At last our new generator made it to the Shelter Bay Marina and is sitting now on Diesel Duck's aft deck.
On Monday, the 2nd of May, the cargo ship "Maersk Wolfsburg V" sailed into Colon with our generator stored in one of the containers. Mrs. Dayana Madrigal, from our custom broker, Aimar S.A., told us that they would not pick up the container until the following Monday, a week later, to bring into their warehouse in Panama City. Then, when all consolidated items of the container would be cleared through customs, the custom broker would arrange for the shipment of our generator back to Colon and on to Shelter Bay, now probably to arrive on Wednesday. But on Wednesday we were told "maňana".
Thursday morning dawned like doomsday. The sky turned pitch black and a torrential rain pelted down onto our decks. In fact, at 8 a.m. it was so dark that it felt like night time. Benno was fearful that it would be raining all day so he sent me into Colon to purchase a roll of plastic sheeting, because we didn't know if the generator would be covered in plastic. Luckily by midday the rain had stopped and even a little sun poked through the clouds.
So finally in the afternoon on Thursday, 10 days after arriving in Colon, our baby was delivered and we felt like new parents, too. A little annoying was the extra charge of $100 the custom broker sprung on us for a "custodian service" in cash of course. When I inquired what this was for, the explanation was that a customs person was required to accommodate the generator to make sure the goods were "in-transit" to Diesel Duck". I asked the truck driver where the "custodian" was and he just shrugged his shoulders.
We hired a forklift truck from the marina and in no time at all the gen set was unloaded by Victor the yard guru and set onto the sidewalk where Benno stripped off the shrink wrap, cardboard, excess support packaging and accessory boxes. Several guys from the marina staff hung around to have a look. They proved to be extremely helpful by lending a hand to shove the heavy engine onto a cart. Although heavy to push, Benno was just happy to bring her home! With the help of the boom and some extra muscle from a neighboring boat the generator came to rest on the aft deck. Stay tuned...