Summer has always been a time when we scratch our heads about what to do with our water tanks. Empty them? Fill them with water? The first time we left Juniper for the summer we emptied them but condensation and the wee bit of water we couldn’t get out left the tanks a bit slimy. I had to scrub and flush the tanks out a few times with bleach.

The second summer we left the tanks full with and the tanks got a little smelly (like the way a water bottle left in a hot car for a while smells when you open it) so I scrubbed the tanks and flushed it out a few times with bleach.

This summer, we were advised to fill the tanks with vinegar and water to prevent mildew and growth. I was really hoping this would work because scrubbing out both tanks is a lot of work. Not sure what happened but white clouds of something – bacteria, fermentation, a vinegar mother perhaps, developed. Unfortunately, I didn’t first look through the tanks inspection ports prior to running the water (because why would I expect clumps of white stuff to grow!) and the growth clogged our water filter.

The process of getting the boat ready stops as we manually siphon the funky water out followed by yours truly scrubbing and bleaching both tanks.

But then we have the merry coincidence of our galley foot pedal biting the dust at exactly the same time! We debated about whether it was clogged with the white stuff, detached a few hoses to troubleshoot, and concluded that it just needs servicing and got it working again.

Next summer, we’ll leave the tanks empty.