Day 91, Year 8: On . . . Off
Date: Saturday, February 2, 2013
Weather: Mostly Sunny, Continued Winds with High Temp in the 50’s
Location: Lightkeepers Marina in Coquina Harbor, Little River, SC
The conversation on Windbird this morning went something like, “Turn it on. Now off. Now on again. Now off.” Mark had decided to attack the water leak problem one more time. I think we have had this leak since we returned to Cape Cod in 2011. Time after time, Mark has looked for the leak with no success. But today he was determined. He put red dye into the water system and had me turn on the water pump, then turn it off. Then turn it on again, and off again . . . over and over. I left shortly before noon to go to Patsy and Joe’s to do a little pre-Super Bowl food preparation. I called once mid-afternoon and Mark replied that he had not been successful in finding the leak. It was after dark when I did get home, but I was greeted with an elated Mark. He found it! We have a built-in seat in our shower in the aft head and in that compartment we installed a LectraSan in 2003. The plumbing going to the shower, sink, and toilet was tucked under the LectraSan and that is where Mark found the leak today. It was a loose hose clamp, but there was no way to see this leak without removing the LectraSan. Earlier today when he couldn’t find the leak, he decided to work on other projects. One of them was removing that piece of equipment which we haven’t used since October 2005. If you are a boater, you probably know what this contraption is; but if you are not, you are probably crossing your eyes right now trying to figure out what I am talking about. Basically a LectraSan is a personal sanitation plant. Raritan, the manufacturer, calls it “an environmentally friendly treatment of waste.” But it is no longer ‘legal’ to use it in No Discharge Zones. All of the waters in and around Cape Cod are just that, so we can’t use it there. I think it is legal to use it here, but there is no need since there is a pump out boat that comes once a week. So we will try to sell the LectraSan and use the space for the storage of something useful. But the great thing is that we can now have running water all the time With the leak, we had to turn the water pump on and off every time we wanted to use it. I got so I simply used the foot pump in the galley for all water needs, but that is cold water and washing dishes was not so easy. For now, the problem is solved and we can luxuriate with running hot water all the time. Ahh, the simple pleasures . . .
