Fresh or Salt Water Taste Test

[NauticalFishwife]

We've had a lot of rain and I just discovered a bit of water in storage behind the settee. I'm assuming I simply need to rebed the deck plates-where the stays come in. It's been several years and they are due. But I stuck my finger in the water and yeah...tasted it. So it has a bit of a salty taste, but maybe I'm imagining that. It's ABOVE the water line. And I really don't want to "drink" it! So is there an easy way to tell if water is fresh or salt? This is brakish water, so putting some in a glass and letting it evaporate and waiting for salt crystals might not be the trick. Is there an Old Salt trick any of you know?

[bestfriend]

I don't know, but the water here has a serious salt taste to it. Its very obvious. A slight salt taste may just be residue from whatever the fresh water ran over. Sounds like a leak from a porthole or deck hardware that has some salt on it.

[negrini]

Had same problem years ago. You really cannot tell salt water from residues of dirt moist, previous salt water, some kinds of shampoo, green/grey water, etc ... You'd need a chemical analysis for that. Try to bare clean the spot and wait for next intrusion ....

[camaraderie]

You've probably got some salt on deck that is accompanying the fresh water and giving it some taste. The other possibility is that the last time you buried your rail, you got some leakage at the hull joint or through some fittings. Best thing to do is dry it out and wait for rain before you bury you rail again!

[chucklesR]

I'd bet on salt on deck before I suspected some other salt water leak percolating upwards.
The simple test is to lick the deck where you suspect the leak to be coming from, but I'm not going to advice or recommend you do that

Clean it up, let it dry, sprinkle blue chalk in the area and next time you'll know by the trail in the chalk.