Day 2 of the Haulout

The hardstand electrical supply jury-rig

The battle with the cutlass bearing and improvised tools...


An old zinc plate
Marquesa in her new home



Well, Dave hopes to get done in a couple weeks. We shall see...
Today I learned a bit about drive train components. The cutlass bearing is the bearing that holds the shaft after it exits the hull. It's a bronze tube with a very hard carbon/rubber-type interior that contacts the shaft. It is pressed into a bronze housing that bolts to the hull. Slots in the housing let seawater in to keep things cool. Everything is pretty big and strong and redundant. The 'bronze' is silicon bronze, which is made of copper and tin, plus 1-3% silicon and 1 % either iron, nickel, or manganese. You wouldn't think something made of copper and tin would be a lot stronger than stainless steel, but it is. Most fittings on boats are made of it. Even the rigging up top that looks like stainless is usually silicon bronze with a shiny chrome coating. Dave actually missed getting all his original stainless steel rigging hardware replaced by superior silicon bronze for free when Taenna did a recall (he heard about it 2 months after it ended). Another benefit of silicon bronze is that it's a natural dielectric - electric flow called electrolysis has a potential to eat up metals on boats if they are placed next to a dissimilar metal - a dielectric metal doesn't provide a pathway for this electrical flow. More on electrolysis later when I understand it better. It's a phenomenon that constantly comes up in conversations at the boatyard. I notice with interest that everything in the cutlass bearing housing is bronze except for the studs which hold it on. They are stainless steel because they screw in to a stainless steel plate inside the boat (cheaper than bronze for the manufacturer) and, more importantly, because stainless is more corrosion resistant than bronze. The housing is held on redundantly by double nuts - the outer nuts have holes drilled through them for cotter pins. The bearing is pressed into the housing and also held in place by set screws.
Dave normally replaces his cutlass bearing whenever he has the drive train apart - every few years. It gets a lot of wear, and isn't too expensive, so it just makes sense. At home, he has a press to take out the bearing. Here in Whangarei, we end up heating the housing with some MAPP gas, and alternate hacking at the bearing's plastic and sticking a socket into the housing and banging on it violently. In typical beginner's fashion am starting to have visions of an elaborate pressing contraption involving an overhanging concrete wall, some boards, and a bottle jack, when finally what's left of the thing reluctantly slides out. Improvisation is fun.
I wet sanded the cuprous-oxide antifouling paint with 60 grit and stressed out about whether I was actually removing the green algae layer or just making it disappear behind a thin layer of liquified red paint. I'd be very anal if this was my boat, so I really try to be up to what I take to be Dave's standards. Though the hull looked clean from a distance, there was a lot of algal growth and embedded little shells to be removed, especially at the waterline, the bottom 2', and the rudder.
I finished sanding the hull while Dave did a blur of other things, including weirdly jury-rigging one of the batteries to power the boat (which had to be removed to take apart the propeller shaft) using a cable and a couple sets of locking pliers. I try to stay away from that general area now. He also cleaned all the drive components, took the prop to be polished and balanced, took the cutlass bearing housing over to be sandblasted, took the propeller shaft to multiple shops to be inspected as it had some major wear, ordered a damper...

Hauling Out In Whangarei

Setting up the hardstand.



