In tune with the sun on GBI The sun’s blinking out behind the hill to the west earlier and earlier … approaching 5 pm now! Beautiful sunsets and afterglows help take our minds off the early dark. Our off-grid-living days go way back to our French Canadian settlers cabin as ’70s-era “back to the landers” in the northern Adirondack Mountains of New York State, a stone’s throw from the Canadian border. 50 acres of bush: $9000, reconstructed log cabin: $3000, land taxes (rates): $17!!! We had no electricity at all. Our only "solar” power was the woodstove. A kerosene lamp on the table, a couple of LPG mantles, candles and a torch supplied our light, water gravity fed from a spring to the kitchen sink and the garden, a thermosyphon system at the back of the fireplace heated water for showers, we kept food chilled in a root cellar and in summer in a milk crate in the stream, and we kept warm in the long, cold winters bringing in firewood on the toboggan and eating hot, hearty split pea soup after long afternoons (or full moon midnights) snowshoeing or cross-country skiing. In Golden Bay we were between the two extremes, on grid but with enough panels and batteries to supply about half of our electricity. An irony of today’s tech-reliant off-grid living is that the shorter the days the more hours you have lights on, but the less solar gain you have to charge the batteries! Gradually I've been learning more about the intricacies of solar power, such as “depth of discharge” – the tolerance of different types of batteries to using their stored energy. If it drops too low, the batteries can be permanently weakened! That’s why people run generators even when there’s still “juice” in the batteries. I thought that noting where the arrow’s pointing on the charge controller gave a good indication of how much power we have to work with, but it’s not that straightforward. Another ex-cyclone brushed past the island, bringing only moderate wind and rain. A second off-grid irony is that when the rains come and the tank is overflowing, you can’t revel in the freedom of no possible waste of water, because the pump that brings the water runs on solar energy, and there’s no sun charging the batteries! It’s all about adapting to the changing parameters of sun cycles and weather. No one on the island would run a washing machine or vacuum cleaner on a cloudy day or at night, and they’d think twice about using a blender after several cloudy days. It’s common to switch fridges off at night (or have a gas fridge), and we often use a solar lantern in the evening to save power. People joke that you won’t find a hair drier on the island! But some people aren’t thinking about hair driers. Their power systems and what they’re used for are very basic indeed. Despite the inconveniences, we love living by necessity in harmony with the very rotation and revolution of the earth, and we relish our independence from the big bad grid! What with volts, watts, amps, MPPTs and a whole lot more, the more I learn about solar power systems, the more I find there is to learn, and we recently had a good chance to learn a lot more! Spark ’n’ Dark The third annual Off-the-Grid weekend organised by the indefatigable Orla featured experts in technology for self-reliant energy, water and transport and a tour of power systems on the island. On day 1 we attended a workshop on battery technology and learned more about the pros and cons of the current options (nickel cadmium is no longer really in the picture): lead acid (the tried-and-true) in various forms, lithium ion and “salt water” (sodium). In the evening a series of speakers presented their companies’ products: an electric farm bike; rainwater systems, pumps, water filters and purifiers; solar hot water; and lightweight, portable small solar systems. The Ubco NZ-made electric farm bike (we met the designer!) now taking off overseas! www.ubcobikes.com Sunday’s Field Day brought the weekend’s presenters together for one-to-one conversations with interested islanders. Here’s Orla in a Mitsubishi Miev electric vehicle on loan for the weekend, ready to take another group on a test drive. It’s uncanny to ride in a car or watch it move in absolute silence! Serious Night Sky guest John Drummond, none other than president of the Royal Astronomy Society of New Zealand, accepted the Night Sky group’s invitation to come to the Barrier to give a presentation and mentor our nascent skill with telescopes. Along with his decades of experience and learning about all things astronomical and astrophotographical, his CV also mentions that he’s a keen surfer, so he fit in fine on the Barrier! Below are three of his deep sky images, but first an orientation to the first one. The Jewel Box cluster lies just to the side of Beta Crucis, one of the crossbar stars of the Southern Cross, the smallest constellation in the southern hemisphere sky. You can find Beta Crucis by following the two Pointers stars. This is John’s photo of the Jewel Box. To the naked eye it’s merely a faint point of light, but good binoculars show a bright orange star, Kappa Crucis, among blue stars. We first saw it through a