Behind the Blog: The Coffee Chronicles

Chapter 1 - The French Press

Shortly after we began our travels, we picked up a French Press on sale for maybe $10.00. We thought it would be a good way to make coffee on the boat without electricity. Pat had been off coffee for nearly a year, and I generally opt for ice tea in the mornings, but for some reason we both really had an urge for coffee.

Chapter 2 - How to make a great cup of coffee

The “recipe” for a great cup of coffee became a source of tremendous debate on Jubilee for many weeks following our press purchase. Medium v. bold; the coarseness of the ground beans; 5 well-rounded scoops v. 5.5; what exactly is well-rounded?; how long to steep before pressing. The details were endless.

I take cream and sugar in my coffee, so I don’t have nearly the sensitive palette Pat has. From his perspective, no one else can make a good cup of coffee. I began to realize that perhaps it had been a good idea for him to quit drinking it... clearly it was a very stressful activity for him! I considered switching him to decaf. beans for his own good but was afraid I’d get caught!

Chapter 3 - Stocking Up

Pat has never been a Folgers kind of guy, so when we stocked up on coffee for our crossing to the Bahamas we opted for whole beans... about 15lbs of them. I was sure my baby food processor could stand in for a coffee grinder, and this way the coffee would be nice and fresh!

Chapter 4 - The Grind

It was in the Berry Islands when we first needed to grind coffee. Pat had the generator running, so out came the baby food processor. After about 10 minutes, everyone aboard was ready to kill me if I didn’t STOP that horrid grinding noise! The kids couldn’t seem to focus on lessons, and Pat was losing his mind.

10 more minutes pass... I’m in the bathroom now with the food processor and a couple of pounds of coffee. (Our head has never smelled so good!) The door is closed to keep the noise down for everyone else. The baby food processor is practically on fire, it’s working so hard. I had a lot riding on it’s success, what with 15lbs of beans aboard and no other way to grind them.

I finally managed to get a grind that could only be described as “extra coarse” but it was adequate (barely, according to Pat) for making coffee if you increased the scoops to 6 well-rounded and let the pot steep a bit longer.

First on the to-do list for Nassau... buy a real coffee grinder.

Chapter 5 - Sticker Shock

When we arrived in Nassau, we found a hardware store that was willing to sell us an off-brand coffee grinder for $29.99. Suddenly, Pat was the baby food-processor’s new best friend. That grinding noise was tolerable; the coffee wasn’t that bad.

Chapter 6 - Starbucks-Ho!

On our way back to the Harbor from the hardware store, we happened on the answer to all our coffee problems... there on the corner was Starbucks!! The baby food processor could be relieved of its duty and the Jubilee crew would be spared any further discomfort and hearing damage. Surely, those nice people at Starbucks would grind our coffee for us!

Pat took 10lbs or so of beans (Starbucks beans, of course) from our “pantry” and had them ground to perfection - no charge. He was compromising on the “fresh ground” thing by having so much ground at one time, but that was a small price to pay. All was now right with the world.

Chapter 7 - Press Overboard!

The next day after enjoying his morning cup-of-Joe, Pat decided to rinse out the French Press with our salt water hose. We’ve taken to using salt water for dish washing, followed by a fresh water rinse, as a way to extend our water supply. While filling up my salt water jug so that I could do dishes, he took the press with him to the bow of the boat to clean it.

Clearly he is not doing dishes enough, because he was unaware - even after 6 months of owning the French Press - that the strainer screws off. By the time he noticed that the bottom of the press was “spinning”, he was watching it fly overboard! (He also watched the strainer separate into 3 pieces just before it hit the water.)

It’s nearly high tide; there’s a cold front passing through so the current is really ripping; and the key components to our French Press are now somewhere at the bottom of Nassau Harbor in 17 feet of water!

Chapter 8 - SCUBA Diving Challenge

Pat loves to dive, though it was a bit chilly this particular morning and Nassau Harbor isn’t exactly a diver’s “destination spot”. Still, he geared up for the salvage mission.
He had to tie himself to the boat with a rope so as not to be swept away by the current. Because the tide was coming in so strongly, visibility was poor, but he did manage to surface with 1 of the 3 missing pieces on his first dive. A few more attempts produced nothing but fatigue and frustration, so he had to give up the search and spent the rest of his air on the other mission of scrubbing algae off the bottom of the boat using a suction cup to hold himself in place.

Chapter 9 - Sticker Shock - Again!

While I made a list of all the people to whom we might give a few pounds of freshly ground coffee (I certainly wasn’t going to be having any any time soon!), Pat went into town - destination, Starbucks. Although they ground our beans for free, they required an outlay of cash - $39.99 - for a French Press.

Chapter 10 - Diving or Dollars

Not willing to part with $39.99 for something we’d paid $10.00 for to begin with, Pat was highly motivated to search again for the missing parts. The tide was now low and the water more settled. Surely, he could find the strainer.

He was out there for a while. The kids and I sort of forgot about him... then we heard the shouts of joy! The French-speaking boat anchored next to us was so taken by the commotion that they later asked our French-Canadian friends on Coxily what what “tresor” the Americans had found in at the bottom of Nassau Harbor. Le pressoir de café!!

Let’s just say the next pot of coffee we made in our trusty French Press was perhaps the BEST coffee Pat has ever tasted!