Drinking Water ... quantities?

Jonny_H

Jonny_H

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We are currently planning ahead for our longer passages and are hoping to do a trial run on our shake down cruise over the next few weeks.

We have 90 gallon water tanks, they lasted us 5 weeks last summer without filling. However, you always get some 'tank' taste and when filling away from the UK we are aware that tap water isn't always drinkable. We have therefore installed a hand pump tap with a 5 litre container below it to use for drinking water. The idea being that we take pure drinking water in bottles from the shop and fill the 5 litre container when required. This will give us a good guide of how much we are drinking each day and also mean that we have a hand pump which we can extend into the tank in an emergency.

However, how much bottled water to take?

This is for drinking for cold drinks only. Cooking, hot drinks, washing, hygene etc all being taken care of by the 90 gallon of tank water.

We were thinking of 1 litre each per day for cold drinks? Is this enough??

Jonny
 
For the avoidance of doubt, its high horse time.

Why do people suffer tank taste? Why not fix it?

I've now flled my tanks these last 25 years in 15 European countries and only in the UK (Ramsey IOM) haveI had poor water. I have never used bottled water nor had a jippy tummy.

On a positive, and maybe more constructive note, we have a hand pump in the galley which dispenses Jabsco filtered water for drinking. From the main tanks naturally. We used to put 2cc of Milton into each 200 litres when we filled up but we ran out of Milton 3 years ago. Taste? The Jabasco took even the Milton away.
 
Clean your proper water tank and pipes correctly with purclean, then add some aquatabs each time you fill up, and finally install a jabsco water filter, and you can use your proper tank. You will drink more water as it gets warmer. Should have at least a gallon/day per person for all useage.
 
You need a min of 2.5L water per person per day to stay healthy. Although you normally don't drink this all as fresh water if you work on that you have an emergency reserve in case you have a problem with the main tank. But I agree with the others you should not get tank tast, if you do find out why. By the way most European countries now have water quality as good or better than UK. In hospital I remember a notice going onto the bottled water dispenser stating that it should not be used for patients as its quality could not be garenteed, we had to give them tap water! This was because the bottles had to be stored, the tap water was fresh.
 
We have cleaned out all the tanks and flush them through before a long passage after a dose of Milton etc and they do taste ok - my point was more that local tap water (that you would fill the tanks with) will be fine for cooking, cleaning etc but for drinking we try to use bottled water due to the un-known quality of foreign water sources.

Hope this makes more sense?

On re-reading my original post I may have worded it badly, when I say tank taste I mean you can tell its tap water and has a slight taste which makes it less appealing to drink as a glass of water - this is where bottled water is nicer to drink. My thinking was that if the water is bottled water it will taste nice and you will be more inclined to drink more than if the water has a tap taste to it.

So, given we will be lugging 90 gallons of water across the pond anyway, how much extra should I take for 'nice drinking water'? I suggested 1 litre each per day to SWMBO and she thought more like 2 litres? With 3 people for say 30 days thats the difference between 90 litres and 180 litres!

Jonny
 
Entirely agree! We spent the best part of ten years cruising in the Med/Caribbean and NEVER bought a single bottle of water.

As you say, maintain the tanks properly. I'd like to know where this 'dodgy' water actually supposed to be 'cos we've never come across any in approaching 40 years of sailing. If we remember, we add a tablet of two of Aquatabs or similar to a 30 gallon tank, and use an Aquafilter on the cold water feed to the galley tap - the one we use for drinking water.
 
Hi Jonny

We had a 50 gallon tank when we crossed, but took 2lts of bottled water per person per day as well. The thinking behind this was not only the taste......we had clean tanks but had dock water that ranged from brackish to heavy chlorine.....but a safety angle. It meant if the tank leaked we still had drinking water. I know of one boat who lost almost the whole tank to the bilge before finding the leak (shower hose!) . Also if we had to abandon to the liferaft we could chuck in loads of bottles. You'll be amazed how many you can stuff in around the boat. When you've finished squash them flat and put them in bags tied to the rail.
 
John,

We have (as you know) plenty of places to stick the Tesco Value 2 litre bottles of fresh water around the boat. We can, of course drink the tank water, but as you say from a safety angle its nice to have bottled as well. Our hand pump is next to the sink and so far has worked well. With a 5 litre bottle below the tap we can ensure that between us we have drunk a whole bottle every day.

2 litres per day as a back-up - sounds good (except it proves Kate right!!)

Thanks

Jonny
 
hi there.

Buying different brands is a good idea - then you can recognise which is yours and don't pass around and infection of whatever.

I would have thought that enouggh bottles water for half the days planned at sea would be enough - otherwise you'll be dragging around enough ewater for the tanks to burst the moment you set off and i imagine you'd turn back or go to CV's.

Brita water filter? Worth experimenting with anyway.
 
My approach for long passages (more than 3 days) has been the same as Jonic. Two litres per person per day in bottles, for atlantic a safety margin of 10 days, so we catered for 30 days. All boiling water for cooking was using sea water, spuds veg etc.

We had over half a tank on arrival so had a long shower before docking in Barbados.

We also had lots of juice, something like 30 litres per person.
 
We have never felt the need for bottled water but friends who join us usually do and at the end of every watch we end up with half-empty bottles all over the place. We carry bottled water as an emergency supply and as TCM suggests work on the basis of enough for half the days.

On the subject of the hand pump (for your separate tank) when on passage we use them exclusively. We have them fitted in both heads and at the galley sink (drawing from the main tanks). They are a great way to get people to conserve water and battery power. But consider taking along a spares kit or a spare unit because when they stop they don’t give much warning.
 
I agree that bottled water is horribly wasteful of money and plastic. Obviously you need some kind of emergency supply if the main tank should fail or become contaminated, but a few jerry cans will do that.


But one very useful idea that I came across, is for each person on board to have their own water bottle, with their name on it, and drink water from that not cups. That way you know how much you have drunk, you can put the bottle in the cockpit or carry it around with you. That system has worked really well for me.
 
Not really,

The medically recommended water intake in UK is 3.5l /day and in hot climates 5l /day. You could always fit a charcoal filter, that removes taste but doesn't produce sterile water.

I'm interested to know where the information about "bad" water has come?

The only non-potable water (apart from wash-down taps in many fishing harbours) I've come across was in Crne Goro.
 
Interesting about leaks

The biggest problem with pressurised water systems is that you've lost the water before you know about it.
Those lacking self-control /forums/images/graemlins/laugh.gif even go so far as to fit manual pumps and take out the water pump.

It's my practice to ONLY turn on the water pump when I'm using water, and have it off when on passage and anchored.

It's quite a simple procedure, just needs self-discipline.
 
Published papers

comparing bottled and tap-water, in the UK, show that bottled water tends to have more "impurities" than the tap-water.

In view of the latest "Nature" papers about the gradual poisoning of the ecology by plastic detritus, it could be considered rank irresponsibility to have any more than necessary plastic anywhere.

Search the BBC website for reports on how the Galapagos is threatened!!!
 
I agree that the individually marked 2 litre bottle is the best solution - for infection control and monitoring of rehydration. But don't underestimate the space that so many bottles will take up! Try to buy the bottles that squash/fold into a tiny bit of plastic afterwards and stay that way with the cap on and then if possible dispose of the lot somewhere sensible (which isn't so easy!). One of our crew took it upon herself to cut up the empty bottles into tiny pieces with kitchen scissors which were then emptied into an 'uncut' bottle. It was surprising how many many bottles could be 'packed into one'.
 
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