SEAFARING, they say, bears complex realities of a seafarer’s thriving life. As one of the world’s professions endowed Predominantly to men, it is gaining momentous place under the sun.But diversified intrusions of rigid and competitive life’s survival wrap up adventurous, and itinerant lives of the seafarers. Invading notably the field, are the 280-thousand-and more-so-strong-Filipinos that ply the seven seas of the world. One thing that each and every one of us should be proud of. Seamen’s lives at sea have born diverse memories, each to his own, that are just too significant and indispensable to reckon with.

Unlike any other professionals, the Filipino seafarers had gone, are going and will go through thick and thin, the rigors and rudiments of the sea they have loved so much as a way of life. My seafaring days then and now bear witness to such memories that I shall forever go on cherishing. one thing for sure, each seafarer onboard and at sea would attest to that fact. Each one has revealing and wonderful memories for embracing life at sea.
From search, the first taste of the profession demands complete detachment from loved ones who are to be left behind.

It rings still audibly in my ears, and vividly in my eyes when during our departure at the NAIA Terminal 2, I could see the fiancee of my co-embarking crew waving goodbye through the clear glass wall of the departure lobby. The glistening tears running down her cheek bore the deep nostalgia of parting from her seabound beloved. I could sense the loving pair was at a threshold of young and growing relationship, and was now going through the queer bitterness of physical detachment. Their hands both glued to the glass wall as if touching each other’s palms that were thinly separated by the glass’ thickness.  

The scenario invoked too a feeling of nostalgia within me as I could not evade reckoning same feeling of bitterness in those times earlier in my seafaring days when I had to leave my wife and little kids back home. Going through such stage however, imparted on me some kind of character polishing that smoothened the kind of existence I had to go through in my chosen profession. Mingled with it was the firm desire to augment the economic status of my growing family. Tears of goodbyes before leaving the home’s main door flowed profusely from all of us.

My growing kids wailing in chorus was such a lamentable sight. Over time, moving on took shape in accepting the reality. I could very well recall myself having said to my kids this: “Huwag ng umiyak. kung ako’y di aalis lalo kayong iiyak” (“you need not cry”) Deliberately, I was hinting to them i had to go for money to cloth, feed, give decent life, and good education for them. they then understood me. Hence, departing in my next schedules one after the other bore later on a tearless moments between goodbyes.

 
Reminiscing casually such first experienced lesson in the profession would just tickle me with a wry smile on my face nowadays, the impact of such bitterness in parting would just be plain matter of the past. So that everytime I embark on a shipboard assignment these days, common airport parting scenarios come and go easily, but already devoid of nostalgic captivity. what comes foremost is that while you became seasoned through time in the profession you have loved so much, you become toughest against every aspect of life you chose to become.  

A more polished and distinguished professional character is enshrined in your personality. Hence at the airport parting, my better-half and I would now let loose our goodbyes normally in a manner free of bitter pangs of bygone day’s parting. Conspicuous too in the lives of seafarers is home sickness. A down to earth reality indeed! Nobody in the world of seafaring could ever claim he has not gone through the intrusion of homesickness. 

A wistful sentimental longing for home is candidly inevitable in freshly detached individual. The seafarer is a sure exhibitor of such longing, especially if he is still young in the profession. Inevitable as it may seem, the Pinoy seafarers know best how to shun away the distressed arrests of nostalgia. In times besset by stressful moments, we find time to relax and unwind. At weekends and the sun is shining, we could be resourceful to assemble man-made pool to swim our drowsiness away. Sociable camaraderie onboard is a must, for it evaporates the monotony and aridness brought about by the pressures of the working days. All work without play is never a slogan of the active Filipino seafarer. Flying comes frequently to a regular active work-prone ocean-going seafarer.

Queer airport experiences may wrap up his flying time table. From time to time transiting seafarers are caught beyond their control to suffer some delays in going on board the assigned vessel. At the destination airport, they sometimes are hooked up to wait for the appearance of the attending agent. A common happening that do happen without necessarily putting blame to anyone. This is part of adventure, and what to expect in traveling. And the Filipino seafarer knows and is agile with this. It would  always lit a smile  on my face to recall a number of my friend crews who went through hours of waiting. Unattended by their welcoming crew change agent for some hours, they laid their tired body in the safely of the closed airport’s secluded area. One good experience that made them proud they had gone though it. Working is the sole motive why seafarers tread the long road of journey in acquiring the profession of loving a life at sea. One can never measure any amount of comparison how to live up to the expectation of a sailing career.

The focus is, with the earned skill in training and studies, honest and quality shipboard work becomes the fulfillment of the much-vaunted maritime career. Good enough, the Filipino seafarers have earned their place in the pedestal of world class seafaring! The carousel of such honored distinction will go on and on, as long as the Filipino seafarer’s burning desires to continue loving. and maintaining the luster of his life at sea will not face ever.

At a time when the served contract onboard has been accomplished laboriously and with grand conviction the moment of unfathomed glory, happiness and satisfaction reaches out to the apex of his ambition – that of bringing wholesome success to his family the sole enamored recipient of his unflagging perseverance and self sacrifice. Tears of goodbyes at departures have now succumbed into instant oblivion. Replete with the radiance of a frolicking heart at home arrival, the waiting family soars high to welcome the returning pillar, the temporal loss of a loving hubby has been regained, to once more share the luster of togetherness with his loved ones back home.

The seafarer’s stint onboard has to cease. With all the mingled joy’s and pain, the crowning glory of fulfillment has come, bathed with the glitter of accomplished success that the would thus present to his waiting wife, kids and family kin – the people being the very reason of his existence in the profession.

Mabuhay ka (Long Live)
     Pinoy seafarers!

By OSCAR B. CADANG, Staff Member