Utilities Aboard
- sondrawinter
- 19 hours ago
- 5 min read
Liveaboard Crusing Series, Part 2 of 3
Managing household utilities on a boat is not quite the same as when living on land or even living full time at a marina. Services that are typically taken for granted become front and center while cruising.
Here is what we have experienced while cruising on Utopia.
Garbage
Challenges: Disposal, odors, & volume
Disposal: Garbage management on the boat is something we really have to stay on top of since finding places to offload garbage is a challenge in itself. In general, here are three main modes of disposal:
Marina bins or dumpsters when renting a slip
Fueling docks will let you offload garbage if you are purchasing fuel
Taking garbage to shore in dinghy and finding a bin somewhere
Some guidebooks or cruising apps will let you know where garbage can be received, either for free or for a fee. Several times we have found the onshore trash bins to have small openings, so taking a single large bag can be disadvantageous.
Odors & Volume: A key to garbage management is controlling the volume and odors. Volume can be reduced by removing packaging and tossing it in trash cans at the grocery store entrance. Then on board, food scraps and other food contaminated objects are placed into empty jars. This helps compact the waste and controls odors. Although a large container may seem like a convenient option, note that it will take longer to fill the container which gives the garbage more time to produce odors.
Water
Challenges: Limited quantity & obtaining additional water
Quantity: Utopia has two water tanks totaling 160 gallons (600 liters) to store potable water. Most two-person, land-based households average that in a day, however this amount lasts at least 10 days onboard Utopia by implementing strong water conservation methods. Our tanks do not have a capacity meter, so we need to look through a viewport in the sole (floorboards) every few days to make sure a tank does not empty out in the middle of using water, like while taking a shower.
Sources: The tanks are filled up either using municipal water while at a marina or drinking water created from an onboard water maker.
Municipal water can sometimes be obtained at fuel docks and is often available at a slip. We keep a hose onboard along with an RV filter to fill the tanks through a deck port. Many marinas in the States do not charge for water, but the marinas in the Bahamas did meter water usage during our stay earlier this year.
An onboard water maker creates potable water from whatever water we are cruising through. Some caution is taken to not use the water maker in places where water quality is questionable. At least in the States, we can usually find water quality data online for most areas.
We go into a lot more detail about drinking water in a couple of posts:
Wastewater
Challenges: Limited capacity in holding tank & limited availability to empty tank
Managing Capacity: Used water is either sent overboard or to the holding tank. Utopia has one holding tank that collects waste from both heads (toilets) and is at least 60 gallons (225 liters) in size. This size of tank can last us at least two weeks. It can probably last longer, but without any level indicator we don’t want to take chances on it overfilling.
Water from the galley sink, the forward head sink, and the two showers discharges overboard. The sink drain in the aft head is plumbed to reuse the discharge for flushing the head with fresh water (the forward head uses seawater for flushing). Note that these flushing sources reduce the amount of water used, but does not reduce the amount sent to the holding tank.
Disposal: The holding tank is typically emptied using pump out service, which requires some research to find. Sometimes fuel docks have pump out facilities, and occasionally a municipality (or marina) will operate a pump out boat that will come to your anchorage, mooring ball or marina slip. Guidebooks and boating apps often provide information on where to get a pump out. When more than three miles offshore the alternative to empty the holding tank directly into the sea is available.
More on managing wastewater is found in this post: 23-29 Utopia’s Black Water System
Gas
Challenges: Quantity & refilling
Our stove and oven use propane gas. Two 10-pound cylinders are stored in the cockpit and plumbed to the galley. For us, one tank lasts about two months. Since they are not the standard 20-lb tank used for grills, they cannot simply be exchanged, so we need to find places to fill the tanks within walking distance of shore access.
There is a marine grill onboard too. It uses the 5-lb camping sized propane tanks.
Electricity
Challenges: Power sources & quantity
Our electricity comes from several sources: shore power, an alternator, or solar generation. Utopia does not have a wind generator nor an external gas generator. How Utopia is powered varies depending on whether or not she is at a marina.
Most marinas provide shore power connections. When we're plugged in at a marina, we don't need to monitor our energy use any differently than we would when living on land (we often are billed for electricity used). Our yellow power cord is visible in the above water filling photo. While at a marina we have hot water, heating and air conditioning available on demand.
When not at marina our battery bank supplies power to the boat. The house batteries are charged by an alternator while the engine is running, and by solar panels. We last about four cloudy days before needing to turn on the engine to charge up the batteries. As a habit, we keep an eye on how much power is used each day. The biggest energy consumption is from the fridge, followed closely by the water heater and the power used to charge up our laptops and other electronic devices. To reduce power consumption, the water heater is turned on only when hot water is needed, typically twice a day.
Blog post 24-8 Utopia’s Electrical System provides a lot more detail on our power system.
Site note regarding heating and cooling onboard Utopia. The battery system is not adequate for starting up the air conditioning and heating system so when not in a marina we rely on breezes and small fans to keep us cool or closing up the boat and bundling up to stay warm.
Communications
Challenges: Availability & cost
Our onboard internet service is provided by Starlink whenever we are within 12 miles of shore. Beyond that distance service is very pricy so we only turn on the system twice a day to check weather forecasts.
Both of us have cell phones with nearly full coverage within the USA. When Utopia is in remote locations, or out of the States, we still have cell phone service onboard using the Wi-Fi calling feature on our phones as long as we have Starlink turned on. We just manage without internet or cell service when away from the boat in remote locations, or when out of the country.
Details regarding our internet set up is found in Post 23-32 Internet.
Post 25-52
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