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From: (no name) (no email)
Date: Sun Aug 29 1999 - 06:47:59 EDT
Some of you may recall that in an early posting I asked how one knew if one's
holding tank was full. I now know and am helpfully posting the answer for
all those of you who expressed interest in my findings in this matter.
It was raining. Water was dripping in the hatches as usual onto my bunk. I
had taped up some plastic to at least deflect it from my bedding (thanks,
dear sister Kate, for the suggestion!) but it made a puddle on the cabin sole
before I was aware of it which the cats then walked through before jumping up
on the bed and leaving wet footprints all over the heretofore dry bed.
Because the wind was honking, I also had to shut all the portholes on the
weather side of the boat and it was pretty stuffy below.
Then I noticed it was a bit more than stuffy. There was a definite odor of
sulfur, a swampy stench, a putrifying cess pit stink. I changed the cat
litter which seemed to help for a bit, but about an hour later, I was gasping
for air. I put on my slicker and went up to the cockpit to check out the
holding tank for the head. This is more complicated (as is everything on a
boat) than it sounds. You have to lift up this huge, heavy hatch over the
engine compartment, and then scrunch down on all fours, taking the skin off
your knees on the non-skid decking, and peer under the cockpit sole to where
the tank is, way aft.
As soon as I lifted the hatch, I knew I was in trouble. Waves of fetid air
almost over whelmed me. I discovered that the holding tank was not only
full, but over-full, with noisesome liquids leaking out around the inlet.
OK, not the end of the world, I would just take Puffin up to the pump out and
empty the tank as soon as the rain let up.
Not so fast. The contents of the tank had made its way up the neck of the
pump out pipe to the deck plate and corroded the dang thing shut! I couldn't
open it with the key. I tried holding the key in and then striking the
handle with a hammer. I squirted on some WD-40, but that turned out to be a
stupid idea because now the key just slithers out of the little holes. My
pee apparently is very very strong. This doesn't surprise me: my friends
tell me my personality is pure piss and vinegar.
Of course, there's the bathroom up at the marina. Not bad, you say? Well,
since I have to pee at least twice a night, I'd say that staggering into my
clothes, up on deck, undoing all the duct tape that seals me and the cats in
so they won't escape at night, unsnapping and unzipping the side curtains,
sealing it all up again, walking about the length of a city block along the
docks and then back again two times a night isn't exactly conducive to a good
night's sleep.
Now you may recall that Buddy my elderly and cranky cat, in revenge for my
bringing him onto the boat in the first place, had taken to peeing in his
water dish, a fair sized plastic dishpan. I have encouraged this behavior
(it cuts down on the use of cat litter) by providing a new and unsullied
water dish. But guess who else is now using the ex-water dish?
I would gratefully accept any help in how to unscrew the deck plate. Oh,
BTW, please no suggestions that I dump out via the Y valve. Puffin isn't
equipped with one, having been built in a no-discharge area and now residing
in another.
Nina-Counting-the-Days-til-she-Moves-Back-Ashore-Where-Toilets-Work
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