Farewell, Whangarei Port Basin Marina. Your pretty sunrises will be missed, your scummy tidal river waters will not.
Hauling out at Dockland 5 in Whangarei. This is Dave's first time coming out on a travel lift, as his home port has ways.
Hauling out on a travel lift is sort of a scary-looking process. We motored in to the square cut-out under the lift and they positioned the straps in what seemed like a very casual way. We just fit, winding up with only inches to spare between the keel and the ground, and between the forestay and the frame of the travel lift. Though the lift looks small, it can lift a boat four times the weight of the Marquesa. The forward-looking radar transducer got tweaked a little by one of the straps, but otherwise everything went OK. When she arrived at her slot, they lowered her down on a couple transverse steel beams, shimmed underneath with three piles of scrap blocks, and pushed the 4 vertical steel supports that slid along the steel beams against her sides to keep her from tipping. Very haphazard looking! But stable, of course.
She's pretty clean underneath. Relatively little grows in the tropics- warm water tends to be oxygen- and nutrient- poor compared to rich cold fishing-ground waters like California, Maine, western South America... After being power-washed, she hardly even looked like she needed paint. Curious potential boat-buyers who are doing the rounds of the boatyard gravitate to the clearly well-maintained Marquesa and pelt Dave with questions daily.
As soon as she was out of the water we took a look at the prop, which had been vibrating. It had an inch or so of rotational play- not good. The moment she was set up on the hardstand Dave went to work taking apart the drive train to make sure the play wasn't coming from a damaged gear box. He rebuilt the engine and gear box just before leaving on this trip, so that would have been a real shame.
Dave used a home-made prop puller to remove the prop, and unbolted the collar, waterless packing, and cutlass bearing so he could remove the shaft. This is the first time I've seen a drive train taken apart, so I was a bit disappointed to be underneath the boat, sanding, while all this interesting stuff was going on! Fortunately the issue turned out to be due to a known problem- a worn key in the collar. That should be much easier to fix- we can cut a couple inches off the propeller shaft and fill the space with a damper, then re-key the shaft lower down.
The hauling out and power wash cost only about US $115. A hardstand at the yard costs $15/day and includes power, environmental fees, and cooking and hygiene facilities. As I soon discover, this is one of the very few things which is reasonably priced in New Zealand. Power here is 220V, and the boat's wired for 110V, so we'll be running off battery power while we're in the yard unless we can get ahold of one of the scarce transformers.

The Yacht Marquesa

Dave's boat, the Marquesa.

I met Dave in November at Mariner's Cafe in Ha'apai, Tonga. I was looking for a ride to New Zealand and he definitely wasn't looking to give anyone a rid. But somehow, nudged along by the prompting of the friendly cafe owner who was perpetually giving him a hard time, and in light of the fact that I was weird enough to go to Antarctica, Dave grudgingly agreed to take me on for the crossing...

Since then, I've been traveling the South Island, and all the cruisers like Dave have been holed up in North Island ports like Opua and Whangarei, waiting out the South Pacific hurricane season and futiley trying not to go broke in New Zealand. In May, when the weather improves, people will start heading out for Tonga, Fiji, Vanuatu, and other exotic destinations.

After a month volunteering in Christchurch, I'm back on the North Island, ready to do whatever grudge work might come up when the Marquesa gets hauled out for maintenance tomorrow... !

