Rain Rain Water Water

Marsh Harbor, Abacos, Bahamas
NoLL

We had planned on leaving here today but a chilly rain has changed our minds. It has been raining for the past 10 hours. I've been working on scrubbing the decks and on collecting water. Water is important out here on the islands. Buying water can cost as much as 50 cents per gallon. Around here it is 20 cents per gallon.

We don't have any plastic tarps or other rigs specifically designed for gathering rain water. Nevertheless, we have been able to capture about 2 gallons per hour by letting it drip from our canvas covers in to buckets. We used the first 2 gallons to make hot baths for Libby and me. Now we're collecting more to help refill our water tanks. I think I'll get a plastic tarp. With that we could collect water 2-3 times faster.

We used 15 gallons of fresh water since leaving Marathon on March 7. That's 1.25 gallons per day for the two of us. Excellent. All the cruising guides say 3 gallons per person per day minimum. Our low consumption is due primarily to two things. First, we have no pressurized water, and no hot water heater. We use foot pumps to get fresh water to the sinks. I'm 100% sure that merely having pressurized water would result in doubling our consumption simply due to wast

Second, we don't have a built in shower on the boat. We use a so-called sun shower like campers do. It is a plastic bag that one fills with water, then allows it to sit 30 minutes in the sun to warm up. When on the mainland we use fresh water in the sun shower. Out here in the islands we use salt water.

By the way, I heard that a regular house here with a tin roof, gutters and downspouts, can gather 4000 gallons of water for the cistern per inch of rain received. That's pretty good. 4000 gallons can last a long time; especially if you're as stingy with it as we are.

FLASH FLASH: As I sat here bragging about collecting water, the wind kicked up a little bit. The wind blew the canvas tarp and knocked off the weight I had in it to make a low spot near the edge for water to run off. The weight fell in to the glass bottom bucket I was using to catch the water and it broke the glass bottom. Now I'm out $13 that I paid for the materials to make the glass bottom bucket. That's enough money to buy 65 gallons of water. Darn, outsmarted myself yet again.