We are usually fans of dry humour, but there is definitely nothing dry about this next story. Life can be a real beach sometimes and last year we certainly felt what it meant to have our glass or rather, our container, half full… of water. As many of our customers will reluctantly recall, we received a container in February last year, half full (sadly not half empty) of salty ocean water. There are many things that would not fair well in a container full of water, and we can now confirm that wood products are definitely one of them. Upon receiving this news from our warehouse, you can only imagine that everyone’s spirits were well and truly dampened. What was also dampened were our 191 products inside said container. Now we don’t want to get tide down in the details but this was a real sink or swim situation for us. As all of our products are individually handcrafted abroad, we generally have a 90 day turnaround between ordering and receiving so as you can imagine, having a container arrive full of floating products, was not an issue that could be rectified overnight. The flow on effect this had, meant we had to dip into stock from future containers to fulfil orders which in turn began vicious waves of lengthy delays and our best sellers continuously out of stock. As the saying goes, things always come in threes so continue reading for the rest of the trilogy.

Welcome to part two. If you are just drying off after the recap of our first mishap for 2018, then we must apologise because this next part requires a lot more than just a towel. Grab your goggles and your wetsuit as we journey way down to the ocean floor to meet our next guest, M29, now better known as Adele, because it is Rollin’ in the Deep.

After recovering from our trip down ship creek in February last year, we somehow made it to the middle of 2018

with our heads still above water. Things seemed to be going along swimmingly until we caught wind of the news that a cargo ship had lost some of their containers overboard. Nothing tugged at our heart strings more than seeing this story on the morning news, but when you think it could be you in the same boat (literally), a wave of terror will certainly ensue. With sinking hearts, we contacted our freight forwarder for more information on the state of our container. After a few long days, sleepless nights, countless follow up emails and hours spent staking out every news outlet for updates, we finally got the salty but sweet news we had been waiting for. We were relieved to discover that despite our container being carried by said vessel, M29 was safe, healthy and most importantly, dry and above water. With our container in tow, we eagerly awaited the vessels arrival at the port. Sea? It’s not all bad news we thought. We went out to our 371 customers who were awaiting their orders to let them know the good news. We popped a few bottles, had a small celebration and it was business as usual… until a phone call soon after well and truly krilled our vibe.

Upon docking, the vessel took two days to unload. Little did we know as day two rolled around, we were about to be dunked by our biggest wave yet – contrary to our prior communications with our freight forwarder, our container had in fact NOT been accounted for. Talk about a wet blanket… or in this case, a wet cot. Of over the one thousand containers on board, around 80 were lost at sea and among that 80, was one of ours. Going back out to our 371 customers felt worse than any sea sickness we had ever had. Unlike our container which was now sitting at the bottom of the ocean, we were washed up and back to square one with our heads just above water, shuffling containers and fishing for a solution as quickly as possible. The tale doesn’t fin-ish there, so stay tuned for the third and final instalment.

We are reeling it in with the final section of our trilogy. By this point, the only thing on our mind was water year we’d had. We thought for shore our wave of bad luck was over but buoy were we wrong! Our experience in deep sea diving is minimal – non-existent in fact, but we had enough to know we were never salvaging our stock from the ocean floor. With that, it was straight on the shellphone to our manufacturers, to order a replacement container before that dreaded ripple effect had a chance to take full surge. If you have been keeping up with our series of unfortunate events, you will recall that there is about a 90 day turnaround on containers but when you find yourself this far up ship creek without a paddle or a solution in sight, you do whatever you have to do to stay afloat. To our manufacturers, we will forever be grateful to you for throwing us the paddle we so well and truly needed by getting our replacement products en route with such urgency. After treading water for months, we finally found our life jackets and could lay back to rest our weary, washed up little heads. It was smooth sailing from here on in as we eagerly anticipated the arrival of our latest container. Now this should be where the story ends – the (hard)ship had sailed and we were back on track. Sadly, however, the vessel carrying our container had other ideas and the only place it was on track to was Papua New Guinea for 5 weeks with engine problems.

We aren’t here fishing for sympathy, we are here to say a big thanks to all 371 of you for supporting us and sticking by us through our hardest year yet. We have learnt that of all the ships out there, the best ships are friendships and we just know we couldn’t have made it through last year without out nearest and dearest. We are so grateful for your support and we can’t wait to make this year our best year yet.

Also, if the doctor asks you can let them know we well and truly had our dose of Vitamin Sea last year.