Whangarei Oil Refinery

NZ’s only oil refinery is located at Whangarei Head- an area deemed to be geologically stable and conveniently located.  Tankers from the Far East, Indonesia, Australia, and NZ deliver up to 130,000 tons per load- enough to run the refinery for 10 days.  The crude is stored in 2 mil gal and smaller tanks. 
From there it is boiled and the resulting gas is pumped to the distillation columns where its various components condense onto trays.  Products with high boiling points, such as residue, heavy gasoil, and light gasoil cool quickly and condense low in the column.  Higher in the column kerosene, gases, TOPS, and naphtha are deposited on trays.  Light and heavy gasoil will be refined into diesel, kerosene becomes jetfuel, and TOPS and naphtha become petrol.
From here the products are forwarded to desulphurization plants.  Under heat and pressure in the presence of a hydrogen catalyst, sulfur is separated in the form of toxic H2S gas. 
Next, the platformer utilizes a platinum catalyst and hydrogen to raise octane levels from around 50 to standard 91 and 95 petrol levels. 
Elsewhere, the Long Reside from the original distillation column goes through the most complex series of treatments.  First, it is pumped to a High Vacuum Unit, where  Waxy Distillate and Vacuum Gasoil rise up a column under vacuum conditions, and leave Short Residue at the bottom of the column.  This Short Residue goes to the Butane De-Asphalting Unit, where it meets a counter flowing stream of hot Butane.  The lighter components are absorbed into the butane and leave the top of the column.  Heavy asphalt components remain.  These are further distilled in a High Vacuum Unit to produce Bitumen.
The plant features a hydrogen manufacturing unit where a catalytic furnace combines butane, plat former gas, and steam to produce hydrogen gas.  A byproduct of this process is CO2 gas, which is sold for soft drinks. 
The Hydrocracker is the heart of the refinery.  Inside four giant reactors, under great pressure and heat, long hydrocarbon chain molecules are broken down (‘cracked’) into shorter chians.  This process turns  the heavy waxy feed into petrol, kerosene, and diesel components. 
Waste sulfur dioxide gas form various processes is transmuted to liquid sulfur, which is transported by road tanker to a Whangerei plant where it is used in the manufacture of fertilizer.  Old systems recovered 96% of sulfur, and new improvements have upped that number to 99.8%.  In order to depressure the plant, gases are disposed of safely using 90m high flare stacks, where a pilot flame burns continuously. 
End products are pumped down the 10” Auckland pipeline at the rate of 400,000litres/hour. 
The New Zealand Refining Company Ltd is one of the biggest employers in the Northland area, with 300 staff and up to 180 contractors on site. 

The Catlins

Rocks off Nugget Point

Nugget Point lighthouse

Inside the tunnel at Tunnel Beach.

Tunnel Beach. A prosperous farmer had a tunnel drilled down through the limestone bluffs in the 19th century so that his family could enjoy the beautiful beach below his fields.

Tunnel beach from above.

Purportedly the steepest residential street in the world. I now have complete and utter faith in the Orthia's brakes.

Beautiful old train station in Dunedin.

Taieri Gorge Railway - yes, this Was the easiest way into central Otago.

Otago

Lupines (introduced to NZ) and the Clay Cliffs.

The crazy crevasse-riddled landscape of a fault zone at Earthquakes in central Otago. Sheep wandered around, unconcerned about the big holes hidden by the long grass.

Ancient whale bones in limestone.

Only in NZ. And maybe Australia.

Moeraki boulders- concretions caused by the gradual buildup of layers of calcitic algae. Some of the finest examples in the world.

Concretion boulders, Moeraki.

Otago Peninsula

Otago Peninsula -

My day trip out on the peninsula was very enjoyable. I hiked partway out to Sandfly Bay- a beautiful windy track with nice views of bright sand dunes, blue sea, and beautiful greenery and flowers. I wish I’d had time to run down the dunes all the way to the beach. I raced a big cargo ship out to the very end of the Peninsula where the only mainland-based breeding colony of Royal Albatrosses was located. The area was a reserve, carefully protected from predators. I took my time in the good museum display and had a tour.

Royal Albatross are one of the world’s biggest birds, with a wingspan of 9’6”. They are superb gliders, reaching speeds of 75 mph and staying aloft at sea for months at a time. They sleep on the wing, only for a couple minutes at a time. The museum had a wall mounting of a huge amount of indigestible trash-mostly plastic- taken out of the stomach of an albatross.
The colony contained 99 birds which had probably moved in from overcrowded offshore island rookeries.(Chatham Island has 20,000 birds) The head became a good location after the shrub was cleared for defense structures during the Great Game tensions between Great Britain and Russia. The first recorded egg was laid in 1920. But it was not until 1938 that a chick fledged successfully.

Eggs are laid in November, and incubation takes 11 weeks - one of the longest avian incubation periods. Chicks emerge in February, taking an average of 3 days to break out of the shell. For the next month they are then guarded and kept warm by one parent while the other searches for food. Thereafter the chicks are left on their own for 2-4 days while the parents leave to fish. The downy chicks are comically large. At seven months of age, they weigh 10-12 kg (adults are only 8-9 kg). The extra weight sees them through the September fledging process. After chicks fledge, they take off for the rich fishing grounds off the coast of South America. Here they spend 3-5 years continuously at sea before coming back to the colonies to socialize and select mates. At 9-12 years they breed for the first time, and continue to breed every other year. Royal albatrosses can live longer than 60 years; average lifespan is 30-40 years.

