A Tale of Two Chemists: Water and Rum

Water and Rum

Wednesday 14 - Thursday 15th February 2024

Well, believe it or not, we were finally able to get our water-maker (reverse osmosis desalinator) working. It’s been so hot here the past few days that by early afternoon we have been retreating to the boat to hang out in the shade and swim to cool off. It’s also given us some quiet time to explore the problem. You only need one of the two primary pumps to function, and it always seemed strange to me that both would have failed at the same time. I took both of them out and connected them up to an independent 12 volt supply (with switch and fuse) where I could see them properly. It turns out that on one of them the motor is burnt out (sparks flying from the casing!), whereas in the other it is the pressure regulator switch on the motor that has failed. By taking the switch off the first motor and bolting it on to the second, I was able to get one functioning pump! When we put the system back together it now seems to work. Initially, we had some over-pressure issues which we appear to have eliminated by circulating fresh water through the system for half an hour. We also had some control panel issues and salt water leaks from the automatic salinity probe that we resolved by by-passing the panel altogether and going fully manual. We have made 10 gallons of fresh water so far, at about 6 or 7 gallons an hour. The salinity is a little high (350 ppm), double that of the water we currently have in our tanks, but it will do for now (EPA limit is 500 ppm). We may be able to improve that by running an alkaline cleaning cycle on the membrane, but we need to get hold of the proprietary cleaning mixture. We also have enquiries out about the cost of a new membrane. Anyway for now we’ll call that a win.

Yesterday morning we went to investigate a different kind of beverage … rum! The Depaz distillery is a long established and world renowned rum distillery and is about a 45 minute walk out of town, uphill all the way! Nestled on the slopes of Mount Pelee, surrounded by fields of sugar cane, it’s in a beautiful location. We saw wild rose-ringed parakeets flying around. You can take a free self-guided tour around the site, and for a small fee you can also visit the Chateau. This was well worth it - a really beautiful building with fabulous tile floors and the original furniture. The entrance fee to the Chateau also gets you a free sample in the tasting room. Of course Gloria doesn’t drink (because of migraines) and so whilst I had white rum, she had passionfruit syrup with water. We ended up buying two bottles of rum, one white and one amber, for a very reasonable price. The walk back down the hill seemed so much easier.

p.s. In the chateau we saw a bed in a room adjacent to the dining room, and learned that it is a Martinique tradition for guests to be able to put young children to bed close to the dining room ... that seems cool to me!

Mike