Day 4 and 5 Water Mission

Saturday and Sunday, 1/18-19/20 – Man-of-War Cay and Archers

Today we changed the oil in the Water Mission pickup truck and cleaned the house Reverse Osmosis Water Maker. Chris Caines, Beth and I went to Man-of-War for the afternoon to add a freshwater flush system to the 4,000 gpd water maker there and did some water quality testing. It was cool and windy on the way over on the ferry.

Much like Green Turtle, Man-of-War Cay is in better shape than Marsh Harbour. The ocean side of the island looks much worse than the Harbour side but many of the structures are intact. Sadly, we could never find the old marina and their buildings because it’s all part of their debris removal/sorting area. Samaritan’s Purse is on this island in force clearing debris and rebuilding. They’ve got a very organized cleanup operation with barges shipping 12 debris containers on each load. Debris was even organized between construction debris and metals.        

Fresh water flush for a Reverse Osmosis Water maker allows us to flush the membrane and filters with clean fresh water after making water to keep the membranes clean and ready for their next use. I’ll show my technically minded friends some system pictures and descriptions in a later post.

Below is a picture of the system at Man-of-War. It can make 4,000 gallons of drinking water per day from sea water.

Also had the pleasure of talking with Andy Albury who’s Dad was a well know wooden boat builder in the Bahamas. Andy makes beautiful half models of the various boats his family has made over the years along with wood furniture. He must have spent an hour just talking with us. Showed us the high water line in his display shop that was 4′ up the wall. He was happy his building, tools and models were all still intact after Dorian.

Lunch was also had at the Hibiscus Cafe on the waterfront. No beer to be found on the island though. Its always been pretty dry.

Sunday we went to Church at New Vision Church in Marsh Harbour and then out to explore in the center console that has also been loaned to Water Missions to use. I am the only one with local knowledge so Capt. John took everyone south to Archers Cay to look for Lobster. 3 Lobsters found, but two were too small and the 3rd one too smart. Archers Cay used to have a great big sand beach that we had a bonfire on last year. Now the beach is mostly gone and the trees shredded. It was sad to see this beautiful spot. I am sure it will grow back, but it is going to be awhile.