telescope, but as you zoom in on it with Stellarium – a free open source computer planetarium (http://www.stellarium.org), it is like an dazzling box of sparkling jewels revealing themselves before your eyes. The Sombrero is a spiral galaxy in Virgo, located 31 million light years from Earth. Horsehead Nebula may be amateur astronomers’ favourite night sky object, though it’s dark and hard to view. It can only be seen because of its backdrop of a bright nebula. Both are part of the Orion Molecular Cloud Complex, an enormous star-forming region hundreds of light years across. Reminders of the vastness of the universe are one of many things I love about the Night Sky group. John recommended the little “gem” of a book Collins Gem Stars. I bought it for $10 and I’m very pleased! It’s palm sized yet chocka with fascinating information sure to excite your imagination and expand your heavenly horizons. A most interesting hitchhiker There may be no easier place to hitch than on the slow-driving roads of friendly, laid-back GBI, where there's enough traffic that you can be sure of passing cars (though the traffic is sparse enough that people driving in opposite directions sometimes stop for a chat, at least along the flat stretches!). We love to meet people, so we love to pick up hitchhikers, and we’re often rewarded with juicy info about what they’re into or some aspect of Barrier life. This guy, AJ, took the cake for fascination! In fact when we arrived at his destination, Ro shut off the car and we sat and talked another 15 minutes! AJ alternates two months in Medlands with two months at sea. He’s the chief engineer of the super motor yacht Dragonfly, owned by Sergey Brin, who along with Larry Page founded Google in 1996! Sergey and his family are rarely aboard. They find calm oceans boring! The crew spends most of their time cruising about in search of more “interesting” oceans where Sergey can indulge his love of extreme kitesurfing! AJ loves it too, so he gets to test the waters before satellite-phoning the boss to helicopter on out. Sergey’s also a philanthropist. He dispatched the crew, extra hands and a medical team to Vanuatu to provide disaster relief after Cyclone Pam struck the islands in March 2015. That’s the same storm that hit New Zealand a few days later and caused cancellation of the Cook Strait ferry the day we were moving from Golden Bay to Great Barrier Island. This video of the Dragonfly team in Vanuatu also shows the potential for use of resources onboard yachts in disaster zones: www.youtube.com/watch?v=os5gfk3l5Qo Island Nurses: Stories of birth, life and death on remote Great Barrier Island 150 people (more than 15% of the island’s population!) packed the art gallery for the launch of a book by long-term GBI nurses and midwives Leonie Howie and Adele Robertson. The cover photo of the youthful bright-eyed pair was taken in the mid-1980s. Great Barrier Island was certainly remote at that time, and Adele’s location in Port Fitzroy, serving North Barrier, was remote within remote! As for Leonie, during several years working alongside Dr Ivan Howie out of his practice caravan in Claris, they fell in love and married! The caravan was wholly inadequate, and the community push for better facilities succeeded with the opening of the Health Centre in 1990. Midwifery and nursing on a remote island bring a wide range of dramas and emergencies. Adele and Leonie’s stories of challenge, sorrow and celebration are at the heart of the book. The authors said that the core of their practice is a spiritual and sacred human connection, a “special kind of knowing, as much in the heart as in the head” within a resilient, self-reliant, diverse and caring community. Their book also recounts early nursing and midwifery on the island. The first registered nurse arrived in 1933 and married a farmer in Nagle Cove up north (boat access only from Port Fitzroy!). She periodically travelled the rough roads by horse to Tryphena in the south, taking a week or more, opening and shutting twenty gates along the way! The authors at the launch, with the publisher’s rep on the right. The island’s supply of the book sold out at the launch (more on the way). Auckland Library ordered eight copies, and last I checked there were 81 holds on them, my request among them! Shark bait! Spearfishing is popular on GBI. Russell, the guy whose kayak was towed to shore by a kingfish a while back, sent this underwater photo taken by his diving mate. Another spearfisher told us that sharks often come right up and grab his catch right off the spear. Once a shark came charging in just at the sound of the spear being fired through the water. “They’re not interested in me,” he says calmly! Meanwhile, safely at home…. Volunteer chilli and sweet peppers surprised us in the summer basil pot, still producing in May! This beetroot wanted to grow! Saladmaster vegies prepared in moments. Thank you again, Paul and Mary! And finally, more captured beauty from their visit – views of Kaitoke Beach Somewhere lurks the Mermaid Pool Near the Mermaid Pool Sunset on the dunes Tama-nui-te-ra (Maori sun god)
0 Comments
|
Archives
August 2021
|