This is all fine and good on your personal boat with state side pump outs. It is not good here for a lot of reasons.

First the waste is going in the water. There simply are not any pump outs to speak of why put more human waste in the water than is necessary.

Second you are not likely to get "marine" toilet paper in a grocery store or from your provisioning company. You are going to get full blown Charmin or the likes.

Third a large number of modern charter yachts have Jabsco electric heads. They have a small macerator blade simply not capable of chewing up the wash cloth like consistency paper mentioned above. Pieces will wrap around the macerator and clog your head.

Fourth the head never clogs when there are nice clean things in the macerator. Taking apart a head full of fecal matter while on charter should not be on your bucket list.

Fifth the majority of the holding tanks in use today are gravity feed tanks above the water line. When you flush it goes into the top of the tank. If the discharge valve is open it goes overboard. If it is closed it stays in the tanks until you open the valve. Assuming you got the paper past the macerator it settles to the bottom and makes up a slurry of solid waste that includes calcium deposits from salt water flush, solid human waste and paper. Think of it as the ultimate fecal paper mache project.

It simply is not worth the damage to the environment or the higher likelihood of a clog to put anything down that you haven't eaten first.

And yes diaper wipes can greatly reduce the amount of trash in your head and make for a more pleasant trip.


Now back sailing, snorkeling and threads as they are much more fun. <img src="http://www.traveltalkonline.com/forums/images/graemlins/Grin.gif" alt="" />