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Re: 40,000 kms Without Petrol Stations
Thanks for welcoming me back Tilly.
My response to most of your comments comes from the two primary audiences our project reached: online and TV – specifically the statistics of each. As I previously mentioned, our TV audience from the first screening of the series can be estimated at 48,500 odd individuals – this is for Australia only; remember our series is screening in 123 countries worldwide; additionally, the series is now airing for the 4th time - my stats are from the first screening only. More info on the TV series here. Online traffic through thegreenwayup.com so far this month is at 526 unique visitors WORLDWIDE, I just checked google analytics; see the screen grab below.
[IMG]file:///C:\Users\bob\AppData\Local\Temp\msohtmlclip1\01\cl ip_image002.jpg[/IMG]
Making sure I get it accurate: we are 25/31 of the way through this month – so that means our monthly hit rate for the website is about 652 people. Against the point I’m about to make, I will be very generous here and say that we’ve had the same hit rate for the past year: total hits 7842 (reality is our hit rate is climbing month by month as people see the TV series in other countries and log onto the website).
TV Audience: 48,500 in 3 months
Online Audience: 7,842 in 12 months
Considering the time period for each of those stats, 96% of our audience is through the telly (and that’s actually way off – as you probably figured, the TV reaches many more). Sorry to do so many calcs, but this is important to understand: our primary audience is TV viewers – not web surfers.
Tilly you write from the perspective of the minority group of 4% who view our website, yet you clearly have seen our TV series – numerous past posts of yours indicate this. In fact you’ve given the forum episode by episode updates; including the episode where we fail to cross the strait. Why do you only quote what we have said on our website and take it as gospel? It’s bloody convenient not to reference the TV series when it suits you isn’t it? Mate, you clearly know we didn’t make it across Bass Strait because you have seen the TV series. Clear as day.
When you talk about people who “have not actually seen that episode” do you now understand that we are talking about a miniscule percentage? The point I tried to make before is that we are certainly not pretending or trying to be deceitful. Even in front of that miniscule percentage we never flat out lie that we made it across the strait – someone may come to that conclusion, may. Personally, I don’t think we’re deserving of the labels we’ve been branded with: pretenders, con artists, cover-ups…
You referenced this, written by myself: “ Firstly, I admit that our online communication has been lacking; I’m sure this is the reason for such aggressive and derogatory comments I’ve seen in this thread.” You responded by saying “I don’t think that has anything to do with it.” Then why do you continue to only refer to things we’ve said online and completely ignore what was shown in our TV series?
I explained in my last post why we have been slack updating our website; I’m not going to repeat it because my explanation stands true.
Please also be mindful, most of our web traffic is driven by people watching the series; very few go to our website through random web surfing. To spell it out, most of our online audience already know that we didn’t make it across Bass Strait before they read anything we’ve posted online.
Tilly, you say you couldn’t find anywhere we “announced” our boat crossing was a failure. C’mon mate, you’ve made me catch you out twice: you’ve seen the TV series! On telly we go one better than announcing it online to a small audience – on TV we make our failure stick out like dogs balls; we bloody shout it out for everyone to see!
What you say here does piss me off a bit Tilly: “Now I see. Once you failed to achieve your stated goal you changed the goal and didn’t tell anyone.” Well yeah mate, you can put it that way – it’s accurate I suppose. But what would you do in our shoes: you’ve just spent 18 months working towards this journey, you’ve invested everything you own into it, you’ve got a film crew following you, you’ve told all your family and friends what you’re up to, etc, etc, etc.. When you’re machine stops in the first chapter is it best to just call it quits, admit to everyone that you’ve failed, send the film crew home (which you’ve already busted your balls to pay for) and cut your losses financially – just wrap everything up and try to find a desk job to pay off your debts? That’s not what we did; we kept going and we admitted our failure. It wasn’t that we changed our goal Tilly, instead we described our achievement differently. Bloody hell, why did I even say that we performed ‘clever spin,’ now you’ve got me really thinking and explaining my actions I no longer think it was – NO, I’m not comfortable with that, but my fault for saying it. What we did was continue on with our goal – despite having already failed. On the telly you saw how painful and emotional failure was for us…still you prod.
