CXIX – Dunedin: Marker one Marina

Saturday December 13th, 2014

At last night’s docktail session, I finally got to participate in a blend whacker event. The ingredients; margarita mix, tequila, ice and Stihl blend whacker fuel. tailgator-gas-powered-3860 John from Mango was busy making batch after batch. The only downside of the evening was the temperature being in the low 50’s and the wind from the north. I know that no sympathy for us exists north of the Canadian border but we are getting used to the South and it is cold. The only cautionary note; the noise of the Blend Whacker does cause the curious and thirsty to come over to see what is going on. Great power tool for your workshop or cruising sailboat.

We are staying an extra day here to get back to stability after our 168 nautical mile run across the gulf and 33 hours without proper sleep. The older I get the more difficult it is to rebound from lack of sleep. It’s not that I sleep well, I don’t. I seem to like to wake up every couple of hours just to check and see if I’m on the right side of the grass.

Today’s schedule includes the Christmas parade here in the Dunedin area and other community Christmas events. The evening includes a snow storm scheduled for 9pm. I suspect some subterfuge related to this snow storm. I will report.

Apalachicola: As I reported we did enjoy our stay in Apalachicola and specifically at the Apalachicola Marina. But, we had an issue and it is related to coffee. There is a nice coffee shop in the business area. ML picked up a half pound of some coffee beans. These particular beans were scooped into a bag. The next morning I am up first and as per habit boiling water and grinding the beans for the morning coffee fix. The grinding came to a loud and final crunch. I opened up the Kyocera hand grinder coffee grinderand found the ceramic burr reduced to rubble. Included amongst the remains of my grinder was a 1.5 cm stone. Terra firma in my coffee and no way to grind beans.

Sailors well know that most things mechanical or otherwise can be repaired by judicious application of a hammer. I am my father’s son so I have hammers; brass, plastic, small, large, rubber, wood and an axe. Don’t get me started about our compulsory axe. This piece of rock had damaged my burr beyond repair by hammer. Now this fractured burr was up my *ss. Mary Lynn is always perplexed when she gets up and I am in full and out of control anger. It takes her a while to catch up with me and talk me down. I had to use the hammers to break down the beans to a size that would work in the press. This pebble had ruined my day.

grinder brokenML insisted that she would return to the Apalachicola Coffee Company with the remains. She said she would show the store what was hiding in their coffee and what happened to the grinder. I had other suggestions that would involve wearing rubber gloves… I didn’t get to go. When Mary Lynn returned I asked her what happened? She said he apologized and gave her cash money to replace the grinder. Perhaps quiet diplomacy can be more effective than wildly indignant out of control venom…but now we’ll never know. ML said the store guy didn’t even ask to see the remains of the grinder. Holy crap! So, thank you and an attaboy to the Apalachicola Coffee Company for their response to the boulder in my coffee. The coffee was very good as well. Now we need an address to ship a new grinder, to meet up with FRACAS. In the interim I use my bevy of hammers. There is some resultant spatter worthy of a CSI variant TV murder but the coffee tastes good.

coffee peets 2The latest coffee we are sampling is Peet’s Coffee specifically the French Roast. This is pretty good coffee, especially when they want 15$ U.S. for a pound (That’s about $30 Canadian) and I picked it up for $7.89 U.S.. The coffee tastes very good and is hammer friendly.

More later

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