The principle works!
The principle of using water as ball bearings works great! We have just tested the principle in a small lake in Småland (located in the south of Sweden). It verifies the principle of using the water buoyancy force to carry the weight of the wind turbine, which significantly reduces the loads on the bearings that normally has to take up the whole weight of the rotor.
Happy with the fact that the turbine proceeded to spin for some time even when the wind had stopped blowing!