After close to five days at sea and just over halfway to our destInation of Kangerluarsoruseq Greenland we decided to check on our fresh provisions and some of the boats systems to make sure all was well. We quickly weeded out a few heads of brocolli and bell peppers that needed to be thrown into dinner plans sooner rather than later but all the other provissions seemed to be handling their new ocean environment well. We then moved on to determine the fresh water level but a routine check quickly turned into a time consuming game of Tetris as some poorly placed equipment partially obstructed the water tank viewing window. This made it necessary to once again empty the V-berth, open the water tight compartment and re-arrange all its contents so that we could better determine our fresh water level through the viewing window. When we finally made it through the piles of equipment and reached the tank we were shocked at what we discovered. We only had 10 to 20 litres left in the 180 litre tank and we were only haLf way! We began to carefully trace back the origins of this potentially serious issue.
- Had our re-occuring tank leak re-appeared? Possibly, but not certain since we have been monitoring the bilge for water.
- Did we use that much water since we last filled up? Possibly since we were in port for days longer than anticipated.
- Did we neglect to top up our water supplies before we departed? Yes.
Being at sea with no freshwater is a seriouse matter and for a moment concerns about our health and dehydration overtook our minds, but rather quickly we remembered storing over 48 litres of UTH milk in the bilge of the boat. After some quick math we figured that if we only cook wíth salt water, and everyone is rantioned a litre of milk a day we would be just fine. We will also soon move into the iceberg belt of Greenland where we can easely catch smaller pieces of ice with the net that we brought for this purpouse. The ice will then be placed in a black watersack and left to melt in the sack which because of its color will absorb the warmth of the sun. It will be good practice for parts of our trip where we will rely on this technique for our water supply.
In Nuuk the capital of Greenland we will take the time needed to find out if our tank has a leak as well as mark the amounts on our tank so that we never run dry again.
Great stuff lads! ripped main sail, running out of water.. good to get these things out of the way now, all good character building stuff and experience for the adventures ahead :)
keep up the excellent blogs, I’m with you there in spirit!