The headland also provides safe breeding grounds for several other endangered species. On its upper side, the Royal Albatross colony is abutted by a colony of Red-Beaked Gulls, a crowded acre rife with noisy chicks. Down near the water, Stewart Island Shags incubate eggs on volcano-shaped mud mounds. The world population of Stewart Island shags numbers about 400. They are solitary hunters, flying fast and diving up to 100’ deep for fish. The more common Spotted Shags are communal hunters the fish mid-level waters up to 10 miles offshore. They have lovely breeding plumage. The peninsula is also home to penguins. Blue penguins are quite common. They’re tiny- only 2 lbs. They fish over the continental shelf and come home to ground burrows at sunset in large rafts. Yellow eyed- penguins are rarer, larger (10 lbs), and very shy. They go back and forth in the afternoon, feeding chicks in ground burrows. They dive to the seafloor and mid-level waters to feed.

Wanaka Rodeo

Last night I stayed at Matterhorn south, which had a nice vibe. The TV room was full of Israelis and French speaking their respective languages in little clusters, but the kitchen had a big group of odd-looking Canadian college kids playing cards. The girls all had half-shaved heads etc. Things drifted into a game of slap-nose, but the girl who lost was so scared they all just gave her little love-taps with her deck of cards.

In the morning I went to the rodeo. It was awesome. Things started out with perfect weather and the 2nd division- entertaining due to the number of falls and mishaps. I was hoping to see a woman in the bull- or broncho-riding events, or even in steer wrestling, but they were only in course-races. And there were quite a lot of female contestants in those. The first one out was a little thing in a bright green shirt. She spurred her mount hard and bounced around so much I was amazed she stayed on and figured that must have been what I looked like on the Dart Stables horse. Second class had steer-riding, steer roping, steer wrestling (fun to watch), 2-person steer roping (featuring several husband-and-wife teams and one father and son team with a 14 yr old, broncho riding, and the barrel course. Some really little kids did the barrel race- the youngest looked about six and fell off at the end. He was carried off crying into daddy’s shoulder. NZ is awesome, have I mentioned that? Around the time the second division ended, it started to pour rain. Of course the hardy kiwis just stayed for the most part, many of them just sitting out getting soaked in sweatshirts and shorts. There were a lot of romantic old-timey-looking types in dusters and cowboy hats. One woman I sat near was telling stories about breaking her back and being medevaced by the Flying Doctors. First Division was quite exciting. I went down off the hill and took up a position right next to the ring to watch the riders’ technique. The broncho riders really got tossed around- made me want to try it! Most of them leaned way back, almost laying on the horses’ back. Most, but not all, made the requisite eight seconds, and were awarded points based on skill and style. Some of the horses made a lot of noise kicking at their pens, and a couple burst forth on two hind legs, rearing high as soon as they had room. More than one rider was stepped on, but none spent more than a couple minutes doubled over in pain afterwards… The highlight of the rodeo came last- the bull riders. The bulls were big and looked like they were made of pure muscle. They averaged 1500 lbs. A couple guys ended up getting stepped on here too, but didn’t seem to suffer any permanent injury. They had only a rope wound round the bull’s middle to hold on to. After they fell most bulls would continue bucking until the rope came off too, giving the rider some time to move away. When a bull went for the rider, the young, nimble bull fighters (dressed in rugby uniforms, what else?) would deftly distract him, working in teams to allow each other to escape if the bull came to close. Everyone was wary of these animals, leaping up onto the fence if one came to close. One bull went into a rage and rolled a barrel all around the ring, which was hilarious. They were all worked up and great strings of snot hung from their noses. A lot of the games seemed cruel to the livestock, but then again I suppose they’re all destined for the meat market soon anyway. At times throughout the day the bull fighters would have a hard time getting one back into the pens, and the announcer and his friend would clown around and entertain the audience with unflagging energy. Of course this included a few oaths, dirty jokes, kissing of random ladies, and buttock-baring, in spite of the family venue! I’m very excited to start riding now. My first lesson is the day after tomorrow, and I’ll be telling her I’m interested in riding fast and jumping.

