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SAO VICENTE, CAPE VERDE ISLANDS
"Having given our elderly watermaker the float test
(it didn't) in the Caribbean, we remembered collecting a thousand litres of water in
Mindelo,
Sao Vicente, Cape Verde Islands, in 1998. The island, if you have never
visited it, is barren, arid and very dusty. Water is obtained via a de-salination
plant, situated close to the customs and immigration offices.
We arrived at the dock to collect this precious fluid and waited for the
chap in charge to finish chatting, laughing, drinking and scratching.
Eventually, he held out an old fire hose, of asbestos fabric, and turned
the wheel of the hydrant. The resulting trickle at my end was, to my mind,
inadequate. I turned to tell him so and was confronted by a veritable
fountain-show. Water sprayed from cuts, slits and holes along its forty
metres, or so, of length.
When I offered to repair the hose for him, before we proceeded, to save
all that water being wasted, he just laughed and told me it didn't matter
before turning back to his conversation with a friend nearby, whilst
torrents of fresh water poured into the harbour next to the boat.
We were charged five hundred Escudos (about US$ 3) for the thousand litres and estimated
that it took forty minutes and thirty thousand litres to get that quantity
into the tanks."
ENGLISH HARBOUR, ANTIGUA, WEST INDIES
"Another time, in 1993, I called into English Harbour in Antigua, in the West
Indies, in the days when people still used to winter there. I filled
my water tanks with two thousand litres and took a thousand litres of
diesel fuel on board. When I received the bill I was surprised at the
total and asked the pump attendant how it could possibly come to so much.
" Well, mon " he replied "de water come to fifty US dollah".
Last June (2000) we filled up with water in St. George's Harbour, Grenada,
before calling in to dear old English Harbour, Antigua again. Ours was the
only boat anchored in the spot directly opposite the Galley Bar. It was
sad to see the place so empty.
To my mind it was still the most beautiful
harbour in the Caribbean, albeit empty. Endorsed by no less a figure than
Horatio Nelson as the finest 'hurricane hole' in all the Caribbean, one
would have expected the place to be packed with yachties making sure they
kept out of the way of the weather. Perhaps the local authorities have
made it so expensive to be there out of season deliberately, for reasons
beyond our ken. On the other hand, there may have been a slight
miscalculation about exactly how much the yachting public will pay before
they vote with their keels. "
PUERTO LA CRUZ, VENEZUELA
You might think that the next story had been placed on
the wrong page but, as you will see, that is not exactly the case:
"Whilst in Puerto La Cruz, Venezuela, in 1994, I filled up with diesel
fuel at a cost of eighteen cents a gallon! I motored off, waving goodbye
and oh, so pleased at the cheapness of the fuel, when
'putter...putter...and stop' went the motor.
Without demur, I put up the sails and made for Trinidad. Maracaibo
presented itself as a good place to stop and sort the ailing engine out so
I dropped the hook there. I told myself it just needed bleeding.
After
fiddling with the lift-pump for some time I discovered that I was pumping
water. Having collected about a quart, I tasted it to see if it was
saline. Not a bit of it! It was sweet enough to drink.
It was time to
check the Racal filters and see whether the water had come thence. Both
filters were full of water. I rigged up a bilge pump and pumped the
offending liquid into a fifty gallon drum. The minutes ticked by and still
there was water, water and more water. At fifty gallons, I had to stop and
get the drum emptied.
In fact, I emptied two more drums before the pump spurted diesel. To this
day I can't imagine how it happened. perhaps my command of the Spanish
language was even worse than I had realised, in which case eighteen cents
was the price of water in those days, after all!"
PALMA DE MALLORCA "On
another occasion, I had two charters one after the other in rapid
succession. Having just driven the family from the first charter to Palma
airport, on the Friday, I was to collect my next set of guests the
following day. A frantic rush to the launderette, followed by a visit to
Continente supermarket, some earnest dusting and polishing and oh, of
course, fuel to be bought.
The final day of the charter, ten days later, after a most amusing time, I
heard a scream from the aft cabin. Rushing aft, to investigate the cause
of such horror, I was confronted by a stark naked female guest awash in
diesel!
In my rush to re-provision the boat, I had put the fuel in the water tank.
I should mention that the inlets were side by side and identical in
appearance, that I might be excused a little.
It would seem that the diesel, instead of mixing with the water and making
its presence known earlier, had simply floated on the top and only put in
an appearance when the water ran out. Thankfully, this lady was a good sport and could see the funny side of the
situation. I whisked her to the Real Club Nautico and she finished her
ablutions there. I will leave to your imagination the nightmare of ridding
the water tank of fuel before it could be filled again. The memory is too
horrible to conjure up, even now...which neatly leads me in to the saga of
a burst pipe in the fresh water system. The
boats' fuel tank used to form
part of her keel, a situation long since rectified. The inspection plate
was off, so that the tank could be 'sludged' (the pumping out of
impurities, bacteria, banana skins, hairpins or whatever else the inmates
may have seen fit to abandon, that it might test the skipper's patience). Unfortunately, the burst occurred during the night. The water rose above
the level of the tank top and, being heavier than the fuel, displaced it.
Upon arising, I detected a strong aroma of diesel. On checking the engine
room, I was aghast to find a sea of diesel, swirling around at the lower
level of the starter motors. This sounds a complete horror story but,
having pumped out the tank of water, found the leak and fixed it, we were
back in business in four hours.
I would like to point out, hastily, that these have been the highlights of
the last eleven years, rather than a full account of the disasters which,
methinks, would fill enough space to sink this page!" Well,
now you know some more of The Skipper's secrets! Have you any information or stories involving drinking
water supplies? We'd love to hear them.
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