story of watchkeeping officer - my second ship is a gas carrier...

 this is nine mike tango echo...s.s tenaga tiga...calling on channel one six...

yes...unexpectedly and out of the ordinary...my second ship was a gas carrier...a 280m long LNG carrier named Tenaga Tiga with 130 000 cum capacity of methane which were carried inside her 5 cargo tanks...she is no 3 and had 5 sisters altogether in the fleet....

it is out of the ordinary at that time for cadets registered under the main fleet of my shipping consortium to sailed on a gas carrier since those who went on board are elite and bright students with CGPA above 3.5...but then i was lucky for the human resource had no choice but to send me on that ship...they had no other ship but the decades old Tenaga...

she was a behemoth...a gargantuan ship that even dwarfed my previous ship.she had a large LNG logo on both side of her hull to indicate that she is a large gas carrying ship and could pose serious threat if anything bad happens...that is what the guys on the ship said...i say any ship is all the same...

that`s her few decades ago...now she had a different paint job...

the old lady as i called her is among the oldest ship in my shipping consortium fleet..being built by the French in 1981 and still gallantly serving and sailing across the globe..

the day i met her she was laying quietly at algas anchorage,singapore and were destined to sailed to algeria north africa...at algeria,we had to wait for 2 weeks until finally we were off hired and directed to anchor at gibraltar for the next 2 month.

that`s rock of gibraltar...the whole rock is under UK rule..the rest is Spanish territories...

the best part of this voyage is that the old lady is due for dry-docking...after 2 month laying at gibraltar outer port limit we went back home and stayed for another 3 month at MMHE pasir gudang.

Tenaga had a full refurbishment.she was given a new air conditioning system,radar set,mooring and anchor windlass were brand new,lavatories were renovated while her galley were stripped off and had been given new equipments.

her tanks and cargo equipments were serviced,new elevator for the ship,decks were freshly painted and her shipside were sand blasted before given new paint coating...it was hectic,hot and dirty at pasir gudang...

filthy and dirty old lady...

i left her while she stayed on the block in dock number 1...i wont forget her master,officers and crew whom almost all are malaysian.knowledge and experience is important they say...regardless of type and size of ship...although at first i was looked down for coming from the fleet..but then they had faith that even a layman from the fleet could work onboard a gas carrier..if given the chance...

leaving her for good...

and the best part was signing off close at home....and that was my shipboard experience during my 2nd year in the academy....long gone those memories...while new and exciting experience awaits....

-come to sea and see for yourself-