Rapturous!

Tanks
"I've had my fill of tanks!" announced John who has been wrestling with the tanks on his Island Packet boat since he bought it five years ago. Our headaches started in Morro Bay when our fresh water tank which we'd just filled up started gurgling and spitting. "Impossible", said Greg, "give it time to bleed the airlock." Optimism springs eternal.
Mind you, we have 2 fresh water tanks, with 100 gallons in one and 60 gallons in the other. Of course, it was the bigger tank that was acting up. We switched to the smaller tank. That one was fine and a quick look through the large tank's access port showed that it was about 3/4 full, if we could get to it. As recounted in a previous blog, we stocked up with bottled water and headed out for our 6 days of self-sufficiency.
Now began the investigation. Greg and John traced the hoses they could see, checked the filters, valves, connections and hose clamps and but found nothing amiss. So the leak had to be in the pick-up hose in the tank itself. This was bad news because there is no way to get at that hose and associated fitting . The only way to get at it would be to rip out the salon benches and drill another access port through the teak floor into the fiberglass tank.
In Santa Barbara, 6 days later we filled the tanks again. The theory was confirmed when the tank pressured up again. It remains to be seen how deep the leak is. On this trip it is no longer a concern since we will be in and out of marinas, but the problem will have to be fixed before we go cruising ($$$).
No sooner had this concern been resolved than we discovered a problem with our sewage holding tank. Although we had been opening our holding tank outside the 3-mile coastal boundary, there was "stuff" and a dreadful smell coming out of the overflow vent when someone flushed the head. The tank should have been empty! The guys went into investigation mode again. Much pumping and flushing later, they concluded that there is a blockage (Eww) in the holding tank drain.
Obviously, the first order of business was emptying the tank - all 55 gallons of it. Before mooring at Two Harbors on Catalina Island, we went to the pump-out station which was an adventure worthy of its own blog entry. Now, at least, sewage wouldn't be overflowing into the marinas. A final attempt to drain the tank on the passage across to Los Angeles did not dislodge the blockage so we will have to have this fixed at well when the boat goes on the hard this winter($$$$$$).
We anticipated neither of these problems when we set out for this trip. It is better to find it out now than when we go cruising for 3 or 4 years but it would be nice if the TO DO list were getting shorter instead of longer.