Turn It Off! Turn It Off! Turn It Off!

Yesterday was Pamela's last day working for Belk department store.  She really liked working there, and they liked having her.  But we're getting ready for our move north for the season (or maybe forever if Drift Away sells) and Pam wants some time to pack things up before we take the boat to Florida to be hauled.

Pamela told me that our deck drains were clogged, and have been for three years.  Any excess water on the deck would run out the scuppers.   Then she said "Do you want to see something cool?"

Sure.

She got a bottle of Clorox and poured some in the drain.

It started to geyser up out of the drain.  Olivia pees on the foredeck, which runs down the gutter to the drain where it accumulates.  It seems that ammonia and chlorine don't mix well and it geysers up.   

Well, we need to fix this.  First, I took an unbent coat hanger and tried to unclog the drain, and then Pam squirted the hose at it.

A whole bunch of black smelly gunk came out.  What a mess.

Now, what happened next wasn't captured on the camera.  You'll just have to take my word for it.

I figured that Pam was on the right track, but I could help things along.  I removed a section of hose from my sump pump, the hose with the end cut off.  I could flatten it with pliers and force the hose right into the slot in the drain.  I then put my fingers on each side of the hose to sort of create pressure.

"OK, turn on the hose."

"OK.  I'm going to turn it all the way on."

"OK."

The next thing I knew, I had black gooey stink slime squirting all over the place, including all over me!

"TURN IT OFF!  TURN IT OFF!  TURN IT OFF!"

"What?"

"TURN IT OFF!!  QUICK!"

"What?"

At this point, I knew I'd been had.  Black gooey stinky slime covered everything in a ten foot radius, including me.  I heard hysterical, maniacal laughter coming from the area of the faucet.   Finally, Pam turned the water off.  She was laughing so hard I thought she was going to pee her pants.

sigh.

So we tried it again, only this time she turned the water on slowly, increasing the pressure gradually, which worked much better.  I saw a big cloud of gunk squirt into the water.  The drain was clear.   We repeated the process on the other side.

Next job?  Clean the black gooey gunk off the decks and sides of the boat.