I explained the circumstances under which the Defender was purchased and I admitted my stupidity, ignorance, naivety, lack of planning, failure to pursue due diligence I should have, etc. I admitted it was the wrong decision and explained why and how I learnt this. Yes, I should have consulted this forum, but I was 10 days out from leaving for an expedition which I had taken responsibility for, responsible for making sure it succeeded. My brain was so overcrowded that I was sh*tting out thoughts – a thought to consult the biofuels forum was obviously one that got jettisoned and hit the porcelain with a heap of others. A mistake on my part I guess.
Tilly, please keep questioning me and GWU; I will continue to respond truthfully and back myself up with hard evidence where I can. Cheers mate.
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Thanks Matt, yes it seems you must be very careful not to attract criticism in this forum (although I’ve done plenty to attract it!) Thank you for seeing that I am in no way trying to deceive anyone here.
To those reading, I appreciate hearing from everyone and anyone. Thanks not for weighing in on a side Matt, but thanks for sharing your opinion – admittedly you were supportive of what I’ve done; will the rest of you pull that gesture of appreciation to pieces?
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G’day Peter1,
Are you OK mate? I’d hazard to say someone is exceedingly irritated?
Make sure the pacemaker is working, fully charged and 000 is in speed-dial before reading ahead, the following words will only lead to further irritation; although I’m not sure I’ll stoop low enough to “call bullshit. Complete and utter bullshit.” You might just be OK …Geez Louise us youth today have no respect do we? Truth is, I wouldn’t be brought to saying what I have and what I will if I didn’t feel as though I was being given a raw deal. I’m sorry for the snide remarks, but I’m not deleting them
(I never include emoticons! Look what you’ve done to me!)
Peter1, here’s what happened tonight: I log on to biofuelsforum.com at 8:12pm and have the pleasure of reading Tilly’s, Matt’s and your post, it takes me about 5 minutes to get through them. Oh No! I quickly scramble, grab my smartphone and put out the call to my publicist and team of spin doctors – of course I have a group speed dial selection to speed things up, I call them “the cover up team.” We all meet in my office no more than 30 minutes later (if they don’t get there in time they miss out on their bonus – why would I spend the oodles of money I have on a team that can’t be where I NEED them within half an hour. No way man!) We sit down and digest what has been written; because they are highly paid spin doctors and publicists they get through it very quickly, professionals you know – at GWU we only hire the best of the best. Together, in the space of 4 hours or so, we formulate and contrive this forum post – all this happens after hours on a Wednesday night…. The overtime is killing me.
Come on mate, after explaining our financial situation in my last post do you really think I can afford a publicist? I hope the fact I am responding to this within a few hours, after business hours, is enough to satisfy you that these are my own words. Thank you for claiming I must be “a talented man,” cheers for thinking I write “eloquently,” I appreciate how you think I write “slick” (although, is that a compliment?), that’s awesome you think my response was “coached” and “written under significant instruction.” How much money you putting on the fact I had help to write this? I could make some serious cash here… But can I trust you, will you be honest? I think it’s best we get a bookie involved.
Here’s my reality: I am currently up at my father’s farm, Oberon NSW – the same one that featured in the series. I started writing this response, first to Tilly, about 2.5 hours ago. Since then I have stoked the fire numerous times, I’ve made at least 4 runs to the fridge to grab a beer, the phone ran at one stage... I am exactly who I say I am, no doctoring no spin. Just a regular bloke – not a con man with a team of spin doctors behind me. Truth be told, I’m actually enjoying tonight more than a Saturday night on the town – your criticism gives me serious kicks.
Peter1, know these are all my words. You say I must be qualified by practice to write so “eloquently.” Well, I suppose – I’ve written an email or two in my life… but I was behind the rest of the class when it came to getting my pen license in year 4… Does that have any bearing?
Enough of this; know that I am writing to you directly. Yes, what I write is contrived, by me – it’s taking me a couple of hours to think this out and punch all the keyboard keys I need to punch. I’m going to go ahead and say your response was contrived too – by you. Hmm, really not fair you gave a contrived reply Peter1.
You “certainly couldn’t give a dam” about our online presence hey? That’s a great start mate, now we’re both talking about GWU’s primary audience – the TV viewers. I’m sure you read my response to Tilly above – we’re now talking about over 96% of the people GWU reached.
