'Nukular' water boiling on boat
 

Sometimes when using the microwave on the boat to boil water, the water
turns 'nukular.'

That is, when I take the coffee cup out of the microwave, and spoon some
instant coffee into it, the water "boils up" and overflows the cup.

This occurs maybe one time out of 20, but when it does, it makes a mess.
I typically fill the cup to the same level with jug water (no one should
drink water stored in a boat's water tanks!), use the two minute setting
on the microwave to boil it, and put in the same super teaspoon amount
of coffee.

What's going on here?

\

--
Not dead, in jail, or a slave? Thank a liberal!
And don't forget to pay your taxes so the rich don't have to!

Doesn't have anything to do with being on a boat.

Water needs some little bit of something for the water vapor bubbles to
form on. If the water is really clean, and the cup too, you can heat water
to a couple of degrees over 212F because there are no little bits. Then
when you add the coffee, it boils a little. Solutions:

Spinkle a couple of particles of instant in the water before you heat it.

Don't heat it quite so much.

Don't use instant coffee. ;-)

Don't wash the mug. ;-)

(Actually, it's a Republican plot, Harry ;-) ;-)

--
Chuck Tribolet

http://www.almaden.ibm.com/cs/people/triblet

Silicon Valley: STILL the best day job in the world.


"Harry Krause" wrote in message ...
Sometimes when using the microwave on the boat to boil water, the water
turns 'nukular.'

That is, when I take the coffee cup out of the microwave, and spoon some
instant coffee into it, the water "boils up" and overflows the cup.

This occurs maybe one time out of 20, but when it does, it makes a mess.
I typically fill the cup to the same level with jug water (no one should
drink water stored in a boat's water tanks!), use the two minute setting
on the microwave to boil it, and put in the same super teaspoon amount
of coffee.

What's going on here?

\

--
Not dead, in jail, or a slave? Thank a liberal!
And don't forget to pay your taxes so the rich don't have to!

Chuck Tribolet wrote:
Doesn't have anything to do with being on a boat.

Water needs some little bit of something for the water vapor bubbles to
form on. If the water is really clean, and the cup too, you can heat water
to a couple of degrees over 212F because there are no little bits. Then
when you add the coffee, it boils a little. Solutions:

Spinkle a couple of particles of instant in the water before you heat it.

Don't heat it quite so much.

Don't use instant coffee. ;-)

Don't wash the mug. ;-)

(Actually, it's a Republican plot, Harry ;-) ;-)


Ahh, it's a plot!

You know, I've told my wife over and over that my coffee cup isn't
"that" dirty, and I can reuse it...but noooooooooo....she insists I
scrub it out once in a while, to shake loose the penicillin growing inside.

Thanks, Chuck.

You know, I have varied the heat time...but I'll try dropping in a
couple of grains of coffee before I heat up the water. Instant really is
my only choice. My wife doesn't drink coffee, and I only want a cupful.
Cleaning up a one or two cup percolator isn't something I want to do.




--
Not dead, in jail, or a slave? Thank a liberal!
And don't forget to pay your taxes so the rich don't have to!

John Gaquin wrote:
"Harry Krause" wrote in message

..... Instant really is
my only choice. My wife doesn't drink coffee, and I only want a cupful.
Cleaning up a one or two cup percolator isn't something I want to do.

Have you tried the one-cup "coffee bags" of freeze dried? May not be
strong/weak enough for your tastes, etc.


Hmmm. No. Do they work like tea bags, meaning you drop them into a cup
of hot water? I don't drink particularly strong coffee...I use 2% milk
and a couple of artificial sweeteners...

--
Not dead, in jail, or a slave? Thank a liberal!
And don't forget to pay your taxes so the rich don't have to!

"Harry Krause" wrote in message

..... Instant really is
my only choice. My wife doesn't drink coffee, and I only want a cupful.
Cleaning up a one or two cup percolator isn't something I want to do.

Have you tried the one-cup "coffee bags" of freeze dried? May not be
strong/weak enough for your tastes, etc.

John Gaquin wrote:
"Harry Krause" wrote in message

Hmmm. No. Do they work like tea bags, meaning you drop them into a cup
of hot water? I don't drink particularly strong coffee...I use 2% milk
and a couple of artificial sweeteners...

Yes, they work like tea bags. I believe you place the bag in the water,
then nuke the contents together. You can probably adjust strength by
adjusting post-nuke steep time, much like tea.

Frankly, I haven't even looked for them for a couple of years because I had
no need. When I tried them at that time, they were acceptable - but not
ready for a feature write-up in Gourmet, if you catch my drift.




Indeed. Yes, I eat and drink nothing but gourmet fare while on the
boat...peanut butter and jelly, chicken salad, subs from subway, you
know...the high-class stuff. Oh...and diet cokes and water and about one
beer a month. with lime. Thanks.

--
Not dead, in jail, or a slave? Thank a liberal!
And don't forget to pay your taxes so the rich don't have to!

"Harry Krause" wrote in message

Hmmm. No. Do they work like tea bags, meaning you drop them into a cup
of hot water? I don't drink particularly strong coffee...I use 2% milk
and a couple of artificial sweeteners...

Yes, they work like tea bags. I believe you place the bag in the water,
then nuke the contents together. You can probably adjust strength by
adjusting post-nuke steep time, much like tea.

Frankly, I haven't even looked for them for a couple of years because I had
no need. When I tried them at that time, they were acceptable - but not
ready for a feature write-up in Gourmet, if you catch my drift.

"Chuck Tribolet" wrote in message

Water needs some little bit of something for the water vapor bubbles to
form on. If the water is really clean, and the cup too, you can heat
water
to a couple of degrees over 212F because there are no little bits. Then
when you add the coffee, it boils a little.

I've encountered this with the microwave, also. You get a similar response
when freezing pure water -- rain aloft may be super-cooled but still liquid,
lacking what is called "condensation nuclei" - a bit around which to
crystallize. As soon as it impacts an aircraft, it instantly freezes to
the aircraft structure.

"Harry Krause" wrote in message
...

What's going on here?


Probably depends on which part of the bay you are dipping from to get your
water!
Some areas are "chunkier" than others!
Greg

Recommended coffee solution:

After over 20 years of experimenting with any number of ways to make coffee on
a boat, here's my choice.

1. Boil drinking water on the stove. (obviously, all bets are off if you're in
violent weather- but you won't want to be spilling coffee all over the place
any more than you would boiling water).

2. Put insulated carafe into empty galley sink. (in case something spills
during process)

3. Put plastic cone into the mouth of the carafe

4. Insert paper filter into plastic cone.

5. Spoon Starbucks into coffee filter- more or less according to taste.

6. Pour boiling water onto the coffee. It takes two or three "doses" of water
to fill the carafe without overruning the upper limit of the paper filter. Make
sure that the
mud and slurry in the filter begin to turn light brown during the second, and
particularly the third application of hot water. Coffee beans release acid
first, (the dark brown stuff), and sugars last, (the light brown). If you don't
get some light brown, you have used too many grounds and your coffee will be
bitter.

7. Dump the filter and spent coffee grounds into the trash, stow the pan, screw
the lid on the carafe, and you have a cup of coffee for now and about three
more cups for later in the day. Minimal muss and fuss, drip coffee taste, and
almost no cleanup required. (I've found that the insulated carafe will keep
coffee acceptably hot for
about five hours).

Instant coffee? How can anybody drink instant coffee? It's like stirring some
Swiss Miss into a cup of water and pretending it's hot chocolate. Not the same
thing at all. :-)