We Made Fresh Water!

Yesterday was a big day on Ocean Song. We used our Cruise RO water maker to transform seawater into fresh, potable water for the first time! We had the water maker installed in Annapolis late, last October. After brief, initial testing we “pickled” the water maker. We didn’t have need to use it in the somewhat muddy Chesapeake Bay so we waited until we came to Beaufort, NC to fully commission it. Having a reliable water maker is one of the most important upgrades we did to Ocean Song. The ability to transform salty seawater into clean, fresh water will give us a great deal of freedom to explore isolated anchorages and stay in less visited areas.

Linda and I spent a couple of hours in the morning going through a long commissioning checklist, making sure we had each valve in the correct position and were following the startup instructions step by step. We had a couple of questions, so we emailed Rich Boren at Cruise RO and within 15 minutes he responded. Then we crossed our fingers and began the startup process, in just a few minutes we were producing high quality, potable water!

The water maker is up and running, making fresh water!

Ocean Song has a 150-gallon water capacity, and a full tank usually lasts us 3 – 4 days. Now we can be slightly less conservative in our fresh water consumption. Sometimes clean, fresh water isn’t readily available, now we have the ability to make water almost anywhere we decide to sail.  Virtually every cruiser we know says a reliable water maker is one of the upgrades that will pay the biggest dividends over time and make living aboard much easier and more enjoyable.