Cargo Delivery!

Cargo inspection officers.

This has been one of our most frustrating experiences ever, waiting for our cargo to be delivered from St. Thomas.

10,427 miles
365 days
143 emails
27 phone calls
and we FINALLY have our stuff!!!!!🎉😃🤸🌎
A year ago, we shipped about 800 lbs of stuff to St. Thomas for us to later pick up once we closed on our boat (Roundabout1) in the BVI. Hurricanes #Irmaria blew those plans all apart and after things settled down, we were able to get our cargo out of St. Thomas and over to Miami. From there, it was supposed to be delivered to us in Greece. Due to the shipping company missing the boat (literally), our stuff did not make it in time before our visas expired. After literally 100 emails, we learned our stuff was stuck in Hamburg, Germany and needed to get rerouted to Rijeka, Croatia.

I still get heartburn thinking about it all and marvel at the incompetency of the shipping handler.

At one point, we had our stuff on an express truck, to be delivered to us July 16th. Then we learned that it was taken off the truck, because a larger shipment which would create more revenue for the truck service was taken instead. Argh!!!!!

After more phone calls and emails, we finally received confirmation that our cargo had been loaded onto a different truck on July 20th and would arrive on the 25th or 26th of July. We had to extend our sailing visas for Croatia, costing us more time and money, and so the overall expenses to get our stuff was way beyond the initial costs.

Waiting at the shipping agent's office. We went back and forth a couple of times for various parts of the clearance process.

July 26th arrived and we had an appointment to meet the clearance agent at 11am in the city center of Rijeka. I brought Zach and Cadence with me, as Jared and Matthew had some projects to work on back at the boat. This guy knew his stuff and was the most efficient person out of this whole process. We learned that they normally only handle commercial goods, but after hearing our story, they wanted to help us out. We told him we were very grateful and appreciated his expertise!

Customs building next to the port.

We showed up on time and were led into the agent's office to wait until the customs officer had returned from break. Half an hour later, we were in the agent's car to pick up the customs officer, to inspect our cargo.

Waiting to inspect our cargo. It is behind this door!

We arrived at the port storage warehouse and waited about 20 minutes for someone else to unlock the door.  A localized squall had come through and was now soaking everything and everyone in the process. Oh well, at least it cooled us off from the heat.

Finally!

Upon entering the warehouse, we immediately spotted our two pallets and were a bit dismayed to see the outside covered in black grime. I thought it was mold at first and the customs inspector said he would just look at a few boxes and we would be on our way. He went pretty quickly and I was relieved to see that the boxes under the plastic wrap were dry.

Inspection in progress. 

We hopped back in the agent's car and dropped the customs officer off at his office and then returned to the agent's office. We had another hour's wait for paperwork to be prepared, and so I took the kids to get a quick lunch. Finally, we paid the fees (the agent also lowered his fee as he felt for us after learning our story and seeing the potentially ruined cargo), and were on our way back to customs to show the receipts so it could be cleared and released to us. A truck was scheduled to deliver our cargo to the marina around 6pm that day, and so 7 hours later, we were done with the entire process.

Our stuff has arrived! We unloaded the truck and brought it all onto the boat.

Our cargo was given an estimated value and we paid 25% VAT for that. Due to the look of the outside and thinking it was mostly ruined cargo, they lowered the value and our cost. This turned out to be a blessing, as when we later unpacked everything there wasn't any mold at all! The black grime was just from shipping. We were so grateful to close this chapter!

This was the boat inside and out! It took about 2 days to organize and sort everything. We also donated some duplicate items to local families and to the fire victims of Greece.

Logistics

Part of being a constant traveller (and that is now a very accurate description of our family), involves research, and some places involve more than others. It is safe to say I now know more about various countries on our agenda than ever before. We had originally planned on starting out in the Med and then changed our minds when our broker convinced us it was easier to buy a boat in the Caribbean. Yeah, that may be true, but throw in a couple of hurricanes and our plans were majorly screwed up. So, I find it ironic that here we are planning on re-starting our sailing adventure...back in the Med.

For whatever reason, fate has pointed us back in this direction, and so we prepare to head off on this path, once again. I had done a little research a year or so ago, but now that we are actually buying a boat there, I needed more specific information. Being as we will start out in Greece, I am currently reading up on activities, places to visit, restaurants, islands, dog import requirements, and ports along our route west.

Due to the travel visas being suspended between the USA and Turkey, we had to figure out how to take possession of the vessel. Since we could not be in Turkey, we decided our surveyor would represent us and assist the captain (appointed and insured by The Moorings) with the delivery to Greece. We will then move aboard and be on our merry way. Or will we? We still have to wait for the paperwork so we can check out of the country and make our way towards the Atlantic. We have heard this can be a couple of weeks to over 6 months! We are working with our broker now to ensure we have a quick turn-around and our running papers in hand when we take ownership. This involves the use of a documentation agent, which requires their own separate fees. At least, we can be sure everything is handled correctly and will ease our way through customs.

We expect to close sometime around the 15th of November, but this all hinges on the results of the survey, haul-out, and sea trial. This all took place last week. We are now waiting for the response from the seller as to what items they will repair. After these have been completed, our surveyor will conduct a follow-up survey and if all is well, sign off. Then, and only then, can the close of escrow date be scheduled and the delivery can follow afterwards. All of these factors have to align before we can purchase our airfare and find a temporary place to stay while we await the delivery. I imagine it will be like dominoes, as one falls into place, the rest will follow.

On another note, we have our two pallets of stuff we shipped to St Thomas (that is still there, miraculously) that we need to pick up. If it looks like we are going to be stuck due to paperwork, I want to be able to press the "ship now" button. If we can leave soon, then we will just pick it up when we sail back to the islands. It would be nice to have it all before we make the Atlantic crossing though, as our foulies and all sorts of other much needed items are there. We are getting closer, but there are still lots of stuff to figure out!