Mucking About in Boats

When you are away sailing you notice things about the boat that pass you by when on land. Coming back in the dinghy and circling Liquid Asset to take just a few more photographs, we noticed a vent on the port side high up above the sink and shower waste outlets. I had no idea what it was for. To boot, there was something looking like coffee on the hull around the outlet. An investigation by the crew began, with an explosive conclusion…!

We traced various pipes in the heads to try and figure what it was. A bit of pumping of the loo resulted in more “coffee” being jettisoned from the mystery aperture. Panels were removed in a bid to figure what was happening. We found an 80 litre capacity holding tank for the loo. The piping suggested that the outlet from the loo went into the top of the holding tank. The mystery hole was an air intake. The sea cock under the sink was the outlet from the bottom of the holding tank. Holding a torch to the plastic tank revealed sinister contents; it was full to the brim with, shall we say, some evil looking sludge or slurry! The penny dropped. A penny spent was just filling up the tank and overflowing through the air vent. The outlet must be blocked.

We deployed David. Back into the dinghy he went flexible hose in hand. He meant business but what did he have in mind? He found the tank outlet under the water and gave it a very aggressive rodding to try and dislodge the offending blockage. No luck, nothing budged. Another idea. Put a bung in the air outlet and pump the loo hard.

Have you seen the film Krakatoa, East of Java? Well this was more spectacular. The 80 litre tank emptied its contents under some pressure into the crystal clear water. After the initial surprise and awe we felt a mixture of relief and shame. We reconciled our polluting the beautiful Scilly Isles water with the fact it was all natural, 

maybe not environmentally friendly.

Job done!

Sorry, no pictures!