Wayne.B wrote:

You and your wife can cruise without showers if you want but not with
us.

:-)



How much water does it take to shower you, Wayne?

We are doing ot on 1.5 Gallons for the both of us
and having fun doing it (!).

Rick Morel wrote:


No one should criticize another for his/her choices. We're all
different. I've cruised aboard different sized and equipped sailboats
over the last 47 years, and a few powerboats. My first was a 16 ft
Petral with a gasoline camp stove and D-cell running, anchor and
interior lights. The engine was an old 5 HP outboard. I was 16 at the
time and it was a most pleasurable few months. Could I do it now at
age 63? Certainly! Would I? No, I don't think so.

Rick


That was a breath of fresh air.
Thanks Rick.

Post more - please!

Richard

On Tue, 07 Jul 2009 21:56:49 -0500, cavelamb
wrote:

Wayne.B wrote:

You and your wife can cruise without showers if you want but not with
us.

:-)



How much water does it take to shower you, Wayne?


Don't know but more than it used to.

We are doing ot on 1.5 Gallons for the both of us
and having fun doing it (!).

Yes, I can remember the old sun shower on a halyard days. I thought
they held more like 2 gallons though. We used to cheat and heat ours
up with water from the tea kettle, faster that way. Those days are
over, now it's a 20 gallon electric heater. You need that with a
washer/dryer on board and 2 heads. :-)

On Tue, 07 Jul 2009 20:07:21 -0400, Wayne.B
wrote:

Classic good old boat ! Looks like you've got it nicely equipped
also.

I just realized today that you are also a member of the "Liveaboard
List". I've been on there a long time but mostly lurk. We have met
some of the other denizens at various times however including the
famous "Norm and Jan" duo from Bandersnatch.

Thanks Wayne.

Yes, I've been on the Liveaboard List a long time. I used to post
quite a lot but not too much now. Norm and I have gone round and round
in the past, but we mostly agree :-)

I was thinking you were familiar.

Rick

On Wed, 08 Jul 2009 07:45:39 +0700, Bruce In Bangkok
wrote:

On Tue, 07 Jul 2009 12:05:08 -0400, wrote:

On Tue, 07 Jul 2009 11:47:51 -0400, Wayne.B
wrote:

On Tue, 07 Jul 2009 06:40:29 -0400, wrote:

Watermaker? Your list is already getting funny. Do you also grow all
your own food?

No, but there are many places in the world where good potable water is
impossible to obtain at any price.

You cruise in the Sahara desert? LOL

Most marinas in the Bahamas, a
very real cruising destination for us North American types, are
already charging 50 cents a gallon for dock water, and the price keeps
going up. For people making long passages, water capacity is always
an issue, and it's really nice to get one or two good showers a day
without worrying about draining the tank.

You'd probably be surprised at the number of long range cruisers who
are already equipped with water makers for exactly these reasons.

There are other ways to supplement fresh water without adding the
expense and problems of a high maintenence watermaker. I'm not
surprised by the number of cruisers who think they can't live without
a watermaker and hot showers.

For fully half the year in the monsoon areas there is little or no
rain. You replenish water supplies by either going ashore and toting
it back to the boat or a watermaker :-)


A cruiser with half a brain would take the hint and go elsewhere. I
realize you don't have that option and must do without water for 6
months at a time. Surely you don't walk down the dock and go ASHORE to
get water! What watermaker do you have on board? How often does it
require maintenance? How much water does it provide daily? What powers
it?

Oh... you don't need rain to collect water. Probably not enough to
take long showers, but enough to support life.

On Wed, 08 Jul 2009 06:34:15 -0400, wrote:

What watermaker do you have on board? How often does it
require maintenance? How much water does it provide daily? What powers
it?


I know you didn't ask me the question, but I think it's one that needs
answering.

I've had a PUR 40E 1.5 GPH in the past and now have a PUR 80E 3.4 GPH.
The 40E ran about 4 to 5 hours every day for most of 2-1/2 years. The
current 80E has just been run for several week-long periods. It takes
about 1-1/2 hours to 2-1/2 hours of daily running, the latter on
"wsshing and shower days". Note that half to one gallon is used to
flush after running.

