Potable Water

[tdw]

Having just read the Aquabon thread I was wondering what everyone does for drinking water ?

The tanks on Raven are excellent , having been fabricated out of ply and then glassed, but I still don't like drinking the water. We tend to carry bottled water for drinking and rely on the tank water for cooking, washing , tea and coffee. Might be a problem for us when we get off the beaten track.

[bottleinamessage]

As I stated in the Aquabon thread, we have a Seagull filter.
Also a 160GPD Village Marine Tech watermaker.

[sailingdog]

I prefer bottled water, also it means a leak in the water system won't lose all the drinking water... I use the water tanks water for cleaning and such, but not drinking if I can avoid it.

[PBzeer]

I use distilled water, by the gallon jug, for human consumption. Besides the added capacity, it also stains less in my tea mug, and the empty containers are quite handy.

Enroute to New Bern, NC

[sailingdog]

Why distilled water??? I find it tastes too flat.

Originally Posted by PBzeer

I use distilled water, by the gallon jug, for human consumption. Besides the added capacity, it also stains less in my tea mug, and the empty containers are quite handy.

Enroute to New Bern, NC

[sailortjk1]

Originally Posted by tdw

We tend to carry bottled water for drinking and rely on the tank water for cooking, washing , tea and coffee.

Bottled water for us for everything other than cleaning and cooking.

TDW, why would you use the tank water for your tea and coffee?
It taste soo much better from a Gallon of good drinking water.
Really, it makes a big difference.

[Freesail99]

I think the question should be, once you get off the beaten path, what are you going to do for water? We all know getting water to drink in the States is easy.

[camaraderie]

Free...we were able to buy bottled everywhere in the Bahamas and Caribe and that is what we used for drinking. We did add a PUR water filter to the main sink faucet and used that for making coffee etc. from the tanks with good results...they just don't last that long when the tank water is not up to US standards (I guess that is a good thing!).
After looking at the cost of watermakers and the maintenance issues we decided to go with bottled and it worked out well and a lot less $$ was spent. The other issue with water makers is that you have to leave the harbor you're nicely hunkered down in to make it.

[Freesail99]

Cam, I always knew that you would need to leave the harbor to make water, but in my mind, I looked at it as and excuse to go sailing. What kind of prices were you paying for bottled water in the Caribe ? It is my understand that most if not all of the non bottled water in the Caribe is from rain water.


I did buy 6 - 5 gallon spectra water containers.

[eryka]

We can go 3-4 weeks on the 100 gallons our tanks hold, so I never saw a need for the complexity of a watermaker. When in doubt we 'overchlorinate' by adding about a teaspoon of bleach per 10 gallons, and we filter the water at the sink - 0.45 micron filter for bacteria, and activated charcoal to take the chlorine and organic chemicals out. (Changing both more often in water of unknown origin than you would if the tanks have US City Water, of course!)