June 9, 2010: today we have a short respite between low pressure systems, so we sailed just out of the Bay of Islands and then beat back in for a bit of sail testing. We have a much-upgraded Reef-Rite boom furler thanks to Kevin Graham, a new mainsail from Chris McMaster at Doyle Sails NZ, all new standing rigging from Garry Hassal at Hall Spars NZ.
Tonight we are planning to anchor in the inner islands at Orokawa Bay to shelter from the next blow out of the Northwest.
It has been six years since HydraPower Hydraulics built a beautiful custom hydraulic cylinder to give us complete control over our Reef-Rite boom furling mainsail. ADAGIO’s “hydraulic spring” boom-lifting system was designed by engineer Chris Mitchell. This earlier post summarizes the design.
Because the hydraulic system has worked flawlessly since installation we had never actually used the manual hydraulic pump to pressurize the accumulator and cylinder. When I couldn’t figure it out on my own I twice rang up Paul Lamont at HydraPower Hydraulics in Christchurch with questions. Paul quickly accessed the original design drawings for our system, then stepped me through the correct process for re-pressurizing, bleeding the cylinder.
That’s the sort of customer service that makes us smile!
If you use a lot of satphone minutes within a 12 month period, then pre-paid minutes will likely be the cheapest per-minute air time. Typically around USD $500 for 500 minutes (which expire after 12 months).
We use very modest air time, so what works best for us is a “pay as you go” plan. The best plan we have been able to find is the “Casual Plan” offered by Australia’s TR Telecom “Iridium satellite call plans Australia “[PDF].
There is NO activation/cancellation fee, but there is a four month minimum at AUD 30/month, which includes $10/month call credit. Any time after the four months minimum period, we have the option to cancel when we are done passaging, or to suspend service, for AUD 15/mon — which allows us to keep the same number. Air time for voice calls is AUD 1.98/minute.
We have hard-mounted our Iridium so it has a high gain external antenna and is always on the charger and always connected to the serial-USB hub if we need to download e.g., a GRIB and Steve isn’t willing to wait until propagation improves. If we need to make a voice e.g., med emergency call we have to sit on the port hull steps 🙂 We use Sailmail (or Winlink) first, Inmarsat-C second, Iridium third or for data too big for Sailmail. If we wish to get a quick note off to our weather router, Rick Shema, we just use Sat-C because the msg is short, and we know we will get an alert soon as Rick’s msg comes in.
If you are crossing oceans you are probably keenly interested in forecasting sea state. The most popular wave model today seems to be WaveWatch III (here is a matrix of the key operation models). For interpretation of the wave models we recommend the MetEd educational program for meteorologists (COMET).
Relevant to sea state forecasting, see Analyzing Ocean Swell and Operational Use of Wavewatch III.
If you haven’t seen Mikes photos you need to get straight over there. And for sure enjoy Mikes “7000 fps” video. Mike is a brilliant UI designer and innovator who happens to also do photography.
Whilst preparing samples for the NZ Goughs Fluid Analysis Centre I came across the labs info page on diesel bug. Since 2000 we have been successful avoiding becoming hosts for bacteria by treating all ADAGIO diesel fuel with DFT 1500 Hammerdown (produced by LV Petro, Inc.)
Bacteria in diesel is a well known problem to anyone who works with diesel engines, so what is this bug and why does it contaminate diesel?
Diesel is an organic fuel so it provides an ideal environment for microscopic fungi, yeast and bacteria to feed and grow.
This environment provides:
- dissolved water for germination
- carbon for food
- oxygen and sulphur for respiration
- trace elements for growth and propagation.
As many as twenty seven (27) varieties of bacteria are responsible for the majority of problems with diesel engines and their performance. There are many differing types of bacteria which can infect systems and form bio-films on steel surfaces. Accelerated corrosion can also occur wherever the bio-film settles, usually in pits or crevices. Unlike general corrosion, it is an attack on a very specific area.
It is very difficult to determine when a system is first contaminated, but once contaminated diesel enters the fuel system, it is very difficult to eradicate.
Diesel bug can originate from the air or moisture, or during tank filling and/or expansion and contraction of storage tanks, the bacteria cover themselves in a protective film (slime) to protect against biocides and can lie dormant in the minute crevices of the metal, rubber and polyurethane coatings of the fuel tanks and fuel systems.
