Going green

Is it still unclear to me whether 'going green' in this circumstance means we are becoming more sustainable in our boating, or if it means we will be suffering from nausea because of dealing with a composting toilet. But we have decided to give it a try.

Yesterday, we took the boat out for a sail(recall that we had removed the holding tank last weekend, and so had only a bucket to use as a toilet) and spent the early part of the day sailing on the Neuse River. It was wonderful, except the holding tank smell had not abated, even without the tank. Unfortunately, we still had the hoses, and the toilet, and the pump-overboard pump in the head and under the vberth. It was not pleasant.

So, when we returned to the Boonedocks, we called Tom at Below the Decks in Oriental, and he brought out the composting toilet to see if it would fit in our tiny head. This required that we remove the hoses (more yuck) and the toilet (double yuck).

The Nature's Head is 20" tall, 18" front to back, and about 18" wide. Our head is just aft of the vberth, and the base for our current toilet ranges from 8" to 13" deep (the wide part is aft, with an angle up from the base following the contour hull, is 22" wide and is a raised platform (internal fiberglass pan) of about 3". The only way we could make it fit was to raise it 1.5" and angle it slightly. We bought the toilet, and Bob is making a base out of starboard.

With the 20" height, the 3" platform, and the new 1.5" base, the seat is now 24.5 inches off the floor. Compare this to your typical household toilet, which is 13" or so off the floor. We are going to get or make a step so that at least some of us can rest our feet on the step while using the toilet, or perhaps use the step to get up on the toilet. Weird things to write about...

Next trip out to the boat, I expect we will install the base, install the fan, pour in the slightly moistened peat moss, and...use it! Which is great, because the bucket idea was not popular with our 10 year old.