What a Pickle!

No, not the yummy pickles at the Sand Bar restaurant close to the Factory Bay anchorage in Marco Island.

Pickling refers to what we have to do to the watermaker before we leave the boat for the summer.  

The watermaker magically turns saltwater into drinking water, by the principle of "reverse osmosis";  with a high pressure pump forcing seawater through a series of filters and then a membrane which allows water but not salt to pass.   While aboard, we "fresh water flush" the watermaker once a week if we're not going to be making water - this keeps bacteria from growing inside the membrane.  

The big black tube containing the membrane is clearly seen in this photo with the filters all removed.

When we'll be gone for the summer, it's time to take it a step further & pickle the watermaker.  Although pickling always sounds intimidating and the instructions are horridly convoluted, it's actually not as complicated as it seemed.  First we have to make a bit of RO water so we have absolutely pure water to start the process (we wouldn't have to make some if the tanks were full of nothing but RO water with nothing added, but we'd filled our tanks in Marathon from the water at the marina, so the water was mixed.

Cleaning the filters, since they weren't used much this winter, they're re-usable - but note how white the cleaned filter is versus the grey one in the back that hasn't been sprayed yet.

Now David puts the chemical that we get from the manufacturer, Spectra, in this case in a bucket and basically lets the watermaker flush out everything in the system and replace it with the pickling solution which insures no bacteria or anything else grows inside while we're off being commuter cruisers. 

Now we just have to remember not to use it, good old blue tape handles that task rather easily.   CHECK, watermaker pickled, on to the next thing in the de-commissioning list!