I woke up one day in while we were in Brisbane with the intent of doing a few minor chores and taking the rest of the day off. Then came the ominous comment from Kim! ‘The forward head smells like something died in there.’ I knew I hadn’t used it recently so I wasn’t responsible. But I got the distinct impression it was going to be my problem to fix. (Definitely a blue job!)

Now head problems are almost universal in cruising and most of us have been head down in the toilet even before the drinking begins, What is generally involved is to try to detect the source of the odour (a very inexact science) and then disassemble,clean and reassemble the offending part. So that is what I did.

First I checked the holding tank, a common source of odour, but it smelled exceptional well (for a holding tank). Next I checked the hoses by wiping them and then smelling the cloth. They passed the wipe test with flying colours. This was followed by the actual toilet and pump. All were taken apart cleaned and reassembled. That should do it. However five strokes of the pump and again it smelled like death. Now I am starting to get confused as I am running out of possible causes.. . Again I do the sniff test, this time while pumping the head and with my head in the bowl, and determine the odour is coming from the bowl itself and is worse when it is flushed.

The next phase of the project occurs on day two as the above took the entirety of day one.(Remember the idea of taking the rest of day one off)

I unbolted the toilet bowl from the floor, disconnected the hoses and took the ceramic bowl out onto the dock.

I must digress here as some of you may not know the anatomy of a marine toilet bowl. In essence it has a hole at the back top where water goes in, supplied by a hose connected to the ocean. It is distributed into a enclosed and inaccessible ceramic ring with small holes that let the water run down the inside of the bowl and out the bottom. So I take a hose and spray blindly into the hole at the back and the water goes around the ring, some exits through the small holes and a lot more goes all the way around the ring and exits back at me! I then shook the bowl (an interesting sight for anyone else on the dock) and to my surprise had two small very dead and decomposed fish fall out the hole I have been spraying into. I followed this with a few more sprayings and then bleach to clean the inaccessible inner ceramic ring.

Reassembly confirmed success. The mystery was solved, Two small fish had been sucked up into the intake hose, through the pump and into the ring of the bowl where they got stuck (I expect very dead by this point in their trip). I have now installed a strainer on the intake line to prevent a recurrence and have already caught another small fish!

So the moral of the story: If your wife says the head smells like someone died and you haven’t been in it recently, think of fish!!