There is certainly going to be a longer explanation of this entire saga, if for no other reason than to warn others away, and to hopefully educate folks to steer clear of the pitfalls we (I) tumbled head first into. Long story short, our truck driver Leonard “Rocky” Clark, has been deceiving us from day one (well really day 10). There was no health concern, no truck issues, no nothing other than a pathological liar who dug himself a hole so deep as there was no way to get out.
We’ve been hearing for 6 weeks that the boat “was a few days away”. He’d give us ETAs, that we’d pass on to the yard and the rigger, and then he’d go silent for a week, only to pull it all again, with some new excuse. Turns out the boat was never moving at all. He parked it to take other jobs with less miles, to try to stay ahead of his self created ponzi scheme. Robbing Peter to pay Paul along the way, but because my destination was the farthest away, and his finances so precarious, he was never able to catch up to actually deliver our boat. It came crashing down around him, when I filed a claim against his insurance for the “new replacement value” off of our survey, which is a hefty (and far more than we paid) sum. It apparently got his attention. While the claim exists he can’t drive anywhere that there would be a weigh station (which is everywhere). So he has to deal with us now.
Basically, he says he has no money to even fill his tanks, and his first reaction is to tell me that as soon as he gets someone else on the hook he’ll bring me my boat with their money. WTF ?!? I want no part of bringing this same situation on someone else. So I told him, I’ll pay to fill his tanks and buy the permits, but not from here, not from Seattle while he is out of my sight, no … I’ll be standing next to him at the pump.
So this is my solution, and the only one that makes sense to me. I’ll fly to the boat in Oklahoma (where it has been all along) and follow behind him in a rental car filling up his gas tank for the 2130 miles it takes to get out here. It’s going to cost us double from what he was extorting us for, but it doesn’t matter anymore. It’s absurd that I am paying this thief’s ransom, but what it comes down to is … I want the boat here, more than I want to see him punished, more than I want my money back (although I assure you that chapter is not over).
So that’s it in a nutshell, I’m flying out tomorrow and following our baby home. Wish me luck.
