The last indulgence was purely a creature comfort. The owners side already had a fancy crapper, a fresh water vacuflush. The vacuflush worked well, well sorta. Crossing the Mediterranean, the escape hatch came open and flooded the owners side, so the pump that draws the vacuum on the vacuflush definitely got a little wet. We brought some spares parts when we crossed the Atlantic and everything worked as it should.

In April, it blew a fuse as the motor was frozen, a couple hours of diagnosing and locating the fuse and a little help with the wrench it was all working again. Its kind of a scary flush, sort of like the airplane where you might be scared you going get sucked down there too. The port head was manual salt water, typical marine head with a stained bowl. So creature comforts and ease of use got the go ahead nod.

So some research showed the Raritan Elegance as the modern marvel, easy to install and self contained, no extra parts to install like the vacuum chamber of the vacuflush and would also run on fresh water. The fresh water eliminates a lot of the sulfur and scaling that happens when using salt water to flush the heads, and in order to only have to carry one type of replacement/repair parts replacement thrones were ordered for both sides.

For those who have never attempted international shipping, it is not an endeavor to be taken lightly. Buying things here in the USA is so easy, UPS/FedEx delivers the package to your front door, sometimes the merchant or amazon will simply pick up the shipping tab. International is a complete different story. First, the websites that deal with international shipping look like they were created in the 80s, and seem like they are a total scam. Settling on one shipper that seemed reasonable, fill out the form online, nothing happens then a barrage of emails with questions about LCL, FCL, Agents start flowing in as they assume you know what all that means. LCL is “less than a container load” of goods. They want size/weight of the box, they’ll gladly pick it up at your house for another fee of course.

Anyway, finally figured it out, decided to have good ole Defender deliver to Miami, and then on a boat to Trinidad. The USA Shipping was cheap, the rest of the journey however wasn’t so cheap, because we had to get an ‘agent’ to clear the package into Trinidad when they arrived there.

The whole effort was a learning experience, and the $50 USD for an extra bag on the plane ride down there is quite the bargain. Long story short we have brand spanking new John J Crappers that work with the touch of a button.

Port Head – Guests will sit in style

Port Head – Who will be first

Owners head

Starboard quiet Marine Elegance