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Water Useage/conservation Cruising

8K views 54 replies 24 participants last post by  Omatako 
#1 ·
This thread is for those trying to get a feel for what their water useage will be cruising. I have tried to keep a pretty good track of it for us and over the years, we have a good generality. However, I want to STRESS that this is a generality. Every boat is different because the climate and people are different. Some people have long hair (a water-killer, IMHO), some have kids (an even BIGGER water killer <smile>), some are accomplished cruisers and racers, some pack extra jugs, drinks soups, hot climates, cold climates, etc. My point is that these are just generalities but a good place to average for your voyages.

We carry roughly 135g fresh water on Sea Mist. I would say about 110 of that is realistically usable as part of it resides in a hot water tank. We can, with conservation, go about two weeks on that and have. Now, that is not super-conservation as you would use if crossing an ocean. This conservation includes a 5g bucket (maybe two) with ammonia in it for washing clothes. It includes a very skimpy shower. It includes some alternatives, as we do keep gatorade and bottled water aboard but don't use it a lot. It also includes drinking alcoholic beverages which in my opinion, causes you to drink more water for replacement. This is on a boat in the sub tropics of Florida. This is with two adults and two kids of 9 and 12. Younger children may consume less water, but they also don't conserve it as well.

So my numbers, as a cruiser, is 110g @ 14 days @4 people and a 38lb bulldog. That equates to about 2. gallons/person/day. For more comfort, less conservation, we often use the 12 day number which is about 2.3g. remember, this also includes the dog. No conservation is about 10 days at 2.75.

Pretty conservative is not living really 'comfortably'. This is not long showers and it is not fresh water washes. It probably is not showers everyday.

Incidentally, lets discuss some uses and ways we conserve. I have measured my water usage on a shower. If I am very conservative, I can shower in about 3/4 of a gallon. Less conservative but conservative, about 1.25 gallons. My wife who has longer hair will use a bit more. I think she came out at 1.5-2g. I have not measured the kids. But, showers aren't the killer for water that many people think they are. You can learn to conserve. Tricks are as follows: Drop your rag into the bottom of the shower to begin with. Get hair wet. Shampoo but do not rinse. Use water from rinsing hair to get rag wet (if it is not already). lather rag. Wash body. Drop rag into bottom of water basin (where water runs through) and rinse body starting with hair. A wand-type shower head is best for this. Rinse out rag in water that collected in bottom of shower. It will still be soapy.. so what. Hang up rag and you are done. That is the very conservative method. For those that want a hot shower, you can also collect the water that you run to get it hot in a container to be returned to fresh water supply. Also, we drop our bathing suits in the bottom of the shower and let all the soapy water run over them and let everyone stand on everyone elses bathing suits. WHen all showers are done, we will either hang out to dry or rinse in ammonia water (see below) and hang to dry.

Depending on how long we are out, we will often wash the boat. We wash in salt water (prefer boat Zoap). We generally collect the shower water and can use it for a fresh water rinse for the cockpit. You can do this with a basic stick-type pump that you get to pull the water out of your tender and keep it in empty water jugs.

We ALWAYS keep a stopper in the kitchen sink, and sometimes in the head sinks. We use this for rinsing off glasses or depending on how the water was used, it can also be your rinse water for dishes. When conserving, we do wash our dishes in salt water in a 5g bucket with joy and bleach. You will be surprised how well that cleans the dishes! I do not know what is in salt water, but it works very well and it is also great because someone can be washing in the cockpit while the other person is rinsing and drying down below. You also don't have to worry about cleaning off the dishes in the trash or how much food gets into the sink. You will find as cruisers that trash becomes a huge issue as well as its smell. So the old habit of wiping off the food on plates and sticking it in the trash will be a huge mistake because after a few days in the tropics, that trash will STINK horridly!! Instead, as mentioned above, everything wash in salt in a 5g bucket, rinse in fresh. Minimizes trash, water consumption, and stench.

We have two tanks. One is 65, the other 35 (we also carry four 5g jugs of water, but the measurements here were based upon two which is what I had when I took them). We use the 65 g tank first. The reason for this is several fold: It allows us to know when we really have to conserve (showers may be cut out if we hit the 35 too early) and it is a safety net if we accidentally empty a tank (has happened twice, both when the kids left a faucet on). Many cruisers prefer manual pumps for this reason, but outside of accidental losses, I cannot see a manual pump of any help. And quite frankly, I prefer the ease and comfort of at least feeling like we are at home. We do have a manual pump that connects to our sink which is our emergency backup should a pump/electricity fail. We also carry a spare pump. Another 'trick' is to put your auto pump where you can hear it. Many boats (and I almost did this too) put their pumps in a back closet or lazarette so they cannot hear it. Hearing my pump has saved me! And as a cruiser you become very accustomed to that sound.

