Water, water.... and some perspective on cruising!

As the saying goes, water water everywhere but not a drop to drink! 

But really, water on a cruising boat is a precious commodity. It is very limited when you are sailing and sometimes limited even in port.  When we are at sea or remote anchorages, we will rely solely on water in our fresh water tank and water collected from rain.  Some cruising boats have water makers that create water daily.  We will not initially have that because it takes too much power, and, if you recall from my post about power, electricity on a boat is about 25-100x more expensive than on land or about $4/KW-hr.

While we are on AtLast, we will use water for 

drinking,
cooking,
rinsing dishes.

Yeah, that’s about it.  I wince a little as I type this and CAI jumps in and tells me that when he was sailing across the Atlantic as a kid, they didn’t even rinse their dishes in fresh water. “We washed and rinsed them in salt water and dried them right away. Nobody got sick!” Uh.  OK, CAI, do we have to do that?

CAI's here -  Yes, when we are spending time in a remote Pacific island atoll or crossing large waters we need to conserve.   But the fact is that we are spoiled. 10 gal/minute from our well and no water bill.  Filling the pond with 5000 gal of water ....no problem.   That is more that 10 years of water usage on a boat.  Watering the lawn every day.   Water is available with just a twist of our hand.  Never to run out.   Power is just there (most of the time) with a flick of a switch.   OK we need to pay the bill. 

So what do we do for everything else we use water for?  If we are in a warm climate, we will swim for our showers.  Maybe a quick rinse with the fresh stuff.  We shouldn’t create a lot of laundry because we will be wearing less, like shorts and swim suits.  Laundry will get done in salt water. And another quick rinse with "freshies". Finally, the head uses saltwater so no issue there.

Alternately, we can use shore services if they are near.  Many marinas provide restrooms and showers and sometimes laundromats, too.  We will have choices.  And when we just have to have a hot shower, then we'll go splurge on a nice hotel room and lounge in their shower for an hour or so :-).

If we are in a cold climate, like Port Townsend, Washington, then we will have to depend on shore services.  And we will be refilling our water tank more frequently.  We WILL have a very simple shower on AtLast for those times that feel we must shower on board.

CAI's comment -  Yes. No running water.  No hot water.   No TV.  Yes, No late show making fun of the president. A crummy internet connection sometimes.  Radio playing music we do not recognize.   Locals telling stories we do not grasp.   Being harassed in every new port by the customs.   Trouble finding the post office to send letters home.  Walking everywhere since we have no car.  Carrying the food supplies to the boat.

No snowplowing.  No turkey for Thanksgiving.  No Christmas tree.   Just visiting a 3rd world country that has no Kellogg red berry cornflakes.  A life without a smartphone.  Visiting a place were they do not have bus time tables. 

Yes, back to water!  If we work at it we could limit our water usage to as little as ½ gallon per person per day.   That's pretty good. Compare that to typical American water consumption of 80-100 gallons per day!  If we relaxed a little, then we’d use potentially 5 gallons per person per day.  Maybe in reality we’ll be somewhere in the middle, say 1-2 gallons.  

How long will that last us?  

AtLast will have a 54 gallon fresh water tank.  Therefore it should comfortably hold us for about 10-20 days. And we do have backup.  In addition to our primary tank we will have a 35 gallon rain water tank and a couple portable 5 gallon water jugs.  In an emergency we have a hand operated reverse osmosis water maker.  So no worries about a crisis.  It won't produce gallons and gallons, but it will be enough to drink.

Tank Construction

CAI made his own water tank to maximize our water storage.  It would have been easier to buy a water tank but it would have been rectangular and an inefficient use of space.  He used a 316 stainless, a high grade less likely to corrode and it’s weldable.  He chose to stick weld the tank using low hydrogen 309L welding rods.  These rods produce a softer, less brittle, more durable weld. After he finished welding, he pressure tested the tank to 4 psi and repaired several pin hole leaks.  This was, after all, his first major welding job!

Cutting sheets of stainless

8 seams welded, a little more than half done.

We are pretty happy with our progress!

Detail work

I thought he was done after pressure testing, but then he said we had to polish the tank, an important final step. Polishing rids the surface of pits, scratches and abrasions that could be starting points for corrosion, even with the 316 stainless. It was about this time that I was starting to help out on the boat so CAI outfitted me with a grinder, sanding wheels, polishing wheels, SS polishing compound…..  eye protection and breathing protection and set me loose to polish the tank.

Sorry - no pictures of polishing.  I think they are on CAI's phone, which died. :-(   I think we spent more than 40 hours polishing that tank.  I learned that some people make a living polishing stainless steel.  I believe it! Our tank shines like a mirror now and it's waiting to be installed into the keel of the boat.  It's under a pile of snow right now so we'll wait for a warm dry spring day.  

We have a little shoveling to do before we can put this tank in the boat....!

Shine on!

Its final destination:

CAI rests his feet in the future home of the fresh water tank.

CAI again - Why do we work so hard?   To accomplish what?  What are the stories we will tell our grandchildren?   What things will make us feel that we had a long good life?  An instant hot shower?