Today was my duty section's turn to clean up the berthing. Cleanup happens at 0730, so day crew is about to go in to work, and night crew just got off. Me, I'm swing shift, so I have to wake up. It's annoying.

It also means that everyone else is in their working uniforms, but I'll be damned if I put on more than my shower shoes and the T-shirt and shorts I was sleeping in. Because when cleanup is done, I go back to bed.

Anyway, someone cleaning the head managed to break one of the showers. They somehow got a shower unscrewed from the freshwater supply pipe that feeds all six showers. This leads to a large volume of water gushing out in there. Anyone that attempts to correct the situation is going to get soaked.

So gee, isn't it convenient that someone isn't wearing a uniform and boots that would get annoying if wet? Someone wearing shower shoes already? That's right, I'm the sucker.

So I peeled off my shirt and went to do battle. Where I learned that the classic scene of a beleagured dude trying to reconnect plumbing with the water on, is really just as hard as the sitcoms make it look. The pressure was such that I just couldn't mate the pipes back together again to screw them back on. And we couldn't find the water shutoff valve.

All this water pouring out was a problem. First, the shower room was flooding. The floor drains of all six showers, plus the mop drain in the hall, were incapable of dealing with all the water. It was at my ankles and rising. Second, fresh water is a limited commodity on the boat. The navy is always complaining at the Marines to use less fresh water. So a thirty gallon per minute leak was an issue.

Sgt W_, who is excessivly calm, made the first trouble call to Damage Control Central, telling them that, and I quote, "We've got a leak in the showers." After some discussion, he realized that perhaps DC Central would assume that we meant a 'drip drip drip' kind of leak, as opposed to the 'shout to be heard over the gushing water' leak. So we called back, and explained the problem more firmly. At which time they dispatched a sailor on the double, who found the water shutoff valve (three compartments away, unlabeled), and stopped the deluge.

It took the navy a good hour to get the plumbing fixed, during which time many people were annoyed, as they couldn't take showers. It didn't really bother me though. Sure, I hadn't used any soap, but the volume of water blasting over me during my losing battle with the pipes scoured me clean quite nicely.

Posted by: Boviate at 10:45 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
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