RESO. We realli gotta work like a sailor and had lotsa interaction wif them...
In the Executive Department: sanding and painting bulkheads (walls) and guardrails, running around the ship ensuring everyting were secured, cleaning (the whole) ship... We still keep watches on the bridge, but onli for 4 days, and the concepts are kinda different. They have a life buoy sentry standing at the quarter deck maintaining constant look out for man-overboard. They don require lookout in the day, and when they do at night, the lookout stands on the deck above the bridge where 2 super binoculars will b available. It's still a four-hour watch system during peacetime cruising... but tat doesnt mean they hafta do helms or lookout for the whole of the 4 hrs like we do. They rotate every hour, and since the number of ppl on watch is greater than the positions available, they might even get an hour or two free time during tat 4-hr as spare hands in the cafe... watchin DVDs!!
Engineering Department: rounds, and cleaning of machineries and bilge. My watch din get the honour and luxury to experience tat and get our face and overalls black and greasy... prob we're lucky or they were all cleaned... haha... heng1 ar!! heehee...
Supply Department: carrying stores (like beer, soft drinks, vegetable, toilet rolls...) to where they are required, washing at the scullery, frying eggs, skinning carrots, serving the officers in the wardroom, mopping the cafeteria and galley... I'm kinda surprise that there are stewards onboard. They are sailors who take care of the officers--serve them food, do their laundry, clean their cabins... how nice is this? And the CO's has got his own pantry and steward... He is a lonely man though. He doesnt eat in the wardroom wif the officers... they seldom see him too.
I'd got a great deal of free time actually during the deployment... which we're supposed to spend on task book and journal, and 2 assignemnts due after the deployment. We still manage to find spare time for chess, cards, boardgames and tok cock sessions... and time to feel bored and turn insane too. One good thing: i seldom get less than 7 hrs of sleep :p
Vanuatu
This is where i had a little more fun than usual. I paid 1000 Vatu (ard $15) to ba shan se shui to cascade falls where me and another oppo showered under the falls and took lotsa fotos. The beaches are realli nice and the weather is realli good--warm and moist. And so on the second day, i did snokelling and kayaking at hideaway island, for a couple of thousands more vatus... This was my first experience wif snokelling and i swear i love it! ...it is awesome! I definitely wanna learn scuba someday and haf more fun in the water! Any takers? Their eateries and restaurants serve delicious and cheap food too! Yummy!
i only brought 300 sing wif me for tis trip and already i spent 200 here... i bought nothing... all of it was spent on transport and fees and food... but it was definitely money well spent.
Norfolk Island
My stay in Norfolk Island was a short one...jus two hours. Even though we anchored in the bay for three days. First day, i was granted leave at ard 1500, but onli got ashore at like 1600 bcos of long queue for the onli liberty boat! Kinda irony, Tobruk is a amphibious assault ship but she cant seem to get every1 quickly ashore... anyway, and leave expired before sunset. The second day, due to weather inclement, 2/3 of ppl hafta stay onboard. Having granted leave the day b4 (they don care how long), i hafta stay onboard...tough luck! The third day, the weather was better... and 2/3 gotta step ashore... sigh... i belong to the 1/3 who were on duty... ... Wat pissed me off most is tat there were ppl getting 2 full-day leaves...
It isnt an exciting island. It is roughly only as big as tekong and i managed to cover the whole town, looking thru most of the shops in ard an hour and still had time for a brew. In total, i spent less than ten bucks here... It is definitely a very beautiful place... greenery, flowers, i realli felt relaxed in that island... how i hope i could haf one more day, jus one more, to explore the untouched part of the island.
Lord Howe Island
Din get to haf much personal time here too, jus a total of 1hr 50min... sigh... We anchored two days here. The first day i was on duty. The second day, gotta do marching for their Remembrance Day and 30th (?) Anni of their airport, which consist of onli a runway and a small building... ... ...
Tis island wasnt any bigger than Tekong too. It is well-known not for it's town but it's beauti... sadly, i din get a chance to explore the treasure hidden within... And at the end of the day, i looked into my wallet... i only spent 5 bucks!
tat's all folk... i am tired, my brain is half-dead, my eyes are hurting... cant type anymore... i din even bother read wat i haf jus typed... if it doesnt make sense, jus too bad... i'll clarify them some other day... i've got more than a hundred fotos loaded in my gallery too
good night...
1 comment:
haha.. welcome back bro! interesting account!
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