SEA MERCY - ONE WATER TANK AT A TIME
 |
| Dirk (S/V PEREGRINE) inspects the 300 yards of garden hose suspended over the reef - No snag, please! |
Susui Island - June 18, 2016
One of the main hardships after a hurricane wipes out a village is the lack of fresh water. It may be raining but there is no water to be had. In most of the villages of Vanua Balavu, the main source of water is rain catchment from the roofs into large water tanks. No roof, no gutter, no water tank = no water. It will be months before the community centers, churches and homes have new roofs and gutters. Indeed, our Sea Mercy Recovery team has asked for roofing and guttering for the villages in dire needs. But what to do in the meantime?
 |
| Living in precarious conditions, to say the least |
 |
| Stern anchor into the reef, as close as we dare, it took a team to set-up the delivery |
Two weeks ago, the super yacht NOMADESS delivered 6,000 liters in Avea and Cikobia, and 8,000 liters in Susui. But in spite of rationing the population to 1 liter/person/day, the villages are running out of water. So, our little fleet rallied to see what we could do.
 |
| In Avea, no more water catchment... living in makeshift tin houses |
AVEA - Located Northeast of Vanua Balavu, Avea is a small, low island, where 330 people fight to survive. When we arrived, the cisterns were almost empty.
 |
| Portable water maker, solar panels, pumps... let's get it to shore |
One team of engineers worked on setting up the water maker stored on board DOMINO and soon they were pumping water out of the brackish water well and turning it into fresh water, slowly filling the main tank at the center of the village.
 |
| In Avea, let's fill this cistern! |
Meanwhile, DOMINO was moving into position, dropping anchor in front of the village and backing close to the reef, a stern anchor set inside the reef. How do you deliver water? Strong from the experience on board NOMADESS, the Sea Mercy water team quickly deployed 200 yards of garden hose, floated them above the reef, dropped the end into the village’s 2nd water cistern.
 |
| Hard-hit Avea |
JP fired up the 12 KW Northern Light Genset, powered up the HORIZON Seafari HRO watermaker, and that was it! Water making at the rate 250l/hour - DOMINO pumped water for almost 14 hours (with a 2-hour break for shut-eyes) and delivered close to 3,500 liters of water, to the great joy of the locals who gave us an amazingly warm tea party and church ceremony, singing choir and all!
 |
| All the kids sang and danced for us! |
SUSUI - No sooner had we disconnected the hoses from Avea at 0800 and let the HRO rest a bit, we were en route for SUSUI, 11 miles south, where S/V PEREGRINE’s Dirk and Gretchen had prepared our arrival.
 |
| It's just a short hop from Avea to Susui |
Under Dirk’s brilliant guidance, JP dropped anchor in front of the village, backed up in a small hook in the reef, and Dirk dropped our stern anchor as close to the reef as possible. But the bottom was rock-hard and I ended up diving the anchor, wedging it between dead coral heads, making sure that all the chain was flat on the bottom and that no line was caught into the rising coral heads. Piece of cake at low tide on a flat-calm day!
 |
| JP and I taking care to float the hose above the reef. |
Within minutes, our volunteers were stringing 300 yards of hose off our stern, once more floating them over the reef, and dropped the end into the cistern. By 11:30 we were pumping again.
 |
| A happy Jacob inspects our Horizon HRO water maker |
We pumped all day and most of the night, till the 3 PM the next day, some 23 hours of pumping and 5,600 liters of water. Jacob, the village’s mayor, helped us all day and night, keeping a night watch and calling us, checking on the water flow.
 |
| Jacob loved the power of our Northern Light genset |
On board, JP checked on the flow volume every 30 minutes, checking our tank’s level, adjusting the makeshift distribution valve for an even flow: no need to overflow or dry-out DOMINO’s tanks!
HOW LONG can the HRO pump? We have no idea! This was the first time we ran the water maker for so long and it worked beautifully.
Enough water? Not quite! The rest of the fleet had ran their own on-board water makers, delivering close to 1,000 liters in water jugs.
Once more, the villagers took care of us, with a nice kava ceremony and community dinner. We were blown away!
 |
| The villagers in Susui prepared a feast! |
Hopefully, this will hold the village till the roofing and guttering gets installed. Sea Mercy is shipping the materials and we can’t wait to see the roofing go up at the community centers!
CIKOBIA - This kind of water delivery operation demands flat calm conditions, which we had for the 3 days in Avea and Susui. But the wind kicked up and is not supposed to let up for the week to come. Cikobia is a tricky delivery, needing high tide in the middle of the day and glassy waters. Unfortunately, we were not able to deliver and the fleet is waiting for better conditions while the village is still rationed at 1 liter/day/person. They really need roofing, guttering, and a way to tap into their collapsed water source. To be followed.
If you want to help any of those 3 islands with
water makers and stream head pumping,
visit the
and make a donation for
VANUA BALAVU!
Thank you!
Until next time…
dominomarie