John, Like Bart says, the pump-outs are free. Since you'll have to motor past the Halls pump-out/fuel cove anyway, it's a good place to fill with drinking water (so you don't have to haul it from home!). The cam-loc fitting is the same on the cam-loc end, but the threaded end needs to fit your boat. While you're at it, it would be a good idea to buy a threaded 90 deg elbow and a female iron pipe size by cam-loc (f.i.p. x cam-loc) so that when you screw it into your boat the cam-loc end is pointed up and not out to the side. The flexible hose at the pump-out isn't really all that flexible, and with a little wave action, it will break off your plastic fitting when the hose hits the dock. This fitting is attached or available at the floating restrooms (more on that later), but not at the marina-based pump-outs. You'll also want a couple of good sized fenders (bumpers) to keep your boat at least 6" away from the dock
no matter what the wind is doing. The elbow keeps the fittings within 2 to 3 inches of your boat, and it's a lot easier to keep things from hitting. Don't ask me how I know this (twice in one trip!).
About the floating restrooms... These can be a little tricky if you don't know how they work! They use a hand operated diaphragm pump similar to this:
https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/416DXPtmWiL.jpg
On the up-stroke, the diaphragm sucks the wastewater in while at the same time sucking a rubber flap, mounted at a 45 deg. angle, down against its seat on the discharge side. The down-stroke then pushes the wastewater out while at the same time closing a rubber flap on the intake side. If all your'e pumping is water, everything works fine. But it's not all water, and it doesn't take much to keep the flaps from making a perfect seal. The work-around for this is to fill the suction hose with water before you connect it to your boat. There is a check valve on the boat end of the hose, and a ball valve. Take the boat end of the hose around to the porta-potty wash-out sink and use the wash down hose to fill the suction hose, or use a bucket (which is a lot faster). Try to hold the open end of the suction hose at about the same level as the pump (so you'll know when it's full) while filling, and close the ball valve when it's full. Then connect to your boat and open the ball valve. The check valve should keep the water from running back into your boat (in a perfect world), but if it doesn't, be ready to start pumping the handle right away!
I've spent some very frustrating time getting these to work properly, and have had some complete failures, making me drive all the way back to a marina to pump out.
I didn't mean to write a tutorial, but hope it helps!
GregC