Unfortunately I am not made of “better stuff”; when I get accused of ‘joyriding, ripping people off, taking advantage of people, taking money under false terms’ and, most especially, when I get accused of ‘taking a holiday funded by other people money’ I do feel sick. In fact, let me upgrade that: I feel sick to the stomach because reality is I busted my balls to deliver above and beyond what was expected from cash sponsors; and we did deliver above and beyond – all whilst I didn’t see a single dollar myself, and nor will I for a long time, if ever. I invested money in order to deliver, put my own balls on the chopping block. You might be a dead set hard arse legend yourself, fine, but do not accuse me of getting sick over something so easily. Accused of taking other people’s money is what I am, and I feel sick because of it, obviously I’m not made of better stuff. Why I felt sick was explained in my last post and I stick by it.
You question who foot the bill for the launch party. Hilton; they provided the venue, staff, alcohol and required AV equipment. The DJs all worked free of charge – one of the GWU members happens to be a DJ and he has friends in the industry, bloody convenient for us. Great attempt to catch us out though, I do commend you – absolutely brilliant, nowhere did we mention who supported our launch party. Zeta Bar was the venue, located in the Hilton hotel Sydney; maybe a few scenes of people lining up to enter displayed Hilton signage, but most likely not. I think we’re due for a bit of criticism for not publicising Hilton’s support enough…
I regret my comment saying that we put a “clever spin” on our supposed change in goal/mission. Earlier in this post I explain it. Silly me for writing that – obviously didn’t ‘contrive’ my post enough. Don’t worry, I’ll give myself a good slap on the wrist for that one – I’m meant to be ‘slick’ for Christ’s sake!
Yes OK, our attempt to cross Bass Strait was “ignorant and stupid.” We were certainly all thinking it when it was first proposed. But silly ideas have a funny way of justifying themselves (can’t wait to see you quote that sentence!) The reason our engine stopped is 100% explainable, but the full story involves me pointing fingers at my team mates – something I certainly won’t do on this forum. The fuel filter clogged with synthetic magnesium silicate; I was using it to help purify our biodiesel and it was not properly filtered out by someone. Here’s another source of great frustration: the day before we left Tassie on the sea leg we went to Auto One with one purpose: to buy a spare fuel filter for the boat motor. They were out of stock and we didn’t bother driving the 50 odd kilometre round trip to the next town. Complete stupidity, ignorance, laziness and poor planning. You’ve got me.
Here is something to contemplate: no more than one month before our crossing of Bass Straight there was a kite surfer who successfully made it across. Yes, our vessel was completely inadequate for Bass Straight, but a Kite Surfboard! Point is, people push boundaries – that’s what we tried to do; and failed. AND admitted it.
You’ve pointed the finger at me for playing the sympathy card. Yes, it’s a **** situation we’re in (there I go again), but I didn’t actively get up on this forum and start crying. Every self-sympathetic thing I wrote was only communicated to argue a point. Never did I elaborate unnecessarily and never did I pursue one of our sob stories without it being necessary to counter the harsh and unfounded accusations that were thrown at us. You brought it out of me and I’m not going to lie to you. Truth is this hasn’t been easy; most definitely the ‘holiday’ that was alluded to.
Peter1 you asked me not to try and insult you intelligence; I most definitely will not sir. However, the simple mathematics that follow, just multiplication, might just bring insult to your intelligence (I swear it’s not me, it’s just the maths). Your google search showed that people are getting 11.5-12.5 L/100kms without towing and with nothing on the roof rack – sounds about right to me. I averaged our consumption over the whole journey to be about 15L/100km, including city, highway and off road driving. You can ask any of the boys I travelled with what the maximum speed we went the whole time was: 80kph. I was a tight arse when it came to speeding; I had to make the bio, and thus I conserved the bio. Also, we had to go this slow so the film crew could leap frog us, get a driving shot, then leap frog again. Believe me, our average consumption was 15L/100km – this is already 2.5-3.5 above what you say the unloaded average is, so I see no reason for you to contest this.