There's a "silty water" setup, not the mega-buck "kit", which is just
an extra filter housing. We've made water in clean and dirty, and very
dirty water. Filter elements are not a big expense, they are simply
washed out when necessary and will last over a year.

Maintenance: Very little. Put some silicone grease on the pump shaft
when it starts squeaking, clean the pre-filters as above when needed -
month or more in clean water, weekly in silty water. Make half to one
gallon in a jug, as above, and run it though to flush when shutting
down. Run it every day, or at least every three days max, otherwise
pickle it. Pickling is easy, dump 2 caps of biocide into 2 qts of
water and run it through, then forget about it until you use it again.
To start up after pickling, run it for 20 minutes, test, and fill the
tanks.

We use one tank one day, the other the next. The day before tank is
topped off. This way if something happens to the watermaker, we've
still got one full tank of good water.

Power is 12V. Call it 16 Amp Hours per daily run, or about 2.4 Amp
Hours per gallon of water, put back by the solar.

The only downside to a watermaker is they're very overpriced.

Rick

On Tue, 07 Jul 2009 13:02:30 -0500, Rick Morel
wrote:

On Mon, 06 Jul 2009 23:11:05 -0400, Wayne.B
wrote:
Much snipped

I would consider a 4-cycle outboard if the Perkins died, but we have
too much overhang, plus the dinghy/davits would have to go. Here goes
another discussion maybe... If the Perkins dies, I plan on replacing
it with a DC electric motor and diesel generator. The motor would
probably mostly be run from the house bank for short periods and
calmer conditions.

Your preliminary comments are correct :-)

I'm interested in your reasoning for the electric drive as it seems to
present no advantages to have a diesel fueled generator which charge a
set of batteries to provide power to an electric motor to turn a
propeller.

Given that any mechanical or electrical device will have some losses
it would seem that there will be less efficiency then a system that
connects the diesel engine directly to the propeller rather then going
all round Robin Hood's barn, as it were.


Rick
Cheers,

Bruce
(bruceinbangkokatgmaildotcom)

On Wed, 08 Jul 2009 08:09:10 -0400, wrote:

Thanks, Rick. That sounds less onerous than what I usually hear about
watermakers and the difficulty of maintaining them. On a larger boat
with room for ample solar panels, or even a wind gen, the power draw
you describe wouldn't be impossible to live with, either.

Most folks I've run into have bought larger than needed watermakers,
so they wind up not running them enough. They will give problems if
not run regularly, at least an hour a day. Those folks wind up running
them maybe once a week or even wait a couple weeks until the water
tank is dry, and usually don't flush with product water before
shutdown. A recipe for disaster. They tend not to pickle them when not
going to be used because they haven't run it for a few days then
"forget", another recipe for disaster.

I've heard the excuse, "It's too much trouble." I don't buy that. The
daily routine is a lot less trouble and effort than raising or dousing
the mainsail! Come on, flip the switch, make a glass of water and test
(taste test is best, TDS meter okay), grab a gallon jug, fill the jug,
move the valve to the water tank, when water comes out the tank vent,
drop the slternate intake in the jug, move the intake valve, when
about a half gallon or so of jug water goes in, flip off the switch.
Take a look at the prefilters through the clear case. If ucky, pop
them out and put the 2nd set in, wash off the first set and let dry in
the sun.

Heck, the daily routine takes less effort and time than putting on the
mainsail cover, but everyone seems to know that if you don't put on
the cover, your main will soon be UV rotted!

Rick

On Wed, 08 Jul 2009 08:33:05 -0400, wrote:

Diesel/Electric has been used on trains for a very long time. There
must be some advantages. I guess one would be full power available at
low speeds, and another would be the elimination of need for a
transmission.

Correct on both points, those are the only real advantages, much more
applicable to trains than boats.

On Wed, 08 Jul 2009 07:32:24 -0500, Rick Morel
wrote:

I've heard the excuse, "It's too much trouble." I don't buy that. The
daily routine is a lot less trouble and effort than raising or dousing
the mainsail! Come on, flip the switch, make a glass of water and test
(taste test is best, TDS meter okay), grab a gallon jug, fill the jug,

If you are using it for an hour a day is it still necessary to do the
daily water test and discard the first gallon? Does it have a UV
sterilizer to kill viruses, etc. ?