flstandardbreds Chapter 1025
Chapter 1025
Qi Mingyu struggled to stand up and walked to the window. The icicle rain outside had become very sparse, with only a few scattered icicles still falling.
"Stop it!" he said.
Everyone in the lounge immediately gathered around, looked at the scene outside the window, and a long-lost smile appeared on their faces.
But after the excitement, everyone fell silent again.
Even if the ice rain stops, the problem of fresh water is still not solved.
Zhong Tiyun sighed: "There is not enough fresh water these days."
At this moment, Zhou Shuwan's eyes suddenly lit up.
Then I couldn't help laughing again.
This is really a dark place under the lamp!
She turned and looked at everyone: "Look at the ice spikes outside!"
Everyone looked in the direction she pointed and saw a thick layer of ice ridges accumulated on the deck.
Qi Mingyu was stunned for a moment, then he slowly began to laugh.
"Ice spikes are made of water, and when they melt they become fresh water! We can collect the ice spikes outside, put them in a pot and boil them to melt, and then we'll have fresh water!"
Everyone was stunned, and then an expression of surprise appeared on their faces.
Mu Mu slapped his thigh and said, "That's right! Why didn't we think of that? Icy icicles are made of frozen water, and we can drink them once they melt!"
Zhou Jianghai also said excitedly: "That's great! Now we don't have to worry about running out of fresh water!"
Not long after, the icy rain outside stopped completely.
The sunlight shone on the ice edges on the deck, reflecting a dazzling light.
Everyone came to the deck with buckets and shovels and began to collect icicles.
Although Zhou Shuwan's arm was injured, he still insisted on helping.
With her uninjured hand, she put the ice cubes into the bucket one by one.
On the cast iron stove in the kitchen, two large pots were bubbling with hot steam. The ice at the bottom of the pots gradually melted and turned into transparent water streams. The steaming white mist wrapped in the condensed coolness of sea water slowly spread over the edge of the stove.
Qi Mingyu and Mu Mu were responsible for moving the ice buckets from the deck.
"The first pot is almost done." Qi Mingyu turned off the low fire on the stove and poured the warm water into the water storage bucket next to him.
These are five large plastic barrels they found in the cabin storage room. They were originally used to store diesel. After cleaning, there was still a faint smell of oil on the inner wall, but now they have become life-saving containers.
It took several hours before the last piece of ice melted into water in the pot.
Zhou Jianghai squatted down, measured the water level on the bucket wall with his fingers, and patted the bucket: "This bucket is about 20 liters, and the three buckets together are 60 liters."
"There are five of us. Each of us drinks two liters of water a day. We save another two liters for cooking and washing, so that's only ten liters a day." Mu Mu said, "Sixty liters is just enough for us for six days!"
This is still not enough!
"Not enough." Qi Mingyu shook his head, looking out the window at the boundless sea. "The weather at sea can change so quickly. If we encounter a continuous period of cloudy days or can't find a new water source, this water won't last long. We have to find a way to continuously collect fresh water. We can't just rely on this ice rain."
When Zhou Shuwan heard this, he suddenly went to the warehouse, dug out a folded thick plastic sheet and several slender aluminum alloy rods, and then came back.
"This might work." She spread the things on the sofa. The plastic sheet was two meters square when unfolded, and there were holes for fixing ropes on the edges.
Qi Mingyu looked at the plastic sheet, his eyes lit up slightly, and he immediately understood what she meant.
"Good idea." He reached out and picked up an aluminum alloy pole, weighing it. "We can use this to build a tilted rack, with the lowest point of the plastic sheet facing the water storage barrel. This way, we can collect dew and rainwater."
Everyone just does it.
Qi Mingyu and Zhou Jianghai used ropes to fix the aluminum alloy poles on both sides of the ship's side to form a triangular bracket, and then firmly laid the plastic sheeting on the rack.
Use a few stones to hold down the edges so that the lowest point of the plastic sheet hangs just above an empty water storage bucket.
"Can we really collect water like this?" Zhong Tiyun asked as she stood by.
"Normally, the temperature difference between day and night at sea is large. Water vapor evaporates from the sea surface at night and condenses into dew on the plastic sheet in the early morning.
But now, we're constantly in the daylight period, with no temperature difference between day and night. However, the sea is also quite humid, so we can always collect some fresh water. "Zhou Shuwan squatted down and adjusted the angle of the plastic sheeting:
"And if it's cloudy or raining lightly, this plastic sheet can be used as a simple rain collector, which is much more efficient than using buckets to collect water."
But everyone's happiness didn't last long.
When they went to see the plastic sheet the next day, they found that some water had indeed collected on it. However, before everyone could be happy, Qi Mingyu frowned.
He walked in front, his eyes just falling on the plastic sheet.
The water droplets on the surface of the plastic sheet should be transparent, but now they are covered with a layer of fine white light, as if sprinkled with fine salt.
He quickly walked to the water barrel, squatted down, and as soon as his fingertips touched the water surface, he felt something was wrong.
The water feels smoother than ordinary fresh water, and when I remove my fingertips from it, there is a thin layer of white frost sticking to it.
Zhou Shuwan and Mu Mu have also discovered that the water contains a very high salt content.
Zhong Tiyun and Zhou Jianghai were old and their eyesight was blurry. From a distance they could only see the white water on the plastic sheet, and a smile appeared on their faces.
However, when they walked quickly to the barrel, they found that the white was completely different from what they had imagined.
Zhong Tiyun trembled as she dipped her finger into the water and tasted it. Her face turned pale instantly: "It's really... really salty! How can there be salt in it?"
Zhou Jianghai also became anxious. He reached out to scoop up the water in the bucket. His palm was immediately covered with a layer of fine white crystals. When he looked at it against the light, the crystals were still sparkling.
"Isn't this dew? Why is it salty?" he muttered to himself.
The joy everyone had just felt was gone, leaving only a heavy sense of panic.
Zhou Shuwan squatted down and scraped the edge of the plastic sheet with his fingers, and a layer of fine salt immediately accumulated in the cracks of his nails.
She looked up at the distant sea. The faint sea fog had not yet dissipated, and the wind was wrapped with a faint salty smell. Her heart sank little by little: "It's the sea fog that's the problem."
She stood up and looked at everyone. "It's been daytime now, and the sea is evaporating rapidly. The water vapor itself carries sea salt. Therefore, the fog that drifts here has a high salt content."
The condensation on the plastic sheet is not pure dew, but mist wrapped in salt particles.
Everyone frowned!
"What should I do?"
You can't just wait for another rain of ice crystals.
The last ice rain injured three of their young warriors, and they haven’t recovered yet!
If there is another battle, they will be completely wiped out!
"We still have to find a way to filter it!" Zhou Shuwan pondered as he looked at the plastic sheet in front of him.
“If only we had some gauze in our warehouse that could be used for filtering!”
There was gauze in their first aid kit, but that was for bandaging wounds and should never be used here.
So what can be used instead of gauze?