Wednesday - D2P4 (great photos)

If were not using the D-/P- designation for the entries, the title for this one would read like something from the old Calvin and Hobbes cartoon strip and would be called "Paul and Frank and the Barrels of Globbery Goop!". Upon our return to the work site, I briefly conferred with Chip and decided to turn my attention to the residue in the bottom of the barrels. Kind of important since these would be the vessels containing the water that living people were going to be drinking from. At this juncture, I would like to publicly thank Maderas Richards for multiplying my workload on this trip by a factor of 3-4. Or thereabouts. (This is sarcasm). So, in the best traditions of analytical chemistry I attempted to divine the nature of the stuff. Visually, it was a colorless, translucent, amorphous, gelatinous substance at 90 degrees F (32 C). It produced a bland, faint odor, which was non-distinct other than smelling like some type of cleaning agent or detergent one might use on, say, floors in the home. Certainly non-volatile, not ammonia-like. As I had just had lunch I opted against tasting it. With some trepidation I smeared a bad of it between my fingers: It was slippery and smooth to the touch. Okay, so far, so good but not really all that better informed. With nothing more to go on I moved on to trying to rinse it out. Now, remember, I do not have water under pressure to work with. I have 5 gallon spackle pails and one of those stretchy miracle hoses that I packed with me for just such an occasion where I might need to siphon water over distances, rather than carry buckets. So, to start, I poured in about 2 gallons and sloshed it around. Now, here's the surprise - it foams!  While this may not sound significant, it means a great deal. If it foams with water it means it's a soap. This is not an unimportant distinction, as, a soap implies a specific chemical significance. I am not going to get into a discourse in organic chemistry  here, but, it means that, like soap, if I add enough water, it will eventually wash away. The key word here is enough. Without pressure to blast stuff away. Also, a further fly in the ointment; as the added water cooled the warmer barrel walls the glop became stiffer, more like very soft wax.

I rigged up a siphon from a bucket but the flow was so weak that I quickly realized that that was not a viable option. The only other real way to try to do this was to bring the barrels back down to the dock and use the ocean water, in large quantities, to rinse, and rinse, and rinse, until the stuff was gone. I asked Frank, my newfound water chemistry maven to assist on this one. Now, there is no sandy beach at our dock, just a gradual transition from solid ground through mangrove swamp to open water. To rinse the barrel I would need to dangle it from the edge of the dock down to the water, a distance of 18-24 inches, fill it, hoist it back up, and pour it out. Delightful. Another well spent afternoon as an engineer, only slightly more productive than carrying sand bags, but no other way.

We rolled the barre;s down the hill to the stairs, carried them down to the bottom then rolled them down to the dock. We lifted one down to the water, tilted the edge, allowed perhaps 10 or 12 gallons to fill it, then hoisted it back up onto the dock and proceeded to swirl it and swish it around the barrel. It foamed up beautifully and we poured it out and looked. It was like nothing had happened at all - the crud was still there. We repeated the process and the same thing happened. Now, at this point, I must tell you that it was not like the barrel was full of this, but in fairness, small potato-sized lumps of it clung to the sides and bottom of the barrel. Clearly, the water dissolved it, but only a small fraction with any one rinse. It would take the entire week, as well as a lot of back strain, to clean just one of them out. This was not good, and our options were getting more and more limited. Not many good decisions to make. Think. Think. What would Chamberlain have done?* Time for a bit of radical improvisation. Throw the damn barrel in the water and go in with it. No other choice. Done.

Next thing you know, I am in the warm sea with a barrel of soapy glop. But, it was working. I started to wash the inside of the barrel with my hand it started melting away. Really quickly,too! This was great. If all went well, I should be able to get both done in about 20 minutes. Then, the next snag hit. My arm is way too short to get down to the lower one third and bottom of the barrel, and one thing I was NOT going to do was to put my damn head in a floating barrel of God-knows-what. Next radical improv: Legs! I half-climbed into the barrel and started to use my foot to wash the bottom. Now, up until this point, as I did not know what we were dealing with, I had refused to let Frank help me. He must have felt pretty useless standing on the dock watching me have all the fun, because next thing I know, splash, Frank is next to me in the water, swapping me out.

I would love to be able to say that with the two of us jigging around inside the barrel like wine-makers we were finished in 5 minutes, but it was not that easy. Frank has excellent young eyes. In the late afternoon sun, I would use my leg to wash, Frank would help hold the barrel and then  we would bring the barrel to the surface, tilt it, run out the water and then he would inspect it. From here on out, it took about a half for each barrel, but eventually, it looked like we would prevail. We actually started to enjoy. It was really hot out, and we sort of had the nice duty of being in the warm seawater. Aside from the potential toxicity of the crap we were washing, it was quite nice and Frank and I were having a nice chat when we were joined by Elizabeth. Who unfortunately had the camera. Just to capture moments like these...

 

Admit it.  It's crazy. But it's kinda cool.

* References Col. Joshua Chamberlain, commander of 20th Maine Regiment, Union Army, on far left flank at Gettysburg, who ordered a bayonet charge when faced with a Confederate attack and no remaining ammunition. One of my heroes.