Safe Portage

click on all images to enlarge
Here it is, our shipping container on our property, all passengers and freight in excellent condition (just kidding about the passengers, although I had my suspicions about a certain friend whom I thought might be within). This was no simple task getting this steel albatross to our property, settled down on it's own space for safekeeping; or until we have a need for the remainder of it's contents.
If you recall, the last time we saw this hairless behemoth was when it was being backed out of our driveway in Harwich, on October 29th. We were in the container port ourselves, in the Port of Palm Beach, just a few days later, on Halloween morning. We looked around for our container, which had to be there somewhere, but what are the chances we could glimpse the sight of our own? Somewhere between very, very slim and wicked unlikely come to mind...
So, here we are in St. Croix, awaiting the arrival of our container and our Ford Econline cargo van, the van the subject of an earlier posting; now in our possession.. ...and it's off to the races - in Crucian slow motion - to take ownership of the container. It's Friday morning, and our first stop is the Tropical Shipping building, to prove that the container is ours and it's transfer to St. Croix had been prepaid before ever leaving Harwich! Due to a printer glitch and some minor employee incompetence, this consumed most of the day Friday.
Meanwhile, I am trying to arrange transport for our (by this time) burdensome shipping container, through a local trucking company, their office conveniently located next to Tropical Shipping. The container was off-loaded from the container ship and mounted on a chassis with wheels, and made ready for a semi-tractor to haul away. I arranged for transport that afternoon, even though I still have to clear customs, because we had to move the BOX out of Tropical Shipping's confines ASAP! Or so we were told.
Looming in front of us the whole time we are going through this crucible was the possibility that we would have to unload every item we had packed away in the box for safe travel. Haul it all out right there at the container port; in front of the U.S. Customs Service agents! Looking back at length of the time it took me to load the beast, add in the expended energy I expended; this was not a pleasant or enjoyable prospect to ponder.
Walking up to the Customs Desk, I heard those fateful words from the inspectors mouth, "Mr. Harrison, your container has been tagged for inspection." Argghh! He handed me a form, said that the container was released - pending an on-site (on our property) inspection. This was good news and it was bad news, or maybe bad news and good news, but either way it was a pain on the one hand - and a blessing on the other. Obviously if we had to unpack the contents of the container it was easier in this manner, in that we wouldn't have to repack everything back into the boxes from whence they came, and repack the container! This time we could unpack anything U.S. Customs wanted to see, and what was unloaded was coming to our rental house anyway! All of my woodworking and electrical power and hand tools would be among the valuable items being kept at our rental house. The windows and the kitchen cabinets and the lumber and other things for construction could be left in the container, without much of a problem, again we are hopeful.
I should mention here that U.S. Customs, besides looking for contraband, weaponry and any possible terrorist activity, are also looking out for merchandise that was manufactured, in whole or in part, outside the United States borders. For example, our Ford Econoline E150 was manufactured entirely in the U.S., but our Chrysler Sebring in Harwich was manufactured and assembled in Japan, by Mitsubishi! A 6% tarriff is imposed on all parts or whole vehicles. Every other manufactured item that comes through the U.S. Customs, at seaports or airports in St. Croix and elsewhere in the territories, is treated in the same way. Items mailed via the United States Postal Service (USPS) are exempt from these taxes, but the USPS has it's limitations in regard to the size and weight of any parcel being posted.
Finally, late in the day, we are told we are cleared by Tropical Shipping (they found our payment) and may take possession of that big sucker again; with everything we brought to the Island with us, but still haven't seen.
From here begins another odyssey, made possible by our local U.S. Customs Inspectors; past whom this big steel box must travel, with the possibility that they would want to take a look at the contents, which of course is their right to do. It is too late in the day for our trucker to bring our container to us in Estate Concordia, all bets are off until Monday morning, when they can attempt this feat again.
Early Monday morning arrives and we are at the doorstep of our trucker when they open (actually ten minutes before an employee showed up, and ten minutes after the office was to open) to ensure prompt service (tongue in cheek) from the company whose charge it is to get this wicked heavy gray thing onto our building lot. I am told to report to the U.S. Customs and ask for a release form for the container, to show the gate person (on the way out presumably) that it is OK to move this monster. Upon reporting to the U.S. Customs desk, I am told that our container has been released and that an inspection wasn't necessary afterall and what, all that concern for nothing? And still we are not done with these people, I was to writhe in knotted apprehension for a little while longer. Was I to get a signature from anybody - another form to fill out - am I really done I asked? Can I take the container and turn it upside down (not likely I would do this, but I had to know if I could) grind and shake it's contents, and like pepper from a peppermill, dump it's contents onto the pavement if I felt like it? The response from our U.S. Customs officer? Nope, you're all set. Part of me wasn't buying this claim.
I was elated, to say the least, although still suspicious of the whole idea. The trucking company says someone will be up to our site (we assumed with container) later in the morning. We wait.. and wait.. and wait a little longer - I call the trucker - he's on his way now, from the bottom of the hill. We wait and wait and wait. I call the driver's cell phone, he is on his way up, be there in two minutes, we wait, ten, fifteen, no-show yet. I decide to drive down and direct the driver. I do not see anybody with our container on the way down the hill to the Northshore Rd. - I drive back up - a pickup truck waves me down, this is our driver? He doesn't have our container? Whazzup? This man just came to look at the site where I am to sit this container down, make sure it's level and accessible, that's all! He takes a look and says no-way he can lift that container, it weighs 35,000 lbs! He says we have to lighten the load. I finally get him to move the container to a spot on another man's (a friend of a friend) property where Debbie and I can off-load some of the heavier stuff to accomodate this. He delivers on his promise and has our container dropped off at Marcus' business location. By now it is 2:00 in the afternoon, I ask the driver to back the truck up against the building so as to block anyone from opening the doors. We decide to start the transefer of materials and tools in the morning.
The next morning we are there bright and early. We break the seal on the container, pull the padlocks off and, for the first time in two three weeks we gaze in on the contents and see no visible damage to anything. Yes! We gather our composure once again and take one load of stuff to our rental house with the Ford E150 Econoline van. We return to the scene of the crime for a second load of stuff, only to find two inspectors from U.S. Customs Service, looking at some paperwork in their car.
I inquire if there is a problem, he says no, we are just trying to ascertain who released this container. I mention that we had already made one trip to our property with some of the contents, and this doesn't seem to bother them. They are standing ten feet behind the container, with the doors wide open and they didn't want to look at a single item in front of them. It occurred to me that these two guys were just covering their butts with their boss, who allegedly gave the release order, but hadn't, or something like that. They asked that we return to the container port and find the release form, apparently for them. I was livid at the idea that we had to do their job for them.
Debbie complied and made the last necessary trip to the Container Port From Hell. She found the document, walked it from the gate keeper at Tropical Shipping, who was not inclined to give this sacred paper up, to the U.S. Customs Office, where the guy looked at it as if he had never seen this instrument before in his life, but eventually grunted his O.K. and handed it back to her. She didn't keep the promise she made to the gatekeeper, because she was told to bring it somewhere else, to be filed away forever, presumably never to be seen or read again, by anyone, ever!
So, now we have a much lighter container, and they can transfer it from it's chassis to a flat, tilt-bed truck, for transport up the hill to our building site, 465 feet above sea level, more or less. At last, our plans are gelling right before our eyes - so far that is.