We have been looking at boats, and even though we looked at boats up to 34 feet (because the smaller ones ended up being way too tight for my 6ft7in husband) there are no showers!! So if you are onboard for more than a day or two, whether at mooring or traveling, where are some places you can shower??
I know in fresh water you can take a dip, but you can't shampoo, right?? But what about salt? Do marinas you can moor at have showers you can use?? Looking for ideas. We love everything about sailing so far, but the thought of no shower for a week - ugh. Not my cup of tea.
Hi Nancy,
Like much of sailing the answer usually comes down to your choice of some combination of things.
Most boats in the size range you are looking at have a shower in the bathroom ("head"). Often it is a sprayer that pulls out from the faucet on the sink. Sometimes it is a separate spray head. Regardless, even with a shower curtain most of the head gets wet in the course of showering. You need to mop that up to avoid mildew problems. That is the job of the last person to shower. *grin* Bear that in mind.
Water storage on boats in the size range you are looking at is likely to be limited. As a minimum that means something called a Navy shower. You turn on the water to get wet, turn the water off, use soap and shampoo, and turn the water on to rinse. Go easy on the soap and shampoo to minimize water use.
Some people use garden style sprayers to reduce water usage.
Some people use black plastic bags called solar showers to heat a couple of gallons of water and shower in the cockpit or run the hose from the solar shower into the head through a port.
Some context might help. A typical 10 minute shower in your home is likely to consume 25 to 50 gallons of water. Boats in the size range you are looking at may have water tanks with 35 or 40 gallons of water. With a little practice you can get a Navy shower down to 5 or 6 gallons. With a lot of practice and not a lot of hair you might achieve 2 gallon showers. Maybe.
So what is one to do?
Well for starters you really don't need to wash your hair every day. That helps a lot. There are also waterless shampoos available.
Baby wipes are a wonderful way to stretch things out without feeling too primitive.
With respect to swimming, salt water is in many ways better for cleaning than fresh. Detergents like those found in Joy or Dawn dish soap do a wonderful job of cleaning skin and hair. Hair conditioner can be combed in and left, in fact reducing damage from ultraviolet rays. Many boats have a fresh water shower on the transom to wash residual salt off your body after you are clean.
Most marinas do have showers for people that take slips and in some cases those who anchor out or moor and pay for dinghy privileges.
Auspicious is a 40' boat with 120 gallons of fresh water and a 6 gallon water heater (the management of boat water heaters is a subject in itself that I will set aside for the moment). We have a shower stall separate from the rest of the head. Janet and I generally shower every other day and use baby wipes liberally to feel clean. We usually shower in the evening to stretch the cleanliness of bed linens as much as possible. When we are cruising we take advantage of showers off the boat whenever available. If we do take a slip we definitely take showers, fill our water tanks, get ice, charge batteries, possibly do laundry, and take every other advantage we can of services and utilities that are included with the slip.
While sailing does NOT have to be camping there are generally some accommodations to be made relative to conventional American expectations.
Did I mention how great baby wipes are? *grin*
