Consumables
Water
The water tank on the boat, with reasonably careful use, lasts us between 2-3 weeks. When I do washing of clothes using extra water in buckets, I am not using up tank water and so the tank water lasts longer.
In general water was free, though occasionally where the water was metered it was only a couple of Euros to fill the tanks. However in the Balearics, I am not sure whether they have a restricted supply of water, but we found it difficult to fill our tanks. In Formentera we were not allowed to have water unless we berthed in the marina (we had anchored), and in Ibiza the fuel station were very vague about where we could get water. In the end as we were desperate we stole it from a local’s berth where there was an attractive-looking yellow hose at the end of a pontoon with an equally attractive free berth, we tied up very briefly, used their hose to fill the tanks and extra buckets, and got out of there quick! A man from one of the nearby boats helped us and promised he wouldn’t tell anyone! In Mallorca the boatyard marina wanted 20 Euros to supply water, our friends who had been there for a year ended up donating water from their hose to help us out.
We have had no problems so far with water quality and we use it for drinking without treatment.
Early on when the weather was cooler, it was nice to have hot water which was heated in the calorifier, which Nigel installed before departure under the rear bunk. This water was only heated when the engine was run, so initially we would shower within the 24 hours after a voyage, do the washing up, and sometimes wash clothes with it. Nigel has just fixed the calorifier so that it can also heat water when the generator is on – useful for the winter.
We also used solar showers – black bags of water which heat up in the sun – quite a bit in the early summer.
Later in the summer when the weather was really hot, we did not need hot water so much, and our cold water wasn’t very cold anyway. Washing clothes in the cockpit on a sunny day with black buckets meant the water heated up very nicely all by itself!
When the cockpit shower was installed we frequently showered or rinsed off in the cockpit, the water was 28 degrees at its coolest, and the first bit was hot, where the extendable hose had been lying in the top of a cupboard below a hot deck! This was our cheapest summer boat improvement at 29 Euros.
We have no water-maker as such, but Nigel has just rigged the air conditioning drip pipe into the water tank now, so it could be used as a type of water-maker in an emergency, especially in dehumidifying mode.
We have two fuel tanks for diesel for the engine, and one smaller one to supply the diesel generator. We have a range of several hundred miles. In the Mediterranean the wind is notoriously unreliable, and in the summer we end up refuelling at least once a month at a cost of over 200 Euros. In the winter we may do day excursions but hopefully our fuel bill will be vastly reduced.
In Spain and Portugal diesel for boats is about 0.77 Euros per litre, in the Balearics we found it was 0.79 Euros per litre, but in France it is at least 1 Euro per litre – a big difference. Actually in France we paid 1.1 Euros per litre because we bought from a privately-owned fuel station – next time we will be more careful!
For the cooker we have one propane gas bottle, which we refilled with some difficulty in Cascais , Portugal , with the help of our Brazilian friends. In the end we had to buy a new bottle as the fitting was different and we couldn’t get a local fitting individually. Cost for new bottle full of propane : 28 Euros. We’ll see how long it lasts. When it runs out we have a tiny camping stove we can use, and we also have a microwave that will work using shore power or the diesel generator, while we find out where to get a refill for the propane bottle.
We are reasonably self-sufficient on power. Before departure from Guernsey , Nigel had installed both a diesel generator and a wind generator, which we hoped would be enough to make life reasonably comfortable, bearing in mind that we did not want to use marinas very much.
However as it is not often very windy in the Mediterranean and Atlantic coast of Spain / Portugal, we found we were often too low on power to charge up the computer, or to watch a DVD, or to charge up batteries, except when we were travelling and using the engine. In quiet anchorages we were reluctant to spoil the peace by using the diesel generator.
Through talking to other people Nigel was finally convinced of the merits of a solar panel, and in Lisbon we found one which seemed very good value. It has made a real difference to our life on board, as in the summer most days are completely sunny. The solar panel keeps up with the fridge on its own, and on a good day we can even charge up the computer as well. We have looked for a second panel the same, but have not yet found one which is so cheap.
We are very careful with the power we do have. Mostly we don’t use the DVD player, we don’t charge up computer or torch batteries, we don’t use more than one cabin light in the evenings, and we use a garden solar light as an anchor light (not very bright but vastly better than nothing). Our fridge has its lid on the top to help the cold air stay in, and we do not use too low a setting. This is probably our most power-hungry item and it has to run all day and all night, however when the fridge is down to temperature it tops up for only one minute every seven or so.
When we have a lot of sun and/or wind, we can use more power and can charge up the computer battery, torch batteries, and Dan can maybe watch a DVD, which he loves. We have brought all our DVDs as well but have hardly watched any, Dan always gets priority!
Occasionally we will run the diesel generator, this gives power at 240 volts. We use the diesel generator to top up the ship’s batteries, to run the air conditioning which we recently had installed in the main cabin, to use our Henry Hoover, to use the hair clippers for haircuts, to charge up everything that needs charging, and anything else we can think of while we have mains-type power.
Whenever we are travelling we usually use the engine at least part of the time, this gives 12 volt power, charges the ship’s batteries, and again the DVD player can go on for Dan, and we can charge up various other items. We also have an inverter which can produce a small amount of 240 volt power inverted from the 12 volts produced by the engine.
When we do stay in a marina, we plug in to mains electricity where we can. We can again top up the ship’s batteries, and use mains power for many items we have on the boat. We also took advantage of shore power to use our big fan, or later the air conditioning, to stay cool inside the boat. More on that later!