|
...because I've now been stuck in George Town for the last month and even though I've
had a lot of fun, I really have nothing new to post. Okay, the
dinghy problems. I bought a new Avon RIB lite dinghy from West Marine.
A great dinghy in concept because it weighs only around 90 pounds and folds up
into a nice ~10"x3'x6.5' package. Not at all bad for a 10' RIB that can handle
a 9.9 outboard. The only flaw in the concept is in the light "injected"
polyester hull. It's so thin that it flexes even during light use, and the
flexing fatigues and cracks the hull quite rapidly. I first inflated and used this dinghy 2 days before Thanksgiving (2006). Three weeks later before Christmas, I had 2 long cracks behind the molded stringers. I didn't really notice this area working (flexing) much during use so my guess is that towing the dinghy with the engine on the transom was the cause. I emailed pictures to Dean Barillaro, the then manager of the West Marine in Washington, NC where I bought the boat, and asked what can be done about it. He said that that shouldn't have happened. In his normal efficient manner, he hooked me up with Kimberly Huerta at West Marine corporate to work out the details in replacing the dinghy. (I have to note here that both Dean and Kimberly have been the epitome of efficiency as well as being very understanding and personable. A company couldn't ask for any more than these 2 people give to there jobs!) It was obvious that it wasn't practical for me to motor all the way back to the US to get the dinghy replaced, so Kimberly got all of the different ways of shipping and local customs details from me. She decided it would be easier and quicker shipping the dinghy using West Marine's regular shipper, DHL, and turned it over to another West Marine employee charged with shipping. So West shipped the new (with a fiberglass, not injected hull) dinghy to DHL in Atlanta where it was to be air dropped to me in George Town, ASAP. So after my trip to Farmers Cay for the 5F Festival, I rushed back to George Town to await the arrival of the new dinghy. In the meantime, the dinghy that I had developed a couple more cracks this time all the way through the hull. I didn't think that it could survive another trip away from George Town without totally self destructing. This was even though I was babying the dinghy in daily use, and when being towed by removing the engine. These cracks leak water so fast that, when I pump the bottom dry, it only takes minutes to fill up again. The problem with this, besides the obvious wet feet and gear, is that the boat is too heavy with 4" of water in it to get up on plane. This might not matter on the East coast of the US where you rarely take your dinghy more than a couple hundred yards from your boat. Down here, where the dinghy is the equivalent of your car and distances are usually measured in miles, it matters a great deal! Well, ASAP never happened. DHL had the dinghy in their Atlanta warehouse for weeks while sorting out with customs how to get it to me without paying duty. I finally emailed Kimberly because nothing was happening, and I was on my limited time hiatus and unable to leave George Town for fear of destroying my only mode of ship to shore and dive transportation. Kimberly apologized for the delay problems and then (I assume), kicked some butt at DHL because within a couple of days the dinghy was precleared with the Bahamian customs and shipped to Nassau. Thanks Kimberly! Then Kimberly again had to motivate DHL into getting the dinghy out of Nassau and down to George Town where I hope to see it in the next day or two. I've got several thousand readers per month now. Those of you in business take note; this dinghy was shipped by West Marine "air freight" and now, almost a month later, it's still not here! Lowest cost service is not always the way to go. You really need to keep up with the providers performance. If I don't get this dinghy in the next day or two, I'll add a comment to the bottom of this page when I do get it. (It probably won't be nice so don't let your youngsters come back to this one!) Hence... it's NOT my fault that I haven't updated the Web page! I haven't had a chance to cruise anywhere new and as I said earlier, things here in George Town haven't changed enough to make it worth writing another George Town page. It's like a summer camp down here right now with the annual "cruising regatta" going on, and summer camp is NOT what this page is about. I will try to get over to Long Island, assuming my dinghy gets here and leaves me with enough time to go, before my next guests show up. After that, I'll be able to update with a new Web page. Thanks for putting up with this delay in my cruising stories. Trust me when I say that it's been more upsetting to me than too you! And the saga continues... March 16, 2007. We're now on day # 36 since DHL picked up the dinghy from West Marine to air freight it to me! Still no dinghy! Kimberly, at West Marine, has been trying to push DHL to deliver the dinghy to no avail! They're treating her with the same regard, or lack there of, as me. Over the last 5 weeks, the girls at the local DHL office here in Exuma and I, have tried to get information out of the Nassau DHL office and every time we have been put on hold for long periods of time just to then be told that the person we need to speak to is not in the office and nobody else can help us. (The funny thing is that when, later in the week, we do get that person they're not the ones that can help us. It's someone else that's out of the office that we need to talk to!.) They then say that they'll call back and NOT ONCE have they ever called back the Exuma DHL office! Now, Kimberly isn't having any luck even though she has the weight of West Marine which ships huge quantities of items through DHL behind her. The tracking page (only my retyping of their info since it would be illegal for me to post the actual page) is below and even though the dinghy has been at DHL in Nassau for days, you can't see that from the info that is given on tracking... VERY poorly run operation in my opinion! If you like your business and your customers, DO NOT EVER use DHL!
As posted by DHL 11:20 A.M. on March 16, 2007
Once again I apologize for this unhappy, disparaging post. When I started this Web page; I was going to have nothing but upbeat, fun, happy posts. After my experience with DHL, I feel that it would be a disservice to my readers not to post this information. IF and WHEN I finally get the dinghy, I'll post that information here as well. It's here, finally! 03/20/07, the dinghy has been in the possession of DHL for 40 days and 40 nights! It took that long to ship the dinghy "air freight" from Atlanta to Great Exuma, approximately 875 miles... You've been warned! Nothing else needs to be said... They'll be a happier post and update called "Long Island" coming up on03/24/07. Hope that you come back to enjoy that!
|
Click on any picture to enlarge and view caption
This last one, below, is a short Windows Media Player Movie. Click only if you have a broadband connection to the internet.
|
