Location 25° 40S, 137° 27W
Sunday, 10.21.2007

The Schooner Maggie B was at at noon on October 21. We are making 8.2 knots close hauled to the southeast, more or less on our Great Circle for Puerto Montt. The wind is 15 knots from the ENE. The weather is lovely with little scattered clouds.

We have come 1648 NM from Rangiroa and have 3261 to go to Chile. We did 180 NM in the last 24 hours.

There was no noon report yesterday because Our Captain and Chief Plumber was making a heroic but unsuccessful 15 hour attempt to fix our toilet. It was disassembled and reassembled. Joker valves were replaced. Hoses were switched and decalcified. The Black Water tank was plumbed. Seacocks were checked to be clear. Nothing helped.

Today Deputy Chief Plumber Robert Farrar is attacking. Pressures are being applied and we all hope for success.

I know that friends who were shocked that we have only one head are saying “I told you so!”

For you arm-chair plumbers, here’s the problem:

1. When is use, it will not pump out. It is as if an exit valve were shut off. But there is no exit valve. The problem came on quickly, rather than gradually “closing down.”

2. If the “Out Hose” to the bottom of the Black Water tank is detached, the toilet will pump easily and merrily without effort.

3. The Black Water tank is empty and appears to be completely open to the sea through the hull.

4. The inlet pipe in the Black Water tank is plumbed from the bottom and supposedly ends just before the top of the tank. It shows some calcification, but we could ram a thumb-sized electrical cable up it, and it seemed to bang on the top. The Inlet pipe is not accessible except from the bottom.

5. When we tried pumping with the hose connected to the Black Water tank, with the tank’s deck pumpout fitting open, it wouldn’t pump.

6. When we tried attaching the “out hose” from the toilet to the through-hull fitting, it would not pump. Though that was late at night and perhaps the seacock was not open. We will that recheck today, if nothing else works.

7. We cleaned and decalcified and ensured that the “out hose” was clear and clean as a new hose.

Any ideas would be welcome.

All is well, if you don’t mind peeing and pooping in a bucket.