Cost of Water in Med Ports

[Tinto]

hi All
Planning on a change of lifestyle and going liveaboard in the Med.

I did a search on water, but it pulled a lot of threads

To keep costs low we plan to stay out of marinas as much as possible, as well as generate as much of our power from renewables as possble.

When it comes to water though, what do marinas typically charge for boats staying overnight?

Is it possible to fill water tanks without staying over?

alternatively, is it worth investing in a water maker?

Thanks in advance!

 

[MAURICE]

Hi Tinto ive been in the Med for over 7 years now. Normally the water is included. However in some parts you have to pay extra. If you intend to anchor as much as possible its a good idea to carry some large water containers to fill up when ashore. I made a funnel from an old large coke bottle to fill up from showers which are around in Spain on the beaches. Always check the water as sometimes its saline. The water i use for washing and showering and buy bottled water to drink.

 

[AndrewB]

Many eastern Med marinas meter potable water supply, and the cost is high. €5 for 1000 litres is not exceptional, and then you lose again because few yachts can take 1000 litres and they don't give refunds. (I've got into the regrettable habit of filling 25 litre containers in marina loos rather than pay). Even so, taking into account the capital cost, running cost and expected lifetime, you would need to be a vast consumer of water to justify a water-maker on cost grounds.

 

[macd]

is it worth investing in a water maker?

Plenty of stuff on this in old threads. The consensus seems to be that, so far as the European Med and Turkey are concerned, even many boats that have a watermaker choose not to use it, since the stuff's relatively easy to source at less than felonious cost.
Obviously this will depend to some degree on your tankage.

In fact my principle concern is that no enterprising company has come up with a gin-maker.

 

[sailaboutvic]

In fact my principle concern is that no enterprising company has come up with a gin-maker.

There have but it cost around 10/12euo a LT

 

[Cin70]

Some fuel berths also have water.

 

[OldBawley]

Water is getting one of the biggest problems if living on a boat out of commercial marinas.

In Italy we ware not allowed to go into a marina just to take water and pay for water only.

It was ok to go in, pay berthing fees for a min boat length of 38 feet and then buy a card to obtain water. So if fact you ware ripped off.

In Greece on many town quays now you have to call somebody who then comes over, sells you a card and then you can take lots of water. Ok for a supermobo with 10.000 l tanks, for a small sailing yacht with 220 l of drinking water tanks not practical. You lose half a day.

Also much of the water you get is brackish. And even if the sign on the tank truck says “ Drinking water”,mostly it is not.

Best is to have lots of water tank capacity and talk to other sailors to know where good water can be loaded. A good filtering system is needed also.

A seawater pump in the galley reduces the use of sweet water a lot.

Even when washing clothes, rinsing ( which takes a lot of water ) can be done with seawater. Rinse twice with seawater and then once with sweet water.

I started transferring water with the dinghy in 20 l jerry cans. Later I switched to 10 l cans. Easier to lift. Now I use 5 l. clear water bottles so I see what gets in them and they are a lot easier to carry and stow. I have 12 of those, stowed in small spaces.

A water maker is only now getting low powered enough to consider, but in many places you have to get out to open water to use it.

 

[sailaboutvic]

like you we for many many years carried cans in our dinghy and filled them were we could, but that's fines when your young and fit but as we get older that doesn't come easy,

Agree water is getting much harder to find especially for free and as you said even paying for it, at time is not that great to use as drinking water.

With a change of boat three years ago I took the leap of building a water maker and not looked back talk about making living full time on a boat easier,

We tend to use our every second day running it for an hour given us 90 lts we do run it in anchorage but since leaving Greece we found most of the anchorages we have for ourself and if we do have another other boats we first always check for pollution.

I guess for marinas users getting water isn't a problem but for people like you and me who don't use them a water maker is a good way forward although expensive and another thing to maintain or break down.

Funny how our view chances over the years , once I would had wrote that there wasn't any point in buying a water maker if your just cruising the Med.

 

[TonyMS]

We collect our water in 10l containers. In the Balearics, Sardinia and Corsica, we nearly always got free water, but the quality was often suspect and finding a tap often tricky. In the Ionian, there are numerous places to get excellent drinking water free. Typically, where you have to pay, the quality is not so good.

TonyMS

 

[geem]

Water is getting one of the biggest problems if living on a boat out of commercial marinas.

In Italy we ware not allowed to go into a marina just to take water and pay for water only.

It was ok to go in, pay berthing fees for a min boat length of 38 feet and then buy a card to obtain water. So if fact you ware ripped off.