We wash clothes via lemmon ammonia. It works pretty well. What you do is you get a 5g bucket and fill fairly full with fresh water and put about a cup or so of ammonia in it. You can drop your clothes in it, shake them around, and let them sit for a while. Shake them against before wringing out and and let them dry. No rinsing necessary. You will not smell any ammonia in your clothes. We often do our bathing suits, wash cloths, dish rags, and skivvys that way. We generally can make our towels last for two weeks by hanging them out to dry everyday.

We are big believers in bleach. Here is a great trick: Take a cheap 12 oz disposable water bottle like you would find at the convenience store. The cheaper the better because you want to be able to squeeze it. Make your bleach solution in it. Drill a hole in the lid with your smallest drill bit. Now replace the cap and you have a very good dispenser of bleach water for your rinse water or to clean off your rags when done. You cannot use a spray bottle for very long with bleach water because it corrodes. This is a super cheap solution. We keep one of these in the shower and beside the sink.

When done washing dishes, always rinse your rag really well in your rinse water and spray it down with your little bleach bottle that you keep beside the sink. We also do this in the shower when we are done showering to keep it from mildewing. Caution around wood with this trick.

You can microwave your sponges to kill the mildew/stench. We do about 30 secs.

Some people turn the breaker to their water pumps on/off when using to keep from accidental loss. We don't generally, but up to you.

We keep an emergency backup of water on the boat. This is generally about 2.5-5g's in the bilge.

I am sure I will think of some other things, but that is a start. Remember, these are OUR numbers, which may be different than your numbers for reasons discussed above.

Brian

PS I welcome all others to share their water usage here... especially cruisers.
 
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#2 ·
Just a word of caution: THere have been anchorages (esp mooring fields) where we did not feel comfortable using the water for washing dishes or much of anything. In those cases, that is when having the sink of water you have been collecting really useful.

Brian
 
#3 ·
Oh yeah, another point (I will probably have several of these), the water usage per person may be higher on less people. THat is because you will still fill the 5g bucket for one person, but four people can use it. Same with the sink water or shower water.

Brian
 
#4 ·
Nice CD. Thanks for some pointers that will help us in the future. We are pretty new out here cruising, and can use all the help we can get.

Your numbers are spot on as far as I'm concerned. We carry 80 gallons, and go 3 weeks on that. It's just myself and my wife. So, just under 2 gallons/day per person. We don't carry bottled water these days. We did at first, but as you say, trash becomes an issue over time.

In the Bahamas, you not only pay for water in most places, but also pay to rid yourself of the bag or two of trash that has collected. $5.oo/bag in Staniel Cay.

We haven't used our tanks for showering so far. Fortunately, there were plenty of rainy days in the Bahamas. A dinghy holds a lot of water! That was what we used for bathing, and washing hair. We had stopped in Nassau on the way down to the Exumas. We showered there before heading down. The next shower that we had was when we returned to Nassau 5 weeks later.

I'll probably think of some questions for you in the future, so don't go away....:D

Ralph
Water view at low tide | sailing away with R & B
 
#5 ·
On my last trip from BC to Tonga and back ,I never took water from ashore, catching all I needed from my decks, and drinking water from my mainsail via lazy bag held up by lazy jacks. A plastic bucket under the front end with a 3/4 plastic thru hull and hose, leading to a plastic valve below decks, lets you fill your tanks without going on deck in the night. Washed my clothes and bod in sea water with dishwashing soap, no problem. Rinsed beans in sea water, no problem. Even soaked them in sea water, no problem . Added three cups of fresh for cooking, which left just the right amount of salt in them. Washed dishes in salt water , with only a brief rinse required afterwards, using very little fresh water.
Didn't have my watermaker then. Now I have one, but no urge to go anywhere at the moment. Lots of the best water in the world here , free for the taking.
 
#6 ·
We also end up using about 2 gal/person/day on average when we're in "careful" mode. I just cut my hair really short, unlike my avatar from a couple of years ago, so maybe our total usage will go down? We *don't* use saltwater for washing, partly because some of the places we like to stay have questionable water quality, and partly because it always seems to take so much freshwater to get the salt out that it becomes a net zero. However, we are fanatical about using the pressure cooker to conserve water & fuel while cooking.
 
