Let's talk about the your Holding Tank Regimes

[RupertW]

We've always had a bag for paper in a lined pedal bin both in Croatia and Greece neither smelly or disgusting and exactly what the marina and hotel loos have (except our lids work). Bagging each head bin once a day and dropping sealed bags into the main sealed trash bag isn't an issue. Holding tanks flush what has been eaten away to the sea and we can do so without worrying even within a mile or so of an island as we won't be leaving trails of paper to float in.

 

[coenvanwyk]

I have been told that urine and seawater combine to make a chalky deposit that could block toilets and holding tanks. A solution, so I heard, is to flush a cup of vinegar and a spoon of olive oil down the loo every week to keep things going. Does this sound logical?

My planned system has toilet and gray water all going into a holding thank withs a discharge valve at the bottom and a pump-out valve at the top, so either is possible, and since these line up one can rod out any blockages. At least so I hope!

 

[Robin]

We've always had a bag for paper in a lined pedal bin both in Croatia and Greece neither smelly or disgusting and exactly what the marina and hotel loos have (except our lids work). Bagging each head bin once a day and dropping sealed bags into the main sealed trash bag isn't an issue. Holding tanks flush what has been eaten away to the sea and we can do so without worrying even within a mile or so of an island as we won't be leaving trails of paper to float in.

So if cruising remote areas where do you store all your nappy bag collections until you get to civilisation and a convenient disposal point?

 

[GrahamHR]

Our regime; don't use it, wait until we are 5-6 miles offshore before using the toilet ( heads if you prefer) !

 

[RupertW]

Our regime; don't use it, wait until we are 5-6 miles offshore before using the toilet ( heads if you prefer) !

I'd love to be on your boat for a few days at anchorage filling up with beer, wine and seafood.

 

[RupertW]

So if cruising remote areas where do you store all your nappy bag collections until you get to civilisation and a convenient disposal point?

Good point - we've never been more than 3 or 4 days before being at an anchorage which we can get ashore from with rubbish. I would take a different approach on an ocean crossing I guess with disposal of the paper way out at sea, keeping only washed plastic rubbish on board. The only time I've had to go into the water to clear a holding tank of days of paper was after a week in Madeira with 4 on board using a holding tank, then 3 days at sea before it overflowed. Those 6 hours are burnt into my nostrils. That was disgusting.

 

[Robin]

Good point - we've never been more than 3 or 4 days before being at an anchorage which we can get ashore from with rubbish. I would take a different approach on an ocean crossing I guess with disposal of the paper way out at sea, keeping only washed plastic rubbish on board. The only time I've had to go into the water to clear a holding tank of days of paper was after a week in Madeira with 4 on board using a holding tank, then 3 days at sea before it overflowed. Those 6 hours are burnt into my nostrils. That was disgusting.

My question really was where to store the bags of rubbish containing the nappy bags as we seem to run out of places to store multiple trash bags on board fairly fast and the thought of perhaps accidentally tearing one and letting it's contents out in the living space is frightening. I suppose we could pile them all up in the dinghy ready to go sshore at a convenient place. Trash Disposal at our local Florida marinas is usually divided into , 'recyclable', 'newspapers', 'general' or 'used oils and oil containers' which category do bags of poopy paper fall into or should it go into the dog poop collection point and blame fido? We routinely use supermarket own brand recycled paper loo rolls that break up rapidly ( too rapidly on occasion) and have never had a problem with blocking the holding tank which is either emptied on our marina's free weekly poop boat run, done whilst in our berth without us needing to be present or we go to the fuel dock and have it done free there or we go for a sail out to sea 3mls or so and open the tank to the sea. I can see why in some instances a bag/box for used papers could be helpful like say on a charter boat with a large number of crew on board but for us a, a husband and wife crew we can manage more simply.

 

[vyv_cox]

I have been told that urine and seawater combine to make a chalky deposit that could block toilets and holding tanks. A solution, so I heard, is to flush a cup of vinegar and a spoon of olive oil down the loo every week to keep things going. Does this sound logical?