As I said, we carried 120L of methanol. In my processor I was using max 20% methanol per volume of feedstock oil to make my biodiesel by alkali catalytic transesterification in two stages, using KOH – and not bothering to reclaim any excess methanol. At the very most I would get 20% glycerine by-product from reactions (including soap and other junk). Therefore, 1 litre of methanol allowed me to make about 5 litres of useable biodiesel. Doing some sums: 120 x 5 = 600. There is it, 600 litres of biodiesel is what I could make from the 120L I could carry in methanol (this obviously was dependent on FFA content of the feedstock and a few other factors, but pretty close). Using 15L/100kms (which I’ve already explained) that gives me 4000kms range. Why do you call “bullshit, complete and utter bullshit” so strongly? I think my numbers make sense; as you say, maybe someone more experienced and knowledgeable can prove me wrong. If I’m not, you’ve insulted your own intelligence and I had nothing to do with it.
Peter1, here’s the fact of this matter as I see it: you are attacking truths armed only with assumptions and opinions. There is only one place this tennis match of forum posts will lead…
Offensive is the best defence isn’t it? Unfortunately it won’t be in this case, no matter how many accusations or derogatory comments you throw up I will always respond with the truth. Make your blood boil? I know what happened during GWU far more intimately than you; keep throwing questions my way and I will continue to respond.
Judging your character from what you’ve written, I’m predicting you will now make your best endeavour to somehow undermine GWU or sabotage what we are doing. Maybe through this person you know who has had dealings with us? However, it is near impossible to judge someone’s character by only the words they write and I hope for my own sake that my appraisal of your character is way off. Believe me, we’re already pushing **** uphill to keep the GWU wheels turning (sob, sob, sob hey!)
Peter1, I am going to request the same from you as I did Tilly; however, you are on your own level… Please continue to question me and GWU, continue to cry bullshit, continue to call my project a farce, load of rot, a gimmick, please continue to question my ‘contrived replys ‘ (that was a direct quote - you misspelt replies), please continue to call me a fool, ignorant and stupid. With help from my team of publicists and spin doctors I will aptly respond to all over your comments. And Peter1, I will offer an ‘apt’ reply because I am basing my answers off the truth, not because I’m being coached.
Thanks for welcoming me back Tilly.
My response to most of your comments comes from the two primary audiences our project reached: online and TV – specifically the statistics of each. As I previously mentioned, our TV audience from the first screening of the series can be estimated at 48,500 odd individuals – this is for Australia only; remember our series is screening in 123 countries worldwide; additionally, the series is now airing for the 4th time - my stats are from the first screening only. More info on the TV series here. Online traffic through thegreenwayup.com so far this month is at 526 unique visitors WORLDWIDE, I just checked google analytics; see the screen grab below.
[IMG]file:///C:\Users\bob\AppData\Local\Temp\msohtmlclip1\01\cl ip_image002.jpg[/IMG]
Making sure I get it accurate: we are 25/31 of the way through this month – so that means our monthly hit rate for the website is about 652 people. Against the point I’m about to make, I will be very generous here and say that we’ve had the same hit rate for the past year: total hits 7842 (reality is our hit rate is climbing month by month as people see the TV series in other countries and log onto the website).
TV Audience: 48,500 in 3 months
Online Audience: 7,842 in 12 months
Considering the time period for each of those stats, 96% of our audience is through the telly (and that’s actually way off – as you probably figured, the TV reaches many more). Sorry to do so many calcs, but this is important to understand: our primary audience is TV viewers – not web surfers.
Tilly you write from the perspective of the minority group of 4% who view our website, yet you clearly have seen our TV series – numerous past posts of yours indicate this. In fact you’ve given the forum episode by episode updates; including the episode where we fail to cross the strait. Why do you only quote what we have said on our website and take it as gospel? It’s bloody convenient not to reference the TV series when it suits you isn’t it? Mate, you clearly know we didn’t make it across Bass Strait because you have seen the TV series. Clear as day.
