From Letters to the editor, Sept. 08, Sail Magazine:

COFFEE CARGO

Dave Baldwins story about the coffee-hauling ketch Red Cloud (*Coffee
Clipper Plan Grinds to a Halt, " Under Sail, March) prompted me to
write this letter. In 1998, our 82-foot schooner, Patricia Belle, set
sail from Port Orchard, Washington, on her maiden voyage, outbound for
Nicaragua.

There, we loaded 10,000 pounds of green coffee beansand returned to
San Diego, intent on selling our cargo. After a lengthy inspection by
U.S. Custom, and the Food and Drug Administration, the beans were
cleared and we paid a small duty. "Sorry it took so long, Cap, but we
haven't done this for 100 years," the port authorities said.

The Patricia Belle soon became known as the "Coffee Schooner"; she
sailed on San Diego Bay every Sunday. Some boats sent tenders over to
buy beans, but most of the coffee was deliveredto the other boats in
the bay. Since then, we've made three more voyagesthrough Central
America and the Carribean. The boat now takes charter guestssailing
out of Mazatlan, Mexico, and I still have guests say, "So, you're the
coffee schooner, eh?"

Sorry to read about Red Cloud's misfortune.

Captain Patrick Hughes
schooner Patricia Belle

wrote in message
...
From Letters to the editor, Sept. 08, Sail Magazine:

COFFEE CARGO

Dave Baldwins story about the coffee-hauling ketch Red Cloud (*Coffee
Clipper Plan Grinds to a Halt, " Under Sail, March) prompted me to
write this letter. In 1998, our 82-foot schooner, Patricia Belle, set
sail from Port Orchard, Washington, on her maiden voyage, outbound for
Nicaragua.

There, we loaded 10,000 pounds of green coffee beansand returned to
San Diego, intent on selling our cargo. After a lengthy inspection by
U.S. Custom, and the Food and Drug Administration, the beans were
cleared and we paid a small duty. "Sorry it took so long, Cap, but we
haven't done this for 100 years," the port authorities said.

The Patricia Belle soon became known as the "Coffee Schooner"; she
sailed on San Diego Bay every Sunday. Some boats sent tenders over to
buy beans, but most of the coffee was deliveredto the other boats in
the bay. Since then, we've made three more voyagesthrough Central
America and the Carribean. The boat now takes charter guestssailing
out of Mazatlan, Mexico, and I still have guests say, "So, you're the
coffee schooner, eh?"

Sorry to read about Red Cloud's misfortune.

Captain Patrick Hughes
schooner Patricia Belle


"Red Cloud" WAS the first - the first to fail at a simple coffee bean run!

Wilbur Hubbard

On Fri, 5 Sep 2008 14:33:59 -0400, "Wilbur Hubbard"
wrote:

"Red Cloud" WAS the first - the first to fail at a simple coffee bean run!

Ohhh, hardly that, and the Spanish were sinking boats in the Gulf of
Mexico 500 years ago. They were pretty good at it.

On Sep 5, 2:15*pm, Wayne.B wrote:
On Fri, 5 Sep 2008 14:33:59 -0400, "Wilbur Hubbard"

wrote:
"Red Cloud" WAS the first - the first to fail at a simple coffee bean run!

Ohhh, hardly that, and the Spanish were sinking boats in the Gulf of
Mexico 500 years ago. *They were pretty good at it.

To Neal AKA Wilbur, Greg, Red Beard, ect,ect ..ect
Thanks for the link, interesting about the P. Belle. A nice new 80+ft
Schooner seems to be the way to go if you were to run coffee. I wonder
why the Patricia Belle only did one run on the boats maiden voyage to
the west coast?

Red Cloud tried, they may have lost a battle but they are still going
strong. Have you tried sailing anywhere lately?
Have you tried the coffee? It's damn good, I wish I could get it local
and not pay the post office so much to deliver it to Miami. You should
support the effort, I like the Octopussy's choice..Here ya go
www.ellagocoffee.com

You should try sailing for real some day Neal. Chill dude.
Get out and stop being a Skip, Zac, Joe, Roger, sail magazine groopie
wanna-be. You are as bad as Bob hanging around the crab docks begging
for an autograph. You need to learn that there is no failure except in
no longer trying. Take your sharpest knife out, slice off those huge
hemmoroids gluing you to the purple Naugahide and try to sail that
broken boomed banana again. Good luck.


Wayne,

According to the MMS there are over 4000 "historic" shipwrecks in the
Gulf and estimated at over 100,000 wrecks total. Mostly shrimp and
oilfield service vessels.

Fred

On Fri, 5 Sep 2008 13:06:29 -0700 (PDT), wrote:

over 100,000 wrecks total. Mostly shrimp and
oilfield service vessels.

Those are the late comers to the party.

On Fri, 5 Sep 2008 13:06:29 -0700 (PDT), wrote:

According to the MMS there are over 4000 "historic" shipwrecks in the
Gulf and estimated at over 100,000 wrecks total. Mostly shrimp and
oilfield service vessels.

That doesn't trip your BS detector? Tens of thousands of oilfield
service vessels? Figure it either per day or per rig, it's ridiculous.

Casady

[clipped the ng list to rec boats cru]

On Mon, 08 Sep 2008 01:18:33 GMT, (Richard
Casady) wrote:

On Fri, 5 Sep 2008 13:06:29 -0700 (PDT), wrote:

According to the MMS there are over 4000 "historic" shipwrecks in the
Gulf and estimated at over 100,000 wrecks total. Mostly shrimp and
oilfield service vessels.

That doesn't trip your BS detector? Tens of thousands of oilfield
service vessels? Figure it either per day or per rig, it's ridiculous.

Casady

Dunno about the BS factor, but my kid mentioned that rounding an
island in a chain of three yesterday near Corpus, they spotted a
girder sticking out of the water - and consulting the chart, decided
they wanted to round the NEXT island (a-hummph) before camping out
overnight under the stars. A compass and a GPS should have avoided
that - but GPSs run low on batteries, apparently.......tsk,tsk.

Brian W

On Mon, 08 Sep 2008 01:18:33 GMT, (Richard
Casady) wrote:

On Fri, 5 Sep 2008 13:06:29 -0700 (PDT), wrote:

According to the MMS there are over 4000 "historic" shipwrecks in the
Gulf and estimated at over 100,000 wrecks total. Mostly shrimp and
oilfield service vessels.

That doesn't trip your BS detector? Tens of thousands of oilfield
service vessels? Figure it either per day or per rig, it's ridiculous.

Well, when you put it that way........

--Vic