Oh dear, Shimshal is now 16 years old and, to date, we have not had any serious issues with blocked sewage pipes but yesterday our luck ran out!
An inability to pump out a fully loaded bowl meant that there was no alternative but to break out the marigolds and a collection of screwdrivers, sockets and all the paraphernalia required to un-bung the heads.
Swiftly the pipes were disconnected, the toilet removed and the consequent mess cleaned up. Then came the torture of removing occluding calcium deposits from as much of the 3m effluent pipe as possible. A grim task conducted whist squeezed into a tiny space only made possible by the lubrication of sweat.
Half a gallon of vinegar got the feculant, calcified atheroma fizzing and then came six straight hours of rodding and flushing. Six grim hours of hard and painstaking labour. With 80% of the pipe cleared out I then hooked up an aqualung to the effluent pipe and heard the very welcome noise of bubbles emerging from our below-water holding tank outlet.
It took another hour or two to re-connect, re-install and clean up the place, the tools and, above all, me. Sadly the marigolds gave up the ghost about half way through the whole saga.
For those that are wondering the tool that we keep on the boat for just this job is a cheapie from Amazon:
Silverline 395010 Drain Unblocker 6m x 6 mm https://amzn.eu/d/bqjwGiQ
together with an old 2 meter fibreglass sail baton and, aqualung with a connector from the Second stage.
