For 2017 the Perlan Project shipping to Argentina has been much smoother than last year. The trailer inside the container departed Minden on May 16. That was one day behind schedule. It loaded unto a Hamburg Sud vessel out of Long Beach with 5 hours to spare. It took a late gate exemption to make that cut off. Thanks to Claudia Ortiz of A.Hartrodt we did make the sailing.
The vessel went to Mexico where it transshiped to a different vessel headed to Chile. Since that second boat was 2 days ahead of original schedule we were not sure our container made it onto the new vessel. But it did, with 2 hours to spare! That is cutting it way too close for my mental health. But Hamburg Sud was awesome ensuring that our baby was well cared for every step of the way. They are great people to work with. You want to do business with a company that cares for its customers.
This year the boat made it into the San Antonio, Chile harbor before the big winter storm hit. (Last year the harbor closed for two days due to high winds.) Our container was offloaded, but had to wait almost a week for the mountain roads in the Andes to be plowed due to all the snow. Once across the Andes it again had excellent care in the hands of Jorge Caliri, customs broker in Mendoza, Argentina. Mendoza is considered a “dry dock” for customs and shipping purposes.
Jorge has taken such fantastic care of Perlan Project over 10 years. His F&B Logistics under the A.Hartrodt company handled the Perlan 1 import for Steve Fossett and Einar Enevoldsen. Jorge’s words “From the beginning, working for Perlan’s success” is 100% accurate. We would not use any other broker.
After it cleared customs, Tago was able to open the container to see how all the straps held. Tago handles logistics in Argentina and I handle logistics in the USA. You can bet we were celebrating!
Since there is a litlle door in the back of our special built Cobra trailer Tago was able to take photos without removing the trailer from the container.
No problems ! Hurray! Tim and Alec fly into Mendoza in a few days. After Tim checks the container once again, Tribal Trucking will start the 5 day journey south to El Calafate.
We built 3 extra weeks into our shipping schedule. Last year we used all 3 of those extra weeks plus more. But this year we actually have the container waiting for the team’s arrival. We will get to El Calafate on July 8.
Perlan willl soon be soaring! Jackie