#7 ·
I can't speak to cruising, but imagine if everyone examined their personal water usage this way. Don't think the old man that thinks he needs to hose the dirt off his driveway every other day, just for lack of anything better to do, has ever given a thought to how limited out fresh water supply can be. Good thread, Brian. Always a pleasure to hear about your adventures.

Steve
 
#8 ·
Good numbers CD. I'd say we are pretty close to those as well. However, we shower on deck with a 5 gallon bucket as the it is too hot below. Our shower water is a separate entity from the drinking supply., kept in 5 gallon jugs or a few buckets on deck while at anchor. Enough rain here in SE Asia to keep the tanks topped with a few well placed tarps and buckets.
Like your bleach ideas, vinegar works wonders too. A small spay bottle with fresh water is how we do a fresh rinse on the dishes.
Offshore I'll wash in salt and a one quart fresh water rinse is all it takes. A short haircut helps.
Our historical average is 1.1 gallons per day per person, excluding showers. Not to hard on us either. With over 100 gallons in tanks and another 30 in Jugs we are good to go for about 2 months. Now if we could get the fresh veggies to last that long...
 
#9 ·
When our children were with us, as a family of four, we used to get by with 200 gallons for a month. This was with bathing in salt water and rinsing with a bit of fresh water. This puts us at 1.7 gallons/day/person and not far from the two gallons. Likely, our daily bathing practice was the difference.
 
#11 ·
BBQ .... I guess you have a watermaker ? How does that fit in with your water usage plan ?

Our girl has a 50 litre (aprox 12US gallons) per hour. On the hook we tend to run the donk for an hour a day anyway so at least theoretically we can cover all our water needs. We also have a collector for use with boom awning. Tanks hold about the same as BBQ's .... roughly 135US gallons.



Yes to AeV re short hair. Difference that makes is remarkable if you wash you hair daily.

Of course minimising the amount of shampoo you use will help as well. Most people use way to much and it then takes forever to rinse out.
 
#46 ·
BBQ .... I guess you have a watermaker ? How does that fit in with your water usage plan ?

Our girl has a 50 litre (aprox 12US gallons) per hour. On the hook we tend to run the donk for an hour a day anyway so at least theoretically we can cover all our water needs. We also have a collector for use with boom awning. Tanks hold about the same as BBQ's .... roughly 135US gallons.

Yes to AeV re short hair. Difference that makes is remarkable if you wash you hair daily.

Of course minimising the amount of shampoo you use will help as well. Most people use way to much and it then takes forever to rinse out.
I have pulled the plumbing and electrical and put in the space for the watermaker... but did not want to get and install until we needed it. So far a good call. Have not had a use for it yet.

Many of the places we go, I would not make water or it is easily available. For those places we would make it, we often dont stay there over a week anyways.

If we go to spend significant time in the bahamas that will likely change because the WM becomes more useful and cost effective. RIght no though, it would be pickled and a maintenance issue.

Brian
 
#12 ·
One of the best things about New England is the many town docks that service the hundreds of mooring fields everywhere. You can pull up and fill the water tank, no problem. If it's a weekday with nobody waiting, you can wash the boat too. Just did all that yesterday morn in Martha's Vineyard. In Newport, they have 2 floating docks out in the mooring fields with water taps. Not every harbor is 'friendly' but plenty are.
 
#13 ·
Brian-
Most of us youngsters don't remember why ammonia is generally not used as a ;aundry agent anymore. The problem is that it attacks latex and similar stretchy things. So if you have underwear with an elastic waistband? Bras? Anything with latex content or "rubber" ? Every time it is washed in ammonia, it ages and gets brittle, way faster than it would with detergent.

Just something to bear in mind, that you won't see printing on the ammonia bottle.
 
#17 ·
Brian-
Most of us youngsters don't remember why ammonia is generally not used as a ;aundry agent anymore. The problem is that it attacks latex and similar stretchy things. So if you have underwear with an elastic waistband? Bras?
Brian only wears cotton bras.
 