In Greece on many town quays now you have to call somebody who then comes over, sells you a card and then you can take lots of water. Ok for a supermobo with 10.000 l tanks, for a small sailing yacht with 220 l of drinking water tanks not practical. You lose half a day.

Also much of the water you get is brackish. And even if the sign on the tank truck says “ Drinking water”,mostly it is not.

Best is to have lots of water tank capacity and talk to other sailors to know where good water can be loaded. A good filtering system is needed also.

A seawater pump in the galley reduces the use of sweet water a lot.

Even when washing clothes, rinsing ( which takes a lot of water ) can be done with seawater. Rinse twice with seawater and then once with sweet water.

I started transferring water with the dinghy in 20 l jerry cans. Later I switched to 10 l cans. Easier to lift. Now I use 5 l. clear water bottles so I see what gets in them and they are a lot easier to carry and stow. I have 12 of those, stowed in small spaces.

A water maker is only now getting low powered enough to consider, but in many places you have to get out to open wa

Water is getting one of the biggest problems if living on a boat out of commercial marinas.

In Italy we ware not allowed to go into a marina just to take water and pay for water only.

It was ok to go in, pay berthing fees for a min boat length of 38 feet and then buy a card to obtain water. So if fact you ware ripped off.

In Greece on many town quays now you have to call somebody who then comes over, sells you a card and then you can take lots of water. Ok for a supermobo with 10.000 l tanks, for a small sailing yacht with 220 l of drinking water tanks not practical. You lose half a day.

Also much of the water you get is brackish. And even if the sign on the tank truck says “ Drinking water”,mostly it is not.

Best is to have lots of water tank capacity and talk to other sailors to know where good water can be loaded. A good filtering system is needed also.

A seawater pump in the galley reduces the use of sweet water a lot.

Even when washing clothes, rinsing ( which takes a lot of water ) can be done with seawater. Rinse twice with seawater and then once with sweet water.

I started transferring water with the dinghy in 20 l jerry cans. Later I switched to 10 l cans. Easier to lift. Now I use 5 l. clear water bottles so I see what gets in them and they are a lot easier to carry and stow. I have 12 of those, stowed in small spaces.

A water maker is only now getting low powered enough to consider, but in many places you have to get out to open water to use it.

you dont need to be in open water to run your watermaker. They can deal with quite nasty water. We built ours 7 years ago. It cost us £2000 in total. We make 190 litres per hour. Our whole tank is potable water so we dont buy drinking water of dubious quality. Based on fuel use it costs us less then 1/2 penny per litre to make perfect clean water. I cant imagine lugging water. We use 1200 litres per month

 

[V1701]

In Porto Cheli (Aegean) the garage where I'd buy petrol for the outboard had a tap where I used to fill 10l cans of which 3 fitted nicely in a shopping trolley so not much hassle. The guy was very friendly & didn't mind at all, he knew I'd be buying my petrol there. Water to drink bought from the supermarket where there was also plastic bottle recycling. You will sometimes have to buy water but overall the costs aren't silly. Living aboard especially at anchor the pace of life is much slower. it can take a long time to do stuff that takes very little time when on land in a house but life is less complicated and you spend a greater proportion of your time on life's basics - your shelter (fixing/fettling your boat), acquiring food, water, hardware bits & pieces, etc. and if you can embrace that (well at least some of the time) rather than finding it frustrating you'll be a happier liveaboard. Good luck and enjoy...

 

[Tinto]

Thanks all

I was drifting away from a water maker but with my last house been heated by a 40kW log burner and the daily slog of hauling logs everyday was enough to make me appreciate an easy life.

think I will look into water makers further

 

[OldBawley]

I find the Porto Cheli water no good. All the residents say it is not for drinking.

When I am in need for water in Porto Cheli I just sail to the Peleponese East coast and get free good water there. One day up, loading water and one day down, 35 miles to get some water.

Just an other reason to go sailing. No engine, not to exit or enter Porto Cheli or enter the little harbour where I go tanking.

Spetses island is getting its water from there to. By tanker.

I agree starting a water maker is easier. However, that means starting the engine to make power, I prefer sailing.

I have bought twice water from supermarkets in 20 years of Med sailing. Finding free and good water (as God intended) is sometimes hard work.

I remember rigging our shopping cart behind my mountain bike and cycling half an hour up some very steep slopes to a well known natural source (with a chapel)

Going down with 40 l of good water was fast. I have air filled roller bearing wheels on our shopping cart and the extra weight of the water makes descending the mountain slopes with its narrow windings a challenge. Brake pads smoking.

Good for my health and since the water comes from below the chapel maybe even good for the soul.

