Combine black and grey water?

[Montanan]

Originally Posted by hellosailor

And then there's always the option, if you have space and the need is only temporary, to install a blivet, i.e. a Nauta bladder, and use that for gray water storage. If your needs are really small, the 5-gallon plastic blivets that restaurants and diners get their milk in, can be used. They normally throw those out, but for a couple of bucks or a dinner guest they'll often give them away.

Learn something new most everyday, so I had to look up the word blivet because I was not familiar with such and its use.

Blivet has many different meanings.

I finally found the definition that seems applicable to Hellosailor's post, at the end of the list of the dictionary.

blivet (plural blivets):

Anything overfull.

An item of unknown purpose, often unnecessary or useless or annoying.

(computing, slang) A program that has been worked on by many poorly skilled programmers and is now a mess.

(electronics) An electronic signal that is normally high or on, but goes low for a very short period and then returns to high. A low going spike.

(geology) A hammer sometimes used by geologists to chop rock samples from boulders for examination.

(welding) A hammer used by electric welders to knock slag off of the welded joint. Such blivet hammers sometimes have springs for handles instead of solid wood or plastic to lessen shock to the human hands.

(air conditioning) A container/tank for refrigerant gas.

(military) A portable, collapsible container for liquid fuel.

Etymology
Unknown; seems to have been coined by American soldiers in World War Two.

Whereas the Urban Dictionary seems to provide an especially relevant definition of Blivet as it pertains to the subject of combining black and grey water:

Ten pounds of sh@t in a five pound bag. A situation so vile no matter how well you deal with it you will still get dirty.

And going further in research to the haze of gray. There is very useful list of Nautical terms [linked here https://www.hazegray.org/faq/slang1.htm which defines Blivet as:

Blivet - (1) Traditionally, "Ten pounds of sh@t in a five-pound sack." (2) A rubber fuel bladder. (3) A modified droptank (may be purpose-built or a field modification) used to haul small cargo, especially in tactical aircraft, or used to haul dangerous or toxic cargo outside of the aircraft.

It took a while to locate a reference of blivet being associated with milk pails.

[hellosailor]

How odd, I've got a rock hammer and never heard it called a blivet.

Military fuel blivets can be the size of "water buffaloes", the trailered water tanks. Think 500-1000 gallons or more, dropped or trucked to remote sites for aircraft refueling.

But our foreign friends should be more concerned about channel marks than plumbing. What is it, IARU? region A versus region B? We have channel marks in the US "reversed" in relation to the rest of the world. That could be an oopsie for the unwary.

[GILow]

Originally Posted by hellosailor

But our foreign friends should be more concerned about channel marks than plumbing. What is it, IARU? region A versus region B? We have channel marks in the US "reversed" in relation to the rest of the world. That could be an oopsie for the unwary.

When you say reversed, which aspect are you referring to? Port and starboard in relation to whether you are approaching a harbour or leaving it, or something else?

[Montanan]

Originally Posted by GILow

When you say reversed, which aspect are you referring to? Port and starboard in relation to whether you are approaching a harbour or leaving it, or something else?

There used to be 30 different systems for lateral buoys, now there are two.

Red right returning to harbor from seaward and heading up river, in the IALA Region B, the Americas [except Greenland], Japan, the Koreas, Philippines, Taiwan, Easter Island.

Opposite, Red right leaving a harbor to port and going down river, in IALA Region A. Everywhere else.

But at least the displayed running lights are consistent on the vessels, Port Red [as in the wine] and Starboard Red.

[Montanan]

Not many Yankee boaters know the significance of the 3,500 pound buoy pictured below and I suspect even fewer non-Yanks would understand the purpose of its Star Spangled Bannering.

[hellosailor]

As Montanan said. It should be in any copy of COLREGS.

That star-spangled buoy is the cleverly disguised tip of a ready-to-launch ballistic missile. We've got hundreds of similar "art" installations that are part of the stealth missile deployment system. Honest.

[GILow]

Originally Posted by Montanan

There used to be 30 different systems for lateral buoys, now there are two.

Red right returning to harbor from seaward and heading up river, in the IALA Region B, the Americas [except Greenland], Japan, the Koreas, Philippines, Taiwan, Easter Island.

Opposite, Red right leaving a harbor to port and going down river, in IALA Region A. Everywhere else.

But at least the displayed running lights are consistent on the vessels, Port Red [as in the wine] and Starboard Red.

Yikes!

Well, I suppose you get used to it, but what a PITA.

[Montanan]

Originally Posted by hellosailor

As Montanan said. It should be in any copy of COLREGS.

That star-spangled buoy is the cleverly disguised tip of a ready-to-launch ballistic missile. We've got hundreds of similar "art" installations that are part of the stealth missile deployment system. Honest.

Well now that was a good guess as indeed the shape does taken on the appearance of a missile cone; I'll provide some clues to key you in.

While it isn't a cleverly disguised missile, rockets certainly played a major part of its reason for being; the USCG does position and maintains the buoy; the British Navy certainly wouldn't be taken surprised and would take special notes of its purpose, especially as they would strive to be minden to their own business during the early light of dawn.

[Montanan]

Originally Posted by GILow

Yikes!

Well, I suppose you get used to it, but what a PITA.

Indeed a PITA and possibly then some, if you got confused as to which system was being used, and wondered out of the channel.

[Andina Marie]

On a related subject, a brilliant idea I had was an utter disaster.

Flushing a toilet with salt water works but far from ideal.
My idea was to take that soapy grey water and use a Y valve to select flushing with salt water or nice fresh but soapy water from the grey water tank. Use the water twice and get the advantages of fresh water flushing. WIN-WIN.

Well unknown to me black algae had made a home in the grey water tank so instead of nice fresh soapy water I was flushing toilets with blank inky goo. Absolutely nothing could kill that algae. Sometimes good ideas ain't.

[peghall]

Hi Andina...good to see you again...it's been a while! I've had a few "good ideas" that turned out to be anything BUT myself!

I've preached for years that using gray water to flush toilet is a bad idea, but I THOUGHT it was only because soap scum and all the other stuff in it "gums up" the rubber parts in toilet pumps. With your permission, I'll add your experience to my files.

--Peggie

[Andina Marie]

Hi Peggie, it has been many years! I turned 80 last week! Sold the boat about 16 years ago. By all means, add it to your list of no-nos.

[peghall]

Thanks, Andina! I'm not getting any younger either...I'm now old enough to appreciate something a 90+ friend said when asked if she ever thought she'd get that old: "Oh yes...but I did think it would take a lot longer."



--Peggie