The Back Story

April 27, 2010

Don't Drink the Water

I have to write?  Couldn't this wait until Diane gets back?

It's common advice about visiting Mexico. Don't drink the water. In our case, it's the water in our tanks we're concerned about. Our water tanks are integral with the hull of the boat. With the bottom and sides of the tank there is no worries - the hull is all the fiberglass. But the top of the tank is plywood covered with fiberglass. 25 year old fiberglass. Which is now starting to rot (we see little chunks of wood fiber in our taps). So our latest boat project is replacing the rotting tank tops. Good thing we have a carbon filter on one tap to filter out the chunky bits.

We purchased a sheet of plywood in La Cruz, cut it to shape and gave it a quick coat of epoxy, prior to our passage to La Paz. That was a clever idea because it was a wet upwind ride for the plywood which lived on our foredeck for the trip. Now the 3 week old epoxy needs a sanding before we cover it with fiberglass tomorrow. (epoxy older than about 24 hours needs sanding to get the best bond before other layers are added).




Getting new eyeglasses and finding some fiberglass cloth was today's big errands. The glasses were easy, and were going to be ready in about 6 hours. For somebody used to the rather slow pace of Canadian eyewear that was a pleasant change. The fiberglass cloth took 3 tries before we found someplace with the right stuff.  But Maia and I did discover a place that sold 1 L smoothies that cooled us off after a lot of walking in the hot sun.

4 comments:

  1. Nice to finally hear from you! We need more of the Ev POV around here :)
    Our water tanks are integral as well, and our issue has been the mystery painted coating in the tank that is slowlt sloghing off. Yes, good filters are KEY! Have fun with Maia and the smoothies!

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  2. I agree - we need to hear more from Evan here! Our youngest still talks about playing with Evan and Maia on the beach!
    I still need to install the final water bladder in our boat - it would do much more good in the boat than in our shed!

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  3. Nice to see you working so hard, guys, and loved the post:) I'm working hard too. Today I went sightseeing and swam with stingrays. Tomorrow I race again.

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  4. Go Ev!
    Our tank has a type of epoxy that's specifically meant for water tanks, it's supposed to prevent the regular resin (maybe vinylester, not epoxy) used for tank construction from leaching into the water and is rated as safe for potable water.
    I know that west systems resins haven't been approved and aren't recommended for water tanks, but really haven't heard anything else. We still use the pure triple filter (small micron partical filter, activated charcoal and then something else) before we drink it. I think the carbon filters are only for taste.

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