The first question folks like to ask when they find out you live on a boat is often, "How do you go to the bathroom?"
The quick answer is "Like everybody else." The proper yachtsman's answer might be "I'm sorry, but boats don't have bathrooms, they have heads" ... although I know neither response adequately addresses their curiosity.
What inquiring minds want to know is, "Where does it go when you go on a boat?" and the answer is: To be legal and respectful of the environment, Calypso's head flushes into a 20-gallon polyethylene holding tank.
So how do you know how much is in your tank so you've still got room left to go?
Well, about a month ago I installed a SensaTank monitor that lights up with staggered LEDs to let you know well in advance when your tank's getting full.
What happens when the holding tank gets full? It gets pumped out by a big vacuum cleaner contraption. The pumper has a huge hose with a nozzle that fits into a "deck fill" outlet on your boat.
The marina has a self-serve facility at the gas dock where you can pull up & pump out your own (it takes about 15 minutes), or you can call The Pump-Out Boat for slip-side service.
The devil's in the dockside details Department: one person living aboard a boat full-time requires a pump-out about once every 6-8 weeks. On the other hand, I've seen 100-ft houseboats with 90-gallon holding tanks and five people aboard that had to be pumped out every week.
