I know I know, you may be thinking "it can't be that bad" but, no, it actually is. At the beginning of the year, my grandfather passed away after being diagnosed with cancer just three weeks earlier. I ended up inheriting a 53 foot custom blue water sailboat that he had been holding onto since he bought it in the 90s. I finished up college in Colorado and moved to a coastal state with my boyfriend and we now have a house here. We planned on shipping the boat to a marina here from where it is currently located (Tennessee) and my grandmother, boyfriend, and I were searching for a shipping company and even asked the marina in Tennessee what shippers they recommended for such a large boat. The marina is designed oddly, with only one exit/enterance and its vertical with a 2.5 foot drop in the parking lot. It meant that only specific trailers can get into the parking lot and it meant that the particular type of trailer we would need to haul the boat out (a low boy) was unable to exit the parking lot with the boat.
.

We ended up hiring a broker in Texas, a well known company that could help us find exactly what we needed. He hired a company that was reasonably priced. The price was a concern of our since one company was asking for a base-price of $20k for shipping this boat. This company along with many others said $10k or below was what they would charge. We negotiated, the company agreed, and that's when everything went wrong.
.

We are now waiting a month since signing contracts for pick up for the boat to be delivered. Initially, the reason the company wasn't going to pick it up was because the hurricanes that hit Louisiana and then Florida (where the shippers were located) caused two weeks of delays. The third week of delays was because apparently a boat in line to be shipped before ours had to go from Florida to New York. It took two days for the boat to be unloaded due to unorganization. They then picked up a boat in NYC and moved it to Ohio. The boat leaked a fluid on the drive so they got stuck and put behind again. Finally they made it to pick up our boat. The trailer was a low trailer but not a low boy but the boat is 41.000 pounds even after all fluids are drained from it. The trailer wasn't stable but the shippers decided to leave the parking lot anyways. The marina had a translator because the shippers, a team of four, could not speak English. They explained that the boat probably would not make it over and that it was too heavy. The shippers then had a coordinator for their company call us saying they needed $3500 immediately. When we asked why, we were told that it was just for the gas and permits now for the weight of the boat. Which made no sense but we figured they knew what they were talking about. My boyfriend and I venmoed over $2k and my grandmother went over to the marina with $1500 cash. She had them sign a sort of receipt saying they were given the cash just for records. They try to leave the parking lot and of course the trailer gets stuck. They couldn't even get back down the hill.
.

The shippers call a tow company which took two tow trucks and a wrecker to get them out of the parking lot but they couldn't even get them onto the main road. They had to put them back down at the docks and the marina. We would have to hire another company. The tow apparently cost $12000 which is very unrealistic since the tow was only there for 1.5 hours. The shippers coordinator called me saying we needed to send the company that would have to offload our boat and would not be able to ship our boat the $12000 or they would "impound" our boat. We told them we would not do this and asked for a refund. They refused to give us our $1500 cash back. The coordinator held our $2000 and tried to send it back but Venmo wouldn't let her. And then the police were called out to the marina. Come to find out, they were holding our boat ransom. They wanted to use the cash for drugs and drug smuggling along with our boat as a way to hide it. The police stand off lasted several hours. The marina had the entrance blocked so the shippers couldn't leave. Police said they were here illegally and that they wouldn't be traceable but just wanted to get the boat unloaded.
.

fast forward to 3am a few days ago, I'm getting phone calls and texts saying the coordinator for the company quit. The police are still negotiating with the shippers. And the broker is trying to get our money back. The coordinator has my phone number and sent the venmoed money back in increments. She stole it from the company because she knew they were wrong in not wanting to refund us. And now they are still trying to track the people down after letting them leave the marina with the cash.
.

We found a new shipper. The boat should be on the way. But because there are already shipping permits out for our boat, the new shippers are delayed in getting them. The boat is stored safely on a local shippers property since he has the trailer we needed to get the boat out of the marina. But we are at a stand still.
.

Then today happened. Still no permits. Still very little sleep and I'm running on fumes. My boyfriend's truck wouldn't start so we got jumper cables and had it jumped using my car. We decided to take it for a drive but on the drive we got rear ended. I'm genuinely exhausted with everything.