The morning kicked off with a retool of our pipe fittings for the water wheel.
After adjusting our fittings, we were ready to strap on the barrels and roll the raft down to the water for testing.
We lost a few barrels along the way, but were still able to roll the raft relatively easily....well, except for a few spokes of the paddle wheel that were sheered off by the uneven terrain of the path.
Crayfish Surprise!
With the raft finally in the water, we realize we've got a few problems.....
We pulled out the raft to work on our barrel issues. We ended up with two ideas. The first idea was to screw wood planks across the openings in the raft to keep the barrels lower. The second idea utilized webbing lashed across the opening to position the barrels.
Although this test run looks like a fail, it wasn't! We discovered both methods would lift the raft up out of the water. In the end we chose to combine the two ideas and used webbing on the top and bottom to secure the barrels.
Finally! Success! Our raft would be ready for tomorrow's adventure with a quick repair of the water wheel..........air guitar!
We celebrated after lunch with a few jumps off the rope swing.
Some swam to the island.
Back at the workshop, we worked on building more paddles.
When the sun came out, we seized our last chance to visit the sand pit.
On the way back, we saw our dog friends that joined us for swimming yesterday.
Last push to finish the bike rack, before heading home!
Excited for what tomorrow's adventure!