Coastal Cruising SE USA - Live without watermaker?

[Mike OReilly]

Originally Posted by Happ

A few years ago I spent 3 1/2 weeks with 2 friends who have a composting head on their boat. Prior to getting on the boat I just shook my head as to why they would want a composting. After week one I was thinking ok I see it. After week to I was thinking really pretty good idea. At the end of week 3 I knew. It was the way to go. No pump, no hoses, no holding tanks and no water. Think about the extra storage you get once you remove the tank. It solves so many issues. A n brained!

Once you go compost, you never go back . At least, that's what the vast majority of users find.

It's not a solution that fits all boats and all crews, but for those that fit the criteria, it really is a better solution to the problem of our personal pollution .

[Chotu]

Originally Posted by Mike OReilly

Once you go compost, you never go back . At least, that's what the vast majority of users find.

It's not a solution that fits all boats and all crews, but for those that fit the criteria, it really is a better solution to the problem of our personal pollution .

So the difficulty I have with compost heads isn’t with me. It’s with the girlfriend. She is of Muslim and Eastern origin. She prefers to wash off with a lot of water, which ends up in the pee jug. I have to devise a system for her to be able to wash off to overboard when I do the new compost head. It’s tricky.

[merrydolphin]

Costal cruising in the US shouldn’t be a problem. Soooooo many boats have inadequate tankage, both water and diesel, but especially diesel.
A huge water saver is the “cruisers shower”. We took one every day. It takes a quart to a half gallon per person. Jump in the water, enjoy a swim or snorkel, come out to the cockpit or aft deck, shampoo up. Head to toe. Most good shampoos worked quite well in salt water. Now jump back in and rinse off (or just snorkel or swim around a bit. Now back on deck squeaky clean and just salty. We used a half gallon water pitcher with spout. Rinsed off the salt and you are very clean and refreshed. Obviously this doesn’t work in a dirty harbor. But when anchored out it usually does. This saves an incredible amount of water. You can tell the boats not so well designed for cruising by all the Jerry jugs lining the decks. That would be about 75% of the boats out there.
The other big help is a good rain catchment system. I mean real good. We could fill our 200 gals of water tanks in one real good downpour. Would last us a long time. We would let the dingy fill and use that water to wash clothes.
For catching water we used the entire boat! It had bulwarks all around. We would let the hard rain beat the boat clean for a few minutes, then block the scuppers with towels and open the deck fills and watch it gulp down into the tanks till overflowing. It didn’t take all that long. Just one good gusher. Worked like a charm. Did it for decades with no problems. Yes we kept our decks pretty clean anyway.
When we got to the Sea of Cortez, we finally did get a Spectra watermaker as it is a desert. Very little rain and water could be scarce ashore too. Wonderful cruising too.

[rslifkin]

If you've got room for a big enough holding tank with a short hose run, a good macerating electric head works well and is low maintenance. For us, it's pretty much pump the tank when it's getting full and consider an occasional joker valve replacement. Other than that, it's just push the button and ignore the mechanicals.

[Mike OReilly]

Originally Posted by Chotu

So the difficulty I have with compost heads isn’t with me. It’s with the girlfriend. She is of Muslim and Eastern origin. She prefers to wash off with a lot of water, which ends up in the pee jug. I have to devise a system for her to be able to wash off to overboard when I do the new compost head. It’s tricky.

Sounds like you're talking about some sort of bidet ... a composter is definitely not conducive to this sort of thing. I think you're stuck with the more standard marine head.

[svskua]

I have fitted an L port ball valve to my shower water supply, this sends the water back to the tank until I think it is warm enough to start showering. This saves a lot of water.

[Chotu]

Originally Posted by Mike OReilly

Sounds like you're talking about some sort of bidet ... a composter is definitely not conducive to this sort of thing. I think you're stuck with the more standard marine head.

Kind of. Just a cup and a rinse works well for her.

I had a composting head for a year and that’s her only complaint. That her rinse water has to go in the pee part. It’s definitely the only way to have an odor free and water frugal toilet on a boat.

So... this time around I think I’ll build in a diverter to send her rinse water directly overboard.

[davil]

Originally Posted by Chotu

Kind of. Just a cup and a rinse works well for her.

I had a composting head for a year and that’s her only complaint. That her rinse water has to go in the pee part. It’s definitely the only way to have an odor free and water frugal toilet on a boat.

So... this time around I think I’ll build in a diverter to send her rinse water directly overboard.

====================================
not sure how will work in your situation, last year I plumbed the pee container via a whale hand pump to a truhull so no longer empty it overboard.

[Mike OReilly]

Originally Posted by Chotu

Kind of. Just a cup and a rinse works well for her.

I had a composting head for a year and that’s her only complaint. That her rinse water has to go in the pee part. It’s definitely the only way to have an odor free and water frugal toilet on a boat.

So... this time around I think I’ll build in a diverter to send her rinse water directly overboard.

Ah, I see... I guess you could do as Davil suggests. Or even divert it to a larger holding tank for later dumping? Or as you say, direct discharge. The standard Nature's Head (or Air Head, or C-head) urine containers would fill pretty quickly otherwise.

[flightlead404]

Originally Posted by boatpoker

It's a throughull and a piece of hose connected to your toilet intake. The head whether electric or manual will suck the water from the ocean rather than the tank.

If thats too difficult for you then I have nothing more to offer.

I believe its more than that. I looked into it briefly before. I thought it would be simple, but I'm not so sure now.

I'm hoping to get hauled for bottom paint in a month, so if it's just putting a T in somewhere no worries, but I was lead to believe I need another pump as well.

[flightlead404]

Originally Posted by Chotu

So the difficulty I have with compost heads isn’t with me. It’s with the girlfriend. She is of Muslim and Eastern origin. She prefers to wash off with a lot of water, which ends up in the pee jug. I have to devise a system for her to be able to wash off to overboard when I do the new compost head. It’s tricky.

Mine is Taiwanese, and wants a bidet. I've learned to prefer it as well. That's fairly easy with a modified bug sprayer, but makes a composting head a no go.

[shimari]

Originally Posted by flightlead404

I believe its more than that. I looked into it briefly before. I thought it would be simple, but I'm not so sure now.

I'm hoping to get hauled for bottom paint in a month, so if it's just putting a T in somewhere no worries, but I was lead to believe I need another pump as well.

I installed a freshwater SeaEra QC last season and it was very straight forward. I just put a T with a shutoff valve into the sink's fresh water line. I also had to increase the breaker size, and I had to run a larger DC power line and add a fuse block under the sink.

A salt water electric would have required the addition of a pump under the sink. But, I don't think that makes things that much more complex.

The hardest part of the job was re-gelcoating the area for the toilet so everything looked nice. It was stained from the previous manual head.

[Lodesman]

Originally Posted by flightlead404

Mine is Taiwanese, and wants a bidet. I've learned to prefer it as well. That's fairly easy with a modified bug sprayer, but makes a composting head a no go.

Get a manual bidet seat and a watermaker. Life will be good.