• water
• rain catchment
• shower
• power
• provisioning
• productivity
• medical
• internet
• formalities
• money
• lpg
• waste
• distractions
• radio
• setup
• hardware
• software
• data storage
• heating

People choose to live off-grid for self-sufficiency, resilience, or ecological reasons. For us, to live off-grid, is mostly letting go of the numbing culture of convenience and surrounding ourselves with systems we trust for long transits across the ocean. When anchored in a foreign country, or far from everything and everyone, we depend on our vessel and what’s on it. When something breaks, it falls onto us to fix it. Electricity becomes a finite resource, limited to the solar panels on deck, and to the battery bank.

This way of life is not necessarily restrictive, you might find that learning to live in communion with your vessel offers a peace of mind previously unimaginable.

Maslow’s pyramid of needs positions as the most basic, or most crucial, physiological needs, like water, food, warmth and rest, followed closely with security and safety. Meeting these basic needs, while living aboard a sailboat, takes but some planning and time.

Learning to live according to the sun and the wind has been an excellent exercise toward mindfulness, something we much needed to better navigate today’s attention economy.

water

It’s easy to forget that water is not inexhaustible when it flows so readily by the turn of the tap. Living on a boat certainly helps to develop a deeper connection to this precious resource. Depending on where you are, you’ll have to treat it, catch it, carry it or pay for it.

Basic needs are covered with a mere 10 liters of water a day per person. A person needs between 2.7 and 3.7 liters of drinking water each day. When anchored near a port, once a week, we would ferry four bins of 10 liters from shore to the boat. To conserve water, our sink faucet is operated with a foot pump, where each push draws out 60 ml of water, allowing us to measure our usage.

On passages, we carry extra Jerrycans of water, enough to sustain two people for a few more weeks than the length of our trip. Having separate bins makes for a more resilient system, if salt gets into one tank, it won’t corrupt the entirety of your supplies. A sure way of preventing contamination, is to check all o-rings and tanks for leaks before leaving. We chose not to have a desalinator aboard Pino, and have managed well without it. It’s a device that is expensive, high maintenance and power-hungry.

If we have a tap near the boat that permits the use of a hose, we hook a twin set of filter housings in the line to purify the water. The 1st stage filter is pleated, and removes sediment, silt, dirt, rust, and other particles, and the 2nd stage carbon filter reduce the content of chlorine, concentration of toxic heavy metals, natural organic matter and oil products. When we don’t have access to pressured water, we filter the water by gravity, see rain catchment for more information.

rain

Rain catchment is a good way to top-up your tanks. Some sailors set up tarps to catch and lead the water into Jerrycans, others have the water flow directly into their main tank — I don’t recommend doing that unless you’ve got a good filtration system. When it rained, we’d collect water trickling down from our aft solar panels into a 20 liter bucket. We collected this extra water for showers, laundry and washing dishes.

While the rain itself might be safe to drink, it carries dirt or whatever may be on your tarp, or deck. And depending on where you are, the rain may have environmental pollutants mixed in. For these reasons, I recommend using rainwater for purposes other than drinking and cooking. If you are to drink it, it’s important to boil it first for at least 1 minute, or to run it through a good two-step filtration system, or ceramic filter.

Aboard Pino we carry a pair of black Berkey purification element filters, a cost-effective way to remove toxic elements, parasites, bacteria and hundreds of other contaminants from the water without removing the beneficial minerals, and without the use of any electricity. Each element is designed to purify approximately 3,000 gallons of water before needing replacement, so they last a long, long time. We built our own filter holder, and strain contaminants in the water by gravity. For low-tech options, check out this ceramic filter, or the 3 bucket water filtration system. We aimed for the most compact, and practical system possible, even if it isn’t the cheapest.

Even if you don’t plan on drinking it, it’s a good idea to treat the water you catch. The easiest way to do this is to add chlorine bleach to your supply. It is the most reliable treatment method. This is something we’ve done, and continue to do. The suggested ratio of chlorine to water is 2 drops bleach for 1.15 liters (1 quart). The above ratios are for bleach containing 5.25% Sodium Hypochlorite. This amount depends on the concentration, the ratios will be different for 5.25% than for 8% chlorine bleach (1 drop: 1.15 l). Only use regular, unscented chlorine bleach products that are suitable for disinfection and sanitization, as indicated on the label. A good way to remember these ratios, is this saying:

“You must be 21 to drink”.

2 drops of bleach per 1 liter (quart) water, easy to remember. Note that 1 quart is slightly less than 1 liter.

shower

Coastal locations like marinas and public beaches often have fresh water showers for local swimmers or marina guests. Usually free, or available for use at a nominal fee (1-2$ for 5 minutes). Most times these showers operate on a timer. We don’t have a shower system on pino, the space doesn’t allow for it and besides, we think it would use up too much water when at anchor.

