Nautical Nonsense

Hello readers!
I'm currently posting onboard this vessel. I was on this vessel during the last term break as well, and I'm on it again. Probably I'll be attached here for a month or 2 before I'm stationed in the office to further my education.
For those that are interested, this vessel is a bunker barge (technically a tanker, but as far as the common naval lingo goes, this' a barge), around 7000 DWT plying the Straits of Singapore and occasionally going to waters off port limits, in fact, I'm just back from Indonesian waters having loaded a full load of bunkers from a VLCC. The main jobscope of this bunker barge is to supply bunker to vessels when they require it.
Going to sea is pretty fun. Being a maritime studies student in NTU, I read papers regarding all things marine all the time, this is the chance for me to experience first hand the operation of a ship. I get to enjoy sea and land breeze whenever I want it.
Singapore is the world's number 1 supplier of bunkers to vessel and that's where I'm heading once I get my degree over and done with. Being onboard, since it's 24/7 at my workplace, sometimes it does get quite boring. I converse with the crew using broken English and sign language, sometimes the sheer difficulty of conveying my message actually put me off asking them complicated questions that I have no idea how to gesture to them. Most of the crew and officers are from Indonesia and the Phillippines. The only other Singaporean onboard is a Chinese, he's the cargo officer. He loves talking to me about his army days, he was, like me, a specialist in P. Tekong during his army days, but he was in the army tens of years before me.
You must be wondering how I'm able to get internet connections when I'm at sea. See this. Haha, it's so advanced nowadays. :)
I just returned from international waters awhile back. There was a storm there and the rain was lashing across horizontally. All the windows and doors of the accomodation areas are closed and one can hear the whistling of the winds, but that's still not treacherous waters in mariners term. Apart from afew anxious moments navigating in low visibility conditions, I did not feel at all threatened by the weather, the vessel was still very stable.

Anyhow, it's 82 days to EUROPEAN DREAMS!! woohoo! in between there's Euro 2008 to watch and plenty of preparation to do. Time is going to be rolling along pretty fast. :) Hope everyone is getting better and better prepared for the trip, both financially and physically! It's gonna be a smash!

Will update when I feel bored onboard again. :D