It starts with Peters favorite quote and it ends with some quotes we wrote down in earlier blogs.
The Earth doesnot belong to us. We belong to the Earth (Chief Seattle)
The best time to plant a tree is 20 years ago. The second best time is now (Chinese proverb) The Earth provides enough for everyones need. But not to everyones greed (Ghandi)
I want to know the guy that invented single use plastic.
We get one credit card per week in our body. How much do I take from my credit card to get it out again?
It costs about 1 year to get uranium for nuclear power quality, and it costs 20.000 years to get the radio activity back to a safe level.
The greatest threat to the Earth is the tought that someone else will save it. (Robert Swan)
The climate change matter is quite difificult to understand. Especially the consequenses are rather diverse.
Now there is a game, called Climate Fresk. You can play with a group. This way you get more and more insight in the whole issue of climate change.
How Climate Fresk works: you need a facilitator and some people. The facilitator is trained and gives information about the climate and factors. Then he puts a stack of cards on the table, with captions like: “fossil fuels” and “temperature rises” and as a group you start to put them in causal order.
You can do it with your group of sailors. Playing it on the boat is perhaps too small, because you need a big table. But in your living room is fine. Or in the club, the classroom, wherever.
We played it. Everybody draws there own conclusions. What astonished me were the numerous effects on us, the human beings. Most of the nature will survive, like trees, insects, and fishes. No worries about the ecosystem, it is constantly adapting. but the adaptation will not be in favor of the mammals, and especially the humans. The effects on us are big, if not devastating.
The Ya is now on anchor in the Taiohae Bay of Nuku Hiva, Marqueasas. Every day when you walk along the shore, the waves splash against the sea wall. Often some refreshing drops come in your face. Nice.
When will the waves run over the quai and flood into the Haiotae town?
But for how long?
Here some numbers and graphics gathered by NASA.
More and more exceedences in the hourly sea levelsAccording to the latest reports, in 2050 the temperature will be risen about 2.5 degrees. (source: Earthcharts.org). This means that the waves would inundate the road, just before first houses. But then there should be no further rising…
Last blog told about smart turbines. But what about a cheap one? Then there is the Airloom. It is a bunch of blades running on a oval track.
The Airloom looks like low tech, and yes, in a sense, it is.
The blades are 10 meter in length, mounted to a rail 20 meters high. The blades have a profile to let the wind make a lift power to forward and the blades move along the cable. The cable propels the generator and voila: there is the electricity.
The Test
It is tested with a 15 kiloWatt setup in Wyoming, USA. This is a small scale test, just for a 15 kW maximum yield. When extrapolated to a larger scale, it looks promising.
Comparison to the conventional 3 blade turbine
The disadvantage of the Airloom compared to the conventional three blade turbine is clear: the Airloom is build low, and there is much less wind.
But, you can put much more blades, and many more fields closer to each other, that per square surface you will get more yield.
The advantage is the price. Now, the estimates are that a kilowatthour generated by an Airloom would cost $ 0,13, whilst a conventional 3 blade generates our energy for $0,35 or more.
You can put the Airlooms way closer to each other than you can do with the 3 blade turbines, without disturbing the wind flows.
The cheap price is possible because of:
the low technology. The Airloom blades and construction can be built from normal materials, while the conventional blades and construction must be built from high tech carbon.
The transport costs. An Airloom construction for 10 MW fits in one container, while the transport of a conventional turbine, with its enormous blades, is a specialized job, sometimes taking a planning of one year ahead.
The maintenance is cheap. The materials cost not much, and especially the labour doesnot require any special efforts. The conventional 3 blade turbines on the contrary, require extreme costs, or it even can not be repaired.
The estetics, on land. Not much people like the 100 to 150 high wind turbines, dominating the horizon for many miles, of complete provinces. Many counties in the Netherlands have the policy to permit the enormous windturbines, just out of the necessity of power. If the Airlooms were built in stead, it would save a lot of horizon pollution.
Check out more on: Crazy, or Genius?
