10 Great Ways To Conserve Water On A Boat
One of the major adjustments from living a land life to living on a sailboat full-time is being conscience of your water usage. It’s something you don’t think much about living on land, however, it’s something we are very well aware of living on a boat.
When we first moved on our sailboat full-time, we were still working full-time and living at a marina. This gave us a great adjustment period to start tracking our water usage and get some ideas of how we can conserve water on a boat.
While living at a marina with an unlimited water supply, we went through all 3 of our boat fresh water tanks, 193 gallons in total, each week on our 1998 Hunter 450 Passage. That’s an average of approximately 27.5 gallons a day for two people, and we were at work for 10+ hours a day, 5 days a week! I can’t imagine using that much water nowadays!
Since we sailed away in January 2023, 11 months ago, we are now using approximately 7 gallons a day for two people. Wow, that’s quite a change! So how did we get from 27.5 gallons a day to 7 gallons a day for two people? Below I will go over our 10 ways that we conserve water on a boat. And I do think it is worth noting that neither Scott nor I feel that we are “thirsty” for water (sorry, pun intended!) or feel deprived and wish we could use more (well, ok, an occasional loooong hot shower would be nice now and again).
Conserve Water On A Boat: 10 Great Tips
1 Minimize Food Scraps
Before washing dishes, we follow the “clean plate club” and clean our plates, pots and pans off as much as possible.
When using our cast iron skillet, we make sure to scrape it off while it is still hot, as it is much easier for the food to come off the pan and then to clean it.
When using pots to cook things like rice, oatmeal, or mac and cheese, I add a small bit of water immediately after emptying the pot. This way the water gets hot from the hot pot, and the food stuck to the pot comes off much easier after soaking it while I’m eating my meal.
- Comes with Red Silicone Hot Handle Holder
- 12-inch
2 Wash Dishes With A Spray Bottle
Washing dishes can be a big consumer of water. After we have scraped excess food of our plates, we use a spray bottle filled with soapy water to spray them down with. We find that this uses less water than using the faucet to get them wet.
For extra buttery pots and bowls (I love popcorn, with lots of butter!), I wipe the pot and bowl out with paper towel first, to get as much butter off before washing. I find I use a lot less water, getting a lot of the butter off with a paper towel.
I will use straight dawn dish soap and water from the faucet on hard to clean (i.e. extra oily, greasy dishes) but I still use the dish soap sparingly, and can still get the dishes quite clean.
3 Collect Water Before Turning On The Shower Head
This is something we just started doing recently, and wow, does it save water on a boat!
We have a very clean bucket (used only for drinking water) that we place under the faucet in our shower. When we turn on the faucet and are adjusting the water temperature before switching the water to the shower head, the water collects in this bucket. When I switch to the shower head, I set the bucket just outside of the shower. By doing this, we collect approximately 0.5 – 1 gallon per shower that we can put back in our tanks.
4 Shower In The Ocean
Obviously, this one is seasonally and locationally dependent. We don’t do this in cold or dirty water. But when we were in the Bahamas earlier this year, we would wash up in the salt water, then just do a quick rinse off using our shower head located on our swim platform at the stern of the boat.
5 Collect Water To Rinse Off Snorkel Gear
After a snorkel outing, we like to rinse our fins, masks, and snorkels with fresh water. We also like a fresh water rinse ourselves! We will put a bucket underneath us to collect the fresh water from our rinse off. Then we simply dunk our snorkel gear in the bucket for their rinse off.
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6 Take “Sea Showers”
I’m guessing all sailors who are trying to use less water are already doing this one. But by turning off the water while lathering my hair with shampoo, or washing up with soap, then turning the water back on to rinse it off does save quite a bit of water.
Other ways I conserve water while taking showers is to wash my hair every 2 or 3 days instead of everyday. My hair has adjusted to this quite well and I actually prefer not to wash it every day now.
