A large part of this summer and now fall has been spent waiting. Specifically waiting for things we’d ordred. And these things happen when there is a global supply chain disruption caused by a once in a lifetime pandemic.

Still, we could have done better adapting to the realities and used the tools at our disposal more effectively.

Our first delay was kayak and dinghy related. The delays in manufacturing caused us to hang out in Casco Bay close to home until the end of August which honestly we would have done anyway. I truly believe I could spend many consecutive summers in Casco Bay and just never get bored.

Our next delay was in Boston, this one was because of a 30 second follow up appointment with the Oral Surgeon for Ryan and since we were at Constitution Marina in Boston we spoiled ourselves with ordering way too much and having it delivered to the marina.

Then in Provincetown we hit our first snag. Having been spoiled in Boston I didn’t think anything of ordering a lithium battery from Amazon and having it shipped. And that was the snag. Instead of two days it took a week. So we stayed in P-Town for an extra week with no real worries. It arrived fast it was just slow to ship. But I chose not to learn from this experience.

We made our way to Newport RI where after a trip to West Marine I decided I’d order a part from a distributor out west. Not having learned my lesson I had it shipped to the local UPS store only to discover after it shipped and the delay emails started to arrive from UPS that we’d be staying another week in Newport.

And here we are. In Newport waiting for a three pound package and realizing that 59F weather isn’t as pleasant on the water in a boat with no heat.

So what should we have done after we learned that shipping delays are now a part of our reality?

There are two things I should have done in retrospect. The first was to order sooner and to ensure we had more spare parts on board. Specifically the raw water impeller that we need to replace. It just slipped my mind and since we only change it a few times a year it was much cheaper to have shipped to us. And I forgot about the shipping delays. The new plan is to have a year’s worth of our engine maintenance parts, filters, oil, impellers, etc. on the boat so that we can be casual in replacing them.

Second had to do with ordering and where to have things shipped. We pay for St. Brendan’s Isle and especially for this last package I should have had the shipment routed through them. These days things take longer to ship, then once shipped they can take longer to get where they are going. Utilizing the SBI service would have kept us moving south to warmer temperatures in safer weather windows and once the package was safely in Florida we could have had SBI overnight it to us wherever we happened to be.

Although I do miss the days when things would ship out in a few hours and arrive in a few days there are certainly workarounds for those of us on the go. It just takes a little planning ahead so we can be flexible and prepared for when surprises and delays happen.