Today the big seperation occured that we had all agreed upon yesterday afternoon after the crash. Our 4 British friends left the island, taking our only life boat and ¾ of all the water left. We were all very sad and scared to see them go, because at this point it comes down to who will be able to survive. Choosing to stay on the island with the dirty pond, we must now find a way to purify the water, and quickly too, because we calculated that we have just enough bottled water to last the 3 of us 9 and one thrid days. After our friends left at sunrise, we went in search of food and stumbled upon some wild berries to eat, just inland from our shore camp. We had no idea whether they were posionous or not, so we used Francesca as a tester. She popped a few berries, and we waited an hour. She said she tasted funny, but she was fine, so we gathered all that we could find and brought them back to camp. It’s so hot - my thermometer tells me 90 degrees in the shade - but we cool off in the ocean periodically. We’re taking the weekend to rest and recoup from the crash, and on Monday we’ll start experimenting to find a way to purify the water.
Monday, September 19th 2011
Today we started the process of trying to find a way to filter the pond water. First, we opened the chemistry kit that mysteriously survived the plan crash and found some beakers, graduated cylinders, a funnel, filter paper, and an iron ring and ring stand. Francesca had the idea to maybe filter the pond water through the sand, gravel, rocks, and ash we have from our campfire. Me and Galen agreed and took a hike to the pond to gather a bit of water as a sample. Boy, does it stink! We punched holes in the bottom of a styrofoam cup and put some filter paper on the bottom, and then fillef it with rocks, gravel, and sand. Then, we put some filter paper in the funnel, and poured the water through the funnel into the cup which rested on a beaker. Only a bit of water came out, and it took a very long time to filter all the way through, but it looked clean! Tomorrow we’re gonna try to find a more efficient way to do this.
Tuesday September 20th, 2011
We are running into some problems filtering our water. Our sample from yesterday contained no solids, yet was still very murky. Today we tried to get the oil our of our water sample, because we can not heat it until it is oil-free. At first we tried pouring it into a different container, which didn’t work because the oil just floated on top of the water and did not pour out. Next, we tried filtering the water again through layers of rock, sand, and gravel as we did yesterday. Unfortunately, that failed to remove the oil as well. We’re not discouraged though, we’re going to continue trying tomorrow.
Wednesday September 21st, 2011
Good news today! After filtering the water through a cup which contained rocks on the bottom and sand on top, and then straining it in a filter topped with charcoal from our campfire, we were able to achieve relatively clear, oil free water! Still not safe to drink by any means, but it is progress! We celebrated our success with a long swim in the ocean (it was extremely hot today) and some shellfish for dinner (still no luck in catching any fish!). Tomorrow we hope to boil the water we strained today, so we gathered some dry bark and brush until the sun set, at which time we all fell asleep, exhausted from our busy day!
Thursday September 22nd, 2011
We spent this morning gathering a pile of charcoal from last night’s fire to use in today’s experiments. First, we took the relatively clear water from yesterday and filtered it again through more charcoal on filter paper in the hopes of purifying it further. Little success though, as the water was just as contaminated as before. Because we lose water each time we filter it, we are down to only about 75mL in this sample! Consequently, we decided to start the same process we uised with this sample with a larger amount of lake water - about 200mL. We filtered that thrugh sand, rocks, and filter paper. We make little progress each day, and we are quickly running out of our bottled water supplies. We are starting to worry for our healthand safety, but we won’ give up yet!
Friday September 23rd, 2011
Today was a great day for our team! We deicded to start afresh and use the remaining sample of lake water (about 142mL) to perform the entire process again and time each part to figure our if we will be able to make enough water in 24 hours to sustain our lives each day. We filtered this new water sample through rocks, sand, and gravel, which removed all visible impurities but still left the water murky. Then, we filtered this sample through filter paper, which removed finer particles. The last thing we attempted today was mixing this water with charcoal from our fire, and then filtering that. We have semi-clear water! We will take a break for the weekend and focus of gathering food stores and excersising (we found some long sticks and a nice rock we could use for a ball, and we’re thinking some field hockey?), and resume work on Monday. We had the idea to boil this water, so over the weekend we will also be brainstorming ideas on how to distill it. Lastly, Francesca got bitten by a crab today, and we’ve spent most of the afternoon trying to find some herbs to soothe her toe. If only we had had some band-aids with us when we crashed!
Monday September 26th, 2011
Finally! After filtering the charcoal out of our water sample once more (some got through the filter in our last trial) we have achieved clear water! It is only 22mL though, which is a lot less than we started with. We are still wary of consuming this sample though, and have decided to attempt to distill it tomorrow. We will spend the rest of the day thinking about how to do this, and hopefully be able to finish our trials and calculate all of our results later in the week.
Tuesday September 27th, 2011
WE HAVE DISTILLED WATER!!!! Today we boiled our water over an open flame and collected the condensation. Granted, we have very little water left compared to what we started with, but at least it is clear, oil-free, solid-free and odorless. We will be spending the next couple of days compiling all of our notes on our trials and calculating how much time it took us to distill this water and what percentage of it we can actually use. Hopefully, our results will be favorable and we will be able to calculate that we can actually survive on the island!
