On Dec 31, 10:10*am, "Edgar" wrote:
Good work, Joe and Terry.
*But why take a heavy steel container on board?
. There must be a way to contain the coffee in lighter, packing that could
be unloaded anywhere without having to get heavy lifting gear to remove your
cargo. A light mobile crane should be the maximum requirement.

"Joe" wrote in message

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http://galvestondailynews.com/story.lasso?wcd=149551

Joe- Hide quoted text -

- Show quoted text -

For several reasons Edgar,

When we started the company our plan was to get a load of Mexican
Puma. That plan was nixed because the brokers and the farm were scared
to death to load a cargo at a non secure location. They were afraid we
would all be mistaken for drug runners and killed by the local drug
lords for stepping on their turf. The only place they agreed to load
us was a secure shipping port. Due to the port set-up it would have
been impossiable to load not to mention the cost of hiring union
workers to load the cargo by hand. Sitting at the public warf in
belize was a hassle. Every drug dealer in town meet on the warf at
night to smoke and deal. The one night we did not anchor out was the
night of the shoot out between rival gangs from Mexico and Belize
right at the head of the dock.


Second, we can pre-secure the cargo, and clear it from customs so
that there will be no delays what so ever in loading a container and
departing. As you know we missed a weather window by 1 day due to a 1
week delay by US customs, a 5 day delay due to tropical storm Olga,
the a 6 day delay because the cargo was not ready to be loaded when we
arrived in Belize. Our original goal was to be back in port before
December 1 missing the first frieght train northern that hits here
every year.

So for security, and cost savings and logistics a standard container
is the way to go to any port. We can load and depart in about 30
minutes and the cost is around a thousand bucks. Here in the US we can
offload at will and take our time, overseas thats a big hassle. I had
to threaten one Pirate wanna be with a USMC Bolo to keep off the boat
and out of the way while loading. I seriously thought I was going to
have to hack on him to get him to understand how serious I was about
no one boarding the vessel. My biggest concern was a local planting
drugs on the boat for the local cops so they could take my boat. No
one was every allowed on the vessel and never was the boat left alone.

The cops did raid my brother and a local we hired to secure supplies.
A dozen cops in 5-6 cars zoomed in all at once and took our rented
golf cart, supplies and guide. They assumed our guide was delivering
the goods and they were going to make a major bust. Turns out the
boxes my bro loaded from the guides house only had sea shells and
coral the guide gave him. We got the guide out of jail for a case of
beer the police stole or lost from the cart.

Joe