Then, when water is present (a droplet is a lake to a microbe) and the environment hits the right temperature range, they begin reproduction in the area of fuel/water interface.
Microscopic in size, they can develop into a mat easily visible to the naked eye very rapidly. A single cell, weighing only one millionth of a gram can grow to a biomass of 10 kilograms in just 12 hours, resulting in a biomass several centimetres thick across the fuel/water interface.
Each species has its own characteristics:
BACTERIA
Bacteria utilise hydrocarbons and reproduce asexually by binary fission; swelling in size as they feed, they then separate into two cells. In this way, microbes double their numbers every 20 minutes, one spore converting to 262,144 in 6 hours.
SULPHATE REDUCING BACTERIA (SRB)
SRB’s are a specific group of bacteria utilising simple carbon, not hydrocarbons, and require the activity of other microbes in a consortium. Aerobic (in the presence of oxygen) or anaerobic (without oxygen) bacteria have a combined effect. The aerobic bacteria (sulphate oxidising) create a film to consume the oxygen first. This allows the anaerobic (sulphate reducing) bacteria to thrive.
SRB’s reduce sulphates and produce hydrogen sulphide (a lethal gas). They are directly involved with many microbial corrosion reactions and can cause sulphide souring of stored distillate products. Their action changes the Ph creating an acidic environment, conducive to accelerated corrosion. They attach themselves to the steel as a film and go to work. They derive their nutrition from the surrounding environment and multiply. They are particularly difficult to deal with and produce a sludgy by-product with a strong sulphur odour similar to rotten eggs (hydrogen sulphide).
IRON REDUCING BACTERIA
These also contribute to corrosion, eating steel and reducing ferrite to an oxide through a chemical reaction.
YEASTS
Yeasts prefer acidic environments, such as produced by SRB’s. They bud on the parent cell, eventually separating. Reproduction takes several hours.
FUNGUS
Fungi grow in the form of branched hyphae, a few microns in diameter, forming thick, tough, intertwined mycelia mats at fuel/water interfaces.
All of these can and do cause damage to the fuel system.
PREVENTION
Maintain the fuel system by draining water very regularly, keep the tank as full as possible, (especially over-night) and try to ensure your supplier maintains his system well.
CURE
Clean the entire system with a cleaning agent available from or recommend by your diesel supplier.
Science-Based Medicine is a great resource. Mark Crislip provides a good example with his rebuttal for the anti-vaccine clowns:
(…) What brings on this particular bit of angst is a bit of whimsy on the Internet called “9 Questions That Stump Every Pro-Vaccine Advocate and Their Claims.” by David Mihalovic, ND. Mr. Mihalovic identifies himself as “a naturopathic medical doctor who specializes in vaccine research.” However, just where the research is published is uncertain as his name yields no publications on Pubmed. BTW. I specialize in beer research. Same credentials.
The nine questions show up frequently on the interwebs, similar to questions on what to ask when you want to stump an evolutionist. Similar to the supposed stumpers for evolution, the vaccine questions are grounded in misinformation, ignorance or laziness. Let’s go through them one at a time.
1. Could you please provide one double-blind, placebo-controlled study that can prove the safety and effectiveness of vaccines?
One trial? It took me 55 seconds to find ”Efficacy of 23-valent pneumococcal vaccine in preventing pneumonia and improving survival in nursing home residents: double blind, randomised and placebo controlled trial” and that included time to boot the browser and mis-spell the search terms. ’Vaccine’, ‘efficacy’, ’randomized’ and ’placebo control trial’ results in 416 Pubmed references; add ’safety’ to the search terms, you get 126 returns. 416 is easily more than one. Of course, to find them you have to look.
Of course, I am a highly educated adult who constantly searches the web for medical information. For hoots and giggles, I asked my 12 year old son, whose passions are basketball and filming comedy videos, to find me a reference that met the same criteria and I timed him.
Twenty two seconds, not including boot time, to find “Randomized, Placebo-Controlled Trial of Inactivated Poliovirus Vaccine in Cuba” from the NEJM. Can anyone beat my son?
12 yo one, Mihalovic 0. Served.
As long as we are on the topic, since he evidently place great store in science, could Mihalovic please provide one double-blind, placebo-controlled study that can prove the safety and effectiveness of naturopathy? I would be happy at this point to know just to know he was able to do a pubmed search correctly just to make me look the fool.
