We are off

Well we set off, made it to the isle of man then on to Dublin, waiting out a storm before we can make way...

So we left Ardrossan made it to the isle of man, the first port was so rolly we left after breakfast then left for another cove, which was much more sheltered, then became rolly as soon as bedtime came.... GRRR

So we upped and left and headed down to Dublin, we stayed there for three days, had a minor hiccup when I went down into the main saloon and there was water everywhere, somehow a bucket had got jammed in the aft heads sink , which in turn knocked the mixer tap over, which then got under the tap and turned it on, pumping several hundred liters of fresh water from the tank all over the place.

We stayed in Dublin for three nights waiting oujt a storm, then headed down to Cork in the south of Ireland, arriving in the midst of some boating fair , which was pure manic, boats belting about in every which direction possible.

We holed up in cork for another three days, avoiding yet another storm then headed off for Spain.

Isle Of man

Water water everywhere and not a drop to drink!

I toyed with a water maker at the beginning, they are expensive and consume energy are prone to breakdowns and require maintenance and upkeep. Lots of pros n cons, but as luck would have it , I found a nearly new used katadyn powersurvivor 40e at a great price and locally as well!

So it is now almost fitted, can't find T pieces to plumb into the heads water in and drainage, but pics below, i fitted the main unit under the cabin sole next to the aft heads where there was a very convenient power supply and holes for the pipes to go through.

I bonded on some wood to mount the pump and filters, scarified the wood and used 5200

I then mounted the filter and pipes, the filter has a selector for fresh water or sea water

The water maker is mounted in the bilge next to the aft heads

Now all  I need is some T pieces of the right size, the ones that came with the katadyn are not correct for the pipe sizes. as always, nothing is ever simple!

The katadyn power survivor 40e can be manually operated in an emergency, but its hard work!  It produces about 5.5 litres per hour for 4 amps, fingers crossed I will run it once the batteries have been topped up by the solar and I have excess energy by mid day (hopefully  ;)  ).