Mike Leahy's Carriacou diary: Feel the heat

Day 1

Up at six, which feels like nine or ten. The previous night out with Angie had been fun and I was listening to 106fm, the station on which we had been mentioned the day before. Weather: 27.1°C, 86% Relative Humidity, 0.3mm rain (10.3mm this month), the previous night's low was 25°C and high was 30.1°C according to the Grenada Met office - it felt a lot hotter. Sunrise was at 5.48am and sunset 6.36pm. Reckon this might help in one of the challenges. Can't say that I'm into the idea - I still want to go home - I'm bored and find myself spending more time away from the others, even if it means sitting in my room.

Today we were given our challenges. Ellen has to get a natural sunblock, J and Kathy have to make a thermometer and Mikey B and I have to make ice. It's a cool challenge, but a very difficult one. In the UK it would be hard at any time other than winter but on a tropical island at 32°C it's going to be very difficult. We agreed pretty quickly that we would need to use every method available. Evaporation would cool - just like sweat it keeps us cool - but enough for ice? No way! Insulation? Well that would only maintain a low temperature that may be as experienced at night: 27°C. I glanced across the sea and watched a pelican fly by. Cool!

I'm still deeply unhappy. It's not as much fun as the last trip. There were lots of things that I didn't like about this trip and I feel very compromised. The crew this time have become very cliquey. Almost like divers versus non-divers and there are plenty of strong characters, who are amazingly thoughtless, on the team.

Day 2

AM

Can't get away from today being Sunday. Instead of Calypso and Regae it's just Gospel on 106fm. They take religion seriously here.

I've been thinking about it for a while and I definitely do want to go home. It's nowhere near as much fun as the last trip to Capraia. I'm almost regretting renting my house out. I'm bored stiff and am finding it hard to be positive about anything. It's a gift of a job but it just goes to show that without enthusiasm I can't do anything and I'm no longer enthusiastic about Rough Science 2. My weekend away in Snowdonia was far better than coming to the West Indies. I plugged on with the vacuum device and it did work but no chance of making ice. I miss my girlfriend, friends, training at Tai Kwon Do, dirt biking etc. and feel totally out of my depth. I'm not really enjoying myself at all. I'm not an actor - a job as a dustman looks favourite at the moment. Whatever - I want to go home.

LUNCH

Sussed out why I was in such a foul mood - in part anyway: lack of chocolate. One chocolate biscuit from Jonathan and I'm buzzing. I'm going to have to get a stock. Lunch was much the same every day: bread, cheese, cucumber, tuna, peanut butter, jam and tomato, followed by bananas. Just the kind of simple food I like. We collected together some chairs and most of us followed lunch with a short doze. The lime factory was very homely with bats flitting from beam to beam. As with Rough Science 1, there were bonfires everywhere and I already stank of smoke. I glanced out of the window behind me and saw palm trees waving in the wind framing a gorgeous blue sea. Through the door in front of me I could see pasture dotted with tropical trees, and to my left High North covered in forest. Within hours I'm happy again: chocolate - bloody miraculous stuff.

Over lunch John Foakes discussed vacuums with us - we have a change of plan. Rather than use an aspirator, the new vacuum idea was so obvious. A 5 metre syphon tube will suck water up to 5 metres rather than 20cm. A conservative estimate would suggest that we have 25 times as much suction.

J and I walked back to the hotel along the beach. It was covered in rubbish - typical West Indies. Back at the hotel I took a telling off of sorts from Kate and to a degree David and Steve about my surly behaviour. I am going to try to cheer up.

Day 3

AM

Yesterday was v. frustrating with a 5 minute wait turning into a 3 hour wait. Today I'll put it behind me. Anyway - this syphon idea: bottle of ether on top of a wall attached directly to a long hose full of water. In simple terms I'll have reduced pressure by the weight of 5m of water.

Potential problems:

1. it leaks - simple to fix;
2. as ether expands, the water would move down the hose losing water and suction. 1ml ether would make a lot of gas so we need to take that into account.

A way of dealing with both problems is to incorporate a reservoir. It must be as big as the amount of gas the ether would produce.

1m occupies 22.4 litres. 1ml ether = (C₂H₃)₂0
74g=22.4l
1ml=somewhere around 1g
22 litres divided by 74 gives 1/3 litre therefore the reservoir needs to be at least 1/3 litre if everything is perfect.

Big mistake - got insect repellent in my shorts in the morning. Things hurt a bit initially but were burning by mid-morning.

I gave the new MK II suction device a go and it worked really well - so bloody simple.

Knowing that I had achieved my task I chilled out around the main workshop. After a while Sarah popped her head around the door. "We're just about to do a once only shoot. It can't be repeated, so could everyone shut up." I heard the filming start next to the furnace and just as they got to a crucial moment a donkey started braying. We had heard them before but never this loud. It couldn't have timed it any better.

I was well chilled out and listened to Kathy, Ellen and Jonathan celebrating the success of their latest project - very girly - poor Jonathan. We stopped for lunch. After eating, the girls went swimming. They could have woken the dead with all their squealing and shrieking - just like a bunch of 14 year olds.