In the summer, or when in warm places, use a pressurized sprayer as a shower, it uses little water and can be found in most hardware stores. During our north pacific ocean crossing, we use the pressure sprayer to wash dishes to further save on water. When showering on the boat we don’t use soap. When water is scarce, we bathe in salt water, and rinse with fresh water.

In the winter, if we have no land access we heat up water on the stove and clean ourselves with a bucket and rag.

power

Halving requirements is the same as doubling capacity.
– Nigel Calder

There are working alternatives to most powered devices on a boat. Keeping consumptions low reduces the need for extra solar, keeping costs down and reducing the amount of things that can break, or fail.

To measure current power usage, make a list of indispensable electric systems and their energy requirements, including lighting, appliances, laptops etc. Look up their power usage in watts, for example, a Macbook Pro draws 30 W when in use. If in use for 6 consecutive hours, it would draw roughly 160W per day. Wattage varies depending on the task performed on the computer, for instance video editing is more resource intensive than writing. Adding up the wattage will give a rough estimate of daily use.

The energy coming from solar panels fluctuates based on the angle of the sun, cloud coverage and other obstructions. Power usage aboard varies a lot from day to day, depending on what task is done that day. While on passage, our own capability to capture sunlight is reduced to keep our windage low, but our energy consumption is equally reduced for not much else is drawing power than our navigation electronics like the AIS, the wind meter, and at night, the lights.

An anchored board will orbit its anchor according to the wind, and rarely stays in the same spot and so it is difficult to position panels to guarantee an optimal draw. On cloudless days the mast may cast a shadow covering a large part of the panels. On moments such as this, or cloudy days, it is best to adapt by using appliances less, and to learn to live according to the weather.

For each 100 people telling us to “just install more solar panels”, only 1 person will consider ways to reduce power usage. Instead of scaling our battery banks to our needs, we chose to adapt our needs to the available space for batteries and surface for panels. It’s also important to consider that more solar panels often mean more windage. Having a complex system exposed to a harsh environment like the sea, creates opportunities for things to break. Saltwater corrosion is a very real threat. Nowadays, many electronics, or ‘smart’ systems, use proprietary parts, making them difficult to repair. We’ve encountered many boats, stuck in port for weeks and weeks, waiting for parts to arrive. An over-reliance on convenience products may bind you to services on land, in a way that you may not want.

Related: solar setup, energy & solar tips

medical

Most city-centers will have a hospital. Ones out in the islands—South Pacific for instance—tend to be good and cheap, but in most cases you must be self-sufficient. That includes a well-stocked medical supply, and the know-how to fix yourself up.

Before going offshore, if you can, we recommend doing a first-aid course. Knowing what to do in the event of severe bleeding, choking, or severe allergic reactions, could save a life.

Basic First-aid kit:

Clearly mark the first-aid kit with a red cross, and make sure everyone aboards knows where it is.

• Sterile gauze pads (dressings) in small and large squares to place over wounds
• Adhesive tape
• Roller and triangular bandages to hold dressings in place or to make an arm sling
• Adhesive bandages in assorted sizes
• Scissors
• Tweezers
• Safety pins
• Instant ice packs
• Disposable non-latex gloves(such as surgical or examination gloves)
• Flashlight(with extra batteries in a separate bag)
• Antiseptic wipes or soap
• Pencil and pad
• Emergency blanket
• Eye patches
• Thermometer
• A first aid manual

Basic Medicine kit:

• Ibuprofen
• Aspirin
• Antihistamines
• Seasickness meds (too many to name, all with their pros/cons)
• Ear drops
• Eye wash
• Insect repellant (mosquitoes can carry malaria, or dengue)
• Hand sanitizer
• Staple gun (for wounds)
• Topical anesthetic
• Zithromycin (bacterial infections)
• Oxycodone/acetaminophen (severe, short term pain)
• Sunscreen (SPF 30)
• Aloe vera gel with lidocaine (for burns)
• Bacitracin Zinc Ointment (for burns)
• hydrogen peroxide

If travelling into Malaria endemic areas, we carry rapid diagnostic tests. The test is 90% accurate and quickly diagnoses if Malaria is present, and if so, which one you have, so that treatment can commence quickly if needed. We only carried tests, because we were close to hospitals, but if traveling to islands with no facilities it is a good idea to also carry antimalarials.

In case of a serious injury, you must have the means to get yourself to the nearest clinic. We use DAN Boater, a repatriation insurance that covers helicopter/transportation fees.

We find that medical apps for mobiles, and FM army field manuals, are helpful when dealing with minor burns, cuts and various aches.

internet

Internet access is the woe of any working nomad. internet is sometimes spotty, and data in some countries is slow, expensive, or limited to small blocks at a time. While circumnavigating the Pacific, we amassed sim cards, pocket WiFis, and have often used connections from businesses on land. Overtime, we found ways to lessen our dependence on the internet, and to save on bandwidth.

With limited access, it is important to use online time wisely. Prior to connecting we make a list of tasks that we must