O dear, what an odor

One of the great things about living aboard is the ability to untie the lines, leave the dock for a day or a week or a month, and know that you are completely self sufficient.  You have a fridge, and a stove, hot and cold running water, and of course, proper flush toilets in the 'heads'.

One of the not so great things about living aboard is that apart from the 'grey water' that drains from the sinks, all other waste must be carried with you, in a holding tank, until you are able to pump it out at a marina.

We began to notice that something was not quite right a couple of days ago.  There was an unidentifiable odor that came and went.  There appeared to be some water in the bilge, which is not abnormal, and Michael thought that perhaps it had become stagnant and was beginning to smell a bit.  It's river water, after all.  He got out the shop vac, sucked up all the stinky water, poured in some bilge cleaner, and thought he was done.  But a few hours later, the smell was back and we concluded this couldn't be just river water gone bad.

I began to suspect that we had a dead critter somewhere below decks, but Michael said it was more likely a leaky holding tank.  Either way, we were in for some unpleasant business.  The shop vac came out again, more stinky water was sucked up, and more bilge cleaner poured in.  And again a few hours later, and again hours after that.  So now we knew - no dead critters, but definitely a leaky tank.  As long as we could keep the windows open, it was bearable inside the boat and while others were complaining about the windy conditions, we were thankful for the moving air!

We had the marina guys come and do an emergency pump out on Saturday, and flushed lots and lots of fresh water through the system, then pumped out as much as they could.  Our next step is to remove the old tank which we may have to cut into pieces, and replace it with a new one.  So we're off to Walmart to buy lots of rubber gloves, and big green garbage bags, and a respirator if they have one!!

While we're at it, we'll replace the old toilets with new, more efficient ones.  But all of this will take some time to order, and have shipped, and then do the work.  Thank goodness we have land based facilities here at the marina while all of this is happening.

And you should all be thankful that the blog does not support scratch and sniff technology - 'cause you know I'd want to share!!!