When you talk about people who “have not actually seen that episode” do you now understand that we are talking about a miniscule percentage? The point I tried to make before is that we are certainly not pretending or trying to be deceitful. Even in front of that miniscule percentage we never flat out lie that we made it across the strait – someone may come to that conclusion, may. Personally, I don’t think we’re deserving of the labels we’ve been branded with: pretenders, con artists, cover-ups…
You referenced this, written by myself: “ Firstly, I admit that our online communication has been lacking; I’m sure this is the reason for such aggressive and derogatory comments I’ve seen in this thread.” You responded by saying “I don’t think that has anything to do with it.” Then why do you continue to only refer to things we’ve said online and completely ignore what was shown in our TV series?
I explained in my last post why we have been slack updating our website; I’m not going to repeat it because my explanation stands true.
Please also be mindful, most of our web traffic is driven by people watching the series; very few go to our website through random web surfing. To spell it out, most of our online audience already know that we didn’t make it across Bass Strait before they read anything we’ve posted online.
Tilly, you say you couldn’t find anywhere we “announced” our boat crossing was a failure. C’mon mate, you’ve made me catch you out twice: you’ve seen the TV series! On telly we go one better than announcing it online to a small audience – on TV we make our failure stick out like dogs balls; we bloody shout it out for everyone to see!
What you say here does piss me off a bit Tilly: “Now I see. Once you failed to achieve your stated goal you changed the goal and didn’t tell anyone.” Well yeah mate, you can put it that way – it’s accurate I suppose. But what would you do in our shoes: you’ve just spent 18 months working towards this journey, you’ve invested everything you own into it, you’ve got a film crew following you, you’ve told all your family and friends what you’re up to, etc, etc, etc.. When you’re machine stops in the first chapter is it best to just call it quits, admit to everyone that you’ve failed, send the film crew home (which you’ve already busted your balls to pay for) and cut your losses financially – just wrap everything up and try to find a desk job to pay off your debts? That’s not what we did; we kept going and we admitted our failure. It wasn’t that we changed our goal Tilly, instead we described our achievement differently. Bloody hell, why did I even say that we performed ‘clever spin,’ now you’ve got me really thinking and explaining my actions I no longer think it was – NO, I’m not comfortable with that, but my fault for saying it. What we did was continue on with our goal – despite having already failed. On the telly you saw how painful and emotional failure was for us…still you prod.
I explained the circumstances under which the Defender was purchased and I admitted my stupidity, ignorance, naivety, lack of planning, failure to pursue due diligence I should have, etc. I admitted it was the wrong decision and explained why and how I learnt this. Yes, I should have consulted this forum, but I was 10 days out from leaving for an expedition which I had taken responsibility for, responsible for making sure it succeeded. My brain was so overcrowded that I was sh*tting out thoughts – a thought to consult the biofuels forum was obviously one that got jettisoned and hit the porcelain with a heap of others. A mistake on my part I guess.
Tilly, please keep questioning me and GWU; I will continue to respond truthfully and back myself up with hard evidence where I can. Cheers mate.
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Thanks Matt, yes it seems you must be very careful not to attract criticism in this forum (although I’ve done plenty to attract it!) Thank you for seeing that I am in no way trying to deceive anyone here.
To those reading, I appreciate hearing from everyone and anyone. Thanks not for weighing in on a side Matt, but thanks for sharing your opinion – admittedly you were supportive of what I’ve done; will the rest of you pull that gesture of appreciation to pieces?
---------
G’day Peter1,
Are you OK mate? I’d hazard to say someone is exceedingly irritated?
Make sure the pacemaker is working, fully charged and 000 is in speed-dial before reading ahead, the following words will only lead to further irritation; although I’m not sure I’ll stoop low enough to “call bullshit. Complete and utter bullshit.” You might just be OK …Geez Louise us youth today have no respect do we? Truth is, I wouldn’t be brought to saying what I have and what I will if I didn’t feel as though I was being given a raw deal. I’m sorry for the snide remarks, but I’m not deleting them
(I never include emoticons! Look what you’ve done to me!)Peter1, here’s what happened tonight: I log on to biofuelsforum.com at 8:12pm and have the pleasure of reading Tilly’s, Matt’s and your post, it takes me about 5 minutes to get through them. Oh No! I quickly scramble, grab my smartphone and put out the call to my publicist and team of spin doctors – of course I have a group speed dial selection to speed things up, I call them “the cover up team.” We all meet in my office no more than 30 minutes later (if they don’t get there in time they miss out on their bonus – why would I spend the oodles of money I have on a team that can’t be where I NEED them within half an hour. No way man!) We sit down and digest what has been written; because they are highly paid spin doctors and publicists they get through it very quickly, professionals you know – at GWU we only hire the best of the best. Together, in the space of 4 hours or so, we formulate and contrive this forum post – all this happens after hours on a Wednesday night…. The overtime is killing me.
