The weather here is also pretty bloody awful, so, here goes.....
Most of the time there is a stock of very good local micro-brewery
beer aboard. This has been enhanced in the last few years by the
appearance of 500ml (close enough to a pint) cans of many of our
favourites. Along with the old mainstays of Guiness and Kilkenny, we
have been consuming a lot of Steam Whistle Pilsner and Hockley Valley
Dark and HV Irish Stout. Creemore was also a favourite, but they are
now owned by Coors, and therefore under boycott. This year another
favourite micro-brewer, Mill Street, will make it's appearance as they
now sell 64 ounce Growlers of some very interesting small-batch craft
beers. This will likely provide our wednesday-evening pre-race
libation (post-race we go to the club bar where there are 6 micros on
tap).
Additionally, particularly on weekends, we bring aboard 500 ml cans of
various ciders, mostly apple bur also pear and berry. These are the
favourites of my wife and several other sailing buddies, they are too
high in sugar content for me, though.
When cruising we usually have a good stock of wines in the sail
locker. For the past several years I go to the local wine-making shop
and put up 2 batches of wine in late March. These are bottle in early
May and are very drinkable in the summer. We always purchase the
platinum mixes, the cost works out to about $300 for 60 bottles.
Usually we favour a Shiraz for the red, though last year we had a
lovely Cab-Sauv., and we always have a good supply of very dry Pinot
Grigio which is a great summer sipping wine, but also makes a very
good spritzer, as does a good Gerwurtztraminer.
The on-board bar is rounded out with a plastic bottle of Bailey's (a
fav of my wife, and good in my morning coffee) and a least one bottle
of very good single-malt scotch.
Essential equipment on the boat is a set of lexan pint glasses in the
shape of traditional british pints, a set of lexan highball glasses
and some very nice unbreakable wine glasses. We also have some great
skirts made of neoprene that fit around the bottom of cans and glasses
and create a suction-cup that keeps them from tipping or sliding. If
at all possible, we never swill out of the containers, decent booze
deserves the right kind of glass!
Dave Robinson
Peregrine
1978 Catalina 27 #3695
QCYC, Toronto
"Any damn fool can navigate the world sober. It takes a really good
sailor to do it drunk".
-Sir Francis Chichester while loading his boat with gin.
On 13-Mar-10, at 11:50 AM, J wrote:
The weather here in NJ is terrible today, so as usual, my mind
wandered to the boat. Of course that led to day dreaming about
cocktails on the boat. So, I wondered to my self, what do my
Catalina 27/270 brothers and sisters out there keep aboard thier
boats to quench a thirst? Beyond the obligatory water bottles and
capri sun for the kids, and beer of course if we have ice in the
cooler, I ALWAYS keep a bottle of Pussers Rum aboard. Not only is it
quite tasty but the naval history almost makes it obligatory as a
seafaring beverage. So, what do all of you keep for those days when
you want to have a taste while the sails are full of wind and the
kick of the rudder reminds you why we all own boats in the first
place?
Cheers!
Jeff
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