We had left Port St. Mary and we were heading towards Northern Ireland. The winds were so light we were having to motor. We did try and sail, but the Genoa was in, then out so often that I joked that the sail was doing the hokey-cokey. I really hate motoring, so I had a major complain about that.

Every now and then we would sail and that would be fantastic, during one such sail, we decided to talk about a very important system on Salty Lass and that is the sewage system.

Looking after your loo

Paper

One of the main rules that we have on Salty Lass is.

If it doesn’t go through you. It doesn’t go down the loo.

Now that means that we do use scented nappy sacks, to put the paper in, but one of the major issues that you have with the toilet system, is paper clogging up the pipes. You also have to think about discharging your tank and if you are going to discharge into the sea, like we do, then it is best if you do not discharge paper.

Our previous owners did put paper down the loo, but they said

“There wee squares is all a body needs. One for up, one for down and one for a polish.”

They were Scottish and I love to say the above with a Scottish accent, I wanted to have the Scottish version in the video, but my Scottish accent is dreadful.

Simple system

Another reason that, we have very little issues with our toilet system is that it is very simple. The waste from the toilet goes to the holding tank. There is then a sea cock that allows us to discharge our tanks when we are out. We did fit a pump out facility very early on so that we can be pumped out in a marina setting. But when we are in a marina then we use the marina facilities as much as possible.

Use fresh water when ever you can

When we are in a marina, another thing that we will do is use fresh water to rinse. The smell that you get from toilets is caused by a chemical reaction between sea water and urea, so if you use fresh water to rinse your toilet then the chemical reaction will not happen. Another side effect of the reaction between salt water and urine is that calcium precipitates out which is why you pipes get clogged up with calcium deposits.

Clean with vinegar

To keep calcium deposits down we pump vinegar through the system. By putting vinegar into the system and leaving it for a while, then quite a bit of the calcium is dissolved.

Another cause of smell are all the tiny creatures that live in the intake pipe. They die, which is why if you have not used the sea water intake for some time then the water is brown, from all the dead sea creatures.

Use olive oil to lubricate your gaskets

With our toilet we get a squeak and to stop that we put a table spoon of olive oil down the toilet. That lubricates the gaskets and gets rid of the squeak. We use olive oil because it is 100% natural and some oils like corn oil can damage your gaskets.

Pump lots of water through to discharege your toilet

Another issue that we find is that a sludge can be created at the bottom of the tank so pumping at least 50 pumps of sea water through the system will disturb the sludge and you will get another release. Once the second release has happened then you are usually clear.

The rest of our sail

After our chat we watched a rather beautiful sun set and went through Copeland sound, very late, which meant that we arrived in Carrick at stupid o'clock.

As we did not do a fully tidy when we got in, the first thing that we did was tidy the boat and clean the pontoon, of all the droppings that the seagulls leave.