Paciencia
Having spent a fair amount of time with our boat on two different occasions over the past several weeks, I can happily say there is good progress. I'll share some of my observations.
Logistical Headaches
Building a boat in Argentina is not for the impatient gringo. It's complicated. Importing stuff for our boat is painful at best. Customs, 50% import duty, shipping costs, etc all add up. If you don't bring it down with you via checked luggage - a.k.a. a mule, expect to pay mucho dinero for shipping and transport costs to Uruguay. Neil and I are currently experiencing this headache for our life rafts, flares, etc, etc. Ugly.
Antares also has similar challenges. They have to have items 'typified' for customs to allow import without the taxes. This is done because the components for our boats are for export and not subject to 50% duty. This process is messy and takes time. Adding to the challenges of boat supplies arriving in time for the production schedules of our boats.
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| Sitting on Field Trip's port transom |
Fortunately we are very flexible on our plans. We have made multiple trips back and forth from Denver and plan to continue this until the boat is finally in the Caribbean. ETA to St. Lucia is late January. Most of the month of January I will be sailing the boat with captain and crew while family is in Denver. We'll post more details on specific plans later this month.
Latest Boat Pics
Our boat is coming along. Splash date is late November. A considerable amount of progress has been done in the past two weeks since I was last in Argentina. This was the first time that Michael and Elizabeth have seen the boat. In short, they were VERY excited to walk around and look at 'stuff'. Elizabeth was most excited about the bunk beds...and most importantly that her bed was the 'top' bed and Michael's was the bottom bed....hmm.... :)
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| First Family Photo with Field Trip |
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| Santiago, Myself, Neil on Field Trip |
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