After a long winter we’ve organised our first working weekend of the year! With joint efforts, the main goal was to drill a well at the back of the terrain for the new ‘Umoya’ test-setup that will use the earlier posted ‘new gearbox design’ by one of our members. The well was planned to be 12 meters deep with a diameter fitting for a PVC-tube of 125 mm. This seemed quite a challenge since this diameter has not been tried before on our terrain. However, with our EMAS drilling tip extended and filled with good hope whilst wearing warm clothing, we set to work.

Throughout the weekend some of our members posted stories on our new Instagram page to show to the outside world how the EMAS drilling method is used to drill a well and of course to show part of what we do as the WOT. So if  you do not do so already, be sure to follow us on Instagram! A big thank you to all members who worked on the Instagram stories!

In one Saturday we managed to drill to 9 meters in depth, not quite the depth we had hoped for. Next Sunday we set to work with an extra heavy first drilling pipe. Even this didn’t increase the amount of meters per hour achieved, so after lunch a less conventual electric pump was used to pump water into our well, combined with the newly developed rowing machine for lifting the drill pipes up and down.

 Getting stuck on a layer of coarse gravel the depth was eventually settled on just short of 12 meters, which is after all quite deep considering the PTB-tower next to the well is even smaller than that. After dinner the PVC pipes have been lifted in and the well was made ready for development and use.Despite the smaller amount of people joining this working weekend because of bad weather conditions and COVID-symptoms we managed to achieve the our main goal. To all members who joined, thanks for all enthusiasm, exhaustive drilling, building a rowing machine for Euros to be jealous of, a great campfire, all the necessary technical advice and, above all, a great time!