First job - "popping in" a new head

The head was old and not working and clearly the first job I needed to do on my boat.  My wife had a lot to do with this decision. 

I ran down to the marine store and picked up a new head for a very reasonable price. The guy at the store said it would be easy job – “just pop it in” he said.  I unbolted the original...so far so good, disconnect the hoses and out to the garbage it went.  Took out the new one and, of course, the base was a totally different configuration so the existing bolts wouldn't work.  So much for just popping it in. Not a big deal though, folks told me I could just screw in the new one to the base and it would be fine.  I did exactly that, reconnected all the hoses, opened the sea-cock and flushed away - it worked!  Except, a few hours later, I noticed water leaking onto the floor.  A few hours of messing around with O clamps, some makeshift sealant and the problem was pretty much solved.

Off we go for our first cruise to Cobourg Ontario.  We took, three easy days to get there and, although it took a while for either of us to admit it, our boat was starting to stink - really bad.  In Cobourg, I bought some deodorizer, scrubbed the head and convinced ourselves that the smell was a bit better.

While in Cobourg, we took some family members out for a sail.  It was a nice breeze and we were heeled over moderately. My sister in law went down below and quickly yelled that something was wrong.  There was some evil looking, offensive smelling liquid sloshing around on the cabin floor.  Back into the harbour we go and I start exploring for the problem.  Low and behold I find a couple gallons of the aforementioned liquid in the bulkhead under the holding tank.  Clean that all up, scrub it with bleach, tighten up the clamps on the pump out hose and we should be good as new!  Clearly, the next morning it was not.

We made it back to home, with regular cleanings and on further inspection discovered that the hose from the head to the holding tank was old, brittle and leaking profusely!  Temperatures were 36 degrees Celcius and rather than enjoy the breeze and scenery around our marina, I was spending hours in the head and the lazerette (where the holding tank was placed) sweating profusely and trying to pull out 12 ft. of hose which was full of aforementioned liquid and trying to do so in a fashion that would not entail the contents of the hose spilling out all over the inside of the boat.  I waited until dark to remove the old hose to the garbage at the end of the dock as I really didn't want to lug it down the dock in front of all our new boat neighbours!

I put in a new deck fitting to simplify the "plumbing" and after about 4 litres of sweat and a week and a half of my time sweating in the bowels (so to speak) of the boat, the head, which they told me I could "just pop in" was replaced successfully!

I am sure my next project will be simpler…