Total noob questions about marine head

[Capn Crunch]

Having never owned/used neither rv or marine vehicles before now I have no idea what's involved with using the head on my boat. Anniversary today and rather than drive 250 miles away to a $250 a night motel we decided to try the boat out for a night of river camping.

89 Carver Montego 2557 with a manual pump head. Do you have to fill with water at the bow of the boat? Are there sea-cocks needing to be opened?

Sorry all for my ignorance... Any education I can glean would be greatly appreciated!!

Mark

[RGrew176]

We were all total noobs at one time. To keep it less confusing yes there is a seacock down below in the bilge area that must be opened to allow your toilet to draw in water for the flushes. Not sure without a pic as to what type of manual head you may have. My last 3 boats all had manual heads. There hopefully (if you have the same type) a lever on the side that could be marked wet bowl/dry bowl.

When you go, you need to flip the lever into the wet bowl position. That will draw in water to flush the material down into the holding tank. It will take several pumps of the handle to draw in water and to flush all the material down into the holding tank. If you want to have a dry bowl then you can flip the switch into the dry bowl position and clear water from the bowl.

Personally I always liked to keep a little water in the bottom of the bowl so I rarely ran it completely dry.

Hoping that this will be helpful information. If you have more questions, ask away.