Hard Day

This is 19 February, our second full day at sea.

My hopes of trying out the snuffer spinnaker were dashed this morning when the toilet blocked up. Arnold had told me that clean water had been backing into the toilet between flushes which indicated to me that there might be a problem with the joker valve, which allows flow out but not back in. When I went to the loo this morning I noticed the same thing. But soon after I got the toilet bowl cleared the pumping mechanism jammed up.

Fortunately I had had the foresight to get a toilet overhaul kit in San Francisco as a precaution against a problem much further down the track before I got back to Australia. We continued to sail only jib only while I did the "one hour" job of replacing the joker valve. When I took the mechanism apart I was surprised and disturbed to find no blockage, although the joker valve definitely needed replacement. Because I had not identified the problem I decided to do a complete overhaul of system, which involved taking everything apart and replacing every rubber seal, gasket, valve, etc. After about two hours the overhaul was done and my fears were confirmed when during the test the mechanism ceased up with a lot of pressure on the outlet side.

As I uncoupled the 38 mm outlet hose I could hear the pressure hissing out. There was definitely a blockage on the outlet side. I went under the sink to where the outlet hose is connected to the thru-hull fitting and had to saw the hose off, cutting off the remnants around the thru hull fitting with a Stanley knife. As I cut through the hose thick material that needs no description started to ooze out. The outlet was totally blocked up, with what turned out to be a mixture of scale, pulped up toilet paper, and - well - coloration. With the hose cut off I opened the valve of the thru-hull fitting and nothing passed from the sea into the boat. With some hard jabbing with a large screw driver I soon had the thru hull fitting clear with plenty of sea water flowing into the boat.

The outlet hose and the inside of the thru hull fitting were choked off by a scale that builds up in this type of plumbing - calcium, I've been told. The scale had reduced the cross section of the hose to under half. I cleaned the inside of the thru hull fitting with the screw driver and cleared it out by opening the valve so that the inrush of sea water would bring out the scale material. I then removed the hose (2.1 meters long) and took it to the cockpit where I did some serious GBH (grievous bodily harm) on the hose by slapping it against the gunwale and hitting it with a hammer to dislodge the scale.

Refitting the hose was no picnic but with Arnold's help, some baby oil, and luck we managed it.

The resulted tested out OK, although the system does not evacuate water from the bowl as fast as I recall. Maybe I am being fussy. Time will tell.

At 3 PM it was all over, including the cleanup. But I was tired, cold (because I had worked in T-shirt to avoid soiling my warm clothes), and hungry (I had skipped lunch.). I treated myself to a deluxe cockpit bath complete with shampoo, aware that a tanker about to pass 1.1 miles off our starboard and a cruise ship was about to pass 3 miles off or port. I managed to complete my ablutions in time to avoid reports of a rogue "streaker" boat to the Mexican authorities.

I killed the pain with two Heinekens, glad that Arnold had offered to cook dinner tonight. ("You'll have to wash too" I said.)

My "noon" report would be 5 hours late. At 5 PM on 19 Feb 2004 we were at 29N59, 116W40, 50 miles west of the Baja California coast and only 115 miles from Ensenada. During my toilet toils I could sense that the boat was moving well - over 4 knots according to Arnold. We could have done better but I was too busy to bring up the mainsail and besides the quieter the boat the better during this work the better.

As the great philosopher said, All Things Must Pass.

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