Come on mate, after explaining our financial situation in my last post do you really think I can afford a publicist? I hope the fact I am responding to this within a few hours, after business hours, is enough to satisfy you that these are my own words. Thank you for claiming I must be “a talented man,” cheers for thinking I write “eloquently,” I appreciate how you think I write “slick” (although, is that a compliment?), that’s awesome you think my response was “coached” and “written under significant instruction.” How much money you putting on the fact I had help to write this? I could make some serious cash here… But can I trust you, will you be honest? I think it’s best we get a bookie involved.
Here’s my reality: I am currently up at my father’s farm, Oberon NSW – the same one that featured in the series. I started writing this response, first to Tilly, about 2.5 hours ago. Since then I have stoked the fire numerous times, I’ve made at least 4 runs to the fridge to grab a beer, the phone ran at one stage... I am exactly who I say I am, no doctoring no spin. Just a regular bloke – not a con man with a team of spin doctors behind me. Truth be told, I’m actually enjoying tonight more than a Saturday night on the town – your criticism gives me serious kicks.
Peter1, know these are all my words. You say I must be qualified by practice to write so “eloquently.” Well, I suppose – I’ve written an email or two in my life… but I was behind the rest of the class when it came to getting my pen license in year 4… Does that have any bearing?
Enough of this; know that I am writing to you directly. Yes, what I write is contrived, by me – it’s taking me a couple of hours to think this out and punch all the keyboard keys I need to punch. I’m going to go ahead and say your response was contrived too – by you. Hmm, really not fair you gave a contrived reply Peter1.
You “certainly couldn’t give a dam” about our online presence hey? That’s a great start mate, now we’re both talking about GWU’s primary audience – the TV viewers. I’m sure you read my response to Tilly above – we’re now talking about over 96% of the people GWU reached.
Unfortunately I am not made of “better stuff”; when I get accused of ‘joyriding, ripping people off, taking advantage of people, taking money under false terms’ and, most especially, when I get accused of ‘taking a holiday funded by other people money’ I do feel sick. In fact, let me upgrade that: I feel sick to the stomach because reality is I busted my balls to deliver above and beyond what was expected from cash sponsors; and we did deliver above and beyond – all whilst I didn’t see a single dollar myself, and nor will I for a long time, if ever. I invested money in order to deliver, put my own balls on the chopping block. You might be a dead set hard arse legend yourself, fine, but do not accuse me of getting sick over something so easily. Accused of taking other people’s money is what I am, and I feel sick because of it, obviously I’m not made of better stuff. Why I felt sick was explained in my last post and I stick by it.
You question who foot the bill for the launch party. Hilton; they provided the venue, staff, alcohol and required AV equipment. The DJs all worked free of charge – one of the GWU members happens to be a DJ and he has friends in the industry, bloody convenient for us. Great attempt to catch us out though, I do commend you – absolutely brilliant, nowhere did we mention who supported our launch party. Zeta Bar was the venue, located in the Hilton hotel Sydney; maybe a few scenes of people lining up to enter displayed Hilton signage, but most likely not. I think we’re due for a bit of criticism for not publicising Hilton’s support enough…
I regret my comment saying that we put a “clever spin” on our supposed change in goal/mission. Earlier in this post I explain it. Silly me for writing that – obviously didn’t ‘contrive’ my post enough. Don’t worry, I’ll give myself a good slap on the wrist for that one – I’m meant to be ‘slick’ for Christ’s sake!
