The Saga of the Vessel Circadian: February 2019

Birds in the Estuary and On Board

I found another good place for spotting birds in the estuary this week, and got some good images. I also took a couple of shots of the regular bird visitors on the boat. Seeing them is enjoyable; cleaning up after them not so much. As usual, there were nice sunrises and sunsets, too.
I continued work on refinishing the floor in the main cabin and it's almost done. My friends Curt and Mary went back to the states for a visit and I miss them already. But Carnival is coming and that should be fun!

Tricolor heron takes off

Tricolor heron in flight

American oyster-catcher catching a Mexican oyster

American oyster-catcher

Long-billed curlew

Curlew foraging at low tide

Yellow-crowned heron

Black-crowned heron

Little blue heron

Nearest the water, a snowy egret; above

a cormorant

Above the cormorant, a black-crowned heron

Green night heron. First one I've seen in Mazatlán.

They were common in Nuevo Vallarta, even in

the marina. They seem to prefer to stay hidden

in the mangroves in Mazatlán.

Green night heron

This dove visits my boat almost every day and does his

courtship song and dance. Only once did I see a female

succumb to his charms.

As I've seen other places, the white-collared

seed-eaters seem to like roosting on the boat's

lifelines.

Another nice sunset...

...behind Circadian

Big sky in the early morning at the Marina Mazatlan

Looking back toward the marina from another part of

the harbor.

Sanding the floor in the cabin.

After six coats of polyurethane. Almost done.

Sanding the final section.

First couple of coats on.

A "Routine" Week?

The main event this week was the super snow moon, so I guess that means nothing much else special going on. I got some nice pictures of the sunset at Diego's on Wednesday again, the day I go to see Curt play cornet and harmonica every week. I rowed out to the mangroves one day and got a few more bird pictures. I'm getting better at catching them in flight, but it's still a challenge. The autofocus is too slow and tends to get confused when panning across a background, and I have to use a large lens opening for a fast shutter speed which means little room for error. So I have to pre-focus manually and hope the bird goes where I anticipate it will. It's almost impossible to track the flying bird, manually adjust the focus and time the shutter release simultaneously, so as you can imagine, a good deal of luck is involved. A lot of failures get deleted.
On the boat work side, I continued refinishing the floor in the main cabin. It takes a lot of sanding and six coats of polyurethane to produce a satisfactory result, so I do a little at time and it's not too bad. There is of course a certain amount of juggling and inconvenience involved in avoiding using those sections of the floor that are being done, but nothing that can't be worked out.

The super snow moon setting at sunrise.

Grackles flying in front of the moon at dawn.

Weeds?

Kilroy is here!

The elusive tricolored heron in its hiding spot in the

mangroves.

I knew it would get spooked as I got closer...

...so I was ready to try to catch it in flight.

Off it went, screaming bloody murder!

As usual, the yellow-crowned night herons will let

you get closer if you are stealthy.

But they too have a point where it's "I'm outa here!"

On the rip-rap at the marina, an egret forages at low tide.

Sometimes fishing off the dock works. This one is used to

people around, so I was able to get close enough

to get this shot with my phone.

Another great sunset at the beach at Diego's. But it was

very cold. (You know, below 70 with wind!)

It was a very low tide, so more rocks on the beach were exposed.

So far I've refinished three sections of the floor

in the main cabin. Sanding and six coats of

polyurethane. Hopefully you can see which ones.

February 14, 2019

Happy Valentine's Day! With Carol in LA, it's pretty much just another ordinary day for me. But it's been an interesting week. I spent a full day in town getting a hotel room for one night of Carnival and trekking to the Yamaha outboard dealer. Getting on wrong buses or getting off at the wrong stop was par for the course, so I did a bit of exploring and ended up walking almost six miles.
The marina, and Circadian's dock in particular, was inundated by a video production crew for a few days, which was interesting occasionally, but more often inconvenient. Check out El Ultimo Dragon series later and let me know if you see Circadian's bow in a scene.
Fortunately, things have been light on the boat project side, so I started on refinishing the sole (floor) in the main cabin. While it was almost new when I got the boat, it's now been almost nine years, so it's time.