Friday the 4th day of June, 2010
While the transmission was being fixed one of the projects that just will not go away is the holding tank plumbing. As I had said in previous posts, I have run new discharge hoses from both newly installed marine toilets. I bypassed the old through hulls and the discharges hoses are directly connected to the holding tank on separate connections. Further I had installed a new ball valve in the discharge of the macerator to fully cut off the macerator and prevent the pump out connection from sucking air when trying to empty the holding tank. So, the last time Susan and I went to the pump out station only a little of the holding tank emptied. What gives? When I took the suction hose off the deck fitting I could hear it suck. But, when I reconnected only a small amount from the holding tank would pass through the sight glass of the pumping fitting. Blockage? Yuck, Maybe the vent. Yep maybe the holding tank vent hose, the only hose I had not changed was kinked or clogged. Yuck again.
So, I have to move my inverter batteries to gain access to the holding tank and there the old vent hose is. I undo the hose clamp while resting one arm on the top of the holding tank. And, as the rusty clamp falls apart gas rushes from the hose as the weight of my arm presses down. Methane or worse smell. I thought I might die before I could get out of the bilge. In the scramble of exiting the bilge I knocked my favorite tool behind the holding tank and it fell out of reach and site. It is my KLEIN 11-IN-1 TOOL. A screw driver tool with interchangeable bits. Never mind it now, I'm fighting for air!!
I opened all doors windows and hoped no one would walk by our stinking boat. After a good while and the gas cleared I figured that YEP THERE IS a vent problem. I decided to check the vent on the outside of the hull and sure enough the vent was so corroded I couldn't even tell where the holes were that were supposed to let the gas out. Now I'm sitting way out passed the end of my finger pier and am working just below the rub rail on the fitting with an ice pick. And, I find where the metal had closed up on 3 holes of the fitting. Splush was the sound as my needle nosed vise grip toll fell into the drink. This was not the day for tools, as I had lost my favorite scraper earlier in the day working on one of the broken windows. But that's another story, that the giant magnet on a rope, that the dock master loaned me to go tool fishing with,, didn't pan out. I didn't even try the magnet to find the vise grips.
To fix the vent, I slipped a small bit into my drill and drilled out all 3 holes of the clogged vent. While I was at it I checked the vent fittings on the two fuel tanks and found one of them completely blocked too. I had a terrible time taking on fuel in one tank and I'm sure the clogged vent was the reason. Drilled the holes out on the 2 tank vents too.
After all that time had passed I figured the bilge was probably free of gas and climbed back down into the bilge. I cut off 1" of the old vent hose and struggled to get a new hose clamp started on the fresh area of the hose. It was after hours and no new hose could be purchased. So, I'm guessing a fresh cut on the old hose would do for now and really for a long time to come. Cleaned up the area, put the deck back into place and slid the inverter batteries back to their strap down area and once again feel the satisfaction of another dirty job finished on Liquid Therapy. Now all I need is a transmission to move the boat to the pump out station to see if the holding tank will empty.

On - to try to retrieve my 11-in-1 tool. Just decided that maybe I could reach it from a forward cabin bilge access hatch. I removed the hatch but could only look down at some small amount of bilge water. Couldn't bend my body in any direction to get my head to look aft. IDEA POPS INTO MY HEAD. CAMERA. CAMERA. CAMERA.
STICK THE digital camera in the access hatch and take an picture in the aft direction. Did just that and I could see the relative distance I needed to reach my 11-in-1. Stuck my hand where my eyes could not view except with my camera eyes and pulled my 11-in-1 the first try. Yep that is the Klein 11-in-1 tool in the right side of this bilge picture. Hum cleaning the bilge next trip down. Yea, saved one tool today!!