A day in the sea!

Who would have thought weeks offshore would lead me to continue writing for my long-forsaken blog? Haha. Honestly I guess I only turn to blogging when there’s not much to do in life. Otherwise, between work, play and travel, there’s not much time left for it. Yeah, if I am disciplined and have the determination to portion off part of my day each day like some of the dedicated bloggers, I could prolly keep this blog sufficiently updated. :D
Oh well, sadly I’m not and now I finally have the time after nearly three weeks offshore when I’ve basically went through lots of drama series, dozens of movies, a couple of books and those things got pretty repetitive in a way. I’ve never been to any part of Africa or nearby it and the only thing I associate with it is prolly safari. You know? The wildlife we are always watching being featured on Discovery or National Geographic on the TV. Maybe also from reading lots of novel before, I was very fascinated about Africa, Cape Town and such for the mineral finds, namely diamonds – a girl’s best friend. ;) And recently before I left the country for here, the other info I had was the news of kidnaps and murders (which is definitely a damper on d mood).  As apprehensive as I was, plans were made and I am pretty much a confirmed candidate to go. So obediently I got my yellow fever, Hep A and Hep B jabs, got ready my malaria tablets and packed up my bags. The flight was pretty OK but from when you are on and off the planes for nearly 24 hours with a few hours of transit in between, it starts wearing you down.
My journey started from KL – Singapore – Doha – Johannesburg – Mozambique. Oh and did I mention Madagascar actually existed? LOL. I thought it’s a make-believe place in that movie and what do you know? It’s real! Haha. And while on board, I recently read somewhere that it has no extradition treaty with the US! @@
Anyway, even being so near to all these places, being stuck on the vessel is limiting me to imagining what could be out there. I could really experience the phrase ‘so near and yet so far’ when it comes to exploring this new place. And from my research before my trip, (yes, I researched cos before this Mozambique has never crossed my head) apparently this is a snorkelling slash diving paradise with its own special breed of sharks only available here. And with colleagues claiming they’ve seen dolphins chasing the ship, can you blame me for getting my hopes up in trying to spot some of these creatures namely the dolphins, not the sharks, thank you very much? Haha. Sadly I’ve never seen any so far but fingers crossed eh? Well, I’ve noted some jellyfish and fishes during the day at certain times sometimes, kinda reminded myself of the Life of Pi, which is prolly a testimony of me watching too much movies and having too good of an imagination. Honestly I hope the shipwreck thingie never happens. What with the sharks being a possibility in these waters, can’t say I am looking forward to taking a swim around here. Do you know that peeing or discharging bodily fluids in water actually attract their attention? And not just blood? Sheesh! And that’s for a radius of about 2kms! Okay, I digress. Anyway, I am still pretty jittery when there’s any loud grating sounds from the ship (even though now I know the thrusters or something made those sounds) or even vibrating motions at times.
Life on board is pretty boring. There’s pros and cons. You work a 12-hour shift but at least you get to eat and drink whenever you want even though there are specific meal times for main meals. The rocking motion of the sea could seem appealing at first I mean, I love the feel of floating on those floats in the pool but while the song “rockaby baby” plays in my head, when the seas get rough or the ship travels fast, the rocking would be best described as a short-rapid-emergency brakes-feeling which is non-stop and can induce vomiting (non-stop as well) :P However, these sea-sickness will wear off by the first week (the norm). And taking a dump when the sea is rough? LOL I must admit it is a very….ehem…liberating experience? :S The seas is pretty amazing though. Those deep, deep blue of the waves with the occasional dark-blue edged jellyfish are gorgeous. As relaxing as that would be, it is pretty boring when you can’t do anything more than look at the same thing over the next few weeks. I missed Malaysian food, with the roti-canai or dimsum for breakfast, good old Penang char kueh tiao for lunch, some chicken rice maybe? Good old kaya toast for tea breaks and nice chinese ‘choo-chao’ for dinner. Maybe I’m just picky but it’s just fusion westernised food all through out and believe me when I say the quality of the food wasn’t all that. It could be that cos this is a small ship and cater to about less than 50 employees but still…..and the cleaning crew is less than satisfactory here unlike the raves I’ve heard about of previous crew or projects or ships/barges/rigs. Oh well! At least I don’t spend a dime when I’m here. Haha!