#15 ·
I carry a lot of water for such a small boat (28') 65 gal in v bearth tank, 40 in bladders, and 30 in Jerry's. That's my off shore load. I also carry about 4 cases of bottled water. As far as garbage, I squoosh the bottle up as small as possible, when I have it completely compressed, I put the cap back on. The vacum created keeps it in that compressed shape. I have instaled 2 50 gal. tanks under each cockpit laz, st and prt. This is extreme, I only fill these when I'm going to stay inside the reef and go out to a lagoon with the wife for extended periods. She has a lot of hair and we like to frolick in our abundance of fresh water. Off shore these tanks are empty and essentially air pockets if something decides to go down. Yes I lost all that storage, but I don't have anything to store. I also keep my after most Laz empty. all my weight is below the water line, even my tooth brush ( which I have cut the handle off to reduce weight) jus kidd'n. As for consumption, 2 gal. a day off shore and as much as I want near coastal. We are in clear clean warm tropical or sub tropical water pretty much always. We use salt water for everything 'cept drinking. We swim with a bottle of joy to bath , and rince with fresh mist from a pump up bug spray. I use those ready rice packs and pasta pouches off shore which really cuts down on cooking water, and fuel. I boil my potatos in salt water. I whipe my self down with rubbing alcohol a few times a day off shore to get the salt spray and sweat off my skin. I like to carry as much as possible on Voyages, just in case I'm demasted and float'n for a while till I get the jerry rig together or what ever else would keep me out there longer than I planned like weather. I alway's double up. 7 day's at sea means 14 in food. I have no engine and so no fuel tank so I have all that space and weight I can play with. Also that means I can be becalmed and drifting. I was raised on the same little sloop I'm sailing today by my Grand father, He used to make me bath in a salt water bucket that had vinger mixed in, he said the vinger made the salt sink to the bottom of the bucket. I don't know about that, but I smelled like a salad for a few years as a tween-ager. I look at the life Brian provides for his kids on the Catalina and wonder how those kids would handle the life I had on that little sloop. It would probably be illeagal to keep a child in the conditions I was subjected to, But I loved it and am independent from almost all the stuff I see cruisers today absolutly need. Back then we kept a few jerry cans and when those where empty we used the V berth tank, which alway's smelled of sulfur, I think from the fliter system he had, so we drank hot tang. I remember being in some lagoon, blowed in from a norther in Northern Eluthra back in '79. I was like 9 or 10, and we had to boil the water for safety and mix with tang for taste. That may be why I carry so much extra today, either way, I like having an abundance and prefer to lose any tenderness to the boats prefromance in trade to not having to ration like I'm in a life raft drinking out of a thimble.
 
#16 ·
I did the math. When we're cruising, we use approx 8 gallons per person, per day for the two of us. :eek:

That's all in. Drinking, coffee, cooking, shower everyday, washing, etc. It also include one load of laundry per week. I've even been known to spray the teak cockpit floor down with with the transom shower occasionally, est 1pt usage. No salt water usage, but typical conservation practices. Pretty decadent I suppose, but our water supply lasts 14 days for the two of us. That's how I got to the above per day usage, which includes some bottled drinking water of about 0.5 gallon per day per person. The biggest bottled water usage is for coffee. Needless to say, we could dramatically reduce this usage by skipping showers, using salt water, not running laundry. Just don't need to.

Personally, I want to be able to be away for a minimum of 10 days without needing to land for water. Whether I plan to or not, its pretty unlikely we would be off a dock somewhere for longer, so this consumption works and no one feels like they are in prison.

I also don't think there has ever been an exception to having someone along for a day here or there, while we're cruising. Obviously, this increases consumption, but we top off when we pick them up and again when we drop them off. Simple and never a concern over usage, as a result. We just had another couple aboard for several days last week that were new to boating. Easy, as they were accustom to water conservation when camping.

The number one trick for conservation isn't the obvious on/off, don't let water run when you don't need it approach. It's to get everyone in the habit of not turning the water all the way on at all. You never need to, unless filling a pot. Think about the slug of water one runs over a toothbrush at home. I bet you use a pint of water to brush your teeth. Now consider the trickle it would really take to wet the brush as much as that slug does.

The best way to conserve water when showering is the dish sprayer head, usually found on transom showers. On when you need it and off the second you don't. My wife will use our transom shower most often when cruising in warm weather. I would love to measure the difference from the head faucet down below. Just the time it takes to reach over with soap in my eyes to find the lever, after I don't need it on anymore, must really add up over a week or two.

I suspect our usage level will suggest to some that we hardly conserve at all. However, we do. We just don't deny ourselves the ability to use water for whatever we need. If we used our supply, like we were at home, it would last exactly 3 days.

