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Time to give you an update on our communication with and from Blue Water Insurance. Things are looking up. Thank you to our readers who left comments and suggestions on the blog. I guess this topic touches a nerve with many people. One reader sent a letter to Blue Water. I'm sure that helped move things along. Another reader asked for the name of the company that insured the other boat with lightening damage. We'll try to find that our for you. We know it was another European company but don't know the name.
In our last update, we told you how we had sent 2 emails after a month of waiting to hear from Blue Water. No response. So Jim sent one directly to the insurance company in London with a copy to Blue Water. The rep at Blue Water contacted us on October 5th and said that he sent us the approval on September 29th. Hmmmmm?
We never received it. We were checking email everyday anxiously awaiting the approval. So, it either was never sent or its lost in cyberspace! The important thing is the claim is approved!
Now, in the interest of fairness, here are good things about our policy with Blue Water Insurance.
Blue Water is not depreciating our equipment and only providing us with a partial reimbursement. We are receiving replacement value. That is a very good thing especially because we are replacing in the Caribbean where everything costs more. They will pay us now or when the repairs are completed, our choice. If we discover more damage we can notify them and the claim will be reviewed. We do not have to sign off now if we accept the money now. This relieves some anxiety because we have not had the boat surveyed and are concerned that we could discover more damage.
I was a little upset when the customer service rep said in his email; "It appears that you have not initiated the repairs with the questions you are asking?" What!!! His email from August said "Send me the repair estimates before you do any repairs so the insurance company can review and determine if they need to assign a surveyor/adjuster to handle this matter." Of course we didn't start the repairs, we hadn't heard back. We were following directions!
Repairs will start in about a week. We are waiting for a wind instrument to arrive as both marine stores were out of stock on the model we want. They also didn't have the VHF radio we need and that will take 5 weeks to get. Jim can install that himself later as the antenna and wiring will be done with the other repairs. So I think we are finally back on the road to recovery.
Hopefully our next blog update will return to showing you the fun things we do accompanied by Jim's beautiful pictures. But hey folks, this is real life on a boat. As I've said before, it ain't all rum punch and sunsets!