My planned system has toilet and gray water all going into a holding thank withs a discharge valve at the bottom and a pump-out valve at the top, so either is possible, and since these line up one can rod out any blockages. At least so I hope!

See post#39

I doubt that a combined black/grey water holding tank would be a good idea. The combination of all the nasties that might be in there is best avoided, I think. The biggest problem with grey water tanks is grease and fat. In a mixed tank I suspect that semi-solid deposits would result, lying in the tank and making removal problematic. On my motorhome the grey tank has a bigger capacity than the fresh water - few boats have this sort of space available.

 

[ghostlymoron]

I'm concerned about the large number of unnecessary plastic bags generated by some of these regimes. Unlike toilet paper, these don't degrade for many years and in areas like the Greek islands rubbish disposal is rudimentary to say the least.

 

[vyv_cox]

I'm concerned about the large number of unnecessary plastic bags generated by some of these regimes. Unlike toilet paper, these don't degrade for many years and in areas like the Greek islands rubbish disposal is rudimentary to say the least.

We are given so many plastic bags in Greece that we now export them to Wales, where they are quite hard to come by. It is almost impossible to persuade shopkeepers that we don't want a bag, or that we are happy to put tomatoes and peppers in the same one. Using the odd one to put toilet paper in is hardly going to affect anything.

 

[knuterikt]

Our regime; don't use it, wait until we are 5-6 miles offshore before using the toilet ( heads if you prefer) !

For Sweden where the OP is sailing it is 12 nautical miles.

 

[RupertW]

I'm concerned about the large number of unnecessary plastic bags generated by some of these regimes. Unlike toilet paper, these don't degrade for many years and in areas like the Greek islands rubbish disposal is rudimentary to say the least.

We use the cheapo plastics bags from shopping not special nappy bags for the loo bins - they don't have the breathing holes that some UK bags have. Answering Robin's question - we have a fair bit of space in the cockpit lockers and keep big black bags in there which gradually fill up with kitchen or loo bin bags - we have enough space for about 3-4 of these so about a weeks' worth or more. The bigger issue is the heat for older bags, which although double bagged could in theory get whiffy but doesn't seem to - I would still hate one of the black bags to break between dinghy and any walk to town bins though. More for the rotten food contents than loo contents though.

 

[ghostlymoron]

I don't know about 'the odd one'. If you use one a day, that's 7 a week, 28 a month or 184 for your 6 months on the boat - not negligible I'd say.

We are given so many plastic bags in Greece that we now export them to Wales, where they are quite hard to come by. It is almost impossible to persuade shopkeepers that we don't want a bag, or that we are happy to put tomatoes and peppers in the same one. Using the odd one to put toilet paper in is hardly going to affect anything.

 

[Robin]

We use the cheapo plastics bags from shopping not special nappy bags for the loo bins - they don't have the breathing holes that some UK bags have. Answering Robin's question - we have a fair bit of space in the cockpit lockers and keep big black bags in there which gradually fill up with kitchen or loo bin bags - we have enough space for about 3-4 of these so about a weeks' worth or more. The bigger issue is the heat for older bags, which although double bagged could in theory get whiffy but doesn't seem to - I would still hate one of the black bags to break between dinghy and any walk to town bins though. More for the rotten food contents than loo contents though.

We had loadsa locker space on our Westerly 33 we owned for 14 years in the UK and loads again on the Jeanneau Sun Legende 41 we had after that . we then lived here in Daytona on a 47ft trawler yacht mobo for a year which had huge locker spaces. We downsized back to sail after my stroke to a lovely Beneteau Oceanis 36 which has far less lockerage than the Old W33 centre cockpit did which lacked the Oceanis's walk through passage to the stern cabin where the cockpit lockers would have been on the W33

I'm just recovering from a bad stomach bug or food poisoning that has had me camped on the poop deck for 36 hours and I would have filled a black bin bag with paper messages all alone, but at least we now live day to day back on dirt with town's sewage connected or even if we are staying at the boat are only a 2 minute walk from the nearest air conditioned bath house ( one on each dock). too much info again....:disgust: SWMBO is just now off to the store for some more of their eco friendly rapid break up loo rolls, none of your bum friendly softee quilted padding jobs here.