Yes OK, our attempt to cross Bass Strait was “ignorant and stupid.” We were certainly all thinking it when it was first proposed. But silly ideas have a funny way of justifying themselves (can’t wait to see you quote that sentence!) The reason our engine stopped is 100% explainable, but the full story involves me pointing fingers at my team mates – something I certainly won’t do on this forum. The fuel filter clogged with synthetic magnesium silicate; I was using it to help purify our biodiesel and it was not properly filtered out by someone. Here’s another source of great frustration: the day before we left Tassie on the sea leg we went to Auto One with one purpose: to buy a spare fuel filter for the boat motor. They were out of stock and we didn’t bother driving the 50 odd kilometre round trip to the next town. Complete stupidity, ignorance, laziness and poor planning. You’ve got me.
Here is something to contemplate: no more than one month before our crossing of Bass Straight there was a kite surfer who successfully made it across. Yes, our vessel was completely inadequate for Bass Straight, but a Kite Surfboard! Point is, people push boundaries – that’s what we tried to do; and failed. AND admitted it.
You’ve pointed the finger at me for playing the sympathy card. Yes, it’s a **** situation we’re in (there I go again), but I didn’t actively get up on this forum and start crying. Every self-sympathetic thing I wrote was only communicated to argue a point. Never did I elaborate unnecessarily and never did I pursue one of our sob stories without it being necessary to counter the harsh and unfounded accusations that were thrown at us. You brought it out of me and I’m not going to lie to you. Truth is this hasn’t been easy; most definitely the ‘holiday’ that was alluded to.
Peter1 you asked me not to try and insult you intelligence; I most definitely will not sir. However, the simple mathematics that follow, just multiplication, might just bring insult to your intelligence (I swear it’s not me, it’s just the maths). Your google search showed that people are getting 11.5-12.5 L/100kms without towing and with nothing on the roof rack – sounds about right to me. I averaged our consumption over the whole journey to be about 15L/100km, including city, highway and off road driving. You can ask any of the boys I travelled with what the maximum speed we went the whole time was: 80kph. I was a tight arse when it came to speeding; I had to make the bio, and thus I conserved the bio. Also, we had to go this slow so the film crew could leap frog us, get a driving shot, then leap frog again. Believe me, our average consumption was 15L/100km – this is already 2.5-3.5 above what you say the unloaded average is, so I see no reason for you to contest this.
As I said, we carried 120L of methanol. In my processor I was using max 20% methanol per volume of feedstock oil to make my biodiesel by alkali catalytic transesterification in two stages, using KOH – and not bothering to reclaim any excess methanol. At the very most I would get 20% glycerine by-product from reactions (including soap and other junk). Therefore, 1 litre of methanol allowed me to make about 5 litres of useable biodiesel. Doing some sums: 120 x 5 = 600. There is it, 600 litres of biodiesel is what I could make from the 120L I could carry in methanol (this obviously was dependent on FFA content of the feedstock and a few other factors, but pretty close). Using 15L/100kms (which I’ve already explained) that gives me 4000kms range. Why do you call “bullshit, complete and utter bullshit” so strongly? I think my numbers make sense; as you say, maybe someone more experienced and knowledgeable can prove me wrong. If I’m not, you’ve insulted your own intelligence and I had nothing to do with it.
Peter1, here’s the fact of this matter as I see it: you are attacking truths armed only with assumptions and opinions. There is only one place this tennis match of forum posts will lead…
Offensive is the best defence isn’t it? Unfortunately it won’t be in this case, no matter how many accusations or derogatory comments you throw up I will always respond with the truth. Make your blood boil? I know what happened during GWU far more intimately than you; keep throwing questions my way and I will continue to respond.
Judging your character from what you’ve written, I’m predicting you will now make your best endeavour to somehow undermine GWU or sabotage what we are doing. Maybe through this person you know who has had dealings with us? However, it is near impossible to judge someone’s character by only the words they write and I hope for my own sake that my appraisal of your character is way off. Believe me, we’re already pushing **** uphill to keep the GWU wheels turning (sob, sob, sob hey!)
Peter1, I am going to request the same from you as I did Tilly; however, you are on your own level… Please continue to question me and GWU, continue to cry bullshit, continue to call my project a farce, load of rot, a gimmick, please continue to question my ‘contrived replys ‘ (that was a direct quote - you misspelt replies), please continue to call me a fool, ignorant and stupid. With help from my team of publicists and spin doctors I will aptly respond to all over your comments. And Peter1, I will offer an ‘apt’ reply because I am basing my answers off the truth, not because I’m being coached.
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