WorldWide Drilling Resource

by Tim Rasmussen This year, we decided to try and schedule the container early to avoid the holiday work slowdown. With dock storage fees of $125 per day, every day counted, so we settled on October 13, and scheduled the truck. The day for loading the container came on schedule, and the truck came on schedule. We got it loaded on schedule, but this is where the schedule ended. The 13th was a Thursday and the container was to be in-gated to the dock for loading on Friday, but it did not. A few days later, when I looked at the Mediterranean Shipping Company tracking information, it showed the container had missed the cut-off time for in-gating the container, and had missed the ship. I called the trucking agent in Seattle and inquired why the container was still on the dock. She said the schedule for the ship had moved up and had caused the in-gate cut-off time to be earlier than they ex- pected, so the container missed the ship. The next ship would load in two weeks. I was able to learn the container had been in a secure yard at the trucking com- pany, so I was a little relieved. There was nothing to be done. The container did load on the next ship and headed south as scheduled. It made port in Balboa, Panama; then went across to the Caribbean side of Panama. The container was loaded on a small ship and headed for Costa Rica. From there, it was scheduled to go to Puerto Barrios in Guatemala, but it did not. A hurricane was circulating in the Caribbean. The captain decided the sched- ule did not matter as much as the ship and cargo, so he kept the ship in the port in Costa Rica and let the schedule slip. Finally, the ship was scheduled to arrive and it did. It took the usual wrangling by Berny to get the container through the customs process where there is no schedule, but finally the money was paid and the container released. The container arrived at our shop in early December. What a relief! It was unloaded with difficulty, but successfully. Just before the heavy pallets of donated bentonite were to be unloaded, hy- draulic hoses on both forklifts burst. The bentonite had to be unloaded by hand. Some youngmen from the orphanage assisted with the unloading or it would not have happened. Finally it was complete. We had the precious supplies. Things did not happen on the schedule we chose, but the Good Lord had things on his schedule, and all was well. If you would like to help, contact Gary Bartholomew at 509-466-5075 or 509-939-1941 Tim Tim Rasmussen may be contacted via e-mail to michele@ worldwidedrillingresource.com Jon and Chris Hansen helping with the container loading. 39 WorldWide Drilling Resource ® FEBRUARY 2017