Realization
Just now, there has been found a sponsor/investor to build a larger scale field. If this would work according to the expectations, it could be the future for windmills on land.
We will keep you posted.
You are interested to build a small one yourself? Check out here and see it running.
For more than two thousand years we use windmills, or windturbines. They all have a horizontal shaft, and nowadays they mostly have 3 blades.
These blades have a bended profile, so they make the wind bending and then slide along the profile. It is looks like the wings of an airplane and it works that way. The wind bends along the profile and that makes the wing go up, or the blade go round. They call this ‘lift’ power. It can work great, because, when the blade starts moving, it gets more wind by its own speed. The speed of the tip of a blade is always much higher than the true wind blowing. And, more wind speed along that blade means: more lift power. So more electricity.
The wind is high, not low. If we check the windgenerators on yachts, one often sees the windgenerator on a little pole astern of the ship. That is so a pity! Windgenerators work when placed high, and free of turbulence. This is the first rule, an important condition.
Nowadays, windturbines are built even higher than 150 meter. The highest at this moment is even 270 meters (Maasvlakte turbine). One rotation with 4 Beaufort delivers the energy of one household!
These enormous windturbines are impressive, but expensive. .
In the vertical shaft windmill, all equipments and all forces are on the top of the mast.
With all forces in top of the mast, it means a heavy construction, with extrapolating costs on building and maintenance when you go higher.
Other disadvantages: * the blades can not handle wind direction changes. The yield lowers and there will be extra forces on the mast top. * in the downwind area of the strike of the enormous blades, the wind is disturbed. So you can’t place these turbines close to another, and you need a lot of space for a wind turbine field.
Vertical shaft
There are windturbines with a vertical shaft.
That would solve a lot of these problems: * the forces are evenly spread over the complete mast, which is the shaft itself. * Changes of wind direction have no influence at all. *You can put the alternator low. maintenance costs are low. * the downwind area of disturbance is very small, so you can put a lot of them in a dense area. * The building and maintenance costs for maintenance will be relatively low, with nearly all moving and electric parts on the lowest level.
The principle of a vertical shaft. This windmill runs on the resistance, the drag, of the wind. Therefore, it runs slow.
But, there is a big ‘but’. First, these ones work not on lift, but generally on the resistance of the wind. Mr. Darrieus solved this a bit by inventing his windturbines
The profiles of the blades of a Darrieus windturbine resemble the shape of an airplane wing. When going the half rotation to the wind, there is a lift power. So the ‘but’ is a bit less. These windturbines spin faster than a ‘drag windmill’ but cannot reach the speed of a horizontal axis wind turbine.
The smart windmill is the double windmill
Already for some decades, there are experiments in Japan with a smart principle: you make a double windmill, where one spins on the rotor (anchor) of the motor, and the other counter rotates and make the stator spin, the motor itself.
It leads to this principle, shown here under.
This windmill generates enough for a Japanese household.
A next step is made by the Norwegian World Wide Wind, with the development of a double windturbine, light enough to float.
The World Wide Wind turbine uses the principle of the Darrieus mill.
This turbine should deal with all disadvantages of the horizontal shaft windmill:
The construction is light and cheap; maintenance costs are low
No problems with wind direction changes
High density of turbines possible
They float so they can also be build in deeper seas
No need for hurricane stops, because the construction and profile make them self regulating
In about five years we will know if this is true, because then they should be operational.
Because it is floating, it will go closer to the surface with strong winds, and therefore it gets less wind. It uses nature.It is a question of taste, but when I would pass this wind turbine field at sea, the looks are way better than a field of the static, heavy horizontal shaft turbines built on big concrete platforms.
The rate of ocean warming has almost doubled since 2005. In addition, more than a fifth of the world’s ocean surface will experience a severe heat wave in 2023, reports the European climate service Copernicus. The oceans, which cover 70 percent of the Earth’s surface, are an important regulator of the Earth’s climate. This week tropical storms killed 300 people in Nepal and 30 in the USA. Ocean sailors know that a seawater temperature of over 29 degrees Celsius is the main precondition for hurricanes. In August 2022, a record temperature of 29.2 degrees Celsius was measured in the coastal waters of the Balearic Islands.
