Giving in to a Rainman

Owning Zofia for nearly 8 years and having lived aboard full time for close to 3 of those years, one could easily think that we'd got most things sorted out and everything we need aboard. Wrong. Just when we think we've pretty well 'nailed it', something else comes into focus. There is probably a hierarchy of needs and the list so long that you don't see items well down the list until they suddenly emerge as the next big thing. Take for instance, the matter of a desalinator. We have managed our water consumption thus far, and half way around the continent too!

 

The installer  

 

We are pretty abstemious with water consumption averaging about 20-25L per day. The salt water tap helps too with rinsing dishes, cleaning the sink and so on. 20 minute showers under streaming hot water are not the rage aboard Zofia. The sump in the bathroom signals that 9L has been used. Electricity has been used to pump it out the tap and more pumping will occur to remove it from the sump. The Bloke (AKA the 'Amp Nazi') has a thing or two to say about that and showering will generally occur while the motor or generator are operating to save the batteries. We've acquired stingy habits when it comes to water use.

   

The Rainman de-desal unpacked.

Membrane unit + filters + the pressure unit.

So, why a desalinator now? There were 2 triggers. Firstly, we'd been given water while out in the islands en route to The Whitsundays and it enabled us to stay 'out', i.e. off-shore for a whole month and still arrive at Abell Point Marina with 100L in the tanks. This was really a game changer. We'd normally be looking for water after 2 weeks with a margin of 1 week to 10 days to achieve it. Ambitions to attempt a trip to Lizard Island next season require capacity to be self sufficient for 6 weeks. Tradewinds, which are typically in the 30knot range might be blowing the wrong way and prevent trips for resupply. A desalinator could also reduce our dependence on marinas.

    

Installation progress.

The Bloke partially installed the system by fixing the membrane unit with the supplied brackets inside our stern lazarette.

Our other motivation was visitors. In particular, the kids were coming and we didn't want to be standing over them every time they were near a tap. It would be a tension that would simply spoil the visit.

Coil hose bringing in the seawater.

Green hose returning the brine.

We chose a Rainman Desalination system because it made sense as well as dollars and cents. We already had a Honda 2Kv generator (power supply). The system is portable and manual. Being less automated, there is less to go wrong. One thing we have learned is that the more 'seemingly sophisticated' a boat's systems, the more agonizing the failures, with accompanying cost and disruption. From the various options, we selected one with a 50-70L capacity which meant that running it every 2-3days would replace our usage. A higher capacity unit would not only cost more but 150-170L per hour would over-fill our tanks or if used less frequently result in extra maintenance of the membrane. Rather than select the membrane in 2peices we chose the single 40" unit which saved quite a bit on price too.

Hey presto - here is the fresh water ready to be fed into our water tanks!

Our timetable is now driven less by the requirement to top up our water tanks. We sacrificed a 20L diesel Gerry can and replaced it with a 20L ULP Gerry to fuel the generator. The outcome has been very liberating.