December 2017 – New Dawn: Sailing Hiraeth and the journey therein

Merry Christmas from Florida here on Hiraeth. We had some awesome fog the morning of Christmas Eve.

Christmas Eve service hosted by Bridge Point Church at the Mahaffey Theater. We walked back with Sarah, John and Susan.

The service was quite a production. That night we joined some friends from college who even put together some stockings for us so we could join in with their family! Thanks Matt and Shannon!

Christmas day we enjoyed a nice walk along the waterfront before joining James and Robin and friends aboard S/V Sarita Sea for homemade gumbo and New Orleans boudin.

A very nice Christmas here in Florida. Without the snow it didn’t really feel like Christmas until the day’s festivities. But still I’m thankful for the season and to celebrate Christ’s birth.

I think nearly every sailing blog has a post (or two) on the topic of head repair. When living on land I take for granted that when I flush the toilette my waste simply goes away. I only have to think about it when the water/sewer bill comes due (or when I have to dig up the tank to be pumped.) Aboard it’s probably a weekly issue and if the head is acting up… Ain’t nobody happy.

Anyway, my head had been leaking for a few months and it was finally time to sit down and see what the problem was. I have a Raritan PHII manual pump marine toilette and I’ve heard good things about it. It seemed pretty easy to disassemble. In preparation I also bought the rebuild kit. So I got started.

Pump Housing - Before — Pump Housing – Before

After completely disassembling the unit Sara and I cleaned all the parts and installed all the new o-rings and seals from the rebuild kit.

While cleaning the pump housing I discovered the crack which was the cause of the leak.

I called around but no one carried the pump housing. Ordering one would take at least two days so I decided to use some 3M 4000 adhesive sealant that I had in my toolbox. I applied the sealant on the inside and outside of the pump.

Finally I assembled everything and tested the pump.

Sure enough it worked like a charm. Now we’ll wait to see how long my sealant hack works. I should probably order the pump housing now to have it if and when the sealant breaks down. Here’s hoping it lasts a good long time!

Month: December 2017

Merry Christmas

Head Repair