It's a glamorous job...

Yes, I do walk with a certain "swagger."  With this job, I don't wear the white shirt and epaulettes  - we get to wear blue logo shirts and vests.  I don't have a lot of contact with the guests, since the helm is separated from the passenger areas.  Truth be told, I like the interaction with the guests.

And just before heading out today, I went down to the head compartment and noticed an... aroma.  I opened the toilet and... yuk, it hadn't been flushed.  I asked the first mate if she had checked this.  Her response, "Yeah, I think there's something wrong with it.  Pump it down and stuff comes back up."

"Um, you coulda told me about this SOONER!"

I told her to let our guests know that the potty would be "emergency only" use, and that we would be departing a bit late so anyone who wanted could use the on-shore facility.

Fortunately, we had an understanding group.  With decent bladder capacity.  It probably didn't hurt that we got them to whales and it was a pretty nice day, weather-wise.  We had a ring-side seat for a lot of whale activity.  Oh, and a few bald eagles just for fun.

When we came back, the guests were all happy, but anxious to visit um... land facilities again.  Which left me to deal with the head.  One look in the waste basket by the head told me what to expect... there was a feminine hygiene product wrapper.  I'm saying that as delicate as I can.  Let's just say that it wasn't a guy who plugged up the head.

I went inside and put on my cover-alls.  And rubber gloves.  I lucked out and found the ... um... culprit... at the first junction I tried.  Putting it back together, everything pumped.  And went away when you pumped.

We don't have a head like that in our boat.  For this reason.   I went back into the office and let the owner know that we now have a new rule on this boat: "If it didn't go through your system, it doesn't go in this boat toilet!"  Not a pretty conversation, but WAY better than telling folks, "Sorry, we don't have a toilet for you to use on this trip."

I guess I'll have to practice being... delicate.  Yeah, that's a word I frequently use to describe myself.

But, we DID see plenty of whales, AND it didn't start sprinkling until after I got home to our boat... and washed my hands six more times... and used a bunch of hand sanitizer.  Plus, rum is supposedly a good internal antiseptic.

Yes, mine is a very glamorous job. ;-)

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On edit: tomorrow morning I am taking out a group to spread ashes... I figured they shouldn't have to deal with a stopped up head on the boat.