salt water

My daughter raved about the Steri-pen she used in Africa.

I’ve had good experiecnes with my Katadyne water purifier on Arizona lakes.



BUT, is there something to convert sea water to drinking?

Something that can fit into a kayak or backpack in the same way a pocket filter and UV-pen do?

No
Converting salt water to drinking water is quite a trick. I saw a nice conversion unit when I was out kayaking the other day, but is would be quite a tow since it occupied an entire ocean-going barge. And you have to plug it in to a potent power source. Having a nuclear reactor is real handy, like on a sub or aircraft carrier.

Yes, but …
… they are not cheap:

http://tinyurl.com/5kxoaw



Some cost more than a good composite boat:

http://www.sportsimportsltd.com/kapo40ede.html



Good Luck!



Delphinus

http://www.AquaDynology.com

Not really

– Last Updated: Nov-25-08 3:01 PM EST –

At least if you want affordable, compact and can be used w/o a major power supply. Hence those doing the Maine Island Trail figure their travel to include re-watering stops because there isn't any water on most of the nicer little islands.

Red faced moment here - after our time in Maine a couple of summers ago our next (kayak) camping trip was on an island in Lake George, in upstate NY. I had packed as we do for Maine, with bodacious amounts of water that left the boat very stable. It felt like it took 10 minutes to get her up to speed after every stop. We got to the island and I noticed that most of the group was NOT unloading multiple containers of water.

The entire lake is drinking water quality, not even treatment required. Doh.

You can distill salt water and have …

– Last Updated: Nov-26-08 10:39 AM EST –

..... fresh to drink . Might not hurt to add your iodine to that after distilled .

Need a fire going to boil the salt water , put a smaller pot or collector cup inside the big pot to catch the fresh water . put the big pot lid uoside down so that the condensated steam drips into the smaller pot .

Shake the fresh water up ,in a jar , etc. to help re-oxygenate it for better taste .

All you should need is a fire , two pots , a lid and the salt water .

I've never needed to do this but if I had to have drinking water to survive , I wouldn't hesitate .

You can also distill water from the ground/dirt .
Dig a 3' hole and position a plastic skin over it . Put the cup in the hole and a rock on the skin to align over the cup . Needs the Sun to shine on the skin . The moisture in the ground is drawn out when the hole heats up , collects on the underside of the skin and drips into the cup ,etc.