Drinking Water

[zeehag]

i have not been able to drink tap water since i left long island ny, as that was the best water i ever tasted, and other tap water has stuff init that i cannot drink, due to impaired immune system.
i fill my tanks with tap water, double filtered, here in mexico--i wouldnt drink the tap water here to save devils from hell.....
first time in my life i had to smell the drinking water before tasting it was in troy ,ny , when i went to college--lol we got water from hudson river--when we turned on tap and smelled bad smells, we didnt drink the water---and i never drank that stinky stuff ever again in life..so far.....
i drink bottled water--i keep 6 of the 5 gallon jugs filled for travel and use in general--i use tank water only for stuff i boil and for cleaning.

barnacles carry staph aureus, and has been found to be methecillin resistant staph aureus..the good stuff that used to close intensive care units when found therein..
.each time you have a scratch from barnacles, make sure you clean the area well with good soap and water and use a triple antibiotic ointment with a cover for a few days. aint gonna kill ye if you are aware of it.
one does not need to go see an md for staph aureus unless it is out of control. initially , it is cleaned like any other wound, carefully and thoroughly.
if it becomes red and swollen and is taking long time to heal, then is time for more intensive wound care..

[GrowleyMonster]

Sure, bottled water is kinda silly, but the OP is on the Great Lakes. Just a few gallons is plenty of backup. Cost is minimal. If you can't find room for 3 or 4 jugs of water, I think you need a bigger boat or something.

Lake Superior has pretty clean water, mostly. Erie is known for lots of methyl-ethyl-badstuff in the water, and I can't comment on whether this is still true today or not. Upper Lake Michigan water is probably okay. Activated charcoal filtering is a good idea, is inexpensive, uncomplicated, and removes most pollutants. Bacteria? Oh no! They are crawling all over my keyboard! AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHH THEY ARE GETTING ON MY FINGERS!!!!! Really. When I was a kid there was no such thing as bottled water, as we know it. You could get distilled water, and we used that for batteries. People drank water from the tap, well, spring, whatever, and there would often in some areas be enough minerals like calcium, sulphur, etc to make it taste kinda bad, and leave deposits on stuff. Well, it never hurt anybody. Germs are everywhere. They are already IN YOUR MOUTH. They float around in the air you breathe. They not only coat, but also permeate every single bit of fresh food you buy. Cook them, kill them, and their cousins land on the food from the air as soon as the food cools enough. They crawl and creep and breed. They are everywhere. EVERYWHERE. Stop being so paranoid about your water. Be glad you arent rationed a cup a day out of a rotting wooden cask, like old time sailors on wooden ships. Anyway, why drink water when there is still plenty of beer left in the world? Seriously... reasonable care of your tanks and a cheap filtration system are all you need, unless your marina is a superfund site or something, or you filled your tanks at the mouth of the Ganges River.

[Rakuflames]

Originally Posted by GrowleyMonster

Sure, bottled water is kinda silly, but the OP is on the Great Lakes. Just a few gallons is plenty of backup. Cost is minimal. If you can't find room for 3 or 4 jugs of water, I think you need a bigger boat or something.

Lake Superior has pretty clean water, mostly. Erie is known for lots of methyl-ethyl-badstuff in the water, and I can't comment on whether this is still true today or not. Upper Lake Michigan water is probably okay. Activated charcoal filtering is a good idea, is inexpensive, uncomplicated, and removes most pollutants. Bacteria? Oh no! They are crawling all over my keyboard! AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHH THEY ARE GETTING ON MY FINGERS!!!!! Really. When I was a kid there was no such thing as bottled water, as we know it. You could get distilled water, and we used that for batteries. People drank water from the tap, well, spring, whatever, and there would often in some areas be enough minerals like calcium, sulphur, etc to make it taste kinda bad, and leave deposits on stuff. Well, it never hurt anybody. Germs are everywhere. They are already IN YOUR MOUTH. They float around in the air you breathe. They not only coat, but also permeate every single bit of fresh food you buy. Cook them, kill them, and their cousins land on the food from the air as soon as the food cools enough. They crawl and creep and breed. They are everywhere. EVERYWHERE. Stop being so paranoid about your water. Be glad you arent rationed a cup a day out of a rotting wooden cask, like old time sailors on wooden ships. Anyway, why drink water when there is still plenty of beer left in the world? Seriously... reasonable care of your tanks and a cheap filtration system are all you need, unless your marina is a superfund site or something, or you filled your tanks at the mouth of the Ganges River.

Just a reminder that no one here has recommonded sterilizing one's fingers all the time.

Micro-organisms ARE everywhere. Most of them aren't harmful, and some are beneficial. But a few are particularly nasty in your gut. The combination of "clean" water tank AND filtration -- no problem with that. Without filtration, you are taking a risk. Those old-time sailors drinking water out of rotting barrels died from illness. A lot.

I won't bother with a filtration or UV system. It's not important to me that I drink water out of my watertank. But I do use re-usable bottles and fill them with municipal water for consumption.

[zeehag]

rotting water is exactly why rum was added to make grog...they didnt care if they drank stale water once the rum was added..lol

[Dockhead]

Originally Posted by stevensuf

Having enough bottled water on board for the duration of any journey is a wise move, tanks can leak/get contaminated, one source for drinking water on a long journey is not the smartest decision!