Where did that lead for sailors? Here some films with the concrete consequenses of climate change this summer.
Hurricane winds in Ibiza and Formentera
Severe storms and rainfall Mallorca
A superyacht on anchor capsized and sank in a minute
The irony here is that some guests on board of the superyacht belong to the richest of the world, who also create a relative big part of the climate change.
The phenomenon already has a name: Medicane.
Some basic explanation
What can you do?
Live in a small house
Use public transport instead of a car (electric or not).
Reduce your consumption and start at the source: protect yourself from advertisements and ‘social’ media.
Vote for a political party that dares to make regulations at European level, that makes the polluter pay. And with the associated law enforcement.
Your responds were great last week, so here another walk in Taiohae, Nuku Hiva. Again Pori and his musical friends sing, Every Friday morning you can find them from 7:30 to 10:00 under the tree next to Celine Magasin. The song is about the life here, I understood. So that inspired to make this movie.
Nuku Hiva is the central island of the Marquesas. Taoha’e is the central town. So this is the busy place. The life style here is a great example of sustainable living. It is shown in this movie. Enjoy.
Two pictures, taken in a week time. Both taken by Jean Luc, who did an awful lot of care the last week. From reanchoring t the Ya to bring me up and down in his dinghy to shore. The last thing he did that so many times, but from now on Peter can do it alone. Lool at the last picture, to the right, with two paddles and our kayak on the background.
Peter last week, and now. Now with the kayak that he paddled himself, and then brought ashore. Progress by sustainability.
Peter, with his sore back and with his bungee belt on, can get the kayak himself from the Ya to this place, just on the side of the quai. With a line along the shore, with two wheels, with the use of the waves, and with some creativity.
Check it out here in this movie.
We bought this kayak because of its sustainability. Its length and its little weight and wind drag make it easy to make speed with only the paddles, so you don’t need an engine.
A dinghy would be way to heavy to hold. The engine would make the entry to the ramp impossible. Moving or lifting such thing would be way to much weight for a sore back. But this kayak has all you want: no engine, and so light that even with a freshly broken vertebra it is a handy thing.
A hurray for the kayak, for this sustainable solution!
We were in the bay of Fatu Hiva, a little island with 300 souls. Let’s sum it up Murphy’s results since he was on boardwere:
It is the 4th day that Peter lies with an injured back on his bunk.
Our main anchor did not hold and then hooked up a heavy thing, (like a big crab cage?), to heavy for the anchor motor to lift.
Our anchor battery has been pushed too hard and it is presumeably dead. We did a reconditioning programme, but Peter guessed it could have too little stamina to deliver the necessary energy to the anchor chain motor.
We are on our second anchor, on a long rope. The rope could chafe on a rock and finally break, so it is a temporary solution.
Or temporary anchor place was OK, but the wind turned and pushed Ya pretty close to the rocks.
Inge does all the work: cooking, anchor watch, deckwork, and nursing Peter, and that is too much.
Only Inge can move to clear the anchor from that heavy thing, but that needs a pretty technical skill and a fresh mind, no room for mistakes, and some hours of work.
A fellow sailor
In the early morning Inge heard something strange slipping on the uncleared anchor. Kg, kggg, kgggggg, kgrrrrrrr, KLOINK and then nothing anymore. Was that the big thing slipping off the anchor? Inge simply tried if the anchor winch could lift the anchor now. Yes! Slowly but surely the anchor came up. Great, we could take in the second anchor and go for anchoring with our main anchor again!
Inge just started preparing , when a dinghy passed by, with people from another boat: Adrien, Marine and Lionel. They’re on their way to a diving spot. Inge briefly outlined our situation and they said that on their neighbour yacht, there is a doctor on board. A French GP. After their dive they will tell him about Peter’s back; perhaps he pays a visit.
