S/V Deep Playa - Pearson 424

This weekend Dawn and I proved Deep Playa still goes by driving her over to the pump out to empty the holding bag and rinse out the whole toilet system so we could remove it completely as part of installing our Nature's Head composting toilet. Our neighbor Dan was heckling us as we drove out of the causeway since he's never seen us take the boat out. We need to replace the jib halyard before we can really sail her again, but was good to motor her around the marina. We got a little docking practice in as well proving to ourselves that we need a lot more practice. :-

The goal for this weekend was to remove the toilet, the holding bag and as much of the plumbing as we could without covering ourselves and the bilge in poop! As I said we first went over to the pump out and emptied the holding bag. We ran about 20 gallons of fresh water though the system and pumped that out. We also used the bilge pump-out and were able to get the water in the sewer down to less than inch. We'll need to get down there and really clean it good in the next few months.

So after our docking adventures pulled back into our own slip and got to work ripping things apart. My strategy was to pull close to through hulls, pull the toilet and then start removing the bag and hosing in sections. The toilet was head down on a small wood base which was on the larger platform. Disconnecting the toilet from the hoses wasn't too hard but I had to cut the waste pipe with a hack saw. After that the whole thing lifted right out.

Next, I disconnected the hoses to the holding bag. Some of these hoses had plugs handy and some I closed off with plastic bag duct taped in place around the opening. With that done the empty holding bag was removed.

Finally we removed as much of the hoses as we could leaving only those which were directly connected to the through hulls. While the through hulls are closed I'm not sure of the best way to cap the ends. I have a guy coming out to do some fiberglass work and he'll cap those through hulls and remove the remaining hoses.

With all the "messy stuff" removed I attacked the 2" high platform the toilet sat on. The wood underneath this was wet and I'm not sure if its rotted. It seems pretty solid but I'm not sure. I left the heated in the head and it dried out a lot in less than hour I hope it will dry out completely over night and the wood will prove to still be solid.

Here's a shot of the bilge area without the holding bag, that is  a LOT of storage\system area we are regaining. Check out the rest of the photos.

A great weekend of getting things done! This next week the fiberglass tabbing should be repaired and then we can start putting Deep Playa back together on the inside and start taking her out.

When you're out of the US Coastal waters (as close as BC, Canada) is it legal to pump your marine toilet directly into the sea. There just aren't pumpouts available in every remote cranny of the earth like there are in Puget Sound. This is kind of like you wouldn't poop in your neighbors yard (unless they live in BC), but for extending backpacking trip its considered acceptable to use a cathole.

Our current toilet situation on Deep Playa is that we have a Wilcox Crittenden Imperial toilet and instead of a rigid fiberglass holding tank we have a 20 gallon bladder into which everything is pumped. We're also setup with a macerator (like a garbage disposal) that can be use to grind up everything when you're in an area where pumping directly overboard is acceptable. This also keeps fish from having to swim around with toilet paper stuck to their tail fin. Well, the toilet doesn't pump very well (I bent the handle this weekend), using bladders as holding tanks is kind of a nuisance (you have to lift them while you're pumping) and all of the plumbing needs to be replaces because it smells (this can happen as they age).

Instead of doing all that work we've decided to go with a MUCH simpler solution, the Nature's Head Composting Toilet. The basic system is that urine is captured is in a bottle and your poop is composted along with some peat moss or coconut husks to absorb water. The urine can be disposed of on-shore in the toilet and the compost can be deposited in any flower bed or bagged and placed in the regular trash. Before you get all gross, read this about compost. And then realize that the fact is on a boat (or in an RV, or camping) you become more intimately involved with your bodily functions, and this was the best option for us given our the attractive ness of eliminating 2 through-hulls and to be as good stewards as possible when we're traveling.

I'll have a bunch of photos and more discussion about this as we move forward with the rip and replace. Right now everything has been ordered and is on-hand ready to go, just need to pump out one last time and start removing the old system.