Day 122, Year 5: Frustrating Day-But Progress
Date: Thursday, February 25, 2010
Weather: Cooler Today with More Wind
Location: Bolgatty Hotel Anchorage, Cochin (Kochi), India
Here’s how our day went.
10:30 am-Called DHL to check on compressor delivery. No change. Still in Chennai, but will call back in 10 minutes to report on progress.
11:00 am-No call back, so we called again. This time they needed an email address, again, so they could send requests. Will call back at 2:30 pm.
Noon-We sent the letter they requested with signature stating that we need the compressor to replace one that is that working. We say ‘replacement part’ over and over in the letter just to make the point that we are not importing this into India for sale.
2:30 pm-No call back, so we call again and find that the young woman we have been dealing with is on break. We wait some more.
4:00 pm-We call again and find that there is no resolution. We will have to wait until tomorrow.
This is how our day went. In between all of these communications I continued to work on organizing photos and Mark worked on tightening our stanchions. The stanchions are stainless poles that fit into deck fittings. Our life lines run through the top of the stanchions, and you want this whole system to be secure; it’s what keep you from falling off the boat. The set screws at the bottom of the stanchions keep them in place, but those set screws constantly work loose. So Mark drilled through and put in bolts with nuts. Hopefully this will provide stability. So some progress was made, but the constant checking of email, writing letters, scanning them in, and making more calls made for a very disjointed day.
But here’s the good news. I just checked the DHL website and it says ‘Released for Delivery.” So maybe the compressor is really on the way. It will take two days to get here, but we will be ecstatic if it reaches here by Monday. I also checked the Fed Ex website and it says our toilet repair kit has left New Jersey and is on its way. Our only problem on that one is just where it is on the way to. We have been assured that the incorrect address has been corrected, but the website still says it is on its way to ‘Kevala’ which doesn’t exist as far as we know. Since the last one went to Indonesia, we will just have to wait to see where this one lands.
Tonight Ed of Constance came over for happy hour drinks and for dinner. Things are going well with Lynne’s mom in Florida. The family is gathering and slowly Lynne’s mother is regaining some strength. For tomorrow, my hope is that we get confirmation that what we are seeing on the web tonight is really happening. We will also go ashore to do some shopping-some provisioning for food and some fun shopping. So goes life here in southern India.
