Chasing Elegua

Sail4beer

Sail4beer

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On the line at the start
I’m hoping to come across a PT11 some day. My tender used to be a nesting dinghy, but previous owner modified it into a solid hull. I don’t have the beam nor the strength to fit the dinghy on my boat so it tows along for the ride.

And there isn’t enough beer in that boat, it can be loaded just a bit more.
 
Elegua

Elegua

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accnick said:
Nicely loaded dinghy there. How is that Grimbergen blonde?
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It's decent, but not super; still much better than Carib. French beer overall is kind of meh, but there are some very good ones like Ch'ti. They make an excellent Tripel.

I've got a wide selection of Guadeloupe Rhum Agricoles on board. That I stocked up on bigly. Will have a taste-off when we get to Martinique.

I've decided I need a water maker. Water is surprisingly hard to find, probably because a majority of boats now have them.
 
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A

accnick

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Elegua said:
It's decent, but not super; still much better than Carib. French beer overall is kind of meh, but there are some very good ones like Ch'ti. They make an excellent Tripel.

I've got a wide selection of Guadeloupe Rhum Agricoles on board. That I stocked up on bigly. Will have a taste-off when we get to Martinique.

I've decided I need a water maker. Water is surprisingly hard to find, probably because a majority of boats now have them.
Click to expand...
The watermaker was one of the most important installations in our last boat. It was mounted in its final location in the boat when we left the US, but I did not finish the installation until we were in the Caribbean.

Our lives became dramatically easier after that.

Watermakers are not cheap, they take up a lot of space, and they use a fair amount of power.

They are worth every bit of the headache if you are out cruising.

I have tracked water usage on my boats for the last 40+ years. Living aboard without pressure water or a proper shower, we used less than 5 gallons per day back in the 1970s and 80s. This is for two people in all cases.

Then we built a boat with hot and cold pressure water and a shower, and our consumption jumped up to about 5-8 gallons per day, living aboard while cruising full-time. We were neither profligate nor stingy in our water use, and with water tankage for 180 gallons, plus a 6 gallon per hour 12 volt watermaker, we never worried about water, even in areas where seawater quality was not good enough to make water.

With a lot of water capacity and a watermaker, I started out using a fresh water to wash down the anchor chain, but quickly realized that was using a ridiculous amount of fresh water, so I put in a seawater washdown.

Now we have a powerboat with relatively small water capacity--nominal 80, but about 70 gallons usable--and have a freshwater Vacuflush head. Our water usage, living aboard for about four months per year in Maine, is about 8-9 gallons per day, with a very modest allowance for rinsing salt off the boat after rougher day trips. Once again, I have a saltwater washdown on the bow for the anchor chain, but also have a freshwater outlet in the cockpit for boat rinses.

I miss my watermaker.

I have eight five-gallon water jugs exactly like the two that will be between your knees in your dinghy photo, stowed under the side decks in the cockpit, but if I had the budget, I would put in either a watermaker or at least larger tanks.

Incidentally, after Hamilton stopped carrying those really good Scepter water jugs you have, I found them online at Cabela's. I also found replacement spouts, tops, and vent caps--the vent caps break off easily--on Amazon.

Chasing water is a lot harder than chasing fuel.
 
Elegua

Elegua

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TheDragon said:
No rainwater to collect in the Caribbean?
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Not much; certainly less than I expected. The squalls I've experienced are pretty mild - 20+kts and a sprinkling. Every once in a while you get a downpour. Nothing like I experienced living in Asia. I have a patch in my awning ready for the addition of a water collection tube, but I've seen no reason to use it.
 
Elegua

Elegua

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accnick said:
The watermaker was one of the most important installations in our last boat. It was mounted in its final location in the boat when we left the US, but I did not finish the installation until we were in the Caribbean.

Our lives became dramatically easier after that.

Watermakers are not cheap, they take up a lot of space, and they use a fair amount of power.

They are worth every bit of the headache if you are out cruising.

I have tracked water usage on my boats for the last 40+ years. Living aboard without pressure water or a proper shower, we used less than 5 gallons per day back in the 1970s and 80s. This is for two people in all cases.

