Water collectors

[Paul]

I've been reading all the posts on water makers but I'm wondering if its feasible to collect rain water as a source of drinking water in the Caribbean. Has anyone done this as an alternative to a water maker? If so what kind of device did you use?

 

[p323ms]

It seems to work depending on season

Reading the literature it seems that many cruisers collect rainwater. I saw a nice hard bimini that was rigged to collect rainwater. Basically there was a edge that directed water to a downspout. Then a hose was connected to the downspout and lead to the holding tanks. I am thinking that a cleaner arrangement would be a tarp rigged to collect water that is kept clean until water is needed. Our deck has a toe rail and all water goes through two drains. It would be easy to add a diverter valve to direct that water to the tanks. But this would require clean decks!!!! Of course if you expected a couple days of rain it would be no problem to let the decks rinse well before collecting water. But for collecting water from a 30 minute thunderstorm I think that my tarp idea would work better.

 

[Tim]

Historical Evidence

In many of the boks I have read on circumnavigations and others this strategy is used widely. I believe the great Joshua Slocum used this method and was never in danger of running out of water. Depends on the weather of course but it seems in the tropics there is at least one rain shower each day. The idea of a tarp reserved for this seems a fine idea.