Holding Tanks

Re: France, speculation etc

I remember going in to ( I think) Calvi on Corsica and finding that only one berth remained free.

We found out later why. Raw sewage from the town exited here - into the marina!

John

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Re: France, speculation etc

If raw sewage was exiting at that berth, why only that one vacant, and not the whole marina vacant? A whole town emptying effluent into a marina would mean every berth would be equally affected?

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Re: France, speculation etc

in Barcelona the whole marina is affected, especially after heavy rain, which washes it all down, all the water seems to go through the same system, the whole of Barceloneta stinks after rain, it stinks a lot of the time, but after rain it's unbearable and makes your eyes water. Theres not a lot of sewage treatment plants around the greek mainland coast either.

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I went into Palermo last year.

the town quay absolutely stank. Open drains and sewers staright into the harbour. I was physically retching, so we left staright away.

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Re: I went into Palermo last year.

I think that rests the case for holding tanks around those coasts, but still a useful feature, if you are in a lovely anchorage with peeps swimming etc. I don't have one yet, but intend fitting one, for those times. A little difficult on my boat admittedly, with three heads! I think I'll just put it on one heads, for use at those times and ban use of the others.

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Re: I went into Palermo last year.

we often have a policy of 'no paper, no solids' for one head which continues to discharge overside while the other one goes to the tank. that allows us a longer time in harbour before going to sea to pump out.

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Re: I went into Palermo last year.

Good idea, I'll use that system, when I get round to fitting a tank. The more I think about it, the two aft heads could quite easily go to a holding tank, as they both discharge to the same seacock, which makes it all a little easier. Need one of those definitely no blockage macerator discharge pumps though!! I've had enough of head unblocking, yeuck!

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head first in the heads

What a ghastly memory. It's weird. My old Snapdragon would block the heads as soon as look at them. The C&N never (touches wood) does. So maybe I've seen the last of my days of lying upside down with two spanners wating for the inward rush of ... eugh! stop there

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pump out

don't worry about fancy macerator pumps. we use a whale gusher titan with a t-valve so it also serves as a bilge pump. the only time it ever blocked was when it sucked up a bit of fibreglass left in the tank.

the action of waves stirs up the tank and reduces everything to a liquid. we pump the tanks then switch over to do the bilges so the pump is left with clean water inside after use.

the titan empties our 50 gal tank in 200 strokes which takes about 5 minutes.

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Shore stations are massive vacuum punps, you don't need the kit to pump it up to the shore tanks.

If you are planning to do this for when you visit a countrty where it would be needed - I would wait until you reach that country, where a busy and expert trade in fitting holding tanks will be in full swing. The nearest country is turkey, so not needed unles you plan to go inland.



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Re: France, speculation etc

B---y 'ell! I'm glad I'm boating over 'ere where holding tanks are de rigeur and the penalties for discharging sewage within 9 miles (I think; 3 mi elsewhere) of the Gulf of Mex shore are severe. But there are a lot of pumpout stations - some for use free of charge. When I want a pumpout in our marina and can't be bothered to pootle over the the pumpout stn, I call the office and a mobile sucky thingy is brought to the boat. (God help me, I'm talking like you:-) )You see the Americans do care about the environment really!

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