Posted 1/03/2008 05:23:00 PM by Douglas

Here's an interesting story about two starry-eyed entrepreneurs and their dream: to bring coffee into an already saturated coffee market. But despite the sunny headline, market share isn't going to be these folk's biggest problem:

Waters look smooth for imported brew

Joe and Terry Butcher have had their fair share of coffee as they worked on crew boats delivering workers and supplies to oil rigs. The two now plan to deliver coffee from Belize to the United States.

The couple, who call El Lago home, are sailing to San Pedro Town, Ambergris Caye, in Belize, where they will load 10,000 pounds of the roasted blend and bring it home.

The Butchers are among the new entrepreneurs entering the coffee business. Unlike others, however, the Butchers plan to use their 42-foot sailboat Red Cloud as a cargo ship. The two, along with Joe Butcher's brother, Doug, will make up the crew.

Joe Butcher calls his venture "the dawn of the new age of eco-sailing."

Ok, there's a coffee joint ever 100 yards, but whatever, that's what you want to do, go for it. How'd that turn out for ya? Good?

The Coast Guard has rescued three people -- and one dog -- from a rough seas-battered sailboat in the Gulf of Mexico.

Coast Guard personnel in a helicopter yesterday located the 42-foot boat about 200 miles off Texas.

Coast Guard video shows the boat's occupants being hauled up to the helicopter -- via a basket -- during high winds and 25-foot seas.

25 foot seas, high winds. I'm not laughing at that; lord knows I saw much less than that when the Coast Guard pulled me out of the drink, but it's just such a complete 180 from their previous story. But it gets better.

Somewhere out in the Gulf of Mexico, 200 miles off Galveston, the 42-foot sailboat Red Cloud is drifting unmanned with 10,000 pounds of vacuum-packed coffee on board.

Owner Joe Butcher, his brother, wife and dog were plucked out of storm-tossed seas New Year's Day by a Coast Guard helicopter, but Butcher's ready to go back for his boat and the coffee the crew was importing from Belize.

"I gotta go get my boat," a tired Joe Butcher, 47, said from his El Lago home Wednesday afternoon.

The Texas-size coffee run began in early December and started to go sour when they were forced to divert into Mexican waters to avoid Tropical Storm Olga by midmonth. Things got even worse when a cold front sent waves streaming over the boat and exhausted crew Monday evening. There was nothing to do but call the Coast Guard for rescue.

Wow, what a story. Sounds pretty intense, and they're lucky to be alive. Now what?

The Butchers said they plan to get a little bit of rest and are waiting for the Gulf waters to settle down. At that point, they plan to set out on a friend's boat to tow Red Cloud and its coffee cargo to El Lago.

Yeah, and so does everyone else that read this story. 200 miles out = international waters. Salvage laws says, and I'm paraphrasing, "finder's keepers." So good luck with that.