Saturday, November 9, 2019
The Sailboat Deal Breaker
My lovely wife and I were talking about sailboats. I know, big surprise. There was something that was bothering her about living for months on a boat, but she didn’t want to talk with me about it. She expected a fight.
It turns out her deal breaker was the head, or bathroom for you land lubbers. We had a composting head on our Ranger sailboat and I was really happy with it. There was a learning curve, but after that it was pretty easy to take care of. My lovely wife knew I was a fan of those systems.
Turns out what she really wants is a regular marine head, with a holding tank and everything. Not only that, she knows they can be finicky and require maintenance and repair. She also didn’t want to have to deal with any of that. It would be my job and responsibility. If you want to know how bad those jobs can be, watch a few Youtube sailing videos about marine toilet problems. It’s not for the faint of heart.
Here’s the thing, it’s the only item keeping her from long term sailing. She said she doesn’t care about hot water, showers, refrigeration, air conditioning or even a stove. My lovely wife doesn’t require a newer fancy boat, or even a dinghy with a motor. All in all, her one requirement is amazingly reasonable.
That’s the first thing I’m going to look for when we go boat shopping next. I’m also going to study up on different models and head repair. Probably also stock up on heavy duty rubber gloves that go up to my elbows.
All in all, it’s a small price to pay for a wife willing to go sailing.
-Sixbears
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ReplyDeleteGee, something for nothing on that last post. He must be a democrat scammer. As for heads, I'd settle for shorter trips before I'd deal with a head while at sea, but, she's your wife! (Mine wouldn't even go sailing.)
ReplyDeleteWish I had logged on sooner to delete that nonsense. This winter we are planning on shorter trips as the head on our small sailboat is "primitive."
DeleteHubby and I had a similar discussion when we were building our house. The project had stalled. He had about 40 of the 160 triangles for our geodesic dome built and discovered he was in over his head. Very cautiously I approached him about the problem and suggested a yurt-shaped building. He had came up with the same idea months before but didn't know how to start the conversation because he feared I would be upset about not getting a dome. It took ONE weekend to get the lower-level framed. I good-humoredly gave him a bad time about how far along we could of been if he had just said something earlier.
ReplyDeleteDomes can be . . . interesting. I had plenty of quality help when building mine and that made it much easier. However, I did most of the design, planning, and grunt work. Right now a yurt sounds like something we could downsize to.
DeleteWe replaced our normal Marine head, with a pumpable porta potty sold at West Marine.
ReplyDeleteThen connected a Gusher diaphragm pump , that could pump it overboard when offshore. Or into an internal holding tank. Yes you need use some type chemical in the porta potty tank ! This was a bullet proof way around the traditional head.
I'll see what the lovely wife thinks about that.
DeleteYou just pump it into the ocean?
ReplyDeleteIt's legal if you are far enough off-shore and not in a restricted area. It's not something you want in a crowded anchorage.
DeleteYes , just imagine when the cruise ships are doing exactly that. Talk about feed the fishes !
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