Defecate Occurs

Crews Letter #2004 16 Defecate Occurs

Everything You Ever Wanted to Know About a Marine Toilette and Were Afraid to Ask.

Good Morning Ladies and Gentlemen:

“The best thing I can say about my career is that I only worked with first hand water.” A Hydro Engineer

In Marmaris, Turkey, we have a boat maintenance team extraordinaire. Anker is a husband and wife, Aykut and Nadide, owned and operated company. They have assembled a group of craftsmen that can do just about anything with a boat. To make things better, Aykut and Nadide are yachtsmen. They own a boat and think like boat owners. They have organized and worked on Perception most of her life.

It is the nature of metal that two dissimilar metals in close proximity will exchange electrons. If the space between them is a fluid that is rich in free ions, the exchange can be fast and destructive. This process is a good thing some of the time. It is the basis for batteries to light a flashlight or start a car. Saltwater is a fluid rich in free ions. This process is a bad thing. Stainless steel screws in aluminum spars become permanently attached. The attachment is sufficiently strong to cause the screw to break rather than unscrew. Small metal pieces, like the connectors for charging a mobile phone or powering the windless are dissolved and float away with the saltwater that sloshes by them.

The toilette on a boat is called a head. The name comes from the times when boats only sailed down wind. Sailors were obliged to hang out over the rail. “Running water” only happened when the cabin bow ran with a slop jar from an officer’s cabin. The bow, head, of the boat was the down wind end. Down wind was the preferred end for the activity and thus the name for the marine toilette. Those were not the days!

That is all very general.

Perception’s heads, she has two, have running water, holding tanks and a discharge method that does not require hanging over the rail. The running water requires holes in the hull: one for in, one for out, in each of the two heads. From the sea in there is a thru-hull, seacock and then a hose to the device. On the way out there is a hose, holding tank, hose, seacock and thru-hull. As delivered, the thru-hulls were stainless steel and seacocks bronze. Within the first week, Phyl identified a black liquid seeping from the threads between the thru-hull and seacock of the outflow as shit. Despite several repair attempts, the nasty black stuff continued to flow until the spring of this year. For lack of a better qualitative identification, it was perceived to be what comes out of a toilette.

The electrician at Anker is Gengis. When there isn’t electrical work to be done, he is also the plumber. When Anker was asked to stop the black stuff flow, we were told that if you screw a bronze seacock on to a stainless steel thru-hull and fill it with salt water, the stainless steel will start dissolving and chromium oxide will seep out between the threads. Chromium oxide is black. With the problem identified, the solution was to replace all on the thru-hulls and seacocks with same metal ones. Turkey is well known as a source of top quality metal products at a good price. We said do it. Gengis did.

Within the first week after putting Perception in the water, Phyl identified that the nasty black liquid was not flowing. It still isn’t. A problem correctly identified can be corrected. This one was.

The normal flow of things is saltwater is pumped into the bowl. Effluent is pumped out of the bowl into the holding tank and then flows into the sea. When Perception is in a marina or harbor where many boats congregate, the out flow seacock is closed and effluent accumulates in the holding tank for discharge at sea. American boaters will find this a bit primitive. There they have holding tank pump-out stations. Here we have the sea.

As we left Levkas, about one month into the season, the forward head cock broke. It broke in the closed position. The only fix in the absence of pump-out stations was to lift the boat out of the water and replace seacock. Before we could ask anyone to replace a cock downstream of forty litres of brown stuff, the tank had to be emptied, rinsed, and emptied again several times. Some Clorox in the rinse slowed down the bacteria. We did that with siphons and a pump. The lift out and seacock replacement was done just after Martin and Jennifer arrived at Corfu.

In Okuljeke on Mljet, the forward head pump broke. It leaked. Fortunately, it leaked first hand saltwater of the pre-bowl variety. Unfortunately the break was a plastic piece that required a complete replacement of the pump. At Dubrovnik we found the part and a man who would install it. Bad, good, bad, good, that is the right order for luck to occur.

As we left Dubrovnik, at the end of Martin and Jennifer’s cruise, the salon head cock broke in exactly the same way the forward one did three weeks earlier. There was a full tank upstream. Bring on the Clorox, siphon and pump. At Izola, Perception was lifted out again and another cock replaced. So much for Turkey’s reputation of producing top quality metal products. So much for keeping maintenance costs under control.

