Water Water Everywhere, How Much to Drink?

Last week, our hand water pump went out. As the hand pump was bronze it really surprised me that it truly broke. I cannot repair it with what we have on board - although I could take it in and get the broken piece brazed again. But I must admit that secretly I was doing a little bit of the "happy dance." Do you know how hard it is to wash your hands when you need one of them to pump the pump? And now I had a good excuse to replace the hand pump with a foot pump. We love foot pumps! We've loved them in the past, and now with this change, we are loving it again. With a bit of practice, you can even pump a partial pump of water, when you don't need the full pump.

We did find one other slight difference - it entails measuring. With the hand pump four squirts of water equaled a cup of water. With the foot pump, two pumps equals a cup of water. For those readers who don't use pumps, yes, you can measure water without using a measuring cup by counting pumps!

All of this is to say that we on boats - even when we aren't using the potato powered methods and relay on electric pumps - manage to monitor our water quite carefully. Consequently, it was a no brainer to then see the bill board sign alongside the highway:

Use Water Wisely
Between June 1 and September 15

Then I ran across this tid-bit of information regarding one gal's water bill ($16,000). Yikes! What hit me was her instance that she only used 150 gallons a day! Only?! That's about 4,500 gallons a month! Wowzers! The five of us on board don't even use150 gallons in a week! But wait a minute, how much are you using?

It just goes to point out that resource management aboard is a little different than that on land.

Water is one of the world's resources that is to be enjoyed, and yet so important to keep clean! It's also one of those resources that we need to be willing to share with one another. Something to think about.

Blessed Be

Joel