TravelTalkOnline Forums Travel and Vacation Forums British Virgin Islands Water, water.....

Another post from soon to be sailors in the BVI. When we were there last, we drank the regular water out of the water tanks. Is this still a good idea, or do people bring "drinking water" aboard? If so, what packs / stores well?

If you are not going to drink the tank water, PLEASE buy Gallon bottles, rather than small water bottles.. Less plastic! When you refill your water tanks, you can also refill the bottles with the hose.
The BVI water is drinkable, but the water tanks on your boat may be dirty.
Less plastic bottles = cleaner world!

West Marine and I am sure others as well, sell a bottle of treatment for water tanks if you are unsure of their quality. Another option may be to bring a small pitcher filter for drinking water. Just a couple of thoughts.

There is simply no way to know what is in any water tank on any boat or the condition of the tank wall and piping. We alway have bottled water on any boat we are on. Even the best city water has a shelf life where the chlorine or whatever is used to inhibit growth reaches the end of of it usefulness. Every boat or water system sits idle at some point. Why risk anyone getting sick in the small confined space of a charter boat. Having the bottled water aboard also serves as a valuable backup if you water pump fails or somehow find your tanks empty. Having bottled water delivered to the boat is very easy these days. We also try to store away one gallon jug of water per person somewhere. If we ever find ourselves unable to get water from the taps. "Here is your gallon until we work this out".

We bring "drinking water" on board with us. We provision at least 1/2 gallon per person, per day and have the gallons delivered to the boat before we leave port. Gallon jugs = less plastic & waste.

Yes, you certainly can go online and even most hardware stores and get stuff intended to and capable of killing all forms of life to dump into water tanks. Once you have the opportunity to take out a water system from any boat there is little chance you will drink from one again. Plastic tubing, fiberglass tanks, high temperatures, dark spaces, infrequent use, periods of idleness are all reasons to be suspect of water from a small boat system.

You can definitely re-fill the gallon jugs along the way here and there. So, I usually get about 12 gallons jugs (2 six gallon cases from Riteway) for 8 people for 10 days. I've ordered three cases before (18 gal), but it was too many jugs and a waste of plastic. You can also pick up a another gallon jug at the small markets too, if the 12 gallons is not enough between refills.

In all likelihood the boat tank water is just fine too. Charter boats are used quite a lot and therefore usually have fairly fresh water in the tanks. I've drank the tank water many times (rather than bother to get out a jug) with no adverse effects. If you end up needing some tank water for drinking, it's not anything to worry about really.

On my own boat, where I know how the tanks and water system have been maintained, I drink the water without the least worry. On a boat that I DON'T maintain the system myself, however? I would NEVER drink the water from the tanks!

So, when we charter, gallon jugs of drinking water for us.

That begs the question on how can anyone "maintain" the waters system on a normal production boat. The first issue the tanks are all vented. The second issue is many of the tanks are generic fiberglass built in uninspected yards. Very few boat systems are built with food service grade plastics. Most of us fill our tanks from a deck opening using a dock garden hose. The water is stored in warm temperatures for extended periods of time in a vented tank made and piped with suspect materials. If you were a resturant the board of health would shut you down for serving liquids stored like that. If I filled a bucket with water and left it in my basement or garage for a week? Would you want me to serve your family water out of that bucket? Unless you are playing amatuer chemist with chemicals and test kits. The fill and vent will always be your achilles heel.

We drink bottled water... in gallons and refill smaller re-usable bottles.
The water in the tanks is used primarily for showers, but also for cooking and cleaning.

Luckily for me, I'm not running a commercial kitchen out of my personal boat at home. I've owned several boats and the boats I've purchased new and maintained myself have definitely been better than boats I purchased used. A couple of tips I was given years ago and seem to work well. 1. Flush the tank every 2 weeks; 2. Keep the tank full when leaving for a more than a few days to minimize the air in the tank that allows mold to grow; 3. Winter store the tank full for the same reason; 4. Use and maintain a whole boat filtering system installed just after the pump.

I don't worry about the venting and fill too much because the vent and fill on the typical island cistern has much more potential for issues and they've worked for years.

Regards,
Jason

We also use tank water for coffee. It's boiled first.

RE: Fiberglass tanks: It is extremely rare to find fiberglass fresh water tanks on any boat and if they are of any age cradle a vinyl bladder tank. They are expensive to fabricate, leach amines if epoxy, formaldehide if polyester and very hard to make leak proof. The vast majority on charter quality boats are food grade rotomolded polyethylene. Higher quality yachts use fabricated stainless.

That said, in high season the water in a charter boat tank does not have enough time to get "tanky", especially if you have newbies with long hair in the crew. <img src="http://www.traveltalkonline.com/forums/images/graemlins/jester.gif" alt="" />

I am amazed by the number of people who have such faith in "any" kind of water tank. <img src="http://www.traveltalkonline.com/forums/images/graemlins/Yikes.gif" alt="" />

In the 70's, I was the manager of a very, very large swimming pool in the Toronto area. When the pool was first built, we had to drain the town's water tank to fill it. The water in the pool was the most gorgeous emerald green I ever saw!

It was so contaminated that live frogs were actually living in it. We had to pump it all out, clean the pool walls and bottom with muriatic acid to try to get the bright green stains out. That didn't work so we had to have to whole thing resurfaced and start over. That was the town's drinking water. I have never touched tap water since!

Part of my pool management training required that I take a college course in potable water. I have tested water in various boat tanks over the years, including my own boat, and there is no way in this world I would ever drink it untreated, even after boiling it.

That being said, my sister died in 1979, at the age of 28 after drinking bottled water in Mexico. They were staying at the Puerta Viarta Holiday Inn and after she died, we discovered that the bottled water they sold at the hotel was actually bottled directly from the hotel cistern.

Personally, I would buy brand name bottled water or a brand that people can vouch for.