While the girls were larking about in the water, Mike B was still slaving away trying to make ether. He even had his food brought out to him. This was the last afternoon of the ice challenge. I didn't think for one minute that we could make ice but we had to try 100%.

PM

My feet were sunburned. Well stripey. As I started work I realised how thoughtful Steve and Sandra (the producer and production assistant) were. They had made lunch for Mike B and Angie who were working hard and Sandra in particular works so hard on all of our behalves. What a star!

The syphon for making the vacuum seems to be working spectacularly. Some rough calculations indicate that the water reservoir should be large enough to allow 20ml of ether but it will be a close thing. At least there will be serious suction this time. I chilled out inside the lime factory for a while and helped Mike B by sealing holes in his condenser.

After a while I though that I would catch some rays, so went outside to the water reservoir. Damn! The hose had broken and all the water had leaked out - major bummer. The last thing I really wanted to do was fill it back up in the mid-afternoon sun. It was seriously hot. Kathy volunteered to help. Then Angie came along to help. Typically, the funnel that I had planned to use had been cannibalised by Mike B so topping up the big tin took ages - I couldn't take off the lid because it was sealed, so had to put water in via the vacuum hose.

As we worked away a local guy came over to wash. Some people are pretty poor here and the water tanks at the lime factory were often used as a sort of public bath. The poor bloke chose to keep his shorts on as he first washed his other clothes, then himself with a film crew working around him. Felt pretty humble.

The sun was vicious by this point but everyone was in high spirits - I could hear Sarah and Kathy singing the tunes from Grease. In the meantime Paul had been taken ill. The camera and sound men work so hard and the humidity is crippling. While me, Mikey B, J, Kathy and Angie had been working towards making ice, Kate and Ellen had been working on sun block. They sat in the sun for twenty minutes to test it and badly burnt their legs - it was that powerful. We're not used to it in the UK.

Because I had changed the position of the vacuum pipe (it now had to be very high to allow the syphon to work rather than very low) it posed a problem. The ice making device would now be in full sunlight - the apparatus would fry. We ended up lengthening the vacuum pipe so that we could work in the shade of a wall. It wasn't ideal - firstly, we could do without creating vacuum in a long pipe because we would lose more water from the reservoir. Ideally, the pipe should be very short. Secondly, we would be filming next to a dirty great pit full of rusty old scrap. It made me feel very nervous about walking along the wall. I'm bad enough at heights but should I fall I would end up impaled on a pile of nasty rubble. Of course, it would be worse for the camera men because they can't see where they're walking and they often walk backwards. The solution was to place boards around the edge of the pit and put Sandra and Sarah in the pit to warn the crews or pinch their ankles if they get too close.

We were finally going to attempt to make ice. As usual when both camera/sound crews, both directors, Kate and co. were all there, small niggles and debates started - not in a personal way. At last it was time to get going. I lifted the lid of the insulated box, Mikey B poured in the ether and I shoved the vacuum hose into the bottle. We then shouted to J to open the valve at the end of the syphon pipe. We were away. Kathy stuck her thermometer through the lid of the box and observed our progress while J monitored the water level in the reservoir. At first all seemed well - we were getting amazing suction. Within a couple of minutes the reservoir had been sucked in to the point of collapse. Another minute and we were out of water. Had the walls of the reservoir not been sucked in we should have been able to evaporate all the ether before the water ran out. We checked the bottle and there was still plenty of ether but no ice.

A 'lively' discussion followed, the upshot being that we restricted the flow of the syphon pipe. Mikey B and I took the view that what we gained in time we would lose by having less vacuum. J argued that the extra time would allow the bottle to cool - it wasn't an instant process. This time the water lasted longer but still no ice. According to Kathy's thermometer we had cooled the bottle by about 15°C so it wasn't a total failure. We finished the show by running into the sea and downing a bottle of rum punch before being told that a boarded up area in the factory actually contained an ice cream machine. Typical!

Rest day

First day off of two and I'm ill, possibly from all the filthy water that I took on, maybe from the heat. I wake up fairly early to get to the internet café before a queue forms but before I leave the phone rings - cool! I've been pretty lonely even surrounded by mates.

The night before, our visiting 'big boss' had cooked a lovely meal and we had a party. I drank very little because I felt really rough. That said we had great fun and got louder and louder.

Back to the hotel. I chill out but with awful stomach cramps, sweats and asthma. The cleaners turn up, so I go to town for groceries. I get as far as bread before meeting Steve and Sarah. They are taking Ubi (a stray dog that Sarah bonds very well with) to a new home. I join them for a drive which ultimately ends in Steve having a brush with the law when driving the wrong way down a one way street - Skoda drivers.

I'm too ill to go out but have time to talk to David about the next challenge. A bit of a fudge - whilst we are allowed a brand new car battery we aren't allowed parts from the old Land Rover which has already featured in the ice challenge.

OK, so I've got to make a generator just as in the first series of Rough Science in Capraia except this time it has to be way more powerful. To charge a 12 V battery we need over 14V and 2A. Last time we were getting OK voltage but not even 1/20th of an amp. Bummer.