This week Conrad and Jo Lynne are cruising with us out of Split. In Korcula, the salon head stopped working. The last to use it was Jo Lynne. Knowing boats and the skippers who inhabit them, she felt more harsh stares than there actually were. Fred knew that it had been becoming progressively more difficult to push and pull the pump handle. That is usually a sure sign that something isn’t right. He was just hoping that whatever was wrong would wait until they left. Wrong!

In problem analysis, the solution is always in the last place you look. Choosing where to look and in what order to look is either convenience or logic or a combination of the two. Prior experience sometimes improves the process. Other times it puts on a bias that steers you away from the obvious.

A head on even the largest of ships is not a large room. You do not spend a lot of time there. When you do, you do not want to be tossed around even if the boat is. Perception’s heads are nearly big enough for one person to turn around in. Nearly.

Conrad, Fred and an un-named German from the boat in the next berth started at the pump and worked their way toward first the inflow seacock and then the outflow seacock.

The German had been recruited by Jo Lynne for reasons not to be understood.

Phyl stood by in grim silence. She was the perfect helper, fetching parts and tools, but making no suggestions. She knows all too well how little Fred loves plumbing.

They rebuilt the pump with new valves and gaskets, not all at once, but rather one part at a time. Each time it would work great for four or six strokes and then not work even worse than the time before. This was happening after a good day’s sail and before dinner. They tested the vent on the holding tank. It was open. They disconnected the outflow hose at the pump. The pump worked fine for more than six strokes, for more than 24 strokes. Why not? It had just been rebuilt. They used a plumber’s snake in an attempt to dislodge something in the hose. Nothing significant came out. They connected the outflow hose at the pump disconnected it at the holding tank. The pump worked for more than 24 strokes and water came out just below the tank. They tried to snake the tank. Serious blockage! Removed the tank from the boat and took it out on the pier. Upside down and with flash light, serious blockage. Direct attack with high pressure hose, serious blockage. The tube into the holding tank is 1 ½ inches in diameter. The hole was less than ¾ inches large.

What is the stuff?

“Saltwater and uric acid (don't ask!) produce calcium scale inside marine toilets and discharge hoses. Such deposits cause the toilet to get progressively harder to flush and can lead to total blockage.” - Don Casey Head Maintenance Tip

Add vinegar. Obvious chemical activity. Let’s clean up and find dinner. Best to let the vinegar work overnight. The pizza was good.

There is no doubt that this problem has been forming for several years. Jo Lynne was not the culprit. She just happened to be at the wrong place at the wrong time.

The next morning the calcium scale could be chipped away from the inside of the tube. The snake could still not push through the clog. A broom handle with some force did. After a couple of rinses and a vinegar soak, the tank was clean, functional and ready to be reassembled in the head. Once the assembly was complete, the head worked. As they say in the trades, “It works just like new!”

Since the start of the 2002 season the following instructions have been posted in each head:

Head

Standard Operating Procedure

1. Set Flow Control Lever (FCL) to Flush, to the left facing the device.

2. Stroke the pump 4 full strokes. This will put some water in the bowl.

3. Perform. Seamen do this sitting down, regardless.

4. Nothing goes in the head that hasn't been eaten beforehand. The uneaten stuff goes in the rubbish bin to your right sitting on the device.

5. FCL is still to Flush, the left. Stroke the pump 20 times.

6. If the remaining water is clear, proceed to step 7. If brushing is required to free the sticky stuff, the brush is under the sink. Proceed to step 5.

7. Set FCL to empty, the right. 3 or 4 strokes should empty the bowl.

8. Tidy up the area. The next person will notice only if you don't.

Even with just a wee, it is important to push the uric acid out of the system. 20 strokes of the pump is just about enough.

As Captain of Perception, Fred is, among other things, a “Hydro Engineer”. He cannot claim to have only worked on first hand water.

It appears that the theme for this season is being determined for us. This we will call this season “The Head Rules”.

Stroke the Pump Twenty Times, please,

Phyl & Fred

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