Otago Goldfields

I stopped at Goldfields Mining Center at Gee’s Flat in Otago for a $25 tour. Gold was discovered here in the 1861 in the Lawrence River near Dunedin - 20 years after the California gold rush and 10 years after Australia’s gold rush. Many of the men who had worked claims in these rushes traveled to New Zealand to try their luck here. After the finds petered out, they were followed by Chinese miners who kept to themselves and were discriminated against. They averaged half as much income as the European miners. The first miners took up to 40 kilos a week out of the river. Nuggets are fairly common; last week a German gold-panner found a pinky-sized nugget. Gold nuggets are worth 4-5 times their weight, due to rarity. Most Cromwell gold is quite pure. Gold is very ductile - a matchbox sized piece can be hammered into a workable sheet the size of a tennis court. The source of the Cromwell gold has been traced to the hills up the river, but never found. If it hasn’t been eroded away, it’s probably a rich deposit. The mined area is an old river bank. The current river has downcut below the level of the mining field to create the Kawarau Gorge. 200-foot deep layers of flood-deposited, gold-bearing gravel alternate with clay blown in during dry glacial periods. The gravel beds are now protected, but the gravel of the riverbed still contains gold and is still panned by individual entrepreneurs. The tour guide, a nice older fellow, passed around some gold flakes and valuable nuggets. Then he took us up and ran some still-operating 1890’s machinery. The machines were simple affairs, run off head pressure created by twin dammed lakes 180’ up the hill. One unit, called a stamper battery, contained water-driven weighted stampers that crushed gold-bearing quartz to a dust, which was then run in a water stream over a mercury-plated copper ramp, which attracted the gold dust and held it. He also showed us a California sluice gun- basically a monitor gun which flowed 200-500 gpm out of variable-sized tips to hydraulically erode the hillside. Numerous hand-dug tunnels and shafts penetrate the landscape. Miners dug down to explore deeper gravel layers as the upper ones became worked out. Mining continued off and on at Gee’s Flat for 130 years, until it became a protected historical area. Now many visitors and ticket holders from the nearby jetboat operation take tours and pan for gold in gravels borught up from the river. I tried my hand at panning- filling a shallow broad dish with gravel and some small lead pellets, then rinsing it several times and swirling water through it until all the light gravel was washed out. I was very happy to find a bit of gold-bearing quartz at the bottom. Retention pond built by miners to provide reliable water pressure to operate equipment.

Huts of Chinese miners.

Inside a hut

Hydraulic sluice guns made the work of digging out gold-bearing gravel easier.

Hydraulic power for the stamper battery.

19th century stamper battery- still operating! Ore-bearing rock was crushed by the large weighted rods of the stamper. The resulting wet slurry ran down the ramp seen in front. The ramp's coated in mercury, which has an affinity for gold and picked up the gold dust out of the slurry.

Dark layers of gold-bearing gravel visible in hillside.

