5/22/2010 - Force of habit

When we first bought Siempre Sabado, she was equipped with an electric pressure water pump. Just like at home, you could open a faucet and water would flow. Of course at home the pump was located down in the well so we could only hear it running if we were out in the shop at the time. But on the boat the pump was only about 5' from the galley sink so it was easy to tell when anyone turned the water on. That pump was loud. And obnoxious. We could have cut down on the frequency that the pump ran by installing a small pressure tank but we didn't want to dedicate the room to it. Besides that, we just didn't care for the system. Not only did it cause what we considered an unnecessary drain on our battery bank, but it wasted water as well. So, as all good remodelers do, we yanked that sucker out.

We knew from our experience on our first boat that foot pumps gave extremely fine control of water flow. They pump on both the down and up strokes and you can immediately stop the flow anywhere along the stroke by just stopping your foot.

We could have installed a hand operated pump but that's a hassle as anyone who has used one of those public restroom faucets where the water stops flowing as soon as you take your hand off knows. Don't you hate that? You have to rinse one hand at a time while the other operates the faucet. Very inefficient.

However, there is a downside to a foot pump. We've been using ours for over a year now and it's caused us to develop a potentially embarrassing habit. So, if we're ever visiting at your home and we walk up to the sink and assume this position:

with our left foot sort of flailing around trying to find a purchase, please just pretend you didn't notice. We'll figure it out in a second.