Finally, we hold water in two equal tanks, mounted in the bilge on each side of the keel. While a good location for the weight, we still run one down to half, switch to the other and run it empty, then switch back to the first. Both weight management and the best way to always feel you have a backup. It also keeps the supply circulating with new water, if you're not using it up on a longer cruise. Admittedly, most of ours are only a few days away from our slip at a time.
 
#18 ·
This is a pretty old post, but it contains links to EPA data that says that average water use in US for land dwellers is 70 gallons per day. That's indoor only, doesn't even account for watering the lawn. The "Life Afloat" Archives: Water, water everywhere? Okay, we use seawater to flush our toilet and take our laundry to the laundromat. Subtract that use from EPA numbers and the average landlubber uses 35 gpd. Wow. We'd be filling our water tank every two days.
 
#19 ·
Interesting discussion and some great “helpful Hannah” tips from Cruisingdad. Dad, what is the concentration of bleach solution in your cleaning bottle? Can you use a bottle with a “drinking cap” instead of drilling a hole in a standard cap? On Freya, we have 59 gallons and have never run out, albeit, MrsB and I do the one week between ports cruise thing. On the race boats, we do the 1 gal/crew/day personal allotment, which I’m thinking needs to be expanded to include a one gal/day for boat communal usage (cooking, dish rinsing etc.). In Mexico, we get our laundry done at the major “stops” (dirt cheap and helps out the local economy). I had amebic dysentery back in my younger days so clean water and proper sanitation is important to me. I am currently trying to figure out how to stuff a water maker into my 34 footer. Anyone got suggestions? Aaron, some day you just got to post a photo essay on your 28 footer when it is provisioned up for a cruise – it would be an inspiration to all of us who cruise in smaller boats.
 
#40 ·
I am currently trying to figure out how to stuff a water maker into my 34 footer. Anyone got suggestions?
Build your own modular watermaker. That way you can place components in different small places in the boat where the space is of little value for anything else.

It's really not hard and there is no mystical magic to watermakers. It's a simple device that requires a feed of clean seawater pumped into a carbon filter by an ordinary marine pressure pump. Then into a high pressure pump (800psi) with a pressure control valve that manually regulates the pressure into the membrane tube.

OK, there are a few other small components involved but this is the nub of it. All these components can be remotely located and don't have to be in the same box. That way you can always find space in the tiniest parts of your boat.

If you want to know more PM me and I'll tell you.
 
#20 ·
The EPA data and the 75gpppd number also include things like showers. "New" restricted flow showerheads may be 2.5gpm, which is 25 gallons during a ten-minute shower. I know some showers are twice that long, that's 50 gallons in one shot, closer to a hundred with a proper old-fashioned shower that doesn't have a flow restrictor.

Ditto toilets, what are the new ones down to? (And finally working.) But unless you've got really hard water, a flush toilet lasts forever, a lot of the hungry old ones are still out there.

Very different once you have to tank it and don't get it on the pipe feed.
 
#21 ·
My 400 litres/100 gallons lasts me (alone) about 3 months. If I restricted it I could easily get 4 months.

When there were two of us we were using too much water so bought spray bottles to have at every faucet..

I also plumbed salt water into the sink with an electric pump.

All washing of dishes is with salt water and then a spray with a spray bottle.

Any shower on a long passage you can use as much fresh water as you want! --- as long as all the fresh comes from spray bottle. You wrist falls off from pumping before the water runs out. But its a good enough shower at sea and can be had every day. (thats .5 to .75 of a litre).

Currently I have not filled with water for 4 months and have one tank full. The other must be pretty close to empty but I do have a rain catcher on it!

For showers in port, I have one every day, I have a solar 2.5 gallon plastic water bag. I fill it about half full. I have glued up about half the holes in the nozzle. (Its just made me remember I didnt refill it this morning and need a shower this afternoon! Damn! LOL)
 
#22 ·
Good post Brian. Two gallons or so per person per day sounds about right to me as well. We have about 135 gallons in tanks and bring extra drinking water on board. The 4 of us have gone a month between refills, but we catch rainwater to keep the tanks full when we can. We all have a shower in fresh water at the end of the day as well as only use fresh for dish washing. Two things that really help us to conserve water are having only manual foot pumps for water and showering on deck with solar showers. Manual foot pumps help to meter the water you use and no one ever lets water run (pumping) while they brush their teeth or lather their hands. The solar shower works well for conserving water too. We each get our own solar bag to fill once a day (about a gallon each) and it has to do for the shower (no refills!).
 
