Water is a bit of a make-or-break issue on board. On Pélican, we settled the question once and for all — and the result still surprises us a little.
Two 300-litre tanks, and the watermaker that fills them
We've got 600 litres of capacity on board, split into two 300 litre tanks. And to fill them, an Aquabase watermaker producing 105 litres of fresh water an hour. It runs on 12V and draws very little power — around 450 W — which means we can run it straight off the solar panels without a second thought.
Since she left the factory, not a single litre from a marina
Here's the thing we still find slightly mad, looking back : since Pélican left the factory, she has never taken on water at a marina, or anywhere else. All the fresh water on board comes exclusively from the watermaker. It's proof of how self-sufficient the boat is, but it also brings another advantage we hadn't really thought about at the start : the tanks stay spotlessly clean, with no bacteria and no off taste.
A remineralisation cartridge, and we drink it every day
We added a remineralisation cartridge so the watermaker's output is the best it can be. The result : we've been drinking this water every day for a year, without a single issue. And honestly, it changes things — no more jerry cans to fill, no more hunting for a water source, which can get tedious depending on where you drop anchor.
A shore water connection, so the tanks are never touched
When we're at a marina, Pélican also has a shore water connection : we plug straight into it, and it feeds the whole boat without ever going through the tanks. So even at the dock, we never contaminate our watermaker water with town water. A small detail, but one that matters.
A deck wash pump, to clean the boat even at anchor
One last thing, and not a minor one : a deck wash pump lets us plug in a hose directly, or even our pressure washer, which runs without any trouble off the inverter. That means we can take proper care of the boat — rinse it, clean it properly — without depending on a marina for it, even at anchor. And the pump can draw either fresh water or seawater directly, handy for cleaning a fish we've just caught, for instance.
We're never dependent on a dock, not for drinking water, not for washing up.