"We cook on a two burner alcohol stove and like it very much, it uses on average 2 litres of alcohol a week. After 30 years of being a pressure paraffin fan I have changed because of the difficulty of obtaining paraffin and the very high cost of spare parts."

Looking closely at the picture of Oryx's galley, I think I recognise an Origo cooker. 

Well over a year ago, I too changed over from a Taylors pressure kerosene cooker, to a Maxie 2 burner alcohol cooker. Best thing I ever did. Unlike Pete, I've found it easy to buy premium quality kerosene (essential for clean burning), but I agree with Pete that the Taylors spares situation was getting more and more difficult. All too frequently, with a heavy heart, I would have to get out the tools and spares and unblock a jet, or change a jammed or broken needle, getting dirty, and then getting dejected when I found that there was a leak somewhere, and I had to find it and fix it.

In contrast, all I have had to do with the Maxie is to clean it once in a while, and add some more alcohol. The burner is, I believe, an improvement over that in the Origo. It is very simple, un-pressurised and gravity fed from a separate fuel tank, which is easily filled. It lights very easily, and there are no jets or needles to give trouble. The flame is blue and hot, and quite similar to a propane flame. I bought two spare burners, just to be prepared, but I don't think I'm going to need to fit them for a very long time.

Now that bio ethanol is produced in quantity to add to car's fuel, it is easily found. Here in Honolulu, I have just bought 3 quart cans of denatured alcohol in a hardware store for a reasonable price. In Tahiti, the alcool á bruler was sweet-smelling and burnt well. I think that alcohol has taken over from paraffin/kerosene as the voyager's fuel of choice.  It is less odorous than kero, and no less safe. The containers are lightweight, and can be stowed anywhere aboard, and there's no need to lug heavy propane cylinders around town looking for somewhere to refill them, and then finding that you need an adaptor to match up the  thread on your cylinder with the different one on the supply.