2/10/16
Harbour Cay Club, Marathon, Florida Keys
Posted by Bill

A few days ago we finally got a break in the weather and took a day off of boat work. We gathered with several other boats here and took our dinghys over to Boot Key Harbor (close to where we did the mangrove caves). We went all of the way out of Sisters Creek for a peek at the Atlantic Ocean, then back to several bars on the water for an old fashioned dinghy pub crawl. A good time was had by all!

Next project: Macerator pump. If you follow the blog or you are a boater, you know that normally when you use the heads (bathroom), the waste goes into a holding tank. At some point you need to pump it out, and most marinas in the US have pump out stations that suck out the waste and dispose of it legally and safely. When you are at sea, or in most areas of the Bahamas (or the Caribbean), you turn a couple of valves and pump the heads directly overboard. Several areas in the Bahamas have changed the laws and will not allow you to discharge overboard at port, however they don’t have a pump out system. If you are in the Bahamas any longer than 3 weeks or so, you don’t have enough capacity in the holding tank to get back to the states for a pump out. Most boats that travel the oceans have a pump out system on board that will pump the holding tank out and discharge overboard. This is called a macerator pump and it is used in open seas or areas outside of port where pumping overboard is allowed. We did not have one because our boat was a Great Lakes boat, and it is not legal to have a macerator. We learned that we needed one last year when we were in the Bahamas, so we put one in. The project involved taking off old hoses, putting in a new pump (with the electrical work), a bunch of new hoses, and several new valves. Working with hoses, especially old ones, really sucks bad…especially waste hoses. Needless to say, I was dreading this project quite a bit. Here is the holding area where we had to work…a before picture. Here I temporarily added a new valve (on the left) to start the planning process:

The thick black hose running down the middle was one that had to be removed. It was the original overboard discharge hose from the heads, and was over 20 years old. It was fused to the fittings. It took several hours to remove it, finally having to be cut off. It took every bit of strength from my arms and left horrible black and blue marks. That was a full day’s work. Prior to that effort, I spent a couple of days planning the install, then a day to wire the electric components for the pump. Then a couple of days to cut the other existing hose, add all of the hoses and valves, including re-engineering the install when we ran in to some unforeseen problems. But now we are done!!!!! Here is the after pics:



Sanitation hose is very stiff and difficult to work with, so we used a more expensive new hose called Raritan Saniflex that was very flexible. It really saved the day! Hats off to Raritan.

On Superbowl Sunday, Matt and Shirley from Sofia Jeanne drove down here to Marathon. They are staying at a house that Kurt and Sharon from Byrd Ketcher rented on Duck Key. Mark and Jan on Island Bound are here at Harbour Cay Club with us, and we all went to Duck Key for the Superbowl. It was a great reunion of all of us who traveled the Bahamas last year together. Everyone has become extremely great friends, and it was really fun to be back together again.

We got together again on my birthday, and will try to spend more time together before Matt and Shirley leave.

We only have a few more projects to get done before we are ready to cross to the Bahamas. Now we just need to get some favorable weather. People we know that have been in the Bahamas are getting their asses kicked over there, and we have had our share of rough weather here too. The next 10 days do not look good, but we will keep our fingers crossed.