The Saga of the Vessel Circadian: varnish

Showing posts with label varnish. Show all posts

Routine?

Could life in Paradise be devolving into a routine? It felt a bit like it this week. I did some more bird photography, which is now pretty much dialed in. The only glitch was the dinghy outboard wouldn't start, so I couldn't go way back up the estuary as I had planned. The problem turned out to be just a fouled sparkplug, so I decided to put together a little kit to clean or replace a bad plug that would be carried in the dinghy. Don't want to get stranded a couple of miles from nowhere. There was also the usual beach walks, the sunsets, thunderstorms and, of course, the boat work and associated errands. Paradise ain't fer sissies, so next week I'll fly up to Vancouver to meet Carol for a bit of a break. I'm told I'll need these things they call "jackets" and "long pants." I think I remember what they are, but not sure how to wear them any more....Any suggestions?

Beach sunset

Charter fishing boats at dawn, getting ready to go out

for a major tournament.

Nearly full moon peeking through the clouds just

before sunrise.

Local fisherman casting the net right behind my boat.

Slow motion casting of the net

Snowy egret

Yellow crowned night heron chick in the nest.

First time I've seen a butterfly on my dock lines.

I did a lot of bus riding this week. On this trip, I noticed

I happened to be sitting just where I was reflected in a

mirror. So of course I did a selfie.

This little boy appeared to be on his own, but was

fine with it other than the boredom.

A mother and child were seated behind me on

the way back. The child got fidgety and

flopped a hand between the seats that eventually

migrated onto my shoulder. Rather than shy

away from touching a stranger, the child seemed

to like it, and the hand remained until they

arrived at their stop.

This is the ATM bus terminal in old town Puerto Vallarta,

and the last stop on the bus from Nuevo Vallarta.

It's about half a mile from here to the beginning of the

malecon, and another mile to the romantic zone.

If you don't want to walk it, you catch a local

"chicken bus" a couple of blocks away.

Close-up of the bead work on a large parrot sculpture in

the Huichol art gallery on the malecon.

Wall mural at a local basketball court

The Rio Cuale is pretty muddy now with

the almost daily rain in the mountains.

How many black birds do you see where

the water meets the rocks?

The muddy river water fanning out into the blue waters

of Banderas Bay.

The cap rail on the transom got sanded and two new

coats of Cetol Gloss.

Working on the port side cap rail. Sanded, masked and

one coat of Cetol Gloss so far.

The kit for cleaning or replacing the sparkplug

for the dinghy outboard.

Up the Creek

With both temperature and humidity hovering about 90, activity has been limited. Any outdoor work or exercise (other than swimming) pretty much has to be done between 7 and 10 in the morning. Even then, staying hydrated takes some effort. I did manage a paddle up the creek about 1.3 miles in my slow and inefficient "glass bottom" kayak. But since I stopped and stalked wildlife along the way, speed wasn't important. While most of what I saw and photographed I had seen before, I did get my first image of a Mexican grackle chick. Ugly. I've taken a few more portraits of my local acquaintances, and the photo set-up I put together works as I'd hoped. On the boat work front, I'm making slow but steady progress on refreshing the brightwork Cetol, and I made the improvement on the stern anchor roller that was needed.

My route up the creek was 1.3 miles

each way.

The creek is still pretty wild, despite all the development.

Lots of bird life, hundreds of iguanas and the occasional

crocodile. The jungle quickly reclaims any land that

isn't maintained.

To get decent photos I had to slowly move right into

the mangroves near the target, minimize movement

and make no noise.

Social flycatcher

Yellow-crowned night heron

Yellow-crowned heron chick in the nest

Mexican or great-tailed grackle. The ones that poach

food around the hotel and pool are used to being near

people. The wild ones in the creek, especially when

protecting a nest, not so much.

Grackle chick in the nest. Ugly, and the

mohawk coif doesn't help.

Hundreds of iguanas can be seen in the trees warming

up in the morning sun.

Over time, the iguanas adapt to the encroaching civilization.

I found at least 30 of them hanging out on the lawn of

a condo development on the creek.

The birds adapt too. Social flycatcher on a sailboat's

lifeline.

Looking up at the underside of a gecko through the

forward hatch.

Light rain falling at sunrise as a thunderstorm

clears.

A rainbow appeared as the storm cleared.

Finished renewing the Cetol on the starboard side woodwork.

Carlos, one the marina security guards.

A real caballero (gentleman).

Francisco, a panga captain. Always

has a smile and a joke.

Israel, he does bottom cleaning and other

boat work at the marina. A good man, he

just became an abuelo (grandfather).

May 17, 2018

A mixed bag this week. Mostly continuing to work my way through the maintenance list, but also managed to do one bird photo shoot and have some fun with friends Curt and Mary who arrived this week. I took them into Puerto Vallarta so they could learn the details of the local bus routes and showed them a couple of my favorite spots, including A Page in the Sun bookstore/coffee house and the Rio Café Restaurant on the Rio Cuale. Mike and Lisa, on Footloose, just arrived today, so it looks like I'll have some friends around during the long hot summer. Unfortunately, in the midst of it all I've had to battle the same sort of intestinal issues that haunted me last year. This time though, I went straight to the antibiotic. Too soon to know if I've been successful. Wish me luck!