Water, water everywhere...

Desalination crisis on board Dongfeng Race Team

Twenty-four hours into Leg 6 of the Volvo Ocean Race and Dongfeng Race Team has suffered another set back. Not as immediately devastating as breaking the mast, but with potential serious consequences. As the team's OBR, Sam Greenfield, tweeted from the boat: “Broken water maker. No more fresh onboard. Thirsty crew. Bad.”

The VO65 is fitted with an electric watermaker turning the salt water they are sailing through into drinkable water and as a back-up they have a manual one but the effort required to produce adequate supplies to not only to rehydrate but to prep the freeze-dried foot, is mind-boggling, a needless distraction from racing, but essential as our Boat Captain put it into perspective: “The crew will need to pump approximately 8-9 hours a day to make enough water.”

Greenfield takes up the story: “The velocity of water spurting from the seal was a stern enough indicator to break out the emergency hand pump. Black, Eric, Thomas and I took about an hour and a half yesterday to hand-pump everyone’s water bottle and enough for dinner. The hand pump claims to be capable of 4.5 litres per hour but that is hardly the case.”

Now it’s a case of ‘all hands to the pump’ – excuse the pun, as Charles Caudrelier and the guys try to fix the water maker supported by the shore team: “They know what the problem is,” said Neil Graham, Technical Director. “We’re waiting for confirmation form the boat but Kevin should have attempted a repair on the Membrane Pressure Vessel. The plan was to apply some glue and then wrap the end of the vessel, where the leak is, in carbon fibre laminate, to seal it.” We’re hoping our Mr Fixit, Kevin Escoffier, can work his magic once again.

In the meantime, the determined men on board have to keep pumping:  “Funny how once you lose access to something as simple as drinkable water in the Atlantic Ocean you start to notice all of the water you can’t drink,” continues Greenfield. “The hand-powered Katadyn Survivor fresh water pump claims to have a fresh water-producing capacity of 4.5 litres per hour. More accurately, the Katadyn Survivor requires requires some odd 35 litres of water and 15 minutes time to produce a single litre of drinkable water, plus a small piece of your soul. By the time I cap a bottle my arms are burning and my mouth is dry and as I write this, having just pumped three 1.5 litre bottles alongside Horace, I’m experiencing both sensations. Until Kevin and Charles perform a miracle on our primary watermaker, the Katadyn Survivor is our lifeline.”