Romance is Still Alive - 2 Joker Valves, the Perfect Valentines Gift.

We had an entertaining time at the Soldiers Point Marina. They were very theatrical in their delivery of treats. Valentines Day commenced with a morning delivery of a long stemmed red rose. WOW, there is no end of fun and ways in which they impress.

So having had the morning coffee and papers delivered, then the Rose, the day stretched out ahead of us. Cocktail time wasn't until 4:30. What to do?

We'd noticed that our forward heads had suddenly stopped pumping sea water for the flush. No matter whilst in the Marina. There's plenty of fresh water that we could use. However, we have a low tolerance for  things not working aboard. The agenda being blank until 4:30 cocktail time meant there was time enough to get a chore done. How romantic. I was sent below to check out the problem - inside mostly being my domain.

 

 Assembling the tools for the task.

Heads maintenance has to be approached with forethought and planning. Once in the contamination zone, you don't want to be walking around looking for extra stuff. Screwdrivers, spare parts, rubber gloves, rags, paper towel, lubricants, de-scaling solutions and most importantly brushes were assembled. I already wear glasses so goggles weren't necessary. This is potentially a messy job so T-shirt and undies is appropriate apparel and minimises laundry. The Bloke was on standby in case anything was forgotten and on notice to head-off ANY visitors. This is something no one needs to witness. Inwardly he was probably laughing his head off that I'd agreed to this task.

The culprit was quickly found. A small piece of ribbon weed had neatly folded itself like a springy bank note and acting like a door jam, prevented one of the valves from closing. Without the possibility of creating a seal, sea water couldn't be sucked up to deliver the 'flush'.

 

While I was in situ I decided to replace the joker valve and the gasket with the flapper part. We had recently purchased a maintenance kit with all the routine spare parts. Wee already had a couple of spare joker valves. Happy Days!

The old and the new(top).

Since I was already 'set up' I thought I would top the day off  by also changing the joker valve in the 'poo heads'. We only have one holding tank so we mostly use the forward heads. We save the precious capacity of the holding tank for times when we are on anchor. In 7 years of boat ownership we've only needed to be pumped out twice and that was in Sydney Harbour a few months ago. This indicates how well we are able to manage matters!

Getting down and dirty on the tools.

On completion, I declared myself a national heroine to the Bloke and promptly plodded off to the ablutions to make use of the sauna and gleaming marble bathrooms. The Bloke took pity on me and called out after me that he would take care of lunch. Quite right too. What part of the Valentines Day dream does toilet maintenance feature?

Home delivery from the Boatshed wharfside cafe.

The Bloke knows how to treat a girl, or is that give a girl treats?

 Definitely deserved the Mango Daiquiris - all 3 of them!