The Saga of the Vessel Circadian: sunsets

Showing posts with label sunsets. Show all posts

Preparing to Depart for La Paz

This week was mostly about preparing to cross the Sea of Cortez and head to La Paz by way of Muertos. I feel very fortunate that my longtime friend Curt has agreed to go with me. He's a great guy and very accomplished sailor. Of course I also took a little time to do a few of my favorite Mazatlán things for what will likely be the last time.

I went on a little row back into Sabalo Estuary and

got a few more shots of a heron in flight.

Back on the dock, I was visited by a pair of

American oyster-catchers for the first time.

I'd seen them on other, semi-abandoned docks

before, but never on an active dock.

They seemed pretty at ease for a while, that is, until

I showed myself. Then they immediately took off.

With the recent cloudiness, nice sunsets have returned. This one was

seen right from my dock.

This one was viewed from around the corner near the fishing

charter boats.

A few minutes later

This one, and the following ones in the sequence, were

all taken the same evening while I sat in Circadian's

cockpit.

On Wednesday I went with Curt and Mary to Diego's

to see Curt play.

Still, there are things to do when preparing for a passage.

I discovered that a hole in the windvane rudder was

damaged and needed repair so I could tie it up when

it wasn't steering in order to prevent it from

rattling loudly.

Holding the repair together while the epoxy

putty cures.

Wind paddle and rudder back in place on

the Hydrovane and ready to go.

After five months of sitting, this winch had

gotten pretty grungy. Brushing on some

Ospho (phosphoric acid) made a quick

and easy job of cleaning it up.

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 7, 2019

No significant boat projects, so I did quite a bit of photography this week. The usual spectacular sunrises and sunsets, of course. And I've improved my bird stalking skills to the point where I can get good images of roosting birds, but I still need to make some adjustments to get better shots of birds in flight or fish jumping. Something for next week....

If you appreciate photographs like these, check out my little online store where you can get desk or wall calendars (starting with the current month), notecards and poster-size prints. Other items and images are available, so if you'd like something that you don't see in the store, please let me know.