By Monday, it became apparent to us that our water reserves were at a minimum. This was in accordance with our plans, as a water tank refill was scheduled for Monday. However, since our friendly local Martian Don Foutz was rather busy taking care of prearranged family matters, he requested that we take the water tank into Hanksville on our own to fill it up. We hooked up the trailer to our faithful Pressurized Rover, getting all the accumulated garbage bags with us, and carefully proceeded on an off-sim EVA towards the Whispering Sands motel. After a relatively uneventful drive, we arrived at Don's place and got the opportunity to view a sacred place that few analogue Mars-nauts will ever see: the actual source of the potable water refills! Well, intriguing as it may sound, it turned out that this water source was nothing more exciting than a water hose hanging in the backyard. However, it did serve it purpose and while we waited for the tank to fill up we also had the chance to get acquainted with some local domestic animals; namely three horses and a buffalo.

Water tank refilled and garbage dumped, the Commander treated his crew to a civilized dinner before we got back on the road for our return to the Hab. This time the drive was a bit more interesting as we carried some 1200 kgs of extra weight on the trailer. Hugh made good use of his experience towing artillery pieces in the Canadian Forces and managed to get us to the dirt road leading to the Hab without any major incidents. That's where the interesting part started. With the potable water pumps and hoses being rigged the way they are, we had no means of taking the tank lid with us without ripping the hose connections apart, as the lid is currently an integral part of the pump assembly. Rather than having to do a major re-coupling work on the water pipes, we decided to leave the lid behind at the Hab and hope that enough water would stay inside the un-capped tank to last us through the week. Therefore, we were now towing a water tank without its cap on across the Martian landscape which, as some fellow Mars-nauts may have noted, sometimes might get just a little less smooth than your average paved road. This made for some really interesting effects as the water came splashing through the top hole with every major bump in the road, making a good imitation of a blowing whale or an Icelandic geyser. One particularly nasty bump send the water gushing a good two meters up in the air, leaving the Commander in a fit of hysterical laughter and making us refer to the water tank as Old Faithful from there on.

As we arrived at the Hab generator area our trip quite literally came to a grinding halt. When trying to back the trailer up to its previous location, we discovered that the last bump in the road had caused the trailer to slip off the truck's hitch and that the trailer was now hanging on by the safety chains only. The whole coupling assembly looked quite tangled and as the trailer leg also was lodged firmly into the mud, we decided to leave the trailer in place and call Don for help in the morning rather than to fiddle around in the dark. Apart from this final mishap the trip went well and we found out that it is indeed possible to do a water refill on our own. However, dragging a heavy water tank along the dirt road certainly presents several hazards and I would not recommend doing that unless the crew includes a driver with thorough knowledge in off road driving and towing heavy objects. In our case, it was Hugh's long experience with toting big guns across the Canadian wilderness that saved the day.

To summarize, the result of the trip is that we are now well stocked with potable water. We also got a nice break from the daily routine of cleaning up the mess at the Hab left by previous crews. This certainly served as a good morale booster for the team.