Still trying

May 14 2008

It has been another long day of work with quite a few frustrations. The day started at sunrise with some basic cleaning until the stores opened. The team broke up into groups to continue the various projects. Tom continued to work on the electrical systems and battery storage containment. David and Ricki teamed up to determine if there was a way they could connect the propane solenoid to our 24-volt system. I went shopping.

The first item on the list was for the chlorination system. I looked for other propane valves, but there were none. I looked for system that sucks gardening chemicals out through the garden hose; there was none. I looked for a 24 to 12 volt converter. There was none. I looked for a 110 to 12 volt converter and there was none. We are remote. The best buy I found today was chocolate. I bought some for everyone on the team.

On my way back from the store, our Suzuki ran out of gas. We were able to tow it back to Manari and get gas later. The next problem occurred while Tom was hooking up our newest inverter. This is an old 24-volt inverter loaned to us by Jeff Ware. While making the connection, there was a spark that ignited the battery and it exploded. Nearly half of the top of the battery disintegrated and flew all over the room. Tom was splashed with acid and had to jump into the shower.

After that bit of excitement, I had to go back out to the airport and pick up a package sent to me by Patrick De Groot in Georgetown. The plane was late, but eventually I made it back to Manari.

When I arrived I found David and Ricki had not moved any farther forward with their attempt at making the solenoid work. The night before they told me if they had a 12 volt light, they could wire it into the system and that would make the system 24 volt. But after returning with a light and a 12-volt car solenoid that they could also try to wire into the system, they still had not attempted anything. Instead they had disassembled the broken inverter and were about to cut out some resisters that they wanted to wire to the solenoid.

By this time, I had to come to the realization that we were simply not going to get a metered dosing of the chlorine system. I let them know I was now making a command decisions to cancel this project and asked them to simply build a platform above the water tank were we could slowly drip bleach into the tank and hope the concentration would be appropriate. An hour before sunset, the platform was complete and bleach was dripping into the tank.

I was not happy about having to give up on the system, but it seemed we were going nowhere and there are other projects that needed to be completed. I was resigned to this and even called Stan Brock of RAM to let him know that we would not have a chlorinated water system.

So as dusk was setting and everyone was gone running errands, I sat looking at the solenoid and realized that at this point, I was no longer worried about destroying it. In a remote area, you have to be very careful about everything and every resource must be protected. On the other hand, sometimes in the jungle, you have to jump into black river and just see what happens. So I wired up the solenoid and the car light and connected them to the 24-volt system to see what would happen. I expected it would fry and all would be over. Instead I was surprised to find it worked.

I called David over to show him and within minutes we had tools, wires and the solenoid at the top of the water tower and started to wire the system. We finished it up by flashlight, but it is working. I cannot believe it is true, but it is working. By morning, we know if it simply took a longer time to fry this system or not. We will also know if we can really accurately adjust this system for our uses here at Manari.

The next few days will be the test of the system. In two days time, I plan to be drinking this water as the final test. I hope I remain healthy.