Nine Mike Lima Oscar Six had a very different trade route....she was destined to carry palm and coconut oils from East Malaysia and the Philippines...take it across the Pacific and have them discharged in the United States..
hearing that this ship is going to the US makes me tremble....the US coastguards...he discrimination among Muslims and Asians....tight security checks....possible terrorist threats.....all those craps...
but i have to face them....have to...because nobody cares about what are we facing and this is our livelihood....somebody have to do the donkey job coz no one else wanted to do it....
after our last port of call in Taiwan....taking in fuel and supplies...we head to the Pacific ocean....a vast open ocean...the largest ocean on this planet...that covers a quarter of the planet surface...contains 70 percent of the total amount of water....with it deepest stretch of water covers 11 000 meters....enough to dip the Everest without no one noticing....
the first two days.....it feels like any other oceans....ships are still around us....coming from the States...going to States like us....
then it started....
you see less ships....
lesser....
and then....nothing....
no ships at all...
nothing on the radio....
nothing you can see on the radar...
not even a glimpse of a ship can be seen around you.....
total emptiness.....
then it came to my mind....the prayers of the Breton`s fishermen....
'O GOD BE GOOD TO ME, THY SEA IS SO WIDE AND MY SHIP IS SO SMALL"
the prayers was so true...honest and humble....and you can see why the fishermen pray to god for his safety...and for the first time i do feel the same as him.....small...
the pacific was so wide...it takes our ship 28 days of crossings....with no land or ship sighted.....
we pass the closest land at 500 nautical miles.....that is as close as we get....
here....you do feel dwarfed by the magnificent creation of god almighty.....and you do feel that after all this times...we have been arrogant to the almighty God....we do...
sea birds and dolphins are the only living things that always playing around our ships...
the ocean are always calm.....since the captain decided to cross way south close to the equator where the weather was fine and tropical storms are rarely seen.....rains and rain clouds are the only visitors that passed us by day to day....
and here in the Pacific...is the place where i have travel to the past and the future...by crossing the International Date Line...where Sunday becomes on the next day the same Sunday and then it became Tuesday on the next day....no Monday....
the life on that 28 days....
it was not as stressful as working on ships on short voyages like the Melati class or the A class tankers....i have ample time to have a look see and for see my task....and even have spare times after all that....
still...working on any ships....it still the same...
we cross the ocean towards Balboa...where from there....another experience awaits...
-come to sea and see for yourself-
