TravelTalkOnline Forums Travel and Vacation Forums British Virgin Islands drinking water

What kind of water does everyone order for on the boat? We had some a few years back that was very salty but can't remember the name.
ZEPHYRILL WATER is the least expensive that I can see. Is is good? Yes, we are picky. Suggestions?

We often use nikkini. Mostly we make our own on board and reuse the bottles

We have had this water and it was fine. We also have water maker, so usually buy4-6 gallons and then just refill with watermaker as Warren does.

Water maker on board is very nice. Saving space as well as not needing to plan itinerary around water.

We have people bring empty water bottles and then buy gallon jugs from Riteway to supplement.

on my guys trip in Feb apparently they didn't listen to my briefing and made coffee with boat water...glad I dont drink coffee

Wish we had a water maker but we don't! Bella from TMM

Sea a Tiger and scuba doo both with TMM and have watermakers. Maybe next time?

i[/quote]We also have water maker, so usually buy4-6 gallons and then just refill with watermaker as Warren does.[/quote]

The water maker puts the water directly into the holding tank. Most people buy bottled water to not drink from the tank. Am I missing something?

All of our cats and several mono's at CYOA have water makers. We also equip those boats with a filter system including UV lights. No need for bottled water and plastic trash.

Even with a clean water tank and my watermaker, I will use a Brita filter before drinking the water or making coffee with it. I don't taste a difference, though.

We buy 6 one gallon jugs then refill from holding tank using a high quality backpacking filter.

We use the Zephryll water, and is was fine. Got the case of 6 delivered from Riteway.

That must be one hell of a filter!

I stayed away from that one.

I too thought of the backpacking filter. Good one's will filter just about everything including viruses and bacteria. Check out youtube where they filter a muddy puddle and drink it! But, they are slow and would be way too much hassle for me to fill gallon jugs. I've used the UV light pens (Steripen or Starlight) on land based trips to fill 16 oz. bottles and it's great for two people. I don't quite get the arguments for boats with water makers. For shower and dishes yes! For drinking? I wouldn't. You are still drinking from the tank. You have no idea what previous charters did. How many times do you read trip reports where the water maker broke and the charter company said just fill the tanks at any given marina and keep the receipt for reimbursement? Same thing with UV lights or reverse osmosis filters. You are relying on the charter company to make sure they were changed on a timely schedule. Good luck with that! UV lights have to be VERY clean to be effective and drastically lose effectiveness as the bulb nears the end of it's lifespan. I'm on well water at home and have a whole little room dedicated to filters! And I still drink bottled water most of the time.

We generally get gallon bottles for drinking water but have never had a 2nd thought about boat water for coffee. It's being boiled. Am I missing something?

We've been turned away 3X on charters from docks that were supposed to have had water but didn't and ended up running out on the last day of the trip. Taking that out of the equation would be nice so we're looking very closely at adding one to Tortuga.

I guess that is true...good point

Dumb question No.1: How many gallon jugs of water should I get for a week charter with 5 adults? (No water filter on the boat). We do drink a lot of water - but I'm asking more from the realistic storage point of view. At home I would guess we go through several gallons a day . . . What do most of you plan for?

Start with a dozen. You can resupply many places.

We go with one gallon per person for every 2 days of the charter. 1/2 gallon minimum per person per day. It’s a lot of gallon jugs but you’ll find creative places to tuck them on the boat :-) Gallon jugs - just let everyone refill their cups throughout the day (and here’s my pitch for everyone bringing their own tervis tumbler for the week!)

Don’t drink from the tank. We have a boat that we’re on all summer. We have 2 100 gallon water tanks. Think about this: the water comes through a hose, into a plastic tank, sits there, then gets refilled - all,charter season long. We use a brita water pitcher on our boat (not feasible for a charter I know).

Does anyone know if the stores down by Road Town carry the 2.5 gallon water jugs? Less plastic - though I suppose if everyone fills up the hydroflasks with a couple of gallon jugs before we leave the dock we'd use those empties for the first batches of painkillers!

Charter a boat with a water maker, then taken only 5 or 6 of the 1 gallon jugs along.

I guess this is a separate question and may be different using a water maker.

We've generally used tank water for showers, cleaning etc. and buy gallon jugs for drinking water because drinking from the hold makes me nervous.

1) do most people drink from the holds?
2) is there a difference when there is a watermaker aboard?

Dave

This...

Lcrich, in answer to your question regarding Zepherhills. I live in Florida and personally don't like it. I think it has a swampy flavor. But water is very subjective. We have had boats with watermakers and still never drink that water. We plan on 1/2 to 1 gallon a day per person, and have been happy with BVI Springs in gallon bottles. Easy to buy more during your trip.

We also plan on 1/2 gallon per person per day. We use it for drinking and cooking. For 10 days we take on 42 - 1 gallon jugs. They come 6 to a case. On a cat you can always find places to stash them.

42 1 gallon jugs? OK - maybe I underestimated the amount of space we'll have! 5 people, 7 days = 18 gallons. Maybe round up and grab 4 cases (24 gallons). Sounds like a plan.

An empty 1 gallon water bottle makes a good Painkiller jug...