Thursday, July 5, 2007

Dealing with Water on anchor

Living on a boat at anchor without a watermaker or a rain collection system demands getting water in two ways. One pulling up anchor and motoring to a fuel dock and taking on water, or two going to shore with the dinghy and 5 gallon water jugs and carry the water back to the boat. We carry water back since that is a bit easier. Two people living on a boat will use 15 gallons per day on average. Our boat holds 90 gallons of water, so that will last 6 days. This water is used for showers, cooking, dishes, and washing down the boat. The toilet uses sea water to flush into the holding tank so no fresh water is used for flushing. So, the standard game plan is to everyday run to shore with your water jugs and bring back 15 to 20 gallons. Upon returning to the boat you lift these 5 gallon jugs onto the deck from the dinghy and then climb up onto deck and carry the jugs to the deck water fill fitting. Next you open the deck fill fitting and using a funnel you pour the 15 to 20 gallons of water into the boats water tank. This is our procedure everyday when living on the anchor. Here is a photo of "water boy" at work on day 1 at Block Island, RI. In the photo I am pouring the water into the deck fill and the additional 4 jugs are up on deck next to me. Imagine the next time that you use water, that you will have to go fetch and carry back all the water you use! Welcome aboard, conserve water!

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