We’ll find out, I guess.

There is something funny about him just bypassing them, to be honest.

Steering it wasn’t the issue, it was how to actually take control from the autopilot.

Except it was a different failure mode to what they were concerned about.

Third incident, this is the second major fuck up in recent time.

And I was on the boat for the first one.

The title is actually pretty close, it sounds like nobody knew how the helm system worked, nobody had been trained, and people were frantically pressing buttons trying to get control back.

Also, the vessel was doing freight only crossings and taking the long way across the strait via outer Queen Charlotte sound, because Kiwirail didn’t trust the boat, in particular the transmission.

I’m sailing across the strait Saturday, wish me luck!

That system sounds like a bit of a nightmare to use. And worse to turn off.

This is an area that’s quite familiar to me, as I’ve done a few circumnavigations of Kapiti, I’ve also landed on Fisherman’s/motungarara before, as well as Brown’s island next to it.

The tides through that area are vicious, to the point where a trip in the area has to be planned around them, you can’t overcome the flow for any length of time, especially for a circumnavigation.

They were definitely lucky to make the island. I wonder where they landed? There are actually houses out there, on the northern end.

I’ve heard that one a few times before actually, it’s not entirely unfair either.

The line is out of action while deicing is taking place, but only for the shortest amount of time necessary.

That’s what I’m thinking, yes. Although you could pump a lot of heat into the pantograph, and pair it up with a scraper at the same time.

It wouldn’t be able to run line speed, but it would be reasonably fast, I’d think.

If she refuses to resign, it will be interesting to see if greens use the “waka jumping” rules against her.

They were against them at the time, as they felt they could be used to silence dissent in the party ranks, so to use them would be an embarassing change of direction for them.

This is how power line deicing works on systems overseas. You need two legs to the circuit, so it would involve either isolating lines from each other on double track, or earthing out the end of the lines, and using the tracks as a return path.

The option I was actually thinking about was having a heated pantograph of some type.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Levis_De-Icer

It’s been done with power lines overseas, where they somehow increase the current in the lines to heat them up to shed ice.

No idea how it actually works though, I’ll have to look into it.

Yes, it’s connected directly to the ONT with nothing in between.

At the moment it’s just running as a router and PoE switch, with two wireless access points on it. We plan to add cameras, but other expenses have taken priority.

I’ll have a look at it tomorrow, I think it does have VPN functionality. I’ve never really needed it though.

Other options are a deicing spray, like what is used on aircraft, both at airports and in flight, or some type of heater that has a heating element directly on the wire.

Turning an old unit into a deicing train wouldn’t be massively difficult, I would think.

Someone gave me a tandem kayak! It’s a Sisson Southern Light, a very old design, and possibly older than me. It needs a few maintenance items, a few scrapes being painted over, and some new lines, but is overall in amazing condition.

The hull length is 6.2m, with the rudder adding further to that. I plan to take it out Sunday.

I have a Ubiquiti Dream Machine SE, which has POE built in, but your option would be the next simplest option.

All the Ubiquiti gear is very well priced, and dead simple to use, I plan to add some cameras at some point to the system.

This is a real shame, it sounds like they may have survived in the water for a very long time too, if they were alive when the bulk carrier was in the area.