While We Have Time - a movie in the making!

From Les ....

Hi guys, if you have been following the blog you will know about the problems we have had as a result of our container being left on the docks at Hong Kong. Well that hopefully is behind us now and it is on a ship at sea and pointing at Vancouver. Everybody involved tells me not to worry, but as far as I'm concerned until I see the cars for myself I will feel uneasy. I can see it now, the container arrives, the doors are thrown open and it's full of Chinese woks!

With that nightmare still on my mind, last Friday morning I got a call from Gabrielle, our agent in Vancouver, telling me that for some reason one of the Jimnys was listed on the ships Bill of Lading as Mike Bailey being the principal driver. Because of that, he will have to be at the Canadian customs to receive his Jimny, or I would have to ask Mike to give our agent Power of Attorney to receive it on his behalf. This is crazy I thought.

I emailed Gabrielle back to say I will look at the paperwork and get back to her. Driving around the world isn't easy, the complications just seem to go on and on. I had this picture of Roger and Glyn, my Stage Four travelling companions, turning up, but us having only one car available. I studied the paperwork and what it appears had happened was, as we crossed the borders from the Ukraine, Kazakhstan, Mongolia, and Russia, they all excepted that I was the registered owner of both vehicles, except one. The Mongolian / Russian crossing at Kyakta. They insisted that I cannot be the owner of both vehicles and registered Mike as owner of the other one and let us cross the border. 

All the paperwork was in place with the additional piece that said Mike was the principal driver. I was looking at the papers pulling at the last three strands of hair left on my head wondering what to do. I decided to ask Mike to sign a disclaimer and we get it witnessed to the effect that he was not the owner, so this we did. I also drafted a note as to how the problem occurred, and sent it off to Gabrielle. When I meet her on Tuesday, (local time in Vancouver) and will give her fresh copies of the vehicle registration papers and purchase invoices, and hope that will do.

What else can go wrong, if I don't come back to you by the 23rd, it means I have hung myself. Not because of the problems with customs, it will be because when we opened the container it was full of woks!!