Once back in the water the weather stayed very cold (down to about 4 degrees overnight) but at least it was dry and we had some fabulous sunsets.

The matter of our coldness was a bit of an issue.  Tashi Delek is designed for warm weather.  She doesn’t have a heating system and we didn’t have a heater.  Some friends lent us a heater but the US electrics use 120 volts whereas, being European, Tashi Delek has a 240 volt system.  We were plugged into the mains at 120 volts but all our adapters, plugs, extension leads, fuses and other wriggly bits of wire work on 240 volts.  The borrowed heater therefore did not work on our system.  Another cold night.  But a plan was beginning to form.  Using what we had learnt from our experience with the borrowed heater Mike worked out what we would need to get going.  A trip into Walmart to buy heater, extension cable, fuses then some re-wiring and we were all set.  Warmth!  It will only be a solution when we are plugged into shore power so the rest of the time we will be back to camping mode (wearing all available warm clothing) and carry on getting south as quickly as possible.

We had very much enjoyed the company of Bill and Sharon, who’s yacht Simple Pleasure was next to ours in the boatyard.  After an impromptu invitation to join them for supper we met two of their boatyard friends, Joanne and Phil, and, as it does,  talk turned to coffee.  To summarise……

Sharon and Bill use an insulated coffee press they had purchased in West Marine (a chandlers)

Joanne and Phil used a percolator on the stove.

Carol and Mike used an insulated coffee press from John Lewis but had recently purchased an Aeropress having seen one used by another friend last year.

The issue here, everyone, is what to do with the coffee grounds.  Caffetiere (or coffee press) methods are easy to set up and produce great coffee but do leave you with a mass of sticky stuff to dig out into the bin and then chase the remainder round the sink.  This is all very well but we have restricted water supplies and so endlessly rinsing to catch that last granule can be extravagant.  Simply rinsing all the grounds down the sink is not an option if you are in an anchorage, harbour or up on legs in the boatyard.  Just about the only place it is the easy option is on the high seas when we can use the seawater tap and rinse to our hearts content.

The Aerobie was a neat little system a bit like a big syringe where you pushed the water through the coffee and ended up with the grounds pressed into a puck that you then just fire into the bin.  We liked that bit but the coffee seemed to be simply filtering through too quickly and therefore why not just have a filter. 

So, the upshot of this fascinating and important conversation (seriously, this stuff matters at sea) was that Tashi Delek would host a coffee morning the next day and we would foregather with our various coffee making options for demonstrations, review and taste testing.  Not only was coffee brought but Danish Pastries too so, whatever the coffee tasted like, we were going to enjoy ourselves.

The results.  We had a lovely time.