It's a gas
Rhiann Marie - Round the World
Stewart Graham
Mon 9 Nov 2009 22:31
|
I have a lot say today, so if you have anything
better to do right now get on and get that done and read this later when you
have nothing better to do! The day started OK. I
had three things to do; get gas, collect a Jon Bouy m.o.b. device from the
airport and to take Trish to the airport as she was going home for a
few days and we had a hired car for the weekend.
The gas thing starts when we used up the first of
two propane bottles aboard by Gibraltar. No problem I would just pick up a new
cylinder in Gibraltar. No. Propane can't be had in Gibraltar for yachts -
however it will be no problem in Spain they said. In Spain they said "yes,
Propane was no problem but not in these bottles". Would I like butane? yes
I would, I thought. However not with these regulators valves and fittings
aboard. OK, I thought lets leave this, and work something out in the
Canaries. There are hundreds of boats gathering there to cross the
Atlantic. So hiring a car in Lanzarote I drove north to the industrial gas plant
there who could fill propane - excellent! There I spoke to a very helpful
guy who explained that he could fill propane and the cylinders were OK apart
from the valve it needed to be male not female. So I said "Ok I'll take two
butane cylinders and change all my valves aboard", "OK" he said "all I need now
is your empties first....... " Fine then. So anyway I am now in Gran
Canaria and I have two butane cylinders (from a guy in the back of a van) and a
jig saw puzzle of valves and connectors to hot wire the system. Keep an eye to
the south at sunset, the green flash might just not be the natural
phenomenon....
So like a civil servant on a busy day I only had
three things on my to do list. The gas transaction started early and finished
about 1630 - so that was one thing done. So cleverly I thought I would combine
dropping Trish off at the airport with collecting my Jon Buoy which is a man
overboard device. Not one to put a man overboard, you understand, but one to
recover a MOB. The Jon Buoy had been due to arrive Saturday morming, so knowing
how these things go, I left it until today. So I dropped Trish off at the
airport (two things done) and located the cargo terminal by a process of
elimination. I had all my paperwork, as in order to be prepared I went to
internet cafe and dumped the pdf of the airwaybill etc to the memory stick
and printed it out aboard.
Now being a verteran of importing and exporting
very large volumes of material from and to all parts of the world I thought this
would be easy. Normally I could get this delivered direct to the boat by using
an agent but because these lifesaving devices are classed as "dangerous goods"
(dont ask!) I had to collect it. Into the freight warehouse I went and
located the Iberia desk, this was easy but involved a 15 minute wait in a one
person cue. Anyway after a while the waybill was produced along with invoice and
"Dangerous Goods" certificate. "All you have to do now is go to the customs
and get this stamped" she said gesticulating to another building. Now,
though I was quite chuffed with a few small successes in using my limited
Spanish I was now found clearly wanting in that department so I think that is
what she said with my understanding of an odd word and very
odd gestures. Speaking about limited success in the language: I was in the
supermarket the other day and a woman said "Pardon senior, este con sal?
Handing me a tub of butter. "Si si, con sal" I said. "Ah muchas gracias senior"
"de nada" said I. Trish was amazed but to be fair the woman had very dark
glasses and a white stick and if I was wrong she wouldnt recognise me
again.
So off to customs. First the wrong department,
then the wrong desk then the right desk wrong guy. 10 minute wait for the right
person. OK that was fine and took the papers away to be perused. Finally in
comes another woman to escort me to another desk (the first one!) That would be
fine she said just give her the boat papers and my passport. Keep cool, keep
cool... Off to the boat in the car and offto the car hire to ask to extend
my hire now by a couple of hours to complete this excercise. "No can
do" he said "it will need to be an extra day". OK no point getting flustered.
Damn it the car was now out of fuel and I had to get to a fuel station before
going back to the airport. Got to the airport , now they are on luch. Finally
paper was stamped. "Excellent" I thought. "Now you must go to Canaries customs"
they said. "No this was Civil Customs" or something like that. Now the whole
process again. "Now you must go to Seguridad Vigilante" - Deep breath now - keep
it together. "Now you must go to...." a certain desk in the warehouse where the
process of rubber stamping was repeated. They must all have shares in a rubber
stamp factory! Finally I get the Jon Bouy pop it under my arm and off I go to
the car - not a chance! "You must take this paper to the customs man at the
gate". I swear to god when I gave him the paper he tried to send me back to the
first customs office again with it - probably to do a lap of honour or
something. I was extremely insistant that this could not be possible, and when I
got in the car I left the aiport directly. I honestly think it would be
easier to smuggle a bomb aboard a plane than it was to get a lifesaving device
from a plane.
This whole episode raises two questions in my mind.
One relates to the economic performance of countries and how much of a
factor excessive beurocracy is in influencing its productivity. There are
many other factors to consider when studying the relative prosperity of the
countries of the world and why some countries were hugely dominant and now are
not and how some countries seem to be on the ascendency and others stuck firmly
in the mire...... mmm? This will clearly take more than one page so we can come
back to it. The second question is: why am I finding it so inefficient to get
anything done? I have now been living aboard for two months and am through the
first phase of boat familiarisation, and the teething issues are taken care of,
and sailed for over 2000 miles. One of the risks of undertaking this
adventure is that I will not be able to return to full throttle business
development and management afterwards. I therefor have to find a happy balance
between being productive and still enjoying the experience (which I certainly
am) with all its frustrations, which I know will get worse as we circumnavigate.
First I have to study what and how I am actually doing and how it can be done
most effectively, and second I need to formulate a plan to "overlay" on the trip
so I can keep the motivation up and to be able to hit the ground running on our
return.
As I am alone on Rhiann Marie now, the first
thing I did when I came back aboard today was I left the toilet seat up and I
may just treat myself to that all week. I was already planning to graze on
all the odds and ends in the fridge this week but I already have two dinner
invites, Tuesday and Thursday. Therefor if anybody is reading this and was
thinking of inviting me to dinner, only Wednesday is
free!
|