Kate overboard? At night? In the ocean? And we’re supposed to save her? This is not our standard challenge. It’s kind of out there, pushing the limits of what we do. The stakes are higher, too. Sure, we have safety teams, but in the end, we are responsible for each other. Scientifically, it’s a fabulous set of challenges.

Mike makes a flare for Kate to set off, so we know her general direction when she hits the water. Kathy and I make Kate a life-jacket, so she stays afloat until we find her. Jonathan adorns the life-jacket with lights, so when we get near we’ll see her in the dark - like we won’t hear her screams first!

First thing is obvious - this is going to be messy and fun. Our strategy is to make a life-jacket out of the fabric from the pillows we were provided with in the trunk. We’ll stuff it with kapok fibre, which is traditional pillow, mattress, and life-jacket filling. The good thing about kapok is that it is light, fluffy (air is trapped between its fibres), and water resistant (the fibres are coated with a waxy substance). This means that if we can create a waterproof skin to stuff it in, the entire life-jacket should be very buoyant and support lots of weight - Kate’s to be exact.

Our challenge, then, is the waterproof skin - we need to rubberize the pillow fabric. Our plan is to tap rubber trees (Hevea) for their latex, spread it on the fabric, and vulcanize the whole thing so the latex “cures,” turning from a milky liquid to a stable, impermeable rubber. We’re too late to tap rubber today, as it flows best in the early morning, so that’s the plan for tomorrow. Today we’ll sew the life-jackets.

That afternoon: I have to say it was a beautiful, sunny day by the ocean. Kathy and I had a relaxing day in a sewing circle. Making the life-jacket is part of the technology of getting to the final product. We don’t think of clothing and sewing as very scientific now, but historically, that’s another matter. I have to say that we were thankful we didn’t have to make the fabric from scratch…, I’ve sewn all my life: pillow, drapes, clothing, fancy dresses.. It was something my grandmother and I did together. My mother and I sewed together, too. I loved it.

Back to the challenge: To find someone just based on a sighting from a flare isn’t very realistic. We wanted to make and use a compass. Yes, there are currents in the ocean, but if we could get a bearing on the flare and follow it out, it is much more likely that we’ll find Kate. Without a bearing and given we can’t sight on anything as it will be dark, we might end up wandering around in the ocean - no good to Kate. The key was convincing the production team that a compass was logical and necessary. We wanted to build it today, but they were worried we wouldn’t have anything to do later, on Day 3. Based on previous experience, we’ll have plenty, plenty to do. Things rarely go as expected…

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