Sunday, January 06, 2008

Big swells flood Sand Flat


The big swells that accompanied this storm hit us at high tide and flooded areas of the seal colony that are normally high above the waterline. Luckily, few cows are here and none had their pups in the flooded areas of Mirounga Beach. The only pup that did wash away was already dead.


We did manage to collect a bit of rainwater to augment our dwindling supplies, but we're still way below the level we need to serve our needs for the coming year. We survive on rainwater we collect for all our fresh water needs, but last year was dry, and this winter hasn't delivered enough yet to make up our deficit. Even though the mainland received several inches of rainfall, we only got about 1 inch.


In other news, we've missed our resupply boat due to the rough seas, and we're having to get creative with cabbage and carrots for dinner since these are the only vegetables remaining. Don't worry, we have plenty of food in the pantry and we're saving energy now that the third fridge is empty and unplugged.

2 comments:

Mr. Moses said...

I hope that you were able to get plenty of rain water over the past two days. I have not commented on this blog yet, but I do enjoy reading it, and seeing the pictures of the island.
Best,
Moses

Anonymous said...

Relying on rainwater for your survival is just pound foolish. I have not heard of that since before the dawn of man.

Some ideas that you can consider:

1. Setup a desalination plant on this island;

2. Have a large shipping vessel bring 1000 gallons at a time to pump into cistern;

3. Setup pipeline from main coast of California to this island for transmission of water and evacuation of seweage.