What is a duckbill valve?

Old Port Cove Marina

 PRIVACY                 

 

 

My boat neighbor Patrick at our beautiful home port of the Marina at Ortega Landing told me that the definition of "cruising" is working on your boat in exotic places.  For cruising novices like Admiral Marlene and Captain Kevin, being in Palm Beach in the same Marina as Tiger Wood's Yacht "PRIVACY" qualifies as exotic.  We took the two days at the marina to thoroughly clean the exterior of TIKA and do some maintenance.  Now comes the "not so exotic repair".  One of the best features of TIKA is the freshwater Vacuflush toilet or "head" in nautical terms.  This little work of magic makes our restroom like a cruise ship toilet....for those of you who have been on a cruise ship!.   If not, when you flush, a rush of vacuum just sweeps everything magically away.   The only downside is the vacuum pump then runs for about 3 minutes going ca chunk, ca chunk, ca chunk...to store enough vacuum for the next round of "magic".  Not a big deal unless the head is used in the middle of the night.  It kind of wakes you up.   Suddenly, after performing its magic flawlessly since we bought the boat, the vacuum pump started coming on for no reason...meaning the vacuum tank had lost its ability to hold a vacuum. Luckily, the internet provides information on how to fix this.  You just need to replace the "duckbill" valves.  The repair is not difficult and we were able to obtain new "duckbills" at the West Marine about two blocks from the marina.   The repair, while not difficult, is let's say the type of job that might be for "Mike" from the TV show"Dirty Jobs".  Lets just say the repair is complete, Admiral Marlene was totally grossed out, and the "magic" has returned to our lives.  With the hard work done on Saturday, we took the opportunity work a little less on Sunday, ride our bikes to the local "Duffy's", yes the same restaurant with the great specials we were introduced to in Stuart. We then provisioned at the Publix supermarket and rode our "goodies" back to TIKA on our folding DOWNTUBE bikes.  We then took a walk on the docks to see "PRIVACY" aka Tiger Woods boat.  I couldn't help but wonder whether Tiger knew what a "duckbill" valve was.  Your not a real Captain, I thought, if you don't know how to replace one of those.