Today the big seperation occured that we had all agreed upon yesterday afternoon after the crash. Our 4 British friends left the island, taking our only life boat and ¾ of all the water left. We were all very sad and scared to see them go, because at this point it comes down to who will be able to survive. Choosing to stay on the island with the dirty pond, we must now find a way to purify the water, and quickly too, because we calculated that we have just enough bottled water to last the 3 of us 9 and one thrid days. After our friends left at sunrise, we went in search of food and stumbled upon some wild berries to eat, just inland from our shore camp. We had no idea whether they were posionous or not, so we used Francesca as a tester. She popped a few berries, and we waited an hour. She said she tasted funny, but she was fine, so we gathered all that we could find and brought them back to camp. It’s so hot - my thermometer tells me 90 degrees in the shade - but we cool off in the ocean periodically. We’re taking the weekend to rest and recoup from the crash, and on Monday we’ll start experimenting to find a way to purify the water.
Monday, September 19th 2011
Today we started the process of trying to find a way to filter the pond water. First, we opened the chemistry kit that mysteriously survived the plan crash and found some beakers, graduated cylinders, a funnel, filter paper, and an iron ring and ring stand. Francesca had the idea to maybe filter the pond water through the sand, gravel, rocks, and ash we have from our campfire. Me and Galen agreed and took a hike to the pond to gather a bit of water as a sample. Boy, does it stink! We punched holes in the bottom of a styrofoam cup and put some filter paper on the bottom, and then fillef it with rocks, gravel, and sand. Then, we put some filter paper in the funnel, and poured the water through the funnel into the cup which rested on a beaker. Only a bit of water came out, and it took a very long time to filter all the way through, but it looked clean! Tomorrow we’re gonna try to find a more efficient way to do this.
Tuesday September 20th, 2011
We are running into some problems filtering our water. Our sample from yesterday contained no solids, yet was still very murky. Today we tried to get the oil our of our water sample, because we can not heat it until it is oil-free. At first we tried pouring it into a different container, which didn’t work because the oil just floated on top of the water and did not pour out. Next, we tried filtering the water again through layers of rock, sand, and gravel as we did yesterday. Unfortunately, that failed to remove the oil as well. We’re not discouraged though, we’re going to continue trying tomorrow.
Wednesday September 21st, 2011
Good news today! After filtering the water through a cup which contained rocks on the bottom and sand on top, and then straining it in a filter topped with charcoal from our campfire, we were able to achieve relatively clear, oil free water! Still not safe to drink by any means, but it is progress! We celebrated our success with a long swim in the ocean (it was extremely hot today) and some shellfish for dinner (still no luck in catching any fish!). Tomorrow we hope to boil the water we strained today, so we gathered some dry bark and brush until the sun set, at which time we all fell asleep, exhausted from our busy day!
Thursday September 22nd, 2011
We spent this morning gathering a pile of charcoal from last night’s fire to use in today’s experiments. First, we took the relatively clear water from yesterday and filtered it again through more charcoal on filter paper in the hopes of purifying it further. Little success though, as the water was just as contaminated as before. Because we lose water each time we filter it, we are down to only about 75mL in this sample! Consequently, we decided to start the same process we uised with this sample with a larger amount of lake water - about 200mL. We filtered that thrugh sand, rocks, and filter paper. We make little progress each day, and we are quickly running out of our bottled water supplies. We are starting to worry for our healthand safety, but we won’ give up yet!
Friday September 23rd, 2011
Today was a great day for our team! We deicded to start afresh and use the remaining sample of lake water (about 142mL) to perform the entire process again and time each part to figure our if we will be able to make enough water in 24 hours to sustain our lives each day. We filtered this new water sample through rocks, sand, and gravel, which removed all visible impurities but still left the water murky. Then, we filtered this sample through filter paper, which removed finer particles. The last thing we attempted today was mixing this water with charcoal from our fire, and then filtering that. We have semi-clear water! We will take a break for the weekend and focus of gathering food stores and excersising (we found some long sticks and a nice rock we could use for a ball, and we’re thinking some field hockey?), and resume work on Monday. We had the idea to boil this water, so over the weekend we will also be brainstorming ideas on how to distill it. Lastly, Francesca got bitten by a crab today, and we’ve spent most of the afternoon trying to find some herbs to soothe her toe. If only we had had some band-aids with us when we crashed!
Monday September 26th, 2011
Finally! After filtering the charcoal out of our water sample once more (some got through the filter in our last trial) we have achieved clear water! It is only 22mL though, which is a lot less than we started with. We are still wary of consuming this sample though, and have decided to attempt to distill it tomorrow. We will spend the rest of the day thinking about how to do this, and hopefully be able to finish our trials and calculate all of our results later in the week.
Tuesday September 27th, 2011
WE HAVE DISTILLED WATER!!!! Today we boiled our water over an open flame and collected the condensation. Granted, we have very little water left compared to what we started with, but at least it is clear, oil-free, solid-free and odorless. We will be spending the next couple of days compiling all of our notes on our trials and calculating how much time it took us to distill this water and what percentage of it we can actually use. Hopefully, our results will be favorable and we will be able to calculate that we can actually survive on the island!