No pump-out service in winter - solutions?

[CrazyRu]

Well, 6 months of cheap rent at $1200/mo will last about a year of no rent at all in Bahamas.

I use composting head. There are options of bucket, porta-potty, or dumping #1 overboard and walking to marina facility with # 2. Or using your holding tank when #2 call comes in the middle of the night. Unless it happens every night, your tank may last through the winter. You also can go tuna fishing outside of New York Harbour and dump your tank in the ocean

[River Cruiser]

After the last pump out of the year I make the trip to the shower house. I hate making that walk at night & use a wag bag in one of the heads. Clean the head with Lysol put the bag in & it's ready for that emergency at night. Most camping supply places carry them, I get them at Cabelas.

[Aikiboat]

Thanks everyone for the additional ideas and feedback! Definitely some options to consider. I'd be working full time during the weekdays so it's really the late (cold) nights that I'm considering. Otherwise, I'd make the trip up the dock. Really don't have the first clue how quickly a 25 gallon waste storage tank would fill if the head is used on a normal basis.

[twoifbysea]

Originally Posted by River Cruiser

After the last pump out of the year I make the trip to the shower house. I hate making that walk at night & use a wag bag in one of the heads. Clean the head with Lysol put the bag in & it's ready for that emergency at night. Most camping supply places carry them, I get them at Cabelas.

Ah, wag bags. Reminds me of Afghanistan.

[GaryMayo]

The head you have now is perfect for the job, it just needs wag bags added. Who knows, you may grow to prefer doing it like this:

http://www.cruisersforum.com/forums/...ads-93099.html

[Supers0nic]

My girlfriend and I are starting our third year being full time liveaboards I’m Maine. We use the C-Head composting toilets. It seems to be the simplest design and no problemo so far.

[markpierce]

Obtain and use a chamber pot. At worse, you'd have to make a once-a-day walk to the marina's land-based toilet to dispose of the pot's contents. My great-grandmother had chamber pots located under each bed in her farmhouse to reduce trips to the outhouse.

[CaptTom]

Originally Posted by markpierce

Obtain and use a chamber pot.

Or the modern equivalent:


$12 on Amazon. Only works for #1, but for many of us that cuts WAY down on the number of trips up the dock. They also sell a female adapter.

[thinwater]

I'm generally pretty anti-discharge, but given that no one is swimming in the winter and the history of combined sewer overflows in NYC, I'd install a type 1 MSD and not worry about it in the winter.

For those that do not know about combined sewers, sanitary waste and storm water run in the same pipe. At the end of the line, there is a sump pump that sends the waste to the treatment plant. However, because the plant can only handle so much volume, when it rains more than a sprinkle, the waste overflows into the river. This is not an accidental spill, this is normal and designed for. On the average, a type 1 MSD is going to outperform a heavily loaded combined sewer.

I would also use the marina facilities as much as practical, so the MSD discharge will be limited.

[IslandHop]

Used an "airhead" composter brand. Works surprisingly well with little smell. Very cheap. You could go for a bigger holding tank possibly, more expensive then a small portable composter I would think and do the dock dance. I would assume the good skips closer to the bathroom would be taken already?

Cheers

[Dymaxion]

$150 porta-potty will have a pull out tank you simply dump down any working toilet once filled. Good for #1, #2 and vomit. Try Wal-Mart or Amazon.

[ranger58sb]

If it's not in a No-Discharge Zone (NDZ) a Type I MSD (Purasan, etc.) would seem to be an option.

Another option is to buy your own portable pump-out machine. Gotta include a way to empty that too, though...

-Chris