There are eight more smackdowns to enjoy.
“Diktat has been replaced by discussion, confrontation by consultation,” said Coutts…
I think this could actually happen. Coutts and Ellison are media saavy, and are sending consistent messaging that the “bad old days” of the America’s Cup are over:
(…) Coutts and Onorato described a vision to “transform the America’s Cup into a viable, exciting platform which teams and commercial partners will find irresistible.”
In part, this will be accomplished by creating fair rules and a neutral, independent event organising body, which will run an annual series of regattas, leading up to the 34th America’s Cup Match.
But importantly, it will also be done through technology. Coutts vowed to give media coverage of the sport a complete, ‘bow to stern rethink’ so that “fans will able to turn-on and tune-in, anytime, and will feel as if they are on-board themselves right at the heart of the action, shoulder to shoulder with the best sailors in the world.”
Part of that pledge was demonstrated on Thursday, with the press conference being streamed live on the internet. Journalists were encouraged to send in questions for Coutts and Onorato via Twitter. And within in minutes of its conclusion, the press conference was online for on-demand viewing at http://www.americascup.com and beyond.
So what will the new A/C boats be? The design rule is to be published 30th September. From our perspective, a key requirement is the boats must be able to race in any venue in winds from 5-35 knots.
The new design rule will be a critical element of building a spectacular event.
Renowned but neutral designers – Bruce Nelson and Peter Melvin – have created two different concepts – a multihull and a monohull.
Teams will sit down this month and discuss which concept to adopt and begin the process to create a design rule.
Presenting the teams with draft mono/multi design concepts is brilliant. It will make it much more efficient for the teams to evaluate the unfamiliar-to-most multihull option. Of course, we are very proud that Pete Melvin of Morrelli and Melvin is a key member of our ADAGIO design team.
I just added the A/C RSS feed to my NetNewsWire feeds. There are prominent icons for Twitter, Facebook and YouTube — where they host the 34th A/C Channel. I just downloaded the first press conference from YouTube via Tooble. It is encouraging that right out of the gate, they offer an embedded Livestream customizable video player:
and video and chat widgets. Here’s the video widget:
Figure 19.7: The ITCZ and the SPCZ.
We discovered this textbook whilst researching the SPCZ (South Pacific Convergence Zone).
Regional Oceanography: an Introduction is a textbook suitable for an advanced undergraduate course or for a course to introduce graduate students to the essentials of oceanography.
(…) Tomczak, Matthias & J Stuart Godfrey: Regional Oceanography: an Introduction 2nd edn (2003), xi+390p., figs., tabls., ind., 25 cm ISBN: 8170353068 (hardcover, US$89.95), 8170353076 (paperback, US$29.95).
You can download each of the chapters [PDF] here.
The cruising mothers here in the marina and those passing through are calm, happy, patient and beautiful. Living on a small boat poses many challenges for a woman, bring aboard a bunch of children and it becomes a miracle in living. The children, however, love the closeness of their parents and thrive in small spaces where there are cubby holes, places to snuggle, and no apparent awareness that their material possessions are few.
The deck of the boat is a vast jungle gym, with steps to climb, a boom to ride like a horse, lines to swing on and multiple levels for going up and down. Prowling the docks with a net in hand, the children spend hours catching tiny fish, shrimp, and the occasional squirmy eel. There are groups of kittens hiding in the gardens near the Marina Office. One little girl told me she was catching small fish with her net to feed to the kittens. Protected from falling overboard by netting that is stretched on the inside of their boat’s lifelines, toddlers squeal with delight as they throw bread crumbs from their boats to flocks of sea gulls and ducks.
Each morning the older children raise the flags over the entrance to the Marina Office, and on weekdays lead the younger children off to school. The youngest children are accompanied on their walk to school by their mums and dads with coffee mugs in hand. The children who will not be staying in the marina over the winter are being home schooled. After breakfast, little ones are secured into their strollers and enjoy with their mums promenading through the parks and along the waterfront. Several of the moms live aboard boats which are not secured to the dock, and travel back and forth in their dinghies, sometimes driven by one of their small children.
Simpler and more complex lives at the same time, creating responsible, smart and happy children. I hope you enjoyed this Mother’s Day story. I failed to mention that the dads are amazing, too.
Adagio Journal 