MacGregorSailors.com

This is for you folks that have used your boats for several days or even weeks at a time .
What do you do with the sink water? What do you and what don't you. . . . dump over the side and where and when might you do this ?? Does anyone have a gray water holding tank ? I cannot imagine much going thru that tiny hole in the bottom of the sink BTW.

I only pour things down the sink that I wouldn't mind swimming through. I keep a liquid waste container for offensive stuff, if ithat gets full I have dumped it in the heads holding tank for later pumpout. I also worry about what might end up in the sinks drain pipe. I would hate to have a nasty smell develope.

I am almost always in salt water with good tidal flow. Anything down the sink besides black water.

Lake sailing in NH, I don't pour down the sink anything other than clean water. If it's soapwater or food prep, coffee grounds..., then it gets poured into a 5 gallon greywater tote tank that I keep under the galley, the same one I use with the pop-up camper at campgrounds. I've been thinking about plumbing in a Y-valve or disabling the boat drain altogether.

On the Greats in NY, at least, if you have a Y valve on black water you have to have a means to disconnect and lock it....can be as simple as a zip tie, but the means must be there or else they can hassle you.

Grey water is ok to put over the side - use judgement of course, and dont dump it in the lake off someones campsite or water front property. 15 miles offshore is ok...

I must admit I was surprised with what I heard at the marina today. They all seemed to agree by and large and using a little common sense here. . . .if you would / can dump it down the sink . . . it must be grey water and all is fine with the world ???

There are a few places where it can't be dumped.

With all the leaky sweage pipes, stuff sparyed on the trees and grass and what is put into the air. Not to mention what the birds, cows, dogs ect ... do. The little gray water that boaters put into the water is so small compaired to everything else.

There are beaches in Fl that are closed because of this, not the boaters.

Rhode Island is clamping down on boaters this season requiring permits and logbook checks of how/when/where you dumped your holding tank. Another thing to deal with, unfortunately.

The black water pollution from the Bay predominantly comes from municipal waste runoff after storms, not from boats, but its easier for people to chase others than themselves of course.

I think they make these rules about boat discharge, because we are such visable tagets out there. (plus maybe someone is jealous or just doesn't like boaters for some reason).

They should go hassle that dog, deer or racoon walking on the shoreline that just took a dump. Boaters are out there trying to enjoy a few hours of peace a year, and there is a room full of legislators somewhere trying to screw with it.

Boat discharges are miniscule compared with municipal discharges. Even treated, municipal discharge streams are not something you would like to drink or swim in. THen there is farm runoff of fertilizer and pesticides. Anyone complaining about a little occasional grey dishwater from a pleasure boat should take a realistic look at other things first.

By the way, I would speculate that fish and water birds sometimes do their business in the water. Ever see a duck go? It could set off an amber alert.

Use non-stick cookware with little to no oil. Wipe that and bacon grease, etc out with a paper towel before washing. Bring along a strainer to pour pot liquor through into the sink and put the solids in the trash. Use only a few drops of a biodegradable non-phosphate soap like Ivory, Dawn, or Joy (the latter two suds up well in saltwater) in the Mac's tiny sink. That's more than most folks do.

I have chartered several times - Chesapeake, Great Lakes, etc. All the companies told me that if it can down a sink, then it is ok to go overboard. Seems wrong to me so I don't follow that policy. If you have seen the slick created when a neighboring boat does it, you might think twice.

Just think of yourself as a mini Cruise Ship.

We do cook and eat well on cruises, short or long. We use vegetable oils for our health, and because they biodegrade easily. We use biodegradable nonphospate soap, to wash dishes and clothes in a plastic tub. The gray water is poured through a strainer into the galley sink, so only soap and water go down the drain well off any shoreline, but food particles are kept aboard in a large mouth, heavy plastic used laundry detergent jug for that sole purpose.

Our overboard drain for the macerator on the blackwater holding tank is plumbed through the head sink drain thruhull, and has a ziptie lock on it until at a pumpout facility. We usually plan a once per week port call just to dump garbage and pumpout properly, and to find a good restaurant, take a walk, etc.

We have never had an odor problem from our drains because they are properly plumbed with a water trap, and if any soap scum builds up in them to a noticeable degree, a dash of baking soda down the drain once in awhile cleans them.

Speaking of drains, the original factory drains were inadequate on my boat, and a lot of others I've seen. Drains need to be plumbed so they will trap your wedding ring or other other valuables to keep them from going to Davy Jone's locker, but can be disaassembled at sea without compromising boat security, can trap water and hold it under any point of sail, and keep insects, cold wind or odors from coming aboard from outside.

All grey water is most emphatically not acceptable to go into a lake.

The phosphates from soap will contribute to algae growth in freshwater.

And those anti-bacterial handsoaps we all use are a real concern ... the chemicals are ingested by fish and now are present in all kinds of food that we eat.

The only thing down my drain is biodegradable soap...

You hit the nail square on when you mentioned Farmers and Cruise Boats.
Had a cottage on a small lake (150 acres) farmers run-off caused the need to have weeds harvested once and sometimes twice a year. Cruise Boats ?? I call them PIGS of the SEA! They should be outlawed! Pleasure Boaters are like Scuba Spear Fishermen easy to chase and blame . . . I will be very careful about what we dump over and use only bio-soap and toss the solids in a bag for later .