I also only use shampoo when I wash my hair, instead of shampoo and conditioner. I have a leave-in conditioner that I love that I put in my hair after my shower. It also works great to put in your hair before getting in the salt water if you are trying to protect your hair from drying out.
7 Shower At Marinas
As you can see in our 6-month Budget Check-up, we spent more time that we would have liked at marinas in our first 6 months getting used to being full-time liveaboard cruisers. A plus side to staying at marinas is having access to water! We either take regular showers on the boat, not worrying about our water usage, or more likely (especially in places like the Bahamas where they charge extra for water), we use the marina’s showers. There is something to be said about not having to turn off the water during your shower!
8 Make Full Use Of Marina Water
In addition to using the marina’s showers, we try to make full use of having access to potable water when we can. It is during these times that we do the following chores that use up quite a bit of water:
- Defrost Our Fridge And Freezer – We empty the contents of our fridge and freezer, then pour warm water over the evaporator plates until the built-up ice melts and breaks free. As you can imagine, this can put a dent in your water supply.
- Wash Our Decks – Our top decks definitely need routine cleaning and this chore takes a bunch of water! So when you have access to good water pressure and an external water source, this is when we clean our top decks. Otherwise, a good rain can help keep them clean as well.
- Dog Baths – As much as Mangaux hates his baths, he feels (and smells) so much better after them! I have also been able to make use of dock carts as his bathtub!
- Fill Containers – Before we head out of a marina, I fill any container I can with potable water (i.e. tea kettle for coffee, water bottles for drinking, and any extra pitchers I have)
9 Collect Rain Water
Good, clean rain water is a great, free way to add to your tanks! I remember during one particular downpour while on a mooring ball in Hope Town Bahamas, we had our (clean) buckets out on deck and were able to collect several gallons of water that day.
I’ve thought about investing in a rain catching tarp, such as something like this, but we don’t have anything like this yet. Our concern is that there are often winds accompanying the rain, and are not sure how this would do in windy conditions. If anyone has any experience with this, or other ways to collect rain water, I would love to hear from you!
10 Our Switch To A Composting Head
During this past summer, we changed out one of our two manual pump marine heads to a composting head. Our manual marine pump heads use fresh water for flushing. Using somewhere around 1 pint (16 oz) give or take of water per flush, this can really add up when you are trying to conserve water.
We have noticed a significant difference in water usage since switching our primary-use head to the composting head.
Water Maker Note
With many boats having water makers onboard, water conservation may not be as much of a concern that for those without a water maker.
While we do have a water maker on board, it runs on DC power. Since it runs on DC power, it has a smaller output of approximately 5-6 gallons per hour. That means if we don’t stay on top of replenishing our water, or can’t make water due to where we are anchored, we can quickly fall into a water deficit if we’re not careful. This is why we work on conserving water as much as possible living full-time on our sailboat.
For example, we have been anchored in West Palm Beach for a good weather window to cross over to the Bahamas. We know we can make water once we get to the Bahamas, but the water in Lake Worth in West Palm Beach is not the best quality for making water.
We arrived in West Palm Beach on November 30th, and 20 plus days later, we are still waiting for a good weather window. While West Palm Beach has great dinghy docks for shore access, they do not have any fresh water access. Therefore, we must make our fresh water last as long as possible. We plan to take on fuel and top off our tanks at a marina before sailing off to the Bahamas.
Saving Water Summary
It is eye opening to see just how little water you can live on each day. We went from 27.5 gallons a day living at a marina to 7 gallons a day living on anchor.
After almost a year of living aboard full-time away from a homeport marina, we are still finding ways to reduce our water consumption even more. It is great to know we now saving 0.5 – 1 gallon per shower, fresh water that used to just literally go down the drain.
I’d love to hear from you on ways you collect rain water, do boat dishes, and other ways you conserve water living on a boat. Leave your comments below or comment on Facebook and Instagram at SVPelagia and @sv_pelagia.
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