Some things on boats are just disgusting. I have written about the Joker Valve \u2013 an essential piece of the sanitary plumbing which must be replaced periodically. But if you think the Joker Valve is disgusting \u2013 at least the old one gets thrown away (hopefully sealed in a plastic bag).<\/p>\n
But what about the Outlet Hose? This is the bit that connects the Joker Valve to the outside world \u2013 which means that everything that passes through the one, also has to pass through the other.<\/p>\n
However, a new Outlet Hose is a lot more expensive than a new Joker Valve. Moreover, it doesn\u2019t wear out, so you can\u2019t justify replacing it. Instead, it has to be cleaned.<\/p>\n
Let me explain why (you\u2019re going to enjoy this): The combination of human waste and salt water – as passes through the marine toilet \u2013 causes a built up of calcified \u201cmaterial\u201d on the inside of the outlet hose. This is rather like domestic pipes getting furred-up or arteries being choked with cholesterol.<\/p>\n
Domestic pipes get replaced. Clogged arteries involve surgical procedures which don\u2019t bear thinking about.<\/p>\n
Actually, clearing the deposit in an Outlet Hose doesn\u2019t bear thinking about either. Here\u2019s how you do it.<\/p>\n
Remove the hose, take it ashore, find a nice open space with a good hard surface and swing the hose three time around your head before whacking it on the hard surface.<\/p>\n
I should add that this is tremendously satisfying. It clears the hose in no time at all. However, the cleared \u201cmaterial\u201d does come flying out of the end of the hose and shoots off in all directions. Fortunately, most passers-by have no idea just what that material is.<\/p>\n
I used to think that the contents of the Outlet Hose and clearing them out was about the most disgusting aspect of boat-ownership.<\/p>\n
But no, I have found something even more appalling.<\/p>\n
Here\u2019s what happens: The galley sink drains into a \u201cgrey water tank\u201d. Grey water is that type of boat effluent which is one up from \u201cblack water\u201d (I\u2019ll let you use your imagination on that one).<\/p>\n
Actually \u201cgrey water\u201d sounds quite attractive \u2013 like something to do with interior d\u00e9cor and water features.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s not: Do you have a kitchen drain at home that sometimes gets blocked with grains of rice and slivers of onion and coffee grounds? How does that smell once you\u2019ve neglected it for a few weeks.<\/p>\n
Now imagine all of that in a plastic tank in the bilges. It should be emptied by a \u201cgulper\u201d pump \u2013 that is, one which is designed to cope with rice and onion and coffee grounds. What do you suppose happens if the gulper pump gets switched off accidentally. The Law of Gravity will still cause the sink to drain all that \u201cgrey water\u201d into the tank and if it doesn\u2019t get pumped out, it will overflow \u2013 escaping into the open bilges.<\/p>\n
And since the bilges are down there somewhere (out of sight and out of mind), you won\u2019t know anything has gone wrong until you smell it.<\/p>\n
This is when you take off the top of the engine casing and shine a torch down through the pipes and wires into the bottom of the boat.<\/p>\n
For a moment or two, I couldn\u2019t understand why the usual puddle of seawater was orange. The last time I saw orange seawater was in Bilbao in the 1970s – before anyone got excited about pollution. But, when you think about it, I do use a lot of paprika.\u00a0 Paprika turns the washing-up water a brilliant orange, doesn\u2019t it?<\/p>\n
So the bilges \u2013 indeed, every part of the boat underfoot – is now coated with a sticky deposit of orange goo which smells, unmistakably, of drains.<\/p>\n
I don\u2019t even want to think about what I\u2019m supposed to do about it.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Some things on boats are just disgusting. I have written about the Joker Valve \u2013 an essential piece of the sanitary plumbing which must be replaced periodically. But if you think the Joker Valve is disgusting \u2013 at least the old one gets thrown away (hopefully sealed in a plastic bag). But what about the … Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1359","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/racecoast.net\/omstest\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1359","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/racecoast.net\/omstest\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/racecoast.net\/omstest\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racecoast.net\/omstest\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racecoast.net\/omstest\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1359"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/racecoast.net\/omstest\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1359\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1360,"href":"https:\/\/racecoast.net\/omstest\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1359\/revisions\/1360"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/racecoast.net\/omstest\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1359"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racecoast.net\/omstest\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1359"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racecoast.net\/omstest\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1359"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}