The story of more and more 💩

Welcome to Buenaventura Panama

We entered the Buenaventura Marina with out any issues. The harbor itself is dug out, lined with concrete about 1/4 mile up the Rio Hato (river). Surrounded by a beautifully developed area including condos, hotels and magnificent mega homes (https://buenaventura.com.pa/es/hotel/). We have access to pools, a golf course, restaurants, spa, shops and major grocery story all all within a short distance.

The small and very nicely outfitted docks at Marina Buenaventura

NOTE: You may not want to stop reading now if you are eating....or are sensitive to the facts of where poop goes after it leaves your body.

As we settled into the beautiful marina and headed out to lunch, we could not have anticipated that this day was to be the hardest and perhaps worst day aboard Okisollo since leaving Seattle.

We have two heads (toilets) on Okisollo.  Both toilets are vacuflush, a similar system to what you would find on an airplane.  Once you have done your business, the toilet sucks the waste into a 60-gallon holding tank that we empty later by either pumping it out at a pump out station or by turning on a macerator pump that sends the waste overboard. 

Over the last couple of months, we have been having problems with the toilet vacuum system not turning off.  Earlier this month, I addressed this issue by replacing one complete toilet system and rebuilding the second one with new seals and valves.

My efforts did seem to make an improvement but did not totally solve the problem of the pumps not shutting off.  With research on the internet, I determined that one cause of this could be that our 60-gallon holding tank was full.   The holding tank gauge was reading full, but I did not trust it.  In Marina Papagayo, we had the holding tank pumped out right before departing and we had been running the macerator pump emptying the holding tank every few days over the last few weeks.  It should have been empty!

In hindsight, for what came next, I should have set up the GoPro camera to capture the chaos that was about to ensue.

To begin troubleshooting, I thought to inspect the air vent on the holding tank for a blockage.  This line goes through a charcoal filter to the outside of the hull.  The filter is easy to access in the locker behind the seat cushion on the starboard side.  I calmly disconnected the filter on the vent only to realize that it was in fact blocked and the holding tank connected to it was under significant pressure.  Disconnecting the filter released that pressure and with it a torrent of holding tank waste came spouting out the end of the hose.  This coated not only me, but the cabinet, our dry food and surrounding area.  After I stabilized the situation, Jeanne began cleaning up.  I then turned on the macerator pump so that we could empty the tank and get the waste out.  I could hear sound from the macerator pump but the tank was still not emptying, despite the cleared air vent. 

Clearing out the cupboards to start the project

I then proceeded to access the macerator pump and associated plumbing through a 12” x 12” access panel located in the companionway floor (by the mast).  I needed to remove it to see if it is blocked, or perhaps failing?  To get to the pump, I have to lay on the floor, and reach through a 12’x12’ hole. I am barely able to access the pump with my arms squeezed through the opening.  I carefully disconnected the hose that goes from the waste tank to the pump.  There was a blockage somewhere.  However, as I contemplated the next step, the blockage freed itself and the holding tank began quickly emptying itself though the 1 1/2” hose into the small bilge access area (the pump is lower in the bilge then tank so gravity did what it does!)  The gross liquid was quickly filling up the space and once again soaking me in the process.  Jeanne dug through a locker to find a spare wood bung that I used to plug the hose and temporarily stop the flow.

Jeanne started using our very small 1 ½ gallon shop vac to suck out the waste that had now accumulated in the bilge.  This was a very messy (and stinky) job!  As the small capacity of the vacuum hit its capacity it would spew a fine mist of excrement through the exhaust vent.  Once the vacuum was full Jeanne would dump the contents into a larger 5 gallon bucket and then would start the process over again until the waste was mostly gone.

With that sort of cleaned up, I reconnected everything and gave the macerator another try.  Still nothing.  I was running out of options.  Maybe there was a blockage between the pump and the through-hole exiting the boat? 

Because the pump and the through-hole are below the waterline, the hose runs through a vented loop (to prevent a syphon) in the forward cabin in the portside hanging closet.  I disconnect the vented loop and with a vacuum blew air through the line.  Good news, I was able to determine that the hose to the outside of the boat was clear of any blockage.

At this point, I had assumed that the macerator pump must have failed.  So, I proceeded to disconnect the pump again (back in the 12’x12’ access area) sending another river of wastewater splashing and dumping while I simultaneously connected a new pump (thankfully we had a spare!) 

Again, we cleaned the bilge area using the small shop vac. Again, we spewed a fine mist of gross liquid everywhere and on ourselves in the effort to vacuum up the mess.

Now, with the new pump installed and wired, I turned it on and there was still no improvement! So, I disconnected the exhaust hose from the pump while it was pumping, and I could see that for some reason there was not enough pressure to pump the holding tank contents through the vented loop in the forward cabin.  We'd been at this project for 5 hours.

At this point, we succumbed to the fact that we still had at least 50 gallons of wastewater to get out of the tank—and the problem wasn’t solved.  So we figured our next step was to get the waste out of the tank or we'd end up with all of it in the bilge which would be untenable.  I used a spare 1 ½”  hose connected to the exhaust side of the pump and attempted to run it out the portlight in the "office" (our third cabin) over the side of the boat.  It would be slow to pump this way, but with the holding tank empty, we were hoping we could be less frantic and think more clearly. Its hard to think when poopy water is exploding into every space and you can't breathe due to the smell in our workspace.

With our workaround pump out all set up and Jeanne holding the end of the hose over the side of the boat I turned on the pump.  After a minute, a small trickle started going overboard.  Success??? No!  I went into the office to see what was going wrong and I quickly realized that the hose now filled with wastewater had several pin holes. Waste was now splattering and spraying down the cabin (tools, spare parts, coffee maker, vacuum) like a sprinkler system.

Frantically I turned off the pump.  Soaked, dizzy from the fumes and thoroughly frustrated, Jeanne proposed cutting a short section of hose to pump wastewater directly into a 5-gallon bucket for immediate disposal overboard.  We settled into a routine, being careful not to splash too much liquid on the back of Jeanne’s neck as we maneuvered in the tight area.  (Apparently she’s not fond of this…)

Manually pumping out the holding tank

Around 7 pm, with the holding tank now mostly empty, both of us soaked and a horrific stinky mess everywhere we could finally take a break to assess.  It is now, that I realize I did not put a duck valve in the front side of the pump which was the root cause of the low pressure. 

So, I took the pump apart again (working back in the 12’ x 12’ hole) and installed the duck valve.  It worked!  The pump was now making pressure, enough pressure to subsequently pop the hose from the vented loop that I forgot to tighten the fitting securely with a hose clamp.  So we had one more space to clean and rid of stinky smells. 

Finally with the air vent cleared, the macerator replaced, the duck valve replaced and the hose clamp tightened our toilets are working!  It was getting late, we were tired, wet and now living in a tremendously horribly stinky mess.  There was some hysterical laughing.  You can’t make this stuff up.   It was unimaginable.

Day 2 discovering that holding-tank water had leaked all the way through the cabinet

We spent the next couple of hours cleaning the boat and washing ourselves (multiple times) before going off to bed.

The next 3 days we cleaned and cleaned.  We found that the liquid had dripped in more areas than we initially thought.  It got everywhere. We scrubbed out at least 12  lockers with either bleach, vinegar, cleaning agents and then did it again.  Several days have passed now and we no longer scrunch our nose when we go into the main salon.  We have lived to tell the tale of the great poop debacle of 2025.