Using Sea Water in the Galley

[Islander]

From a Wilderness First Aid course I took a while back - One liter of seawater can contain 20,000 different types of bacteria!

While most are probably harmless, I'd still boil it for any type of consumption.

Cheers.

[Stillraining]

Dang!...maybe there should be a ban on swimming in it...

[Hiracer]

We use saltwater on occasion to wash dishes, but always rinse with fresh water and a little Clorox.

Clorox is cheaper than RO, but doesn't solve the heavy metal and chemical exposure. Just be careful what water you haul up. Seawater is for cleaning up; fresh for cooking and drinking.

[s/v Jedi]

Originally Posted by Hiracer

Whatever happened to harnessing rain water? Not dependable, I understand that, but before RO sea water and rainwater was where the action was at.

Oh yes indeed. Over the years we catched more rainwater than what we made with the watermaker. Nothing feels better than catching it for free. When we have a good rain squall and the tanks are overflowing, we use dozens of gallons for flushing toilets and sinks/gray water tank, flushing the watermaker etc.

When it rains good, I just must catch it. My record is 400 gallons in 20 minutes.

cheers,
Nick.

[Stillraining]

Always wondered how you purify, salt and bird poop and everything else out of caught water?

[Hiracer]

Originally Posted by s/v Jedi

When it rains good, I just must catch it. My record is 400 gallons in 20 minutes.

cheers,
Nick.

Holy cow! Sounds like a sailboat about to do a submarine imitation.

[Hiracer]

Originally Posted by Stillraining

Always wondered how you purify, salt and bird poop and everything else out of caught water?

Never done it, but I understand you let it wash off first, then start catching. As Nick pointed out, in the tropics it can really pour. None of the drizzle crap we live with. Real balls-to-the-wall rain.

[s/v Jedi]

Hi Stillraining,

The idea is that you catch good clean rainwater, so not in area's with air pollution or when a tropical wave brought Sahara dust to the Caribbean or similar situations. In the Caribbean we look for rain from ITCZ squalls. The water coming down is pure to 20ppm on my meter, which is very good.

The question is how to keep it clean in the process of catching it. This is different for everyone because the technique to catch it is different. We use almost all of the decks to catch it, so we must assume they are not clean enough. The really bad spots like around the windlass isn't used, plus we have awnings to help bring the rain from the center of the boat to the side decks. The awnings and side decks must be clean. We use a miniature pressure washer for that, so the trick is to become very good in forecasting afternoon rain showers ;-) In the tropics this is easy, I hit 9 out of 10.
A pressure washer uses very little water; I need about 10 gallons to clean everything on out 64' boat.

After all the cleaning I still dump everything caught for the first 5 minutes. After that, it goes straight into the tank, without filtering. After doing this for 7 years, the bottom of my tanks look as clean as new.
We do use a special filter for consumption water (forgot the brand again... it's in that glossy stainless steel housing).

cheers,
Nick.

[s/v Jedi]

Originally Posted by Hiracer

Holy cow! Sounds like a sailboat about to do a submarine imitation.

When it rains in the tropics it really rains... but I've seen that much rain in Florida too. When I wrote that I caught 400 gallons, I should also have mentioned that during those 20 minutes, I lost at least another 200 gallons because my two 1.5" diameter deck fills could not handle that much water in so little time, spilling at least a third over the 2" high toe-rail.

It rained so hard that you would drown if you try to breath without hands around your mouth to keep the water away. ;-)

cheers,
Nick.

[roger.waite]

Two sides to most stories. It is true that salt water is 'toxic to most of the human pathogens'. Many bacteria die within a few days, but what if thy neighbour's ass is not connected to a holding tank? Viral pathogens can live for months, and come up from the sediment in wave action. At sea, I will continue to use seawater happily.

As with many things on boat, use with care. Define your own procedures and limits.

[barnakiel]

We used sea water for washing the dishes. The tea tasted a bit weird in salty cups, but I got used to it.

We tried cooking pasta, potato, etc. in mixed water, but it never tasted OK Alas, in Canary Islands they boil papas (potato) in small amt of sea water until it evaporates and I like it. Will not work for pasta though!

b.

[barnakiel]

Sea water damage to the pans - nil (we use ss and alloy pans). And my all time fave copper and ss pan does not care either!

Rainwater:
- I hate it for tea, it is OK for coffee but anything is passable (not desirable, though) for coffee ,
- I will not tell the difference in a soup, sauce, etc.,
- my first mate NEVER uses it for washing her stuff,
- unwillingly we will use it for washing our salty bodies.

However - nothing beats a spring caribbean shower!

b.

[Cyrus Safdari]

Originally Posted by svstrider

Dead body germs = DON'T GO THERE

If you think about it, dead body germs really wouldn't be any different than dead fish germs!

[rebel heart]

Originally Posted by gettinthere

what about the damage of salt water on the sinks, pot & pans, etc? No corrosion issues to worry about?

We have two foot pumps / two faucets into our galley. One is sea water, the other is fresh water. Going on four years and never had a problem with sea water. If you're using anything that rusts, it will rust regardless of whether or not you're using sea water.

Re: Joy

I used Joy for a while but recently switched out to Trader Joe's variety. With Joy it seems like no matter how much I rinsed I could smell a bit of Joy whenever I'd boil water in a pot that had been cleaned with Joy. The stuff just does not come off.

[Hiracer]

Originally Posted by rebel heart

Re: Joy

I used Joy for a while but recently switched out to Trader Joe's variety. With Joy it seems like no matter how much I rinsed I could smell a bit of Joy whenever I'd boil water in a pot that had been cleaned with Joy. The stuff just does not come off.

Agree about Joy being hard to rinse. Thanks for the Trader Joe recommendation.