DAY 9: Bristol Writer's Conference

Eleanor "ommmmms" and gets ahead

Attending a conference via boat brings a few challenges including how to arrive on campus via bicycle without looking like you were dropped from a helicopter. There’s the matter of keeping your clothing from becoming entangled in the chain, and carrying your writing materials as well as a sweater to manage the A/C. I did okay, thanks to a small backpack and my Dorothy basket.

I also use a “Remarkable”- in which you can create electronic “notebooks” - keeping the topics separate but all on one very thin tablet.

“We’re going to begin this morning with a meditation, followed by a free-write,” said the instructor for my first class. I cringed. I hate public meditation. I also am not crazy about free-writing. After we’d properly located our sitz bones, (mine still sweaty from the ride over) we were offered a prompt by author Octavia Butler:

“I'm a 48-year-old writer who can remember being a 10-year-old writer and who expects someday to be an 80-year-old writer. I'm also comfortably asocial -- a hermit in the middle of Los Angeles -- a pessimist if I'm not careful, a feminist, a Black, a former Baptist, an oil-and-water combination of ambition, laziness, insecurity, certainty, and drive.” - OB

So I wrote:

“I am a 60-year-old too-tight and snapping athlete, water-drawn and bound, who is best driven by the clock and who is always looking for the right time. Oil and water combo: Driven to procrastinate.”

Feel free to try this at home.

A few pretty pictures:

Eleanor at the City Pier

We’re in a working harbor, so lots of fishing, fire, police, etc boats as well as the local ferry to somewhere.

Our rise-and- blog schedule is aligned with the local fishing crowd.

I’m off for a bit of floating dock yoga (pretty challenging) then back to school.

Here is now Captain Jon has been keeping his “head: in the game:

While Terese was off at school I took the time to clean the boat and take care of some minor maintenance items like topping off the hydraulic steering fluid and tightening some loose screws on the bridge. With those busy-work chores out of the way, I went to YouTube University to diagnose our vacuum head system’s current issues.

The toilet on Eleanor is a state-of-the-art Mansfield Vacuflush system from 1981. The original manufacturer is long gone, but as a popular and efficient system (when fully operational) the company plans and patents were purchased by SeaLand Technology. Over the decades, SeaLand was purchased by Dometic from Sweden and here we are today. Parts are available for our OG unit, but not always readily.

The system works with a vacuum pump that builds up a suction and waits. When you step on the floor pedal in the head, a big valve opens in the base of the toilet and everything disappears down the drain with amazing velocity, pumped aft 25 feet to a holding tank. The pump engages at the end of the cycle and builds up a vacuum pressure of 10-12 inches in the system. After about 20 seconds of pumping the pump shuts down, charged and ready for the next customer.

Our problem is a tiny leak in the system. Despite nobody going near the head, about every 15 minutes the vacuum pressure in the system leaks down to a point the pump thinks a flush has happened so it turns on the pump. With both of our air conditioners running there is enough white noise in the boat for us not to hear this 5 second burst of vacuum pumping as it rebuilds its suction pressure. Here in New England we’ve been enjoying sleeping with the A/C off, hatches open, and the fresh sea air filling the boat. The noise of the vacuum pump interrupts that tranquility. So, at bedtime we go to the main power panel in the saloon and turn off the breaker for the pump. Downside of that is if we get up in the night we have to go through the reverse process to use the head.

The big white tank holds the vacuum

The internet is full of advice, videos, drawings, and parts vendors to address this common situation of tiny vacuum leaks. The best trick I learned was to start the troubleshooting process with two buckets of hot soapy water down the toilet before cracking open the system downstream. A little splash of Dawn dish soapy water beats the alternative.

I have to leave the A/C off while trouble shooting so I can listen for sounds of an air leak. Boat gets hot pretty quick.

I won’t bore you with the details but the three points of possible failure are toilet bowl flange, duck bill valves, and pressure switch. I replaced the toilet bowl flange over the winter and checking it out it is not the source of the problem. I pulled the floor of the cabin up and got to the duck bill valves. I cleaned them thoroughly but there was no apparent issue there. The pressure switch is a special part. I had ordered one in the spring from Florida but it is for a slightly newer system and I hadn’t gotten around to sending it back and getting the correct one. My bad.

Photo: I searched for replacement “Duck Bill Valves” at the local Camping World Store website and this is what they recommend.

I’ve found some advice on how to rig a second switch right by the toilet to save having to go to the main breaker panel every time we want to flush. Depending on what happens today I might try and wire something up while Terese is at school. I’ve found two hardware stores within biking distance of the Bristol Town Dock.

Since we have another week to go, and the head is working, Terese is strongly recommending I don’t break it further while trying to fix this tiny leak. I wish my brother Andrew was here to help. More tomorrow.