We LOVE our coffee aboard TIGER LILLY - especially on these cool New Zealand mornings. Traditionally, the coffee pot has been a gathering place for sailors ever since man has gone down to the sea in ships.
We even met on a chance encounter at Starbucks. Check it out at: http://www.sailblogs.com/member/tigerlilly/?xjMsgID=157577
When we were back in the USA we loved the sense of community and friendly ambience prevalent at our local Starbucks, but we much prefer Dunkin' Donuts for the flavor of their coffee - and we have actually taken our Dunkin' Donuts coffee to the Julington Creek Starbucks!
Here in Whangarei, New Zealand, TIGER LILLY has become something of a local AA clubhouse, and it is a rare day when we don't have someone from the AA community aboard - and WE are the ones who are blessed! Lilly, as per her usual gregarious self is always dragging some character she has met in town, or along the docks in the Town Basin, back to the boat for coffee; usually just about the time that Tom-Tom the Sailorman is mixing up a batch of epoxy, or opening a tin of expensive marine paint.
When we started out our current cruise in Florida four years ago, we had an electric drip coffee maker, similar to the ones which sit on millions of kitchen counters across Suburbia USA. However, this particular coffee maker had an insulated pot to keep the coffee warm without burning it - and it saved precious energy when it turned itself off as soon as the coffee was made. While we were in the Ile des Saintes in the French West Indies the electric heater in the unit died - and the land of 110 VAC appliances was thousands of miles in our wake. So we reluctantly chucked it into a dumpster at the hotel overlooking our anchorage at Pan de Sucre. We don't much care for the French Press method of coffee making (low on volume, high on grounds in the coffee), but that is what we were reduced to for our morning brew. That afternoon, while we were walking back to the boat from the village, Lilly had a brilliant idea (brilliant to us anyway), that perhaps we could use our beloved insulated pot with some sort of funnel arrangement to hold the filter. Seeing Lilly upside-down in the hotel dumpster retrieving our coffee pot produced a few condescending stares from the up-scale French lady tourists (their husbands seemed to enjoy the view) - but a cruiser's got to do, what a cruiser's got to do! Months later while we were at Curacao in the Netherlands Antilies, Lilly invited some Romanian Gypsy cruisers, and Bob - their 90 pound shaggy sheep dog - aboard for coffee. (We are not making this up.) When they saw the awkward and ungainly method we had of making coffee - the top-heavy narrow-necked ex diesel fuel funnel we used to hold the paper coffee filters was always upsetting and making a huge mess - they very graciously went back to their boat, and quickly returned to TIGER LILLY with their own coffee filter-funnel as their gift to us. The base of the Gypsy filter-funnel fit the top of our insulated pot PERFECTLY! (Of course Mister Retired Naval Officer - aka Whitey Tidy - INSISTED on sterilizing the Gypsy coffee filter-funnel before we could use it.) We use our Friendly Teapot to heat and pour the water, and this system produces superb drip coffee using our LPG fueled boat stove to heat the water. It works great, and the coffee is just the way we like it. The only problem is that once we left the USA, course grind drip coffee is hard to find in stores - so we usually make-do with the finer press grind. Whenever we have guests coming from the States we ask them to bring us genuine Dunkin' Donuts Coffee - OUR FAVORITE!
So, if you find yourself in an anchorage with TIGER LILLY, stop on by for a cuppa - and bring your dog if you've got one!
Tom & Lilly
S/V Tiger Lilly
Whangarei, New Zealand