Tribewanted: Vorovoro

I can’t begin to express what an amazing experience I have had on Vorovoro. It was all real. I landed in cold, grey but familiar UK yesterday, head buzzing with feelings of accomplishment and hopes that I had not forgotten anything critical. I was thinking that this would be my signout blog but then realised that a turbine is for life not just for Christmas and needs rearing and caring for like a month old spaniel puppy.

The turbine now stands strong and the blades swish like a sentinel with it’s power thrumming through the village in eager service. Any doubts I had about the available wind resource have evaporated after my short running observations since tower lockdown. The last few days of my stay have been eventful to say the least. The following links/pictures give some idea of the activities that unfolded in the last weeks on the garden building site.

digging the foundations
Busy building site
engineering foundations

Wednesday became tower launch day, not the calmest of conditions but time was short. I spent the morning fitting the turbine blades to the turbine head, sealing the AC to DC converter box with silicone gel, lubing the bearings with grease and threading the main power cable down the centre of the pipe. This was a particularly tricky task that ended up with the mast pole leaning on the roof of Poasa’ house to make a chute and two boys feeding the wire in from the top. A string and weight was used to guide the wire down the mast. While the silicone glue was setting I visited the tool shed with tail fin in tow to name the turbine in white paint. She is called ‘Jenny’ after the special lady in my life. I thought… ’’ this will get me some serious points and beat the crap out of a Christmas card ’’.

Tui Mali had also sent some boys over from the local schools for an education in all things turbine and also to provide some much needed extra help for the big lift. Poasa was handling a big winch ( anchored to a coconut tree ) that replaced the original planned use of a gin pole to raise the main tower. The winch was previously used to haul a 15 Ton boat into anchor so it’s credentials were sound and it now means one man can lift/lower the turbine when a storm is forecast.

With the turbine and tail in position hanging from the end of the mast everyone took up the slack on the midmast ropes and Poasa started to winch the top section. It didn’t take long for the pipe to flex too far under load and with a loud metallic ping the pipes separated and the turbine head came crashing down to the ground to my horror damaging the internal wire insulation in the process. It had only raised a few feet so the fall was not serious enough to snap the blades. They lay flexed on the soft grass and sandy base waiting to be recovered. It took a while to see what had happened after the site was made safe. The coupling provided with the main poles turned out to be A grade cast steel and not C grade ( construction ) that was required for the job. The following video link shows the aftermath. Coupling_break . This was a strange time. For a fraction of a moment a weaker side of me felt relieved that it was all over and this was my excuse ticket to bail out but that was not going to cut it. I spent the next two hours in the baking midday sun in only my shorts outback near Tanoa park to jostle for a clean mobile signal calling the mainland for new parts and immediate solutions. I had to write phone numbers into the sand for lack of pen and paper whilst waiting in a tropical bug frenzy for 30 minute call-backs. A fix was not coming but I had a spare coupling so I headed back to the village for an engineering review with the elders. The wire could be repaired on site and after much discussion we decided to re-run the lift under more controlled conditions. As we walked back to the site Semesa came up with a great solution to guarantee the mast strength. We would now use the spare gin pole to stiffen up the coupling boundary by wire binding it to the two mast joining poles across the join to make a reinforcement splint. With confidence rekindled the next lift would prove to be successful. There was no-one left to film the good launch due to raised caution levels leveraging all the available resource! Jenny was in the air.

I let Jenny run free for a short while and tested the unloaded voltage produced by the generator and from a reasonable gust the meter showed around 18V which proved to me that everything was working as expected. I shorted the wires together to bring the blades to a halt, shook many hands in the village and headed grinning but exhausted for the nearest hammock…

Thursday was time to get the electronics in order. I spent most of this day in a hole. The battery house ( ex crate ) was now waterproofed and buried half into the sand like some freak shipping accident. Under cover of tarpaulin I got stuck into the wiring task by first lowering the batteries into the cooler space below ground and then mounting all of the components to the inside faces prior to wiring. I lost most of the feeling in my legs but I had an entertaining audience. It must have looked strange from the outside with 10 people crowded around a short box. I felt like a scientific punch and judy. My helpers trafficked tools and material in and out of the box like surgeons assistants and one kind boy fanned the flies of me for the entire duration.

