Two quickie lessons
In addition to the hiking guide Ready To Get Wet? that we published last spring, and the follow-ups to that one that have yet to be completed, I have a more significant piece that has been taking shape in my head for the last little while. It is a compendium of lessons that we’ve learned since we first took on this cruising project, most of which have taken the form of mistakes that we have made. Here are the two most recent ones:
In spite of the fact that Rebecca and I have been working relatively consistently on our French, we still ran into a bit of an issue during our stay in Deshaies. As most of our passages have not been beautiful sails like the one I detailed yesterday, we have been putting a few hours on our engines to propel us. To do that, we need fuel which, for our boat, is Gasoline. Deshaies does not have a fuel dock that we can just pull the boat up to so Rebecca and I were required to hike to the gas station, toting four 5-gallon jerry cans along with us. It was a Sunday morning and we were a little concerned that the fuel station would not be open. When we arrived, we were happy to see that it was and in fact, it was quite busy with numerous people hanging out and cars coming and going. The female attendant promptly served us but prior to filling the jugs, we had the conversation that we always have in situations like that… “we want Gasoline, not Diesel.” “Gasoline” she repeated, picking the nozzle out of one of the two pumps labeled Gasoil. There was a 3rd pump labeled Sans-Plomb which I ineffectively tried to translate. Without something was the best that I could come up with at the time. I repeated Gasoline again and the lady repeated it back to me and began filling our jerry cans. Even after all that, I still wasn’t sure that it wasn’t Diesel so while she was topping the first jug up, I leaned over to smell the contents. With nothing to compare it to, I wasn’t sure so I let her continue. I’m sure most people can guess where this is heading. Yup, it turned out to be Diesel. She filled up all four cans, we paid and started walking away with them. With a nagging suspicion in my gut, we stopped after crossing the road, opened one can up and then poured some of the fuel onto my hand. At that point it was all too clear… she had filled our jerry jugs with Diesel, not Gasoline. 🙁
Was I pissed? Oh yeah, but at least as much at myself as I was at the attendant. Someone had warned me before that Gasoil is the French word for Diesel but I had forgotten. We had also learned, but not remembered, that the French word for Gasoline is Essence. Why couldn’t we have communicated that more effectively?
What did we do? The French people around the station were all quite friendly. We were lead over to the spot where the trucks deliver the fuel to the station and were directed to dump the contents of all four jerry cans into the pipe in the ground. After making sure that they were as clean as we could, we repeated the filling procedure although, this time around, with Sans-Plomb!
- Lesson: In French, the word for Diesel is Gasoil. The word for Gasoline in Essence. We will not make this mistake again, you can count on that!
The shoreline of Deshaies at sunset.
Yesterday’s issue, which resulted in another lesson, took a lot longer to manifest. For quite some time our manual head (toilet) has become increasingly difficult to pump. I suspected that it had something to do with the inner workings of the pump but since we could always get it to work, I just let it go. Yesterday, it failed to pump at all though so I was forced to tackle the dreaded brown job. What did I find after disassembling the pump? Most of the fittings were caked with rock hard mineral deposits. I had heard reports of this type of build up from other sources but this was the first time that I had experienced it. One fitting, which should have had near a 2″ hole for material to flow through, now had a hole less than the diameter of my index finger. No wonder it was difficult to pump! It took a lot of work to rectify this issue, work which included soaking the fittings in vinegar, scraping and chipping with a screw driver, and even copious use of a Dremel tool. A gross job? Oh yeah, that is for certain!
Apparently it is the interaction of urine and salt water which causes this build up when left stagnant in the fittings/hoses.
- Lesson: Pump the head a lot more, at least 12-15 times after each use, to ensure that everything other than water is completely flushed from the system. Rest assured, after all that work yesterday, we’ll be doing this from now on.
Is there a product that you can use regularly to prevent the buildup? I have always used olive oil on the boat, but that was with vacu-flush and not seawater…..Good to know that word in french for next month….
No product necessary… just flush properly with water. The oil just keeps the seals/gaskets lubricated. I seem to recall my friend Drew saying that it was better to use something other than olive oil. We use olive oil when cooking but generic vegetable oil in the head.
http://sail-delmarva.blogspot.com/2013/01/what-should-i-be-testing.html
As a chemist, I suspect the sans-plume is without “lead” as plumbum is the latin for lead, and the reason plumbers are so-named.
Thanks, Lyndsay. I knew it meant unleaded but couldn’t figure out the connection.
Vegetable oil works much better as a lubricant and lasts longer than Olive oil in heads. A little capful every once in a while is plenty.
I have used lemon juice and white vinegar to clean heads with some success. Pour a cup or more of each into the dry head, then pump that mix through the system. Pour the same amounts into the head and just pump a few strokes to ensure the mix is in the fittings. This works pretty well on joker valves, which is often the first part to malfunction due to scale build up.
Sans Plomb means unleaded, as in Gasoline.
We keep both a little squirt bottle of vegetable oil and a bottle of vinegar in the head, convenient for periodic applications.
great if you are eating salad while doing your business and need some dressing lol love the blog i will miss it when you guys turn into workies doing charters
lots to learn I never understood the ecentric capt who made me flush my pee with twenty flushes in st martin now I know lol .
Who says the blog will stop when we take on the new boat? You never know. Maybe I’ll just sleep less.
I see you have got suggestions about keeping the head clean. Another thing to do, if need be, is remove the hoses, take them ashore and thrash them vigorously on some rocks. This breaks up the scale and it falls out.
A linguist surprised me one time by saying she always took a phrase-book ashore with her, even if she knew the language. She had found that key words sometimes slipped her memory. Perhaps excusable as she does speak 7 languages!
