By the time I built my Caledonia yawl in 2003, I had done enough cruising to understand that I needed a boat that was not designed only for the usual functions while making way. Whether I sailed, rowed, motored, or even stayed put on any given day, I knew that every day I would need to eat and sleep. Two cruises up the Inside Passage made it clear that there were not always places to camp and even if there were, the inevitability of biting bugs and the chance of biting bears kept spending nights ashore out of the picture. I redesigned the yawl’s interior to include accommodations for cooking, eating, and sleeping.That made life aboard much more comfortable, but I hadn’t given enough thought to another certain daily occurrence, using the toilet. I remedied that oversight with my next cruiser and built a place for a small porta-potti. Aside from the convenience it provides, it minimizes dependence on shore facilities and frees me from the less convenient system of wrap-it-up-and-pack-it-out I had practiced when I was camp-cruising by kayak.
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A timely article, Chris, as I have been contemplating the very same two units for my new boat.
Great review, thanks. Questions:
How much odor is emitted after a few uses? Is it noticeable in a confined space?
Any way to empty these at a pump out dock?
General question: is it environmentally harmful to dump urine overboard? I ask because on a river trip through the Grand Canyon, it was the “law” that all urinating done within 200 feet of the river had to go directly into the river; prior to this decree the hundreds of people going down the river each season were turning the narrow sand beaches, rock ledges, etc into foul-smelling urinals. If it’s okay for the Colorado River, is it okay for other inland and coastal waters?
The porta-potti holding tanks are airtight and I’ve never noticed any odor coming from them. With HESPERIA, if the weather is cold, I’ll use the porta-potti in the cabin next to the woodstove, but when it’s not in use, it is stowed in a closed compartment built into the port cockpit bench. Aboard the Caledonia Yawl, the porta-potti is sometimes in the canopy-covered sleeping quarters and in the Escargot canal boat it is kept in the cabin. In all three situations there have been no odors.
With a porta-potti available, that’s where I pee now. I used to just go over the side or in the Caledonia’s motor well, but I’ve given more thought to my leave-no-trace practices. It’s easy to think that one person wouldn’t cause much damage to the environment, but as you’ve remarked about the Grand Canyon, an accumulated effect can spoil a place. And if animals in the wild mark their territory with a bit of pee, I don’t think it’s right to stake any territory as mine. I’ve also been reading up on gray-water from dish washing, bathing, and brushing teeth, and decided that the porta-potti can play a role there too in keeping foreign materials out of the wilderness environment.
For years when on 4- to 7-day cruises, I used the 5-gallon -ucket method. I had a Thetford in storage cannibalized from a Capri 14 I used to own, but till recently, never thought to use it. First, I tried it for 5 days, at home. No odor. Easy to use. Then took it on its maiden voyage last summer on a 5 day trip in a 13′ microcruiser. Do I prefer it over the 5 gal. bucket? Absolutely. Not even close. Just wish I’d started using it sooner. I’d ordered a custom-made vinyl cover for it, so that when it’s on the cockpit floor and I’m in the cabin, I look out and see not “PortaPotti” but see square boxy thing with white vinyl cover over it, instead. Better aesthetics.
As I’ve aged, I’ve come to realize that the true mark of civilization is plumbing and how important it is first thing in the morning. I’ve been struggling with how to cope with the lack of plumbing aboard a cruising dinghy. I’ve realized that the problem is not where to store a porta-pottie, rather how to use it in an open boat. I’ll need to re-think the boat cover.
Farley Mowat, in Never Cry Wolf, was doing research on wolves and was camped near a den. His camp was practically on a well-used wolf track. Not knowing what to expect, he drank a lot of tea, then peed an arc around his camp spot. Later he watched a wolf approach, suddenly stop when he detected the pee zone, and thereafter the wolves always steered clear of his urine-scented barrier. Apparently the wolves interpreted this as “my territory; stay out.”
It should be pointed out that the city of Victoria BC dumped raw sewage into the Strait of Juan de Fuca until around 2020, when they finally built a sewage treatment plant. That seems a huge contrast with someone peeing overboard from a boat