Late afternoon presented one of those surprise instant weather flips from searing heat to water wall downpours that I will now expect around this time of day. This stopped my activities for a while but gave me a chance to see Jenny cope with her first trial weather system. The blades kept their speed down well ( due to short circuit ) and the tail directed the turbine head with ease on its freshly greased yaw bearing. As I peered from shelter I noticed the Fijians were working on something as if the weather hadn’t altered and they were busy building a large tarpaulin garden extension to Tui Mali’ house under gushing conditions. Save told me that Tui Mali’ eldest grandson was having a coming of age circumcision ceremony on Friday and they were preparing the area for a party.

jenny in the rain.

Friday started in a bit of a rush. There was an extra urgency about the village. Considering this was my last day it didn’t seem unusual so I spent the morning and most of the early afternoon wiring up the village for lights. I learned that the diesel generator Poasa owned had been ‘re-purposed’ already to another village on the promise of turbine power so I had to make sure this worked. Extra extensions were run off to Tui Mali’ house and the house at the far end of the village to bring light to all corners. I had to dance around the lovely ladies on this porch with a hammer and wire clips because they were busily weaving some beautiful mats from the local dried flora. Semesa and Poasa arrived back from a morning mainland shopping trip with new low energy compact fluorescent bulbs and light switches which were all routed and fitted by the afternoon. A quick nailbiting test proved the system to be working and light was had for a short time. It was time to fall over but I wanted to run around telling everyone it was all go but they were busy setting up the village for the celebrations so I began to head back to the bounty bar for a swig of water and a very happy lie down. Poasa caught me and took me inside his house to shake my hand and then promptly ordered me to undress and change into a special pocket sulu ( not a travel size sulu but one with pockets ! ) and new red bula shirt. This was great, I needed some dry clothes and somewhere to put my tape measure.

Tevita walked me back to the TW village and then divulged to me that the celebrations in the afternoon were as Save had stated but as a surprise this was also layed on to thank me for my gift. After a double take and a tingling rush of excitement he explained that visiting villagers would be turning up with the regional preacher and I would be invited by Tui Mali in a special thankyou ceremony including a lovo feast with slaughtered pig, wind turbine unveiling and switch on, precession into town, gifts of woven mats, sululu and to top it off.. presentation of Tabua ( whales tooth ). Holy throatswell !! ( insert more profanity here for a more truthful reaction ).

After my beans had simmered I was met at the bounty bar by ceremonially adorned tribies who placed a sululu ( a ceremonial flower wreath ) around my head and attached me to a decorative sash before forming what felt like a wedding train behind me. Chief Jenni joined my side and we began a parade back into town. I hadn’t even washed or shaved and felt like a terrible bride.

When we reached the village it was full of people and the turbine was dressed up in decorative cloth. We announced our Ho Yah’s and Minavandoos to alert our presence and I broke away to sit on stage with Tui Mali, Grandson and Kimbo on the mats the ladies were weaving all week ( which would later be presented as a gift ).

After a heartwarming speech and presentation of Tabua we taxi’d the garden to make a ribbon cutting turbine opening to a beautiful choir. Tui Mali then turned on the power and we returned to his house to be seated under the new lights for a lovo feast. Needless to say celebrations ran late into the night and the grog flowed. This was a very special day.

Tui Mali thankyou ceremony.
let the grog festivities begin.

I didn’t take the TW scheduled ride to leave on Saturday morning. I sat down with Jim ( in hammocks of course ) and extended my thanks to him and team TW/Fiji for their support. He presented me with a signed Vorovoro poster from the members and team. First footer John Wright ( Jaydub ) arrived on the island in time to take a handover walk of the system. I feel relief that he can handle any teething problems that the system may throw up in the early days. I spent the remainder of my time time taking pictures and videos of the turbine in glorious operation.

jenny working hard.
Jenny ripping it up

Tui Mali invited me to stay with his family on Saturday night ( instead of my planned stay in Great Eastern ) and Poasa would ferry me over through the mangroves at high tide. It was an honour indeed. I was sent of with a beautiful Isa Lei solo by Va on guitar and the members. At Tui Mali’ We had supper and were joined for my last grog session by the elders and some of team Fiji and we had a long healthy discussion about future wind powered opportunities in Fiji leaving a great open ending to chapter 1 of this adventure…

I’m sitting in my UK domestic flat writing this and some of Fiji has been crawling around and still biting ! I had an ants nest in my laptop that survived the journey. Something has taken hold for sure. I’m planning to tell my boss first thing tomorrow about my next schedule to Vorovoro….

I would like to take this opportunity to thank Jenny for all of her enduring support, my family for their tireless encouragement, the team and founders of Tribewanted for making this possible and the Fijians for their warmth,enthusiasm and great ideas.

Vinaka

Alan