Wildlife and Head Problems

I finally found a place where there are birds and iguanas that is within easy rowing distance, so I was able to get a few more wildlife photos.  On the down side, my head failed rather dramatically. (No, the marine toilet!)  It took three days of sometimes yucky, frustrating or back-breaking work, but it is now fixed and working properly.  Here's the story:

I devoted one entire morning to more exploration of the
canals around Marina Mazatlán.

Much of what was once estuary has become golf courses

and very expensive homes and condos.

Fortunately some wildlife remains.  This is a turkey

vulture warming up on the rocky rip-rap of the canal.

Turkey vulture eating a dead fish.  Not a pretty sight, but

better than a stinking, rotting dead fish!

 

A rare sight:  an iguana in the water

Showing off his mohawk?

A yellow-crowned heron peaks out from its hidey hole.

Gotta be stealthy to catch them exposed.

Tri-colored herons are even more skittish.  I got this image

just before this one took off.

Mexican grackles, on the other hand, can be

obnoxiously unafraid of people.  This one landed

right on my table while I was eating lunch.

I guess it knew a sloppy eater when it saw one.

Just another average sunset in the marina

My faithful Skipper head suddenly failed

in mid flush.  The big pump lever felt

like something gave way and it was no

longer connected to the pump piston.

First steps were dismounting the whole thing and then

pulling the handle to make it a little easier to get the

58-pound monster through the narrow companionway

and on deck.

Of course hose connections had to be broken, a 

rather delicate operation considering what both the

toilet and hoses contained.  Rubber gloves, 

disposable rags and a containment vessel

successfully averted a potential catastrophe.

Still yucky, though.

Head removed.  A Ziploc bag catches drips

from the hoses.

Getting the heavy thing up on deck without damaging

something took some planning and care as well as muscle,
but I did it.

Toilet inverted, the bottom plate removed and the guts

exposed.

The culprit:  the crescent-shaped key that

locks the pump lever to the shaft that 

connects to the pump piston lever had

come out, so the pump lever just spun

on the shaft.

The key was able to come out because the keyway had been

widened by corrosion and possibly by being sheered away

when pumping while the shaft had slipped out of position.

Fortunately the rebuild kit contained a replacement

lever.  Part of the reason the kit is more than $130.

The new lever and a new raw water intake

 flap spring installed and gasket mating surfaces

prepped for reassembly.  Only problem was

the spring retaining screw would not go back

in all the way, which prevented proper movement

of the lever.  I had to re-tap the hole threads

and replace the machine screw to fix it.

Back together and getting repainted.

Reinstalled and working fine...once I

remembered the trick to re-priming

the pump so it would take in sea water.

Just in time, too.  But that's another story!

January 24, 2019

The big accomplishment this week was setting up a little online store to make available calendars, notecards and posters to folks who like my photos.  Check it out at George Phillips Photography .  If you like what you see, please let your friends know about it.  Comments and requests for other items are welcome!
I also got the verdict on my outboard this week.  It is well and truly dead, so I sold it to a local for $25.  He'll find a way to make it work and everyone will be happy.  After a bit of research, I confirmed that Mexican and American versions of Yamaha outboards are indeed different due to different emissions standards.  I finally decided to get one here in Mexico because it's simpler and because I think it will be easier to get Mexican parts from SoCal than US parts deep in Mexico.
Of course there were also a few minor boat projects which you can see in the photos....

This is a screen grab of my online store.

I will be adding items, so bookmark it

and check back periodically:

George Phillips Photography

This sunset and the two below were taken since my last

post and have been incorporated into calendars and

note cards now available for purchase online

Seagulls on the beach behind Diego's

Curt playing at Diego's Wednesday and wearing a shirt 

plugging the band he played with in Ventura.

After Diego's, a group of us went to Fat Fish, which is,

ironically, known for its ribs.  They come straight off

the BBQ in the corner and onto your plate....

This big rack was $6 and DELICIOUS!  I can't believe

I ate the whole thing!

With the outboard off the dinghy, I had no excuse not to

finally finish the patch on the transom where the motor

clamps on.

Sanded smooth

Painted and waiting for a new outboard.

This is how I improvised a long-handled scrub brush so

I could wash the mainsail.

It worked fine, but it was a 3-day chore.

It looks better, but up close you can still see

the black mold stains.

In the process of cleaning the sail I found

a broken slide that needed to be replaced.

I learned how to do it two years ago when five of them

broke during the rough first leg of the Baja Ha Ha.

Fortunately, I had a stainless steel replacement on board.

This one won't break!

January 12, 2019

It was a typical week in harbor:  some indolence, some photography, some fun with friends, some nice sunsets and of course the inevitable boat projects.

When my neighbors took off for a week, this guy decided

their dock was a good place to hang out for a while.

He didn't stick around long, tho.

This little dove, however, found my boat

quite attractive in the mornings.

It came to visit several times...

...and got a little braver each time.

With my dinghy outboard on the fritz, I rowed around the

marina a bit to explore, and found these American 

oystercatchers  hanging around an unused dock.

 

The oystercatchers shared the dock with some black-

necked stilts.  Easy to see how they got the name!

Feeling a bit more ambitious a few days later, I tried

rowing up the Estero Sabalo.  But there was so much

development along the estuary that my expectations

of seeing much wildlife were minimal.

I did find a more promising small side channel and

rowed a half mile to the end only to discover it was

surrounded by a golf course.

Nonetheless, I was able to find a few birds,

including this tricolored heron.

Herons are always skittish, and this one was no

exception.  He took off soon after I stalked close enough

to take the previous photo.

I saw only two yellow-crowned herons; no

sign of nest-building yet and no tree iguanas.

There were also a few American Coots, which I did not

see so much further south in Puerto Vallarta or 

Barra de Navidad.

 

 

Although the boat is not near any great beaches, there were still

some pretty nice sunsets in the marina.

This is the view from the stage at Diego's.  No wonder

Curt likes to play there!

El Aljibe de San Pedro: great cuisine, good 

drinks, and impeccable service in the unique 

setting of an unusually-decorated 19th century

cistern!

Boat Work

Restoring the brightwork around the forward

companionway that had been damaged by

the air-conditioner during two summers 

of use.

This is one of the brackets I made to hold the big cast

stainless steel Danforth anchor on the cabin top.

After a few years of good service, they had become

a bit of an eyesore, so I decided to do something.

Rather than going to all the work of stripping and

building up many coats of Cetol, I decided to paint

them and renew the caulking.

They look good, blend in with the cabin top and should

remain in good shape for at least a couple of years.

The Cetol brightwork around one of the cockpit lockers

was starting to show signs of degradation, so I sanded

and refinished it before it became a big job.

 

And finally, the troublesome dinghy outboard.

Initial indications pointed to a stuck 

carburetor float.  I freed it up by banging

on the carb and spraying in some carb

cleaner.  It ran for a while, then only

with the choke on, then not at all.

Time for a carb rebuild, which may be

pretty involved due to the inability

to get US Yamaha parts in Mexico.

Stay tuned for further developments....