Wetas

From All About Wetas by Waitomo Caves Museum Society

The weta is one of NZ’s most infamous creatures.  The Maori called them Devils of the Night, or Gods of Ugly Things.  An early scientist, Sir Walter Buller, once attempted to collect and kill some wetas for studying.  One was held underwater for four days but survived; another was still alive after being dropped into near-boiling water; while yet another ate its way out of his handkerchief.  But in spite of their fearsome appearance they are quite harmless, and very rarely aggressive.
Wetas are found in several Southern Hemisphere countries apart from NZ.  The largest species found here are the heaviest insects in the world, weighing up to 70g- however there are over 70 species of weta in NZ.  Even older than the tuatara, wetas are a very primitive creature.  Our wetas have changed very little since NZ was isolated from the rest of the world many years ago.  In fact some species are very similar now to when they lived with the dinosaurs. 
Wetas can be divided into four major groups - cave wetas, tree wetas, ground wetas, and giant wetas. 
Cave Wetas can be identified by their small bodies with relatively long legs.  One species in Northland has a body length of about 2.5 cm - but its total length from antennae to hind legs is 35cm.  They choose to live in dark places- not just in caves but in crevices and mine tunnels, and under logs and houses.  Deep in caves, there is not always a good food supply, so they are seldom found far from entrances.
Because they live in little or no light, they have very small eyes- so their long legs and antennae are needed to help them feel around in the dark.  The antennae are also waved around in the air to detect air currents.  If disturbed, they can move very quickly and can jump up to 2m.
Cave wetas occasionally eat each other before their shells get hard, but usually they just eat soft plants like algae, as well as fungi and dead animals.  On dark moonless nights, they often come outside in large groups to feed.
Tree and Ground Wetas:  Tree wetas (or bush wetas) are NZ’s most common weta, found everywhere except in the far south.  They are often unearthed hiding in piles of firewood, and are distinguished by their large heads.  Like grasshoppers they have ears on their front legs, while the back legs are rubbed against their stomach to produce mating and fighting noises.  Fighting is common amongst males competing for a group of females- the winner is usually the weta with the biggest jaws. 
Tree wetas eat the leaves of many different plants, but prefer the softer leaves of some species such as mahoe or karamu.  The females will sometimes eat their own discarded skins or other dead insects, to get extra energy for egg laying.
Ground wetas are much smaller than tree wetas and don’t have such big heads.  As the name suggests they live in the ground, often in holes left by other insects, such as grass grubs and cicadas.  Ground wetas, like cave wetas, are silent and have no ears.
Giant Wetas are the least common, but most fascinating type of weta found in NZ.  Ten species have been discovered so far, in a variety of habitats - some live in burrows, some in the tops of trees, and some on alpine rock slopes.  Most species are found in only very small areas, such as the Mahoenui giant weta - found only in a 300 hectare area of gorse in the King Country.
They are too large to jump (some are up to 8cm long), and are quite slow moving.  This makes them readily preyed upon by rats, more so because the burrows of some species are large enough for a rat to enter.  Because of this, and their limited distribution, most species are in danger of becoming extinct.  Many of the largest species are now found only on offshore islands where rats have been eliminated.  All our species of giant weta are protected by law.
The various types of wetas lay their eggs in various ways, because of their diverse habitats.  Female cave wetas use their ovipositor (an egg laying organ extending form the rear end) to find soft cave mud of the right texture and depth, then lay just one or two eggs per hole.  Tree wetas lay roughly 250 eggs in the soil (about 15mm down) near the base of their tree- the only time in their life that they descend to the ground.
Ground wetas lay their eggs in the burrow walls, where the young wetas end up spending much of their early life; giant wetas lay up to 400 eggs when they reach their maximum size (just before dying), usually in soil near their natural habitat.
Most wetas live for around two years, during which they evolve form an egg to a series of immature forms known as nymphs, in instars, and finally to full adult maturity.  However, the details of the life cycle are poorly known for many species.  Cave wetas lay their eggs in late autumn.  The eggs take about 8 months to incubate, after which the nymph goes through three moults (each moult is an instar) before reaching maturity.  A typical ground or tree weta goes through 10 instars.  Each stage is only slightly different from that before it, so that by the time the weta reaches the sixth or seventh instar it is almost mature.  Giant wetas also go through about ten instars.  The often break their antennae while shedding skin between instars, but can easily regenerate them.