TECHNICAL TOILET TRAINING

摘要

It was drizzly when I stepped off the boat at Nantwich with the Porta Potti in my arms, taking it on its final journey. The last empty. I could scarcely believe it. Every three days, for nearly four years, I'd traipsed to empty the cassette. A nasty, smelly, cumbersome thing. We inherited it when we bought the boat. It was never ideal. Our cruising patterns were always dictated by the location of sanitary stations - Elsan points, as they're known - along the canal. But no more. It's never long with boaters before conversation turns to toilets - a most significant issue when you live offgrid. Some people stock up on cassettes. I've lost count of the amount of people who've suggested it as a solution. You see them stored in bows, on roofs, wherever they will fit, two, three, four of them. But I never fancied that option. Emptying one is bad enough. Multiples would be grim. Then there are pump-out toilets. Our boat used to have one but the previous owner took it out. It's just as well, really, because we spent much of our first winter and spring broken down and would've had no toilet. And what if you're frozen in? Cassettes are, at least, portable.