Vacuum Toilets Suck

This probably isn't the best way to start my new blog from sea, I guess particularly since this expedition is might near over, but I have to say that these vacuum toilets really suck. Actually a lot of times they don't suck when you need them to and that's pretty crappy. Other times they suck all night long while you're trying to sleep and occasionally they do a reverse suck and spit water out the lid. I think the idea behind these contraptions is to reduce the use of water. When the JOIDES Resolution was refitted, designers decided on a vacuum toilet system to reduce waste water space, allowing for more room for other things, like two man rooms instead of four man rooms. In the olden days many of the rooms were fitted with two bunk beds. That meant you would end up sharing the room with one other in your off time, provided the other two worked opposite 12 hour shifts. Not all that bad, but then each four man room shared a bathroom with another four man room. The good part was that the toilets actually used to work about 99% of the time. All in all, I like the layout a lot better these days, it's nice to have a little privacy  and the engineering staff have really worked hard to improve the toilet system. I guess sometimes you just get a dud and this expedition was my turn.

There are other issues in the bathrooms, but I think those have been addressed. During my first expedition after the refit, the shower heads were installed at a fixed angle that was far to high for a non-basketball player. To get the top of my hair wet, I'd have to go face up against the opposite wall. To me this seemed like a very vulnerable position to be in, especially in the shower. I didn't like it much. Not to mention the fact that if I were to turn my head, the high pressure water would spray right into my ear canal and I  couldn't hear out of that ear for a few days. It's a small shower stall, with only a plastic-like curtain to keep the water inside. The hot water creates upward drafts of air that rotate around the bathroom, sucking the plastic shower up against me. Pushing the curtain away lets the water spray all over the bath room. At least, if some of the water hits the toilet, and the toilet starts to fills up , it will quit making that sucking sound. The other day I had just gotten soap lathered up in my hair, when I reached to adjust the shower nozzle, but accidentally knocked it out of its holder. I fell to the ground and started spinning around the floor of the shower stall spraying everything in the bath room, while I tried to find it with soap in my eyes and a shower curtain stuck to my ass, while the vacuum toilet air leak, whistled. The whistling isn't so bad anymore though, since my ear is full of water.