The final piece of kit that you might add to the long distance Cruising boat, if you want to always have fresh water to hand or without the need of carrying loads or rowing ashore to fill up containers is the desalination plant or watermaker.
Technology and advancements in materials have allowed much smaller versions to be made that are now not uncommon on medium to small sizes boats
There are literally hundreds to choose from, but at the end of the day they all pretty much do the same thing.
That is push salt water at high pressure through a incredibly fine mesh/filter, removing everything but the liquid on its way.
They vary in size, dependant on how much water you need and how quickly you want to make it.
We’ve gone for a reasonable sized jobby at 100 litres and hour, which we hope will fill our front tank approx 250l in just over two hours.
250l last us just under 5 days showering and washing up everyday, which means we will, whilst at anchor, have to run the watermaker every 4-5 days.
We bargain, that even with the solar panels, we may have to run the generator at least once a week to top up the batteries anyway, so we can run the watermaker at the same time.
We’ve chosen a french manufacturer “Dessalator” who make a duo model which allows either a 240v or 12v supply to be used, which will give us the added benefit of engine or generator supply.
Excellent blog really enjoying updates on.all the technical upgrades you are making to the boat – especially enjoyed the story about the contactor repair/replacement – brought back some sparky memories 😉