Tuesday 20 July 2021

Hanging around like a bad smell.

Now where was I?

Oh yes a nasty smell at the back of WaL everso close to my pillow...  
This had been evident for a few days now.  It could only be one thing..... yes, the thing which boaters speak of no end when in the company of other boaters.  The toilet or rather the poo tank.


We knew we were a bit on the full side but we had been full too in the past before but not experienced this aroma....Its been hot, is that the reason?  

David talked it over with David Lewis (Boat Sharer and the man I love) and David L donned his overalls and began the great poo investigation.  Not for the feint hearted, ironically my husband David, isn't remotely squeamish about poo, he has said on many occasions that he'd worked all his life up to his knees in poo (dairy cows, slightly different, smells better too).




Yes there he is dan the 'ole.

This is where our bikes live normally and my wellies.

Its a big cupboard for a narrow boat but not so big for a tall man.

"I have good and bad news" he says from down in the depths, I wanted the bad news first.
"The bad news is there's no good news"  I think I heard a chuckle then.

"There's foul water sloshing around".... Now that is a nasty word to hear, sloshing let alone foul.

So what had happened was the breather on the tank had become blocked, this had caused the tank to become pressurised.

First thing was to clear the breather, this was rock solid and a wooden stick didn't touch it.  Luckily, a lawn mowing contractor nearby had a thick and hearty piece of wire to donate.  A bit of ramming and thumping got it.

Whilst we were on the service pontoon pumping out, ramming and thumping, the nice man at Thrupp said he'd had a similar issue but with a bee.  I think a sort of wild bee that makes a home out of mud, and this mud in his breather vent had turned to concrete, so Reader you are warned.


 

Rock solid gunk

Head of the bit that had failed.

All the thread had corroded 

So David L cleared the breather and did some other stuff.  It was a Sunday when all this was going on, after pumping out and fixing up a temporary repair and we remaining three promised on our honours not to use the loo until Monday morning, we went to the pub like all good boaters, when the pair of them hot footed up to Banbury and my David was taken somewhere he had never been before, no not a Lap Dancing Club but to a Plumbing Centre where the jolly lovely men rigged up a replacement cobbling two bits together and this below is the result. 
 
Clean and sparkly with working thread and everything.
David L reckoned it was only a matter of time before it was a much much worse problem.


Clean, sparkly and working.


So then that "Sloshing" we used a £20 hand pump for the majority of it and for the rest.....

Yes nappies.  A bag of nappies from Lidl costing £5 were shoved dan the 'ole and soaked pretty much all the rest.  This was a bit of a comical sight as Amanda, David and Lisa were leaning hard over to get the last dregs of slosh over to David L holding the nappy.  

Bingo.

So I read nine years ago in a magazine that no matter what toilet a boater choses, pump out or a "Bucket and chuck it" it will fail.  We are really hoping that we have had our turn and no more.

Reader;  The smell has gone too.

Eternally and utterly sputterly  grateful to David L or Darling as I call him.





 

10 comments:

  1. Mr C calls him darling as well…..

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  2. Well done, David L, I say.
    But why didn't David WaL do the honours? He is shorter and more able to fit inside that hole.

    Last time we were boating, (sigh) we had to replace the bolts that were no longer holding our toilet down to the plinth. Once again, the lovely Ed Shiers of 4 Counties Marine came to our rescue, and I was tasked with cleaning all the bits while waiting for Ed to arrive. Somehow my David also ducked away from the responsibility.
    Lisa darling, what is it about our husbands?
    Mxx

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Darling Lewis, as he is known here, also fitted a new loo seat for me and yes I disinfected the entire pan prior. I am not too squeamish about loos. But I do always have rubber gloves available.
      My own David would have had a go but I think you underestimate just how unmechanical he and indeed we are as a pair.
      Since he had a bad accident 15 years ago he isn't so flexible either.
      He is willing but....
      Lisa x

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    2. OK, then your David can readily be excused contortionist duties. However my David cannot.
      Although to be fair he does take on tasks that require long periods of staying focused, while I lose interest and move on to the next thing - or planning and starting and getting most of the next thing done for him to come along and finish up. In Belbin's Team Styles I am a driver/implementer; my David is a finisher and whatever the style is that involves the minutiae... A pretty effective partnership overall!
      Mxx

      Delete
  3. I bet this becomes your most popular post ever...

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    Replies
    1. You think?????

      I needed persuading to tell it. If I was reading someone else's tale I might well turn the page!

      Have you ever had toilet woes Adam?

      Lisa

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    2. Many — which is why we had the pump out removed and replaced with a composting.

      Boaters love a toilet story, we just can’t stop talking about them.

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    3. Yes Boaters do love to talk toilets. Personally I would prefer not to talk about them over dinner, or even worse a woman regaled us in fine company over dinner at a pub how she had to squeeze her dogs anal gland. Now that took the biscuit, a new low. I've not seen her since and if I did I'd hide behind a bush.

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    4. I so remember this! Trying very hard not to laugh and kicking each other under the table! Lesley was there too was she not?

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