on need/want and the cost of tings...

Not sure about you, but I'm certainly following the wanker of the decade posts, some sense being made, and every once in awhile we find we are living in the future...

A guy on the other end of the anchorage has a water installation that cost more than my entire boat (and that's without including his watermaker!) which might make some folks wonder about someone's sanity... Whether it's mine or his would depend on your point of view I suppose.

In my defense, when I went to get water at the galley sink this morning, I was able to fill up the coffee pot with water pretty much as I expect he did... So, where's the difference?

Well on "So It Goes" we have a Whale manual foot pump, some tubing and some stock water bottles. The entire water system might cost a grand total of a $150.

On the other boat in question there are custom stainless water tanks, a pressure system, hot water heater, very expensive "marine" filter system, and a large number of sinks and faucets any of which cost more than my entire system... Well, if you can call a foot pump a few feet of hose and some plastic jerry cans a system.

Since I'm comparing prices I should also mention that the rebuild kit for just one of his pumps costs more than four of my Whale pumps (I know this because I have four Whales: one for fresh water, one for salt and two new ones as spares).

The fact is I like that in the morning when I go to make a pot of coffee I know that water will come out the tap with zero worries. There's a lot to be said for simple systems... They work! Even better is that they don't take a lot of money or work to keep up.

Speaking of simple systems, our current inverter just died after several years of use (I'm pretty sure we spent something like $39 for it) and we just bought another reasonable facsimile to replace it for the grand total of $51.95 which I expect to give the same kind of performance...

Listening to Levon Helm and The Band (Levon won't be with us much longer and he will be missed...)

So it goes...