Wasting Away In George Town

Mike: So today was supposed to be an R&R day. You know, the kind of day where you simply float, snooze, suck back a few brewskis and generally veg. Somewhere between the yawn and snooze came the pungent odor that could only come from a head. Alison came up on deck and told me that I should pull my feet out of the warm waters that flowed past our transom. The quizzical look from me had her fill in that one of our crew had just dumped their holding tank - -right there in the harbour - in about 6 feet of water. Going below revealed Brian standing ankle deep in the head (the door was open) with effluence at his feet. He was pushing the overboard shower pump out button for all he was worth. Oh the sight! Oh the stench! Oh the inhumanity! OK... so after the laughter subsided, I took the cover from where the holding tank should be and lo and behold, there it lay, out of its mount, the pump out hose ripped from its fitting spewing its 'shit' out. Over the past week, we'd cleaned that head a number of times already due to odor. Now we knew the problem. Anything that went into the holding tank was vented directly into the head. Brian did what I believe was the right thing... as soon as the tank was full and it overflowed into the head, he dumped the tank overboard. Better outside than inside I agreed. During the reassembly and clean up, I noted the following: 1) one screw that holds the strap that holds the tank in place had been ripped out completely, 2) the pump out hose was disconnected, 3) the venting line was plugged. So what happened? Our best guess is this: As the tanks was filling through use while at anchor it was getting heavier and was beginning to bulge (nowhere to vent to). The bulging tank actually caused the retaining screw for the retaining strap to pull out of the bulkhead it was attached to. The weight of the full tank was now free to fall about a foot down. The hose that attached to the deck pump out couldn't support the weight and separated. The result was the spilling of the tank contents behind the paneling and draining onto the floor of the head.

So here's what we did: Removed the mounting for the other half of the strap that was still attached, threw away the vastly undersized screws that were originally installed and put in more appropriately sized strap screws. Next was to detach the vent hose and clear it out. Not having a plumbers snake handy, we took apart a wooden close pin and with pliers expanded the steel spring which ended up being about 6 inches long. This we used to clear the throughhull fitting from the outside. Next was to reassemble everything and start pumping to fill the tank. After about 50 strokes, I realized that the overboard drain was still open, so I closed it and started again. This time, we did see the vent discharging as it was supposed to.

A swim over to Volley Ball Beach was the next order of the day, at the least to get rid of any possible residue that may have attached itself to me from the morning's adventure.

Later in the day, we popped over to the St. Francis Resort and Marina which had just opened two months earlier. We did two loads of laundry, ordered a pizza and enjoyed $3 beers. We met Tony and Suzy, the owners, and their dog Nina. They've got a great location and offer great food at reasonable prices in a brand new facility. Check out the pics below. Good times!

Alison: Yes, I can honestly say it was a shitty day in paradise. But I guess this gives us an idea as to what cruising life is all about - there are some days of relaxation, and there are other days where things on the boat need to be fixed. But what better place to have to do work on the boat! We are really getting into the cruising life style. Going ashore and talking to other cruisers. And for us, it's learning from their experiences sailing in the Bahamas and specifically the Exumas - what anchorages we should visit and which we should avoid. And then there is dingying our dirty laundry ashore to a laundry facility and then dingying our clean, fresh smelling laundry back. Mike and I spent the afternoon planning our route from here, through the Exumas and on to Nassau. We've been here in George Town a few days now and we're starting to look forward to moving on and exploring more of the Bahamas. But we're here until Monday when we pick up Ann (Bill's girlfriend), who is joining us for the remainder of the trip.

Hopefully, tomorrow will be a day of relaxation.