#23 ·
I like to pack my icebox with water, tea and beer the day before a trip, along with 30-40 lbs. of ice, so I have ice cold beverages at the ready. I usually have leftover water, beer, and tea at the conclusion of the trip.
If you freeze gallon jugs of water, they last longer than ice, stay cold even after they melt, and give a reserve in case you're out longer than expected.
 
#25 · (Edited)
I've always been impressed by manual foot pumps, I can't really see a need for pressure water for much besides showering, when and if you have the luxury of it. (And why tape the faucets shut when you can just pull the fuse on the pressure pump?)

Of course there are those newfangled IR water spigots now as well, if you take your hands away, the water stops and there's no way to keep it running.

Jim-
Plastic milk jugs are able to stretch enough not to split or crack, at least when new. DOn't know how many repeat cycles they can take. But that's also why you never FILL something you intend to freeze, you need to allow +10% for the water to expand as it freezes.

Or like they used to do in New England, you leave a filled glass bottle of something out on the windowsill in the winter, and in the middle of the night, BANG! it will explode.
 
#26 ·
That's a good idea. Do the jugs explode/crack when frozen?
Never have. I use gallon milk/water jugs & 1- & 2-liter soda bottles. Underfill them by a cup or so to allow for the expansion of the ice. Just pull a 1-liter out & let it be thawing as you go along, sipping as it melts. A teaspoon or two of lime juice in with it is especially thirst-quenching. (Also good in green Gatorade.)
 
#27 ·
Several have mentioned the use of fresh water for flushing a toilet. I can't imagine the use of fresh water to move sewage when you're trying to conserve water. Also, many speak of showering. We never "shower" when we are conserving fresh water. After bathing in salt water, a cup of fresh water is carefully poured from our head down, - maybe a second cup for those with long hair. I like aeventyr60's & MarkofSeaLife's use of the spray bottle. Some assumed use of water just makes no sense at all,- why would you need to run water over your toothbrush before putting it in your wet mouth? Now I must admit, when we are picking up water every few days, we are showering freely and washing dishes when rinse water flowing down the drain, but 1.7 gallons/day/person is easy in conservation mode.
 
#29 ·
....and if you're feeling particularly puckish, some beer bottles are plastic....:)
 
#31 ·
Hygiene is pretty friken important. Espeacialy on a long passage. To be clean and comfortable is important for your psyche and that transponds deirectly to safety. You sleep better, and rather than sitting there on watch thinkng about the rash on your a$$ and ithcy arm pits, you should be sittng there comfy as can be, smelling like a new born baby. I use clean cotton rag soaked in hot water to give my self a complete whipe down, follwed by an alcohol whipe down, and the some baby powder fo the essentials. I go out and buy a few packages of cotton white t shirts and black cotton boxer breifs before each voyage. I change into fresh undergarments twice a day. I also bring a few packages of cotton tube socks and wear those blue west marine rubber boots religously. It leaves a funny tan line and my feet are pretty pale, but I never stub my toe, or get athleats foot and can walk around my deck with a sure footed confidence. I like to sail into my destination looking like I'm meeting friends for lunch at the country club, clean pressed shirt and shorts that I have put aside for the arrival, shaved fresh. It helps with clearing customs as well. My delivery partners usually look like they just spent a week at sea, all scrubby and grubby and salty. It doesn't take a lot of water or time time take care your self out there. I also have 2 sets of fowly's that I switch out so as not to have been sitting in the same pair for a week or more. And I carry 4 or 5 sets of clean bedding to switch out as needed, so I sleep clean an comfy. When i feel the need several times a day, I grab a bottle of water, take a sip, brush my teeth, rinse, spit and drink the rest or dump it on my head, or dump one of those Emergen-C powder pakages in the rest, shake and rehydrate with that. I sacrifice storage of non essentials to carry more of the essentials.
 
#32 ·
Hygiene is pretty friken important. ......
John Bonds used to preach this in the Safety at Sea seminars, which he essentially invented. Hygiene and proper nourishment, which would include water. He considered it critical for morale, which translated to both safety and performance. Being a retired Navy Captain and head of Navy Sailing at Annapolis, Dean at the Navy War College and head of US Sailng, he knew a few things about morale and performance. He passed a few years back.
 
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