Oh, No!! The Dreaded Stuffed up Head!

March 27, 2015

And “no”, I don’t mean a nasty cold that leaves your head stuffed up and miserable.  I mean the stuff of which sailing nightmares are made:  a head that no longer flushes because the hose is blocked.  Apparently calcium builds up in the hose that runs from the head to the holding tank or straight overboard until one fine day the hose says “enough is enough” and refuses to let anything pass through.  Despite our being very careful and judicious in the use of our forward head, and abiding by the no toilet paper thrown in the head rule, it finally reached that point.  

I won’t dwell on the gory details….just the facts.  Jim spent 3 days tearing apart every piece of the head that he could access.  He now knows all about joker valves, seals, “Y” valves, vent loops (none of which was the problem).  He can draw a schematic (more like a flow chart) of the hose that runs from the head. It looks rather like the pipes in the kids’ game “Waterworks”.  Example: from the head down to a 90 degree angle up, to another 90 degree angle to the right, straight ahead for 2 feet or so and then another 90 degree angle straight up and then a curve to form the vent loop, then down, then 90 degrees left, then right, etc – well over 15 feet of hose to travel no more than a net 3 feet.  We know, because we bought a 15 foot “snake” and it never made it all of the way through.  Jim had to run it from opposite ends.  Meanwhile, there are 2 “Y” valves interspersed which make life difficult, not to mention access holes that provide access in name only.  

Jim is nothing if not tenacious.  I on the other hand spent the time researching composting heads.  I wasn’t sure I could deal with the mess or the odors again!  But when there seemed to be light at the end of the tunnel, (literally and figuratively) Jim poured vinegar into all parts of the hose.  It sat overnight and voila, problem solved.  Lesson learned.  Regular flushing with vinegar.  Who knew?

For obvious reasons, there are no photos of this little episode.  So I'll leave you with this image of "Well, Why Not?" at anchor in Hulk Harbor last weekend.