Bringing Amnesty Home - Part 1

If you ever want a month long migraine, buy a sailboat

If you ever want to drag it out to three months, buy one in California

Getting the boat to the Nothwest turned out to be a sizable project of it's own. The boat needed to be delivered to a boat yard where they would haul it out of the water, a rigger would take down the mast and rigging, and the boat would then be loaded onto a specialized truck with a very expensive piece of equipment called a Travelift (www.marinetravelift.com). Once over here, it will need to be off loaded at a local boat yard (Yup, another travellift), another rigger will re-step the mast, a graphics company has to come out to rename the boat, and then it gets dropped into the water.

Two days before the boat closed (Sometime around July 21st) I started making arrangements for the boat's transportation. The move will need to be precisely coordinated, because once the work starts, the meter is running. I spent the entire week locking down schedules, writing checks, and going to the FedEx office (Everyone wants to be paid in advance with a cashiers check).

The owner dropped the boat off on Sunday morning (July 27th) at the Marina Ship Yard in Long Beach (Paul, I owe you a bottle of scotch). The rigger started on Monday and completed his work on Tuesday (Right on Schedule). The truck driver arrived at the boat yard on Wednesday morning...and I received the following voice mail message from him. Authors Note: I am in Grand Forks, ND on my way to the air port for my return flight to Seattle.

"Ralph, the boat is not here. I went to the office and they don't know anything about it"

Keep in mind that this is a 36 foot sailboat that weighs 7 tons....I don't know how hard it is to loose something like that, but I am sure it is not easy. After a number of frantic phone calls while trying to return the rental call, check bags, get through the security check point, they were able to find it.

Disaster averted....not quite.

The boat yard did not have us on the schedule for the Travelift !!!! I am about to loose my window.... locating the boat took 3 hours and if the boat doesn't get rolling soon, we are not going to make our Friday delivery / off-load slot. Another round of phone calls while I was laid over in Minneapolis Mn. and I was able to get the boat yard to give us the noon slot (over time). The boat was secured and rolling by 2:30pm.

I got a phone call from my driver at 7 pm (I am in Seattle now)....Amnesty is in Sacramento