From: "Alex Ferguson" <a.ferguson_at_chem.canterbury.ac.nz> > [Michael Daly -] > >The failure was in the one thing I didn't consider - the change in > >trim. Putting 15-20 liters (ie - 15-20 kilograms) on the back deck > >changed the trim so much that I couldn't keep up with the others. > > You had 20 litres just for a shower!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! > > We use 2-3 litres at the most and heat it on the aft deck while paddling - > and that's a shower for both of us. That's a North American style shower - Canadians waste more water than anyone in the world (and have more fresh water than anyone); the Americans are close behind. Twenty liters is a two-person bag; the singles are 10 liter; I haven't seen anything smaller locally. I bought on price for the short term - the big one was the cheapest and looked like the simplest of the two types I've seen. I didn't have to fill it, but part of my experiment was to evaluate heating time and effectiveness when full. Given the fire ban locally, I didn't feel bad about spreading water in the bush. There's plenty of water in the lakes; moving isome into the woods isn't going to hurt. The only issue for this sort of backcountry shower is how much soap I use - very little. It is a shame - I remember Buckminster Fuller invented a shower that only required one liter (but not portable) and the alternative housing research group at McGill U (my alma mater) developed similar units for third world countries that were smaller. I've already started to investigate improvements (the shower head being significant; spray rather than drizzle being more effective). Any hints on reducing the water used? I do a rinse, lather, rinse approach, so the water isn't running continuously, but I still used about 6-8 liters. Mike *************************************************************************** PaddleWise Paddling Mailing List - Any opinions or suggestions expressed here are solely those of the writer(s). You must assume the entire responsibility for reliance upon them. All postings copyright the author. Submissions: PaddleWise_at_PaddleWise.net Subscriptions: PaddleWise-request_at_PaddleWise.net Website: http://www.paddlewise.net/ ***************************************************************************Received on Sun Jul 28 2002 - 20:53:09 PDT
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