Watermaker Bahamas

[ppjoly]

We are planning to travel to the Bahamas from Lake Champlain, do we need à watermaker, if our head runs on fresh water and showers and all else or will we have to go ashore anyways for pumpouts? We have a 75gl reserve that usually lasts a week on the Lake.
Thank you for shedding some light on this matter

[GordMay]

Greetings and welcome aboard the CF, ppjoly.

A watermaker is very useful, in the Bahamas, but not absolutely necessary. I [personally] wouldn't be without one, even with a week's supply of water, aboard.
Abacos easier to do without, than Exumas.

[boatpoker]

We have 2 100g tanks that last 2 people about 3-4 weeks in the Abacos. We have seawater flush and "shower" in ocean (salt is not a big deal to us).
We pop into a marina and buy water when we need it. Doing it our way is significantly cheaper than buying a water maker with the cost of filters and time for maintainance.

That said I don't think we'd be happy with only 75g's and a fresh water flush.
Pump out locations are rare in the Bahamas Been cruising there since the mid 90's and I don't remember seeing a functional pump out. Better get set up for overboard dumping.

See you there next winter. Keep an eye out for DIRT FREE

[MicHughV]

You can get "fresh" water at most any marina, but most folks, including the B'mians don't drink it, but it's fine for most anything else.

[boatpoker]

Originally Posted by boatpoker

We have 2 100g tanks that last 2 people about 3-4 weeks in the Abacos. We have seawater flush and "shower" in ocean (salt is not a big deal to us).
We pop into a marina and buy water when we need it. Doing it our way is significantly cheaper than buying a water maker with the cost of filters and time for maintainance.

That said I don't think we'd be happy with only 75g's and a fresh water flush.
Pump out locations are rare in the Bahamas Been cruising there since the mid 90's and I don't remember seeing a functional pump out. Better get set up for overboard dumping.

See you there next winter. Keep an eye out for DIRT FREE

PS. We routinely drink the water from our tanks that came from the Green Turtle Club and Donny's on Green Turtle and a couple of Marinas in Marsh Harbour. Never had an issue.

[sailorboy1]

Originally Posted by ppjoly

We are planning to travel to the Bahamas from Lake Champlain, do we need à watermaker, if our head runs on fresh water and showers and all else or will we have to go ashore anyways for pumpouts? We have a 75gl reserve that usually lasts a week on the Lake.
Thank you for shedding some light on this matter

You ate a high water user. I have 150 gal and we use about 59/wk in anchor out mode with showers. Water is very available in theBahamas at $0.50/gal. The issue is when weather has you holed up and you can not get to a marina etc.

Been to Bamas twice without watermaker and once with. With was better!

Btw a watermaker is 150% about peace of mnd and convience. I figure my watermaker after almost 2 years works out to about $2/gal..

[ppjoly]

Thank you very much for the advice everyone, convenience was more my concern and flushing into the sea. I should also be looking at installing à macerator and not utilizing the watermaker until Cheasapeak Bay.

[Tellie]

Originally Posted by ppjoly

Thank you very much for the advice everyone, convenience was more my concern and flushing into the sea. I should also be looking at installing à macerator and not utilizing the watermaker until Cheasapeak Bay.

"DO NOT!" use your water maker in the Chesapeake! I have more problems with watermakers of every kind coming out of that particular water than any other place.

[smj]

It’s a personal decision putting initial cost and maintenance as the negatives vs. the convenience it will hopefully give.
We’ve thought about watermakers but never felt the need to take the plunge, yet. We can get by on about 25 gallons a week including showers and our capacity is 50 gallons so have to refill at least every 2 weeks.

[ausnp84]

Did Bimini - Georgetown without one and we were fine, however 10 years later I don’t feel like lugging jerry jugs around every few days, so we’ve fitted a watermaker for our next trip.

N

[chris mac]

We have a watermaker. We typically spend 5-6 months in the Bahamas over winter. Boat buddies that dont have one do just fine without, but have to plan a little more on location and timing. Plus they love it when we fill their tanks as well.
Since we have a water maker we tend to be a little more free with our water usage. We go thru a tank per 10 days, give or take. We have 2, 95 gallon tanks.
It is a convenience decision that has to be made by each person. Both ways work and are entirely doable. Good luck with your decision, and see you out here!

[ohdrinkboy]

Originally Posted by Tellie

"DO NOT!" use your water maker in the Chesapeake! I have more problems with watermakers of every kind coming out of that particular water than any other place.

Interested to hear what you think the problem with the Chesapeake is Tellie. What kind of problems do you see? Thanks

[LoudMusic]

Originally Posted by Tellie

"DO NOT!" use your water maker in the Chesapeake! I have more problems with watermakers of every kind coming out of that particular water than any other place.

Tellie maintained our watermaker while we owned our boat. I agree with everything he says

The Bahamas and offshore were the only places we had reliable functionality of our watermaker. Everywhere else we blew through filters in a couple hours. NOT WORTH IT.

That said, a watermaker in the Bahamas is GREAT. We used only freshwater on the boat and often took two showers each in a day. We would be anchored for a couple weeks at a time (moving around to different locations). We had guests much of the time as well ramping up to 8 or 10 showers in a day.

The watermaker would run for 4 to 6 hours during the day while the solar panels were producing and we were out playing. That kept the battery cycles down and we didn't have to listen to the thing clanking

If you plan to spend most of your time at a marina, or in a yucky mooring field, a watermaker might not be worth it. But if you're going to the Bahamas in a sailboat I really hope you plan to be anchored as much as possible.

[sailorboy1]

I think people don't realize they can rinse off their filters after each use or install a sand/dirt separator to address the dirt issue

[ppjoly]

:No watermaker in the Cheasepeak, got it (don't want to suck up shrimps), unless pre-filter are very efficient and cleaned often. Once installed I would like to put clean Lake water through it to check for leaks, should I pickle it afterwards?