If you get as far as doing a compendium of tips. You might consider circulating a draft before finalising it. You will have seen that there are many followers of your blog who have all learnt lots of tips and might be able to volunteer a few more for you. Drew would be an obvious case of huge experience.
Mike
Without a doubt… many of our readers have a huge store of cruising-related knowledge.
I was thinking that maybe the best way to get gasoline and not diesel would be to have them translated onto the cans for every language that you may encounter. I would have done the same thing with the gasoil. Good thing you checked before you got back to the boat and dumped it.
That is a good idea. In the Eastern Caribbean you fortunately only have to deal with French and English. Add in Spanish for the Western spots and you’re good to go down here.
Wow, your toilet has a two foot diameter hose… Just what are you guys eating…
Lol…I am guessing you meant “, not ‘.
As for the title, I assumed I was about to get lessons on nautical “quickies”.
2 feet to the size of my index finger… that would have been a LOT of buildup. Fixed!
As for the nautical quickies… do you figure people need tips on that? 🙂
You could switch to a composting head 😉
:p
We’ll get right on that!
Open the can and have the attendent sniff it before filling and you wont have to worry about language barriers.
If you read the post you’ll see that I did do that. As I have very little experience with Diesel, when I did that, I still wasn’t sure. I suspect that learning the proper words for the fuels is at least as good as trusting your nose.
Great post,
and now you have the understanding or d’essence de gasoil – by the way san’s plomb means “lead free” or unleaded. This is good to know, whenever my Spanish was lacking I used to switch to French – hoping… well, let’s just say it made for some interesting meals. If you ever need a quick test, test it with a stick or piece of paper – gas evaporates in about a minute, diesel will take hours. Also no worries about some diesel in the tanks, as long as you are 90% gas it should be fine. Might even help lube your motor a little, more than that and it will be smoky.
Sounds like y’all are having fun…
Merci beaucoup, Mike!
Wow 18 poop comments, that has got to be some kind of record.. 😉
Not even close.
Sounds as though your head needs a good dousing of vinegar once in a while to keep those urine/salt crystals at bay.
We do that.
Hi Mike and Rebecca,
I look forward to your compilation of lessons learned. Your adventures are taken by us as a guide book in”real time” LOL…
Minor things can be, major things at the end of the day.. Thanks for this and taking the time to journal and openly tell the tale.
Fred and Phyllis
Lady J 111
A “real time” guidebook… it’s kind of like following a boat into an anchorage and when they run aground, you can change course. 🙂
My uncle bought us a book when he learned of our cruising plans…Sailing for Dummies. Funnily enough, that’s a navigation strategy in the book! Preferably a boat with a deeper draft than yours.
We’ve done it!
Yup, and I have been both…haha
🙂
I flush 1/2 gallon vineagar once a month followed by 2-3 caps of veggie oil to lube up the parts (Raritan PHII). After removing my 10 year old head to replace with an electric head, I noticed very little plaque and the head never failed me. I did change to freshwater flush 3 years ago.
Freshwater would make all the difference in the world.
I second the composte head. Best thing since sliced bread!
Pure Poetry!
I take it you haven’t read my posts on the composting head, AJ? Perhaps you should search our blog for references to that. We disagree 100%!
Mike,
1. For your heads, good practice is a cup of vinegar every two weeks, and the combination of vinegar and baking soda once per month particularly to clean the bowl. Flush the vinegar into the lines, let it sit and then push it through at least an hour later. You can also flush through some vegetable/olive oil on a monthly basis, but we don’t need it for a Lavac toilet. We have had to take off toilet hose from time to time and I can assure you – there is absolutely no build-up of crystals. Another factor is that I never pee in the toilet. As a result of a habit I developed while building my boat, I always pee in a bottle and empty it daily. Therefore, there is only 1 person peeing in our heads.
2. You should have paid attention in chemistry class. Pb is on the periodic table of the elements.
3. Did you buy your jerry cans (red ones) in Canada before you left? If yes, then aren’t they marked in French with “Essence”.
I admire your courage for admitting the mistake with the gasoil versus essence purchase. The pumps are marked the same way in Belgium and France.
I don’t think it takes courage to admit a mistake. I know for a fact that if we make a particular mistake, others would be sure to do the same.
As for the cans being marked in French, I think we bought them in Annapolis. I’ll have to check next time we have one uncovered.
Leave the vinegar to soak overnight. It takes several hours to dissolve the calcium buildup with a weak acid like vinegar.
About once/year, take the pump apart and lubricate the piston with a waterproof grease. It will be sooo much easier to pump. They gradually get harder to pump and you don’t notice the change.
That last sentence is fact.
1. Gas oil is also diesel in the US; it’s an international nomenclature used around refineries but not at retail. Generally referred to as VGO (vacuum gas oil) it is a generally a heavier grade.
2. CLR (lactic acid) tested best for removing scale/urates. MUCH faster than vinegar and also easier on the neoprene and sanitary hose (less affect on permeation rates). Beating hose on a rock is faster! The BEST thing you can do (other than peeing over the side) to reduce scale is to flush the urine well through the head and hoses immediately with at least 7 strokes per 5 feet of hose; no reaction time with urine, no scale.
3. For lube, opening the pump and using grease 1x per year worked best. Next was olive oil. For Jabsco heads (neoprene) vegy oil is bad, but Raritan heads (nitrile) don’t mind as much. But neither will have any effect on scale.
I’ve been researching heads WAY to much. PS article on joker valves vs. chemicals out next month.
Way too much? Do you think? 😉
Thanks Drew. You’re always a wealth of info.
Where would one buy lactic acid?
CLR is the product name (calcium, lime, rust). I’ve used a bunch of acid cleaners around both the plant and the boat, and it offers the best combination of speed, price, and safety on the equipment.
Gotcha! I didn’t know the active ingredient in that.