On some west Italy coast island you had to buy water from a maffioso who sat in a lounger below a parasol with his foot on the tap. Two houses from the boulevard a women was watering the flowers. I asked if I could buy some water from her. She said she would get serious trouble if the maffioso saw she was selling me water.

 

[geem]

Thanks all

I was drifting away from a water maker but with my last house been heated by a 40kW log burner and the daily slog of hauling logs everyday was enough to make me appreciate an easy life.

think I will look into water makers further

If you are handy, build your own. Run a cat pump off the engine if you dont have a generator. A couple of 40” membranes will make you 120 litres/hr. forward planning and you will rarely need to run the engine just to make water. You will be going somewhere

 

[Resolution]

I have bought twice water from supermarkets in 20 years of Med sailing. Finding free and good water (as God intended) is sometimes hard work.

I remember rigging our shopping cart behind my mountain bike and cycling half an hour up some very steep slopes to a well known natural source (with a chapel)

Going down with 40 l of good water was fast. I have air filled roller bearing wheels on our shopping cart and the extra weight of the water makes descending the mountain slopes with its narrow windings a challenge. Brake pads smoking.

Good for my health and since the water comes from below the chapel maybe even good for the soul.

This week in Southern England God is delivering fresh water to us all, completely free, and in unlimited quantities!!

 

[Trident]

A water maker as many have said makes life easy but my top tip is to get a Seagull or other similar ceramic filter with its own faucet for drinking water - these take out 99.99% of all pathogens - you could pour ebola virus in one end and drink clean water out the other. This means that wherever you fill up and whatever the quality of water and however grimy your tanks get over time you only drink fresh clean safe water.

 

[OldBawley]

Oh, rainwater collection. I have a purpose made rain caching sail that I can rig on the foredeck. Lowest point drains into a 30 l olive oil barrel. That ( food approved plastic barrel – looks like the real wood thing) is mounted just in front of the main mast and serves as a decanter for all the water we use.

The barrel has a 6” manhole on the top so can be easily filled with jerry cans and is easy to clean out. From the barrel ( 1” from the bottom ) a line goes via some valves to the main water tanks or via an electric pump to the cockpit shower. Serves as a solar heating device for the shower water as the barrel is dark coloured. The black solar shower bags deliver water that is way to hot here in the Med and can´t be cleaned inside. Eek.

All water I get goes into that barrel, dirt sinks to the bottom. You would be surprised to see what I find in that barrel.

Here in the Med the water collection sail is no good. It rains very rarely and most of the time rain is accompanied with strong thunderstorms and then the rainwater is whipped out of the sail. Tensioning a horizontal rain cacher of 3 m² in a force 8 to 10 is…. Hard to do.

Back in Turkey rain was more abundant, the sail worked well. Here in Greece… naah.

 

[De.windhoos]

My experience in the Agean is that the water is almost always good. The last time I had bad water was in Chios Town. Even in Patmos they improved the water so there's no need to order a water truck. In Turkey the water is, in my experience, always good.
In Greek municipal harbors you do pay for water and electricity, but because the docking fee is only 8-10€, it's not a big issue.

I do have an active filter (ceramic and carbon) with a separate tap in the galley for drinking water. And I always use my own hose. This year I'm going to install a filter on the hose, but that's more to reduce the hardness and extend the life of the heating element of the water heater.

The reason Greek and Turkish people drink bottled water is, because they had to in the past and it became part of their culture. And because of lead pipes in old houses.

 

[dgadee]

We go through mucho mucho water during our 4 months aboard - crew has a shower every day and water flows from the sink taps other times. My self build watermaker just went into action last September/October and we spent up to 10 days at a time away from marinas/harbours. Parts cost about £3,000. Quite a lot, but - if you can be bothered with the organisation of it - I am looking forward to not constantly being tied to planning where to fill up. We have 200 ltrs of plastic tanks and one flexible tank of 100 litrs. That would have lasted us 3 days at the most.

 

[De.windhoos]

We go through mucho mucho water during our 4 months aboard - crew has a shower every day and water flows from the sink taps other times. My self build watermaker just went into action last September/October and we spent up to 10 days at a time away from marinas/harbours. Parts cost about £3,000. Quite a lot, but - if you can be bothered with the organisation of it - I am looking forward to not constantly being tied to planning where to fill up. We have 200 ltrs of plastic tanks and one flexible tank of 100 litrs. That would have lasted us 3 days at the most.

Wow! you must have a large crew The 2 of us use 300 litres in about 10-14 days, and that includes after swim rinsing and showers.