WorldWide Drilling Resource

by Tim Rasmussen The container was loaded at the Bartholomew shop on November 1. It was a good day for the loading. It was not snowing or raining, and the temperature was cold enough for working, but the fire in the big stove in the shop was good too. The driver was on time with the container, and there was a bonus in that English was his first language. He got the container backed to our outside loading dock, and then to the door on the shop without problems. We could talk to him, and he can drive! Occasionally one or the other is lacking. The first item was the 22-W. Gary pushed the rig end of the container with the trac- tor. We sent the mast last year. This rig came from our friend George Robinson in Salem, Oregon, and it will join the other three. This will give us a backup if something big breaks, and helps make sure we can keep our drill crew busy in the villages they help. The loading went smoothly. The pallets were loaded after the drilling rig, and then the pallets of corrugated boxes (known as Gaylord boxes in the shipping business) and pieces of medical equipment. On one side, the pile of heavy steel casing and pipes was secured. The other side had pallets of materials all the way to the doors. It was packed tight. It took three hours for the men to get it done, and there were no accidents. Most of them had done it before, and had the idea of how things worked in loading, and because Rod has a commercial driver’s license with a forklift endorsement, it all got done safely and quickly. Being pretty much a senior citizen and not as fit as Gary, I mostly stood around and watched. Watching people work has always been one of my favorite things to do, come to think of it. The stove was nice. We had been given a payload weight limit of 43,900 pounds for this high-cube container. For weeks, Gary carefully weighed every pallet, pipe, and box. The final weight was 43,396 pounds of things to go into the container. The container was completely full - volume and weight. The driver expressed some concerns about overloading the rear set of tires, but he shrugged it off with a wave of his hand. It was not his problem; the truck was going on the scales when he hit the highway anyway. Through the Mediterranean Shipping Company (MSC) website, I learned the container was gated-in to the port of Seattle the next day to wait for the ship. On November 8, it was loaded on the MSC vessel Athos . At the time of this writing, it was ex- pected to arrive in Puerto Barrios on December 8. This would make it a 30-day trip, which is about usual. We will watch and see how the shipment moves via the website. The charge for shipping the container to Guatemala came to just over $5200, and we noted an overcharge of $300. We inquired about it since we knew the total weight of the truck was 79,220 pounds, and just under the limit. We were under the weight in the container, so we were curious. We learned the problem was not the overall weight, but the weight was not evenly distributed along the length of the con- tainer. This made one end of the con- tainer heavier than the other. So driver was right, there was too much weight over the drive wheels on the truck. This is a federal limit. The cost must be assessed and cannot be waived. This charge will stay on the booking. Our response to this problem is the same as it is in Guatemala when there is a problem ~ Thank you very much; here is the money. 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 40 JANUARY 2018 WorldWide Drilling Resource ® The Bartholomew ladies. Loading the drill.