On getting stuff...

Pop-tart mayhem, about that common good stuff, and some folks call me irresponsible...

I just had to buy a new 48V charger for my propulsion bank...

Of course, there are not a lot of 48V chargers floating around the Caribbean so, like many things, it is something you have to buy in the States and ship down.

The charger I'm buying is not expensive as such things go (a kiss over $300) but, like a lot of boat part problems, the issue is not the cost of the item but simply the hassle of finding someone willing to sell you something outside of their same old same experience...

I often wonder about the American educational system when I constantly have to explain to folks that the U.S.V.I. (that would be the United States Virgin Islands) is actually part of the United States and you really can just mail something down to us and it will get here.

For instance, the other day I needed a new rudder pin for our Hobie Mirage kayak which is a little piece of nylon and weighs a lot less than an ounce. The fact that it is a little piece of nylon, it also does not cost much at a grand total of $3.99... Which, when you think about it, you have to seriously wonder why one of the shops up in the US of A mainland were telling us it would cost in excess of $60 to ship it down here by a non US Mail shipper...

When we pointed out that...

      A. It could be put in a envelope with a 66-cent stamp on it and it would get here finest kind in about a week...

      B. That it would fit quite nicely in a USPS Priority flat rate box for $5.80 and we'd get it in a few days...

They said they'd only send it via FedEx for something like $60...

Now, let's do that math... $3.99 item that weighs a few grams shipped for $60 = Way Too Fucking Much!



Used Cars makes a whole lot of sense...

Obviously we didn't  buy the rudder pin from folks who refused to send via the good old US Mail and the folks we did buy it from mailed it and, hey presto, a few days later the new pin was in our kayak and we had steering again.

Anyway, back to the battery charger... Same drill as some folks will only send via FedEx, UPS, and those Dropped Hard & Lost folks but we're not stupid (cheap yes, stupid no) so we held out for a supplier who'd ship it via Mr Zip for $15 instead of over $100 and, I expect, in a couple of days we'll have a brand spanking new charger waiting at the Post Office for us to pick up. Life, as they say, is good!

By the way, I'm sure you're hearing a whole lot of negative but bogus stuff about the US Mail and 99.9% of it is wrong. For a good explanation about what's going on you can read all about it here. I've mentioned it before but it bears repeating that the US Mail is a cruiser's friend whether you're in the Caribbean (the USVI and Puerto Rico are covered by the US Mail) or even in the Pacific (Hawaii, Guam and other US territories) so well worth keeping in mind when you need to get stuff in a safe, affordable, and timely manner.

Listening to Chris Ardoin & Double Clutchin'

So it goes...