What do you do when it rains?
It rained yesterday. All day. A lot. And for this, we’re not complaining because it hasn’t rained, really rained, in quite some time. This is contrary to the soon-to-be-upon-us rainy season where days like this are quite commonplace (duh!).
So what do you do on a day when it just keeps raining? Here is what we did:
- Caught water. A lot. Our rudimentary water catchment system works well. So well in fact that we can capture 10 gallons of water in about 10 minutes if it’s really coming down. We filled up every jerry jug that we had on board, used the water and then filled them again.
- Did laundry. Cleaning clothes as we do, in a bucket by hand, takes a fair amount of water. Unfortunately, when it fails to rain regularly we tend to get behind in this area. We were so lacking in clean clothes that we finally broke down and called a local laundry service to come to our boat and pick up our dirty clothes so that they could clean them for us. The duffle bag of laundry that we passed to them was so big I had visions of their pirogue flipping under the strain (I’m exaggerating, but it was a big heavy bag). Was this service cheap? No, but it needed to be done. With all the nice rain water we collected yesterday though we were able to wash the small amount of dirty clothes that we had accumulated since then. The nice part about consistent rain, such as what we experienced yesterday, is that the clothes get an extra “rinse cycle” as they hang to dry on the lifelines. Of course, the actual drying does take a bit longer.
- Clean the boat. Inside and Outside. Let me say that our beloved ZTC has not been this clean in some time. While Rebecca was busy scrubbing the entire inside of the boat, I was outside washing the decks. I could almost hear our boat purring like a kitten having its neck scratched she was so happy from the attention. We love a nice clean boat!
- Clean ourselves. I have concluded that the highest form of multitasking is obtaining a fresh-water shower while scrubbing the deck of the boat during a rain storm. On boats with limited water supplies (that would be anything not on a dock that is smaller than a mega yacht) fresh water showers are a bit of a luxury, especially long ones. Yesterday, both Rebecca and I were able to indulge ourselves with as long a shower as we desired and to be honest, we both now smell a bit better because of it. 🙂
Some clean clothes getting another rinse.
Would love to see pictures of your rain water catcher………
Me too
Look at this photo:
http://www.zerotocruising.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/02/fishy1.jpg
Imagine a 5 gallon bucket sitting in between the forward most winch and the spinlocks. That’s it. The water that hits the hard bimini runs into a channel and falls off the rear corner. The bucket that is placed in that spot catches the water. That’s it. Like I said, rudimentary.
The one “luxury” we have on board is our watermaker. My husband built it from scratch, it runs off a separate kubota 1 cyl. diesel engine that sips the fuel and pumps out 40 gph. Our record is 3 hot showers a day – each. 2 years and no repairs/replacements/problems, only because he built it himself. We can’t afford marinas and are far from being a mega-yacht. Just look at our 30 yo paint job. 😉
40GPH is awesome. Our DC powered WM puts out 4GPH. And as for HOT showers, we haven’t run our propane-powered water heater in over a year. The only way we get a hot shower is from our solar shower. 🙂
Solar showers rock! When there’s sun, at least. And even when there’s no sun, they’re still awesome. I still have mine as a back up. 😉
OK, I’m looking at the photo and thinking you really need to have a serious talk with your water catcher… Looks to me like she is screwing around fishing and such. No wonder your short water!
Three things: First, note that it is not raining. Water seldom falls from the sky during those weather conditions. Second, we are underway. The buckets tend to get in the way of tending to the sheets and halyards. Not that we wouldn’t put them out temporarily if it was really raining though. Third, fish trumps water catching. Always.
I have found that when it first starts raining here, the water is mucky as it washes the dust and particles out of the air. This rain is unfit for drinking or washing. In summer here it can take roughly 10min, or more, before it is clean.
Does the same apply in the much cleaner environment there?
Mike
I don’t know about the air being dirty and getting cleaned in the first 10 min. of rain but the boat’s deck most certainly does. We do not use rain water for drinking as we have a watermaker. Most people who do use it for drinking discard the first few minutes or so for the above reason.
Nice try. Thats all really just Code for what you were really doing. 🙂
Thought of you guys today while doing laundry…
We just “had” to move back to Uganda where we do our laundry by hand. Water here can be scarce at times and laundry takes gallons of the stuff!
Over the last few years, we’ve learned two things;
1. It takes very little soap to get things clean (most manufacturers recommend 3xs the needed amount)
2. Buying one of these (http://www.amazon.com/MobileWasher-Operating-Washing-Machine-Emergencies/dp/B003SQ7I5S/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1380223194&sr=8-1&keywords=breathing+washer) was the smartest thing we invested in for this brand of living. Gets clothes really clean and, IMHO, requires less water to do so!
P.S. One Love’s looking great!
Happy Sails!
Thanks for the tips!