Coffee, anyone?

 Coffee, anyone?

It was still after the storm, and we both slept until 6 am. It looked calm in harbor, so we decided not to delay. I started the kettle, poured the coffee into the press can and made two pots: one for the Thermos and a couple of cups for us.

I envisioned drinking coffee on deck listening to the “morning coffee” playlist curated especially for me by Spotify as we sauntered out of port. I set the Thermos and two cups on the tables up on deck.

We got out of port, and I took in the ropes and started removing the 10 fenders left from the night before. The knots were tight and I had to move them to various spots on the fencing on the boat and re-tie them so that we wouldn’t lose them en route. By the time I got to the third fender, the boat was rocking considerably and I wasn’t sure how I would be able to tie off the rest of them.

Reidar said to just leave them on the floor, so I did. By the time I got back into the cockpit, the Thermos was on the floor in the cabin. “I hope it didn’t shatter,” he said. It looked OK. Meanwhile, the wind and waves were picking up and Reidar was trying to set sail. Now the ropes were in the way, so I tried to get them together and pile them up in the cabin as well. I now saw that there was coffee everywhere so I picked up the Thermos to put it back in the cabinet. In the process, I nudged the press can just as a wave took us, and it flew across the kitchen and smashed on the water tap.

I picked up the glass, threw it into the garbage can and shoved the Thermos into the cabinet.

Back on deck, the remaining two cups of coffee had spilled all over Reidar’s sweater.

We hadn’t even turned on the music yet.

The trip from Stavern til Krukehavn was one of the choppiest and scariest I have experienced (so far). It took almost four hours. When we came into port, I was shaking as I set the ropes and fenders. I got ready to jump off and dock like a future professional when someone came over to catch the ropes. I was so relieved.

There is a tradition of “anchor dram” in Norway. Despite not having had anything to eat yet, I could not see any reason not to have that anchor dram. Bourbon. A gift from one of our American visitors last summer. It took the edge off enough that we could walk over to the restaurant and have a fish soup and a glass of wine.

And two cups of coffee.