Head breaks while single-handed

What's your practice when needing to go to the head while alone underway on the boat? I normally turn the throttle to idle (resulting in a three-knot speed) for the one minute necessary to do the thing. Only do this when the conditions seem safe (no boats nearby and so on). This maintains steerage way while under autopilot. If autopilot is off, shifting to neutral.

Never needed to do it on the trawler because someone else would take the helm fora few minutes. On my center console though, always stopped and in neutral. My nightmare would be to fall overboard and watch the boat idle away in gear.

Fortunately, I remain in the boat's interior moving between helm and head so there's no possibility of falling overboard.

If radar, AIS and visual give me an all-clear for 6+nm, and if I don't see anyone beyond that bearing down on me, I do # 1. #2 is much requires a much more complicated analysis.

When running alone I'm at the lower station. Head is only 4' away and down 3 steps. I check surroundings and shift to neutral. Look out portlight while doing my thing.
John
MS390

Did you know that almost every commercial fisherman that goes overboard when they are retrieved their fly is down. The moral of the story: Stop the boat if you are alone. No matter how 'easy' you think it is, once you lose your balance you are compromised in getting back aboard.

I asked an engineer I worked with why he peed in the scuppers all the time instead of over the side. He stated he had seen someone go over the side while relieving himself. He stayed away from the edge as far as possible.

I hate edges, but I don't want to pollute the boat with my waste.

Starting on a four-hour voyage single-handed to the boatyard:

An empty orange juice jug, with a skull and crossbones painted on it so no one takes a swig.

Real sailors wear bags.

Depends...

FlyWright said:

Depends...

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I'm serious!

Another solution.

Larry, that really fits with your signature...

"I'd rather be happy than dignified".

There are plenty of reasons to leave the helm while underway.


Any of them aren't really good enough to not have a watch....BUT....common sense dictates. Traffic, room, speed, autopilot...etc...etc all allow some leniency in the lookout policy in my mind.


Hit something and it never sounds like a great reason to leave the helm.


Having a suitable container nearby in case timing isn't great isn't a bad idea.

Your risk of hitting something submerged isn't any greater than when you are cruising at night. If radar and a 360 scan is clear I don't worry about it.

markpierce said:

I'm serious!

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You've been on my boat. You know how close my lower helm is to the galley sink!

Giggitoni said:

You've been on my boat. You know how close my lower helm is to the galley sink!

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Ugh! That's what railroad dining-car staff did when there were no dormitory accommodations: sleep on the tables and piss in the sinks.

Use an empty wide mouth Maxwell House or Folgers plastic coffee can. It has a nice handle on the side. You can't miss and can dump it overboard or in the head at your convenience. Not so useful on the fly bridge.

When in confined waters and uneasy about ducking below to the head, a plastic orange juice jug, like Tropicana's "carafe" style works fine for #1. Otherwise, steer out of the fairway, and shift to neutral while going below. For a four-hour single-handed run in narrow / heavily trafficked waters, I would try to plan my dietary intake so that more leisurely excursions to the head could wait.

Leaving the helm unattended while underway to go out on deck is dangerous. It's another of the stupid things I now realize that I didn't deserve to get away with, but once upon a time did anyway. Never again!

First time I saw the thread I thought the bowl must have fractured. But I see the problem, provided the prostate is doing ok the absence should be brief, with the time and place carefully chosen.
Judges used to be selected for their legal knowledge, fair and logical thinking, and capacious bladder.

The very definition of luxury!

People have lunch hooks, why not a poop hook??? We could wire up a system where you just press a big red 'oh, ****' button on the dash, which automatically puts the engines in neutral, drops the poop hook, raises a toilet seat dayshape into the rigging, starts sounding regular fog signals, and fires up the head ventilation fan. We could make millions Jerry, MILLIONS!

When I'm at work, I'm stuck up in the pilothouse for 6 hours at a clip. There are no facilities. I'm about 90 feet in the air, so escaping to the head for any amount of time would make me pretty grossly negligent. Number twos are pretty much out of the question. We have a bucket for emergencies. Seriously. Number ones on the other hand, are a real delight. I check the relative wind, do a cursory scan for anyone that may be working on deck below me, and let slip the dogs of war. I like to call it the 'sky piss.' It's pretty refreshing, until winter sets in.

I can see that a jug can be handy, especially if one operates from a flying bridge with the accompanying long ladder or many stair steps. Being by one's self, using a jug shouldn't offend anyone.

I remember doing 24 hour urine collections for analysis after a kidney stone , using a 2 liter bottle, the kind fresh OJ gets bottled in here. The bottle neck was too narrow, but I never overfilled one in 24 hrs.

psneeld said:

Having a suitable container nearby in case timing isn't great isn't a bad idea.

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That's what we used when towing targets for ship gunnery practice. We flew JD-1s (B-26 for you Air Force guys.) Most of the time we used a relief tube (venturi) but every once in awhile some a-hole would plug the outside of the damn thing and the tube would overflow.

Assess the situation.

There are times when it is safe to have a hour long sit on the head, and times when you have to piss
in a bucket at the helm.

In all seriousness, don't wait till you need to go. My routine is to take advantage of optimal times in transit and plan the events around my schedule. As an example, when I run my charter boat, I have a 1 to 4 hour cruise out and back. Simply, I go before I start in the morning and before I start home in the afternoon. This was like traveling in the car with my parents. Go before you leave home; go every time we stop for food or fuel, whether you need to or not.

If there is an emergency, slow to minimum speed that the AP can still steer, or stop and drift, depends on whether you are 5 miles off shore or running a channel in the AICW.

Ted

healhustler said:

Another solution.

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Is that the newest Vacu-Helm?

Set the anchor and handle things in a civilized manner

CPseudonym said:

Set the anchor and handle things in a civilized manner

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Using the word anchor and civilized in the same sentence is appropriate for a thread that may be dealing in "crap"...