Firstly, this is the first time hearing that apple is using boat to ship an iphone. I have never heard this before, unless this is something new they are doing. In most cases, they fly out from China in bulks and gets distributed to one of the 3/4 warehouses mentioned and from there they can then distribute to customers.
But I agree as why some customers has to wait that long. 🤷♂️
At first I didn't believe the boat rationale either, but as it was posted here in this thread, it was mentioned that more than 80-90% of their products are being shipped by boat now, to reduce their carbon footprint generated by air. If that is indeed true, then those shipments would only have 2-3 ports to come in at: Seattle, Oakland/Stockton, or San Pedro/Long Beach, with LGB being the biggest choice, as it is the country's busiest port.
The timing of the orders to them finally making it to the country would correlate to the time for shipment between China and here by sea, let alone the processing at Long Beach. From there, they would be handed to a given carrier (UPS, FDX, DHL, etc.) and shipped by air or ground, depending on final destination.
If that were true, I was hoping we'd see something indicative of the handoff from the port to the carrier, such as an incoming scan at the carrier's distribution center, like FDX and UPS have at Ontario/San Bernardino. That would at least tell us that the shipment came in to SoCal, and more than likely, Long Beach.
But again, the time between ordering and delivery is a huge issue for those still waiting, and does deserve an explanation from Apple.
BL.