Disappointment in the Galley

It's been a slow week for the boat. 

Of course it’s the holidays.  But then it snowed.  And then the snow plow broke down.  :-(    And then our backup, a monster 42" wide snow blower, broke too.  Dammit.  As a result, CAI has been Mr Fixit Guy.  He’s not a mechanic but he can troubleshoot almost anything.  I recall once our little RV refrigerator was on the blink.  After hours of poking around he discovered a carpenter bee had built a mud nest in one of the propane supply tubes!  Clever little bee.

So in additional to the snow storm and the holiday we had a disappointing discovery in the galley. For years CAI has been planning to put a refrigerator/freezer in our galley.  But the other day as he was designing the installation of the system, it all changed.  He came into the house and said to me,

"Would you rather have ice cream or be able to poop?"

Huh?

Long story short, he discovered there isn’t enough room for the refrigerator/freezer that he had planned.  In order to make it all fit, he’d have to get rid of one of our black water tanks. Or he could save both tanks and we would forfeit our freezer (and some storage).  So, therefore his question...ice cream or poop? 

Well if you know about cruising you might argue that sailors dump their black water into the ocean.  That's an infinitely large black water tank, right? Who needs two tanks, right? Wrong. You can dump like that only when you are at sea a long way from shore. When you are in port, you are restricted to using your black water tank and pumping it out when it’s full. Some marinas, like Catalina, CA, are so serious about this that they put dye into your tanks when you enter the harbor.  If you dump your tank everyone will know.  And really, who wants to pollute like that?

All right, so when it’s time to empty your tank you need to move your boat to get it pumped.  It’s not a short 15 minute affair.  So CAI built in a 2nd black water tank to stretch the time between pumpouts.  Good move.  You can see the tank in the image below, outlined in red.

So now the question made more sense to me.  Ice cream or poop.  We settled for poop. 

Next week I'll tell you about our special eutectic cold plate fridge and why we don't just buy a little dorm fridge.