Marine toilets on the East Coast

Ah - I assumed you meant 100% of solids get dumped at sea as a matter of process, rather than a proportion, and mostly (legally at least) after treatment.
 
Ours is toilet to tank with no by pass , if we are visiting a marina then the dump valve is closed , use shore facilities anyway , then soon as we’re underway and away from marina the valve is opened & stays open until we leave the boat
 
stoursailor said:
Do most people have holding tanks and offload out at sea? Or are most people just using loos and flushing out wherever they happen to be. I’m thinking particularly about estuaries.
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Not having done a survey, I would guess that only a small proportion, let's say 10% or less, of yachts have holding tanks. I would hope that the majority of sailors aim to do their business ashore, but this can never be 100%. Sea water is pretty good at dealing with nasties, but I am sure that most of us don't want to add more than is necessary to what could be a potential problem.
 
AntarcticPilot said:
WHen I was a geology student in Cambridge, we were told that the river Cam had passed through human kidneys several times by the time it was downstream of the local sewage works.
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That’s beneficial to everyone - they will have been treated by every homeopathic remedy there is and for nowt.
 
OOI, does anyone have an idea of the tonnage of fish, crustacea and sea mammals living round our bit of coast?

And the tonnage of people staying on boats per month?
 
Our practice is not to worry about liquids, but only use the toilet for solids in places with a free flow of tide through them. If I had a holding tank, I'd ensure I was in open water before discharging it.

Basically, you aren't putting anything into the sea that isn't already there from runoff from fields and marine mammals, not to mention the output from sewage plants.

In other threads, people have pointed out that the Joker valve of a marine toilet will effectively macerate anything passing through it.
 
AntarcticPilot said:
WHen I was a geology student in Cambridge, we were told that the river Cam had passed through human kidneys several times by the time it was downstream of the local sewage works.
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some 10 yrs ago we filled the water tank in Limehouse prior to departing on the tide, nxt day in Chatham i pumped the whole lot down the sink, it was disgusting
 
I can't find it in me to be critical of those in small or old boats who don't have holding tanks. They are only doing what we did for years in the '70s and '80s. It is not really practical to row from the Pyefleet to Brightlingsea to use the shore loos after a night at anchor. I once did it in a Redcrest to reach a phone box for family reasons, in the dark, but I don't recommend it.
 
Cavalierbond said:
Mersea island outfall ..... count the amount of lobster pots around it ....
you are what you eat haha
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We have just had 18 oysters delivered from Richard Haward on Mersea so we will be able to tell you shortly how many people use holding tanks in Pyefleet.

I wonder what oysters do with the Covid virus they filter?

As an aside my wife was very impressed with the oysters as it is her birthday and has declared them better than Bluff oysters (she is a Kiwi). I was very impressed with the service and the quality. they arrived on time to deepest Buckinghamshire and were still chilled . Great service from a 300 year East Coast producer.
 
We do as others have said. Loo paper - we have dealt with various blockages (not fun) and now have a bag for used paper (we use dog poo bags).
Most northern European countries have strict holding tank rules and no discharge within a few miles offland. So far, we have found virtually no working pump out facilities in Germany, Netherlands, Denmark,Sweden or Norway, except in the poshest marinas, which usually charge. What do the locals do - see the above answers!
 
Mother nature has a very effective system for dealing with poop (provided she's not overloaded). It's all the chemicals she's not so good at.
 
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