Then we built a boat with hot and cold pressure water and a shower, and our consumption jumped up to about 5-8 gallons per day, living aboard while cruising full-time. We were neither profligate nor stingy in our water use, and with water tankage for 180 gallons, plus a 6 gallon per hour 12 volt watermaker, we never worried about water, even in areas where seawater quality was not good enough to make water.

With a lot of water capacity and a watermaker, I started out using a fresh water to wash down the anchor chain, but quickly realized that was using a ridiculous amount of fresh water, so I put in a seawater washdown.

Now we have a powerboat with relatively small water capacity--nominal 80, but about 70 gallons usable--and have a freshwater Vacuflush head. Our water usage, living aboard for about four months per year in Maine, is about 8-9 gallons per day, with a very modest allowance for rinsing salt off the boat after rougher day trips. Once again, I have a saltwater washdown on the bow for the anchor chain, but also have a freshwater outlet in the cockpit for boat rinses.

I miss my watermaker.

I have eight five-gallon water jugs exactly like the two that will be between your knees in your dinghy photo, stowed under the side decks in the cockpit, but if I had the budget, I would put in either a watermaker or at least larger tanks.

Incidentally, after Hamilton stopped carrying those really good Scepter water jugs you have, I found them online at Cabela's. I also found replacement spouts, tops, and vent caps--the vent caps break off easily--on Amazon.

Chasing water is a lot harder than chasing fuel.
Click to expand...
I got mine off of Amazon and the Canukistan spec fuel cans (no carb spout) off of fleabay.
 
Elegua

Elegua

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The Eternal Flag of Clean Undies
71E313AB-D935-413A-9ABE-A10D51C67727.jpeg
 
Diarmuid

Diarmuid

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I was told by an Albertan that 'ginch' is clean, unworn underpants; 'ganch' is underpants in current use; and 'gonch' is dirty underpants. I suspect he was pulling my leg.
 
Elegua

Elegua

Generalissimo
4,920
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Homeless and Unemployed
Diarmuid said:
I was told by an Albertan that 'ginch' is clean, unworn underpants; 'ganch' is underpants in current use; and 'gonch' is dirty underpants. I suspect he was pulling my leg.
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That’s very precise terminology. Ginches are in the drawer, ganches get hung up at night until they become gonches and get stuck in a mesh bag in the forepeak until wash day upon which the cycle repeats.

Can’t upload the video but I’ve got a neighbor with very good jazz skills. They have a little jazz quartet going on with people from a couple of surrounding boats.

A week in Dominica is all you need. Pretty, and the people are nice, but you are a walking ATM. Fish and fruit are cheep. They have a water buoy we tied up to and we gorged on water. Tomorrow the cold front that made it all the way down here is dissipating so we are jumping to France and Martinique. Yesterday I had my first hot coffee we were in NC. It was that chilly.
 
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chester

chester

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Diarmuid said:
I was told by an Albertan that 'ginch' is clean, unworn underpants; 'ganch' is underpants in current use; and 'gonch' is dirty underpants. I suspect he was pulling my leg.
Click to expand...
yes he was. and it was always gitch and gotch, no ginch or gonch
 
Diarmuid

Diarmuid

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Laramie, WY, USA
chester said:
yes he was. and it was always gitch and gotch, no ginch or gonch
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Welp, you'll have to fight that out with my climbing buddy. Better yet -- write a letter to the New York Times!:p

When the article appeared online, it provoked a lot of Twitter conversation about Canadianisms, particularly over the correct term for underwear. In the first sentence of the obituary, I went with “gotchies,” which the first edition of the dictionary casts as the “diminutive of GOTCH.”

But many people had other ideas, including: ginch, gonch, ginches, gitch, gitchies and gaunch. (Forgive me if I missed some.)

Judy Gombita, a Torontonian who favors “gotchies,” finally offered this analysis: “So the word definitely BEGINS with a G and often ends with CH, but the in-between varies widely across English Canada’s regions.”
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