You are absolutely right. Use as an emergency source is, of course, one of its legitimate uses.

[zeehag]

contamination, sudden loss of tank integrity, other reasons for back up on the water supply--if dire need, i could render my tankage drinkable to me...isnt difficult--but i enjoy the habit of preparing myself for a longer voyage--none of mine has been under 182 miles in distance. so secondary water sources are important. i did run out of bottled drinking water last time, and i used boiled tank water, with drink/ broth mixes i keep on hand...lol

[Teknav]

Any free running fresh water must be filtered AND boiled before consumption. You may add chlorine tablets to it, or a shot of RUM after boiling. Waterfalls, pristine glacier runoffs and the like MUST be brought to a boil before consumption; at a minimum. Mauritz

[Rakuflames]

Originally Posted by Teknav

Any free running fresh water must be filtered AND boiled before consumption. You may add chlorine tablets to it, or a shot of RUM after boiling. Waterfalls, pristine glacier runoffs and the like MUST be brought to a boil before consumption; at a minimum. Mauritz

Thank you. It's a complete myth that the water from those "pristine" glaciers are clean. Just for starters, raindrops form around ... particulate in the air.

Then they melt and flow over river bottoms that have been exposed to all sorts of contaminants.

It's not that all germs are bad. It's that you're out in the high Sierras hiking, or out to sea on your boat -- and well away from serious medical care should you need it. Dehydration kills.

[Blue Crab]

Originally Posted by rebel heart

In Mexico we get tap water which goes in our tank and we do drink it in small quantities but primarily we suck down bottled water... Plenty of people in Mexico drink tap water pumped into cisterns on top of their homes.

E, I'm surprised to read that you're drinking it at all but you guys just started out. Is the idea to acclimatize your internal ... what? ... flora? ... so that eventually you'll be able to drink like locals, at least in the Americas?

If so, I think that's a good idea; one I am considering. I don't have enough boat, really, for a watermaker (and sure don't want the maintenance) but my brand new clean bimini has some extra material sewn all around so I can rig a channel for draining into my two 22 gal plastic tanks. I always had enough drinkable rain water in the Keys in the better old days.

I have a cheap RV filter I use now to filter the city water while it's still convenient, but I don't want to hump water on the hook beyond a gal jug maybe kept in the Captain's gig.

The danger of course is that drinking local water can hurt you, and any future chance to be a pirate because as ol' Cap'n Fo'ce has shown: You can lose your ARRRRRRRRGHs!

[zeehag]

i have found the tap water in la cruz marina turns to algaefied goo within 2 weeks of sitting in sun. the junk in the system from the dock taps will mess shirts washed on the boat. i know--i have greenish brown spots on t shirts from it, and they were not there before i washed the shirts in allegedly clean la cruz marina dock tap water..yum yum.....

i double filtered the la cruz water, and i found the tanks i filled with it have become full of algae..omg. i knew this would happen, but is faster than mazatlan water did, and this zihuatenejo water has no floaties in it, as does la cruz water....lol..mazatlan water from marina mazatlan required only a single filtering while filling tanks, and lasted for 6 months--as long as it took to empty 100 gallons of tank water.

alll air has particles in it. rain comes from air and yes water forms around particles. glacial water melt off is what long island ny water used to be--runs down continental shelf to ny from north of conecticut.
was obtained for drinking via artesian well system.
i would drink unboiled glacier water and unboiled rain water before i would f drink unboiled tank water. lol

[Rakuflames]

[QUOTE=Blue Crab;1215981]E, I'm surprised to read that you're drinking it at all but you guys just started out....


YOU are a funny guy.

[Teknav]

Algae forms in rivers and streams when OXYGEN is depleted from the water. You may also find plenty of dead floating fish; another sign of oxygen depletion. Consider buying gallon-jugs of "Spring Water" from a supermarket, if you have a choice. Before sealing the cap on, bottlers place a puff of nitrogen gas to maintain water's sterility until the jug is opened. Bottled spring water must undergo rigorous filtration and testing prior to being sold; it is worth stocking but not directly in the sunlight. If placed under the sunlight (UV) for an extended period of time, the container's plastic starts to breakdown its plasticizers; water will taste like plastic. Mauritz

[zeehag]

i experiment on stuff in my environment..
i found that the bottled purified water i buy for 20 pesos plus bottle(5 gallons) doesnt turn brown or green in sunlight when left out deliberately over a month to 2 months, whereas the dock tap water from marina la cruz, in la cruz de huanacaxtle, in nayarit,mexico, DOES turn brown and green during the same 1-2 months in tropical sun. i watched it turn to green in 2 weeks, then brown in the last part of the 2 month time span.

tank water doesnt have aeration. also doesnt have sunshine.

when i opened the tap on my formosa and found brown algae doming out the tap, i knew that double filtration is not good enough fro mexiwater.

yeah. i dont have cable tv, so i play with my world. go figger....LOL

[Blue Crab]

[QUOTE=Rakuflames;1215986 ... YOU are a funny guy.[/QUOTE]

Ha! You're just trying to see if I really have you on ignore.

[Blue Crab]

Originally Posted by zeehag

tank water doesnt have aeration. also doesnt have sunshine.

yeah. i dont have cable tv, so i play with my world. go figger....LOL

Geez, that's a great idea I hadn't considered. I can easily make that happen.