Making Water?

During the past few months we have learned quite a lot on the internet from other cruisers.  As I mentioned in Why Cruising, we were surprised at just how many people are living the cruising dream.  During our "research", we realized the more we learned the more questions we had.  While reading the Bumfuzzle site, we learned that cruisers "make water".  What?!  We quickly decided that we must have one of these "water makers".  It converts salt water into fresh water, making life much easier. 

However, we also soon learned the costs of a good water maker and the ongoing maintenance required to keep it running properly.  After reviewing the pros and the cons of a water maker, we have removed this from our "must buy" list.  We're thinking that our budget would do better purchasing water a little at a time when necessary versus making a large, upfront purchase of a water maker.  We'll have to be conscious of our freshwater usage, and I'll have to forget those long (and hot) showers trying to wash my long hair. 

It seems quite a few cruisers "catch" rain water on the top of their bimini and use this water for rinsing and other things.  They don't use fresh water for bathing or for washing dishes.  The dirty dishes are put in a net-type bag and then pulled behind the sailboat for a while, and then rinsed quickly with freshwater.  As far as bathing, they "soap up" in the salt water and then rinse quickly with the fresh water caught from the bimini.  Also, the cruisers start working on a "scent" by not bathing on a daily basis.  I guess I'll be wearing my hair in a ponytail a lot more than I do now!  We've also read that some cruisers have a salt water pump and a fresh water pump on their sailboat, allowing for the use of salt water for those times when freshwater isn't necessary. 

So, once we finally go cruising we're going to try the above ideas and see how they work for us.  We'd better stock up on the deodorant!  Hasta leugo .... until then.  Mid-life Cruising!