A second dinghy passed with one man, Jean Charles is his name. He offered to help and we could use that. Peter made his way to the engine throddles, Jean Francois pulled in the anchor line, Inge did the other things. We dropped the main anchor closed to Jean Francois’ boat, just where the depth went from 15 meter to 30 meter. It appeared to hold well.
The doctor
Next day, when the wind picked up, the doctor arrived. Alain did the anamnesis with Peter. What he could diagnose was the risk that some vertebra was seriously hit. Peter asked: “Well, here is no medical service whatsoever, so what about sailing with Ya to Nuku Hiva? There is a little hospital with facilities”. Alain responded that any sailing, even an odd move, could damage Peter’s back and he might end up in a wheelchair. To put more stress to this answer, some strong gusts hit the Ya. Alain called a neurologist in Tahiti and in a 10 minute conversation they discussed the possibilities. Meanwhile, more gusts hit the Ya.
5 fellow sailors
Alain just ended the call and again some knocks on the Ya. It is Adrien, Marine et Lionel: “Your boat is moving, it is from its anchor!” Indeed, we were drifting out of the bay, towards the ocean. Time for action right now.
We needed all hands on deck. Marine took the helm, Inge did the engine controls, Adrien and Lionel pulled in the heavy 10 mm anchor chain by hand, because the anchor battery was dead in half a minute. Peter did all the yelling from his bunk: “Go to there and you find this, and you, there you find that!” Meanwhile, Alain (the doctor) exchanged the anchor battery for the spare one.
A next fellow sailor arrived, It was Jean Luc, a free diver. He knew the bottom well and went in his dinghy to point out the best anchor spot.
Within an hour the Ya was anchored again, Jean Luc free dived straight to the anchor on 25 meter deep. He reported back, : “No worries Peter. Although it is deep here, the anchor is dug deep in excellent anchor soil on a great plateau. With your long anchor chain, it will definitely hold, you can leave your ship without any worry.””
A nurse, six fishermen, a stretcher, a pilot and an anesthesist
Meanwhile, the specialist in Tahiti already activated Peter’s transport. Our fellow sailors were just leaving when a fisherman boat already rafted up the Ya. A nurse embarked with 6 strong Marquesian fishermen and a stretcher. They took Peter from the Ya into their boat. his team is too strong and Murphy had no chance to mess about. In the harbour Peter was put up a pickup truck and we went to the soccerfield. There the trauma helicopter landed. Peter was slided in. And a seat for Inge, with a bag of luggage she grabbed in a hurry, and that proved to be exactly what we would need the next days. It was a 150 mile (250 km) flight. Inge had a great view. Peter, on his stretscher at the bottom of the heli, just had pain. But on the end of the ride he was well drugged. When the pilot asked if he was still allright, Peter could say: “Couldn’t do better. But, it would be nice for my wife if you could fly an extra tour around the beautiful island of Nuku Hiva.”
In the next film you can see the whole trip from the boat to the hospital (it includes some blackouts, sorry, caused by the circumstances).
The hospital team
The hospital team in Nuku Hiva was ready and prepared. Peter was put in the radio scanner tunnel. That machine delivered a great slide slow, if you are a doctor. The specialist, still in shorts and T-shirt, showed one picture and told that the a little bone on the Lumbal vertebra #1 was broken. Fortunately, it was not displaced, so no surgery necessary.
Peter stayed for observation in this very friendly hospital, where you still can see that ‘hospital’ has its origin in the word hospitality. Inge could sleep in the same room – a great relief for her, for us.
Peter and Inge stayed here for 3 days. A great time to think these days all over. In general, a responsible sailor does a lot to cut down the risks. However, once Murphy is on board on his chosen time and place and keeps on going, you , despite precautions, despite redundancies.
But, when fellow sailors pop up to help you, Murphy gets in trouble. And, when they start working as a team, till the very detail, Murphy looses. The warmhearted help from fellow sailors, is way too hot for him – he flies away with his tail behind his legs.
Fellow sailor Jean Luc
Jean-Luc called. He offered to keep an eye and take care for Ya. “Anything I can check on board Ya now, Peter?”
