Oh my aching head!

Yes, I’m talking about toilets. For you non-boaters, toilets on boats are referred to as “heads.” I’m sure there’s a history to that name, but I don’t feel like researching it right now. This is a post about the non-glorious side of cruising and it deals with toilets and holding tanks, so keep that in mind before you decide whether to keep reading. 

Allow me to set the stage a little. Indigo Lady was a charter boat, and as such, she was set up with four sleeping cabins and four heads (head can refer to the toilet, or the bathroom in general). They were all manual pump toilets. That means that once you do your business, you have to pump a handle to empty out the “black water” (waste). On Indigo Lady, we can set a valve, per toilet, so that the black water either goes directly overboard or into the holding tanks. Our holding tanks are our keels, which are hollow and molded onto our hulls. When the heads are set to go into the holding tanks, those eventually fill up and we have to pump the entire holding tank overboard. When we bought Lady, this was also done manually, and usually required 100+ pumps. In U.S. coastal waters, emptying black water from holding tanks must be done no less than 3 miles offshore. On inland waterways, like the ICW (Intracoastal Waterway), there is no pumping overboard. Instead, one must go to a pump out station to have the tank emptied by suction, just like having a septic tank pumped at home, except it usually has to be done weekly and you have to keep a log (just in case an authority asks; nobody ever asked for ours).

When Dave converted Lady to solar electric, he also installed two electric flush toilets on the port side. Likewise, pumping out the holding tank on that side is electric. On the starboard side, Dave removed the forward toilet so we could put in a washing machine. The washing machine, being “gray water,” pumps directly overboard when it drains. The aft (rear) toilet and overboard pump out remain manual. We left starboard manual in case anything ever goes wrong with the electric heads on port. There are a couple of advantages to electric pump toilets. First, one doesn’t build up callouses by repeatedly using a pump handle. More importantly, to my mind anyway, the electric toilet pump has a macerator that grinds everything up, as does the pump to empty the holding tank overboard. This means that what gets dumped overboard is a slurry which break down faster. The manual pump toilets and overboard pump leave everything pretty much intact. How’s that for an image? You’re welcome. 💩

We keep Indigo Lady’s toilets set to empty into the holding tanks. In the coastal waters of New England, it’s really easy to get 3 miles offshore to pump out holding tanks, and pump out stations and pump out boats are also becoming more common. In the ICW, being a no discharge zone entirely, pump out stations are very common. The reality from the Bahamas to St. Kitt’s, where we’ve cruised thus far, is a little different. Pump out stations are either nonexistent or exceedingly rare. Here’s some more reality, down here nobody goes 3 miles offshore to pump out their holding tanks, and I’d wager that toilets of most cruisers and charterers, especially charterers, pump directly overboard with each flush. Those of us with holding tanks try to empty them in an open waterway where there’s good water flow, but if one gets pinned down in a particular anchorage for too many days, well, tanks have to be emptied. Courteous boaters will wait to do that until nightfall. Not everyone is courteous.

You’re still reading. I’m impressed. On to our current head issues…

Like I said earlier, we have Lady’s toilets set to flush into the holding tanks. Last Monday morning, I flushed the electric toilet like every other time. We’re used to a brief stink after a flush, especially as the tank gets more full. When we add to the tank, air gets pushed out through the vent hose to the outside of the hull. Depending on wind direction, the smell can blow back toward us. With this flush, however, the stink didn’t go away and it was stronger than usual. So, Dave lifted the bilge¹ floorboard² in the port aft companionway³. (If you need translation for that sentence, see the end of this post.) There was black water in our bilge. First, yuck! Second, that should NEVER happen. If a holding tank is full, the next flush is supposed to go directly overboard through the vent hose. Uh oh! 

The exact order of things hat happened after that are a bit of a blur, but the first step was to run a bunch of sea water through the bilge to clean it out. (Each bilge has a pump that sends any accumulated water overboard.) Then we did a variety of things that included emptying the holding tank and flushing repeatedly while Dave used a flashlight in very tight places to try to see what was leaking. After we’d emptied the holding tank, flushing toilets did NOT put toilet water into the bilge. Dave could see nothing leaking on any hoses or connections (the ones he actually could see) when we flushed. 🤔 What we learned is that we have no idea why this is happening. So we did a fresh water rinse of the bilge with dish soap, followed by a bleach and water wipe down. Then Dave cleaned himself. No, he wasn’t covered in filth, but when dealing with sewage, better safe than sorry. Everything was fine again, until it wasn’t.

After 48 hours of using our head like normal, a flush backed up into the bilge again. We caught it earlier this time because we were checking after every flush, so it wasn’t quite as messy. More flushing and looking with a flashlight. Empty the tank again. We usually go about 8 days before needing to empty the tank. Why is it full after 48 hours? Do we have a leak in our keel that is allowing in sea water, thus filling the tank faster? How much did we fill the tank with sea water during out testing on Monday after we had pumped it out? A new round of troubleshooting still revealed nothing, but our tank was full, so we emptied it again. Then Dave set our toilet to pump directly overboard. He wanted to set the aft head to do the same, but those valves haven’t been moved since 2019, and they were stuck good. Fortunately, that head is rarely used except for when we have guests aboard. 

Where does this leave us? Our head is pumping directly overboard, so it’s not contributing to the port holding tank. After 3 days of this, the level in that tank has not changed (we can tell by removing the vent cover to look in). This is very good news, because it means we don’t have a leak in our keel letting in sea water. If we’re ever in an anchorage where we think we should not be pumping directly overboard, we can either use the port aft head or the starboard head. Our guest, who arrives today, can use the port aft head, as long as we are able to pump out the holding tank every 2-3 days, otherwise he will use our head or the starboard one. I’m very thankful that we have heads on each side of the boat!

I’m sure that’s more than you ever wanted to know about marine heads. I aim to educate; it’s in my blood. 😁

I promise to return to writing about the more enjoyable parts of our travels, at least until something else inglorious arises. I want to keep it real.

Until next time, stay safe and take care of each other!