Cool video of a Chachalaca from Yelapa

 I saw this one while hiking up the river in Yelapa.  It looks like a dinosaur!

Video of Blue Footed Boobies mating

 https://youtu.be/Y-bgvZTdzAI

This is from isla Isabel, and I've tried to get this shot before, but they don't do it very often.  

Trip to Yelapa and Isla Isabel

I recently had a friend down to visit, and we went out to Yelapa and out to Isla Isabel, which of course are the best places to go around here to look at nature.  We saw a few whales, and there are babies on the way, in fact, as I write this, there is some singing coming through the hull. 

Sunset at Mita....

So at Yelapa, I managed to see a bird I have always wanted to see, a Bittern.  I'm not exactly sure of the species, but I am pretty sure its a bittern, based on the neck thickness.  I've heard one before in the marshes near Olympia, but never seen one.

The river was running pretty high, but its still the tail end of rainy season, and since the water is still pretty warm there's been a bit of rain.

Walking up the river is fantastic, and there were lots of butterflies along the way

And a woodpecker!  This one, a mexican kind that has a white bill, is always cool.  

And a Trogon.  I like them, but they are usually pretty shy

We also saw some Macaws, Military Macaws, having a bit of a squabble amongst themselves.

And some nice flowers.

Also a green kingfisher

And a Black Chachalaca.  This is the first time I've seen one of this kind.  Normally I see the brown ones, but this is really cool looking.  Very Turkey-esque.  I want one for Thanksgiving.

Anchored in Yelapa.  My windlass failed, so I had to lift the anchor by hand and its a real pain in the back.  Hopefully it will be fixed soon.  I have it in the repair shop.

After Yelapa, we went up to Isla Isabel, and found some cool birds up there.  The Frigate Birds seem to be always nesting.  

Another Frigate, a young one.

And the blue-footed Boobies were getting started.  They were doing a lot of dancing and trying to find mates, and we saw one actual mating.

A view of frigates circling over an updraft.

Here's a baby frigate eating out of a parent's crop.  The baby was screaming louder and louder and finally, like all exasperated parents, the adult tried to find a way to silence the kid and food was the answer.  At least temporarily.  

A view of the brown booby, which has yellow feet.  

And more blue footed boobies.

Sunset from atop the island

And sunrise from low down, looking at Aquila

There was some swell in the water as we were there, and one of the days the northwest waves were very big.  I would love to find a surfing wave there for the NW swell, but I can't.  This wave was not really possible, it just finished on rocks

The main shelter on the island has a bunch of iguanas, but people were camping in the shelter for some of the time, so they were hidden.  But then they left and the iguanas came out to play.  And sun themselves 

Every evening we would go up to the top of a hill where the blue footed boobies were nesting and watch them for a few hours until sunset.  They do a beautiful dance...

And the light really brings out the beauty in their plumage

Also they look so cute whenever they do anything.

There was a guy I saw, named Damien, who I had met years ago and saw quite a few times over my times going to Isabel and San Blas.  He runs a tour company that brings people out from San Blas to Islabel in a Panga and then they camp on the island and spend 3-4 days doing scuba and whale watching and bird viewing.  I would like to get him to Alaska one of these years.  

The sunsets were always amazing

I like the cloud layers and the sense of an orange savannah

And the frigates just glide on by...

So on the way back, we raced against another boat, an Amel, which was called Aramis.  We couldn't find Porthos or Athos, but we felt a bit Dartanian-ish when we put up our spinnaker.  When I took this picture I was sailing at 11 kts, hitting 13 at times.  

Shortly after that photo the wind came up even more strongly and took the spinnaker down by force.  So now I don't have an A2 again.  

There was a race the next day I wanted to compete in, so I did a few days of racing around La Cruz and Punta Mita.  I got a few shots of some nice spinnakers as folks were leaving punta Mita

So thats the story.  I don't know what I'll do for christmas just yet, but the whales are all over now and I have a few charters and then I sail over to La Paz in January to work on the Uncruise boat over there.  

Cool slo mo video of the wake behind Aquila

 I went out sailing the other day, hoping to join a "beercan" race, which usually is every wednesday.  The weather had been unsettled, and it had rained the last two nights, but then it was clearing up, so I got underway around 2 pm and headed over to the race course.  No other boats were out, which wasn't a good sign, and so when I got to the start spot I decided to just continue on sailing.  Initally I was sailing down wind to get to the race start spot, so I didn't really notice how windy it was, but then I rolled up the spinnaker and put up the jib and started going upwind, and then decided I needed to reef the mainsail pretty quickly, because the wind had come up.  It was 15-18 kts to begin with, but now was 18-22.  So I reefed the main and continued on.  The wind came up some more, and I decided to turn a bit more downwind to keep the apparent wind lower, therefore reducing the power without needing to reef again.  

Pretty soon I was on the other side of the bay, and so I turned around and headed back, but now I needed to point upwind a bit more, and the wind was really strong and so I started to add ballast to the tanks rather than reef again.  I was hesitant to reef twice without putting up my smaller jib, and sadly I didn't have it ready to go and I didn't want to get it and put it up.  So I ballasted up a lot and the boat got more steady.  Instead of 30 degrees of heel, it came down to about 15-20 and the boat really powered up.  Now I was doing a consistent 9.5 kts at about 80 degrees True Wind Angle.  I took this video of the stern wave.  Its pretty neat.  

Also this one:

This one is looking down at the rudder wash.  I love slo mo videos with water.

Getting back into the rhythm in mexico

After a few weeks in Bellingham, I caught a flight with a view of the Annular Eclipse, on October 14.  I knew it would be hot when I got here, but whoa, its hot.  So I took two days to get things organized and got out of the marina.  Last spring I ordered new sails, and they arrived, so I put them on, and this is the picture of the result!  A nice looking mainsail, and a good looking jib.  I do notice that they are not as fast as the previous sails, however, but they seem to be very durable, and that is more important to me right now.  

So I spent a few weeks getting accustomed to the weather and hiding from hurricanes and then I had my haul-out date on October 27.  Its hard to get a haul out here, and especially for me, because of the deepness of the keel, so I had scheduled this one way back in April.  

There was some damage to be repaired, as last spring, when I went out to Socorro Island, I had hit a rock.  The front of the keel was damaged, so I got to work on that.  

Its always impressive how deep this keel is...

So first thing was to get the area dried out.  I started with tearing the foam away

And then ended up cutting a lot of it off

Here you can see where I cut

And then I cut another even bigger section.  I ended up cutting about 16 inches of foam off the front of the keel.  It sort of makes sense for this, I guess.  The boat has a pointy nose and a wide stern, so make it heavier in the back to lift the nose up, and the center of the "fin" part of the keel might need to be forward in order to provide the right amount of lift. 

But I think there was another reason, not just for hydrodynamic purposes.  I think the people at Structures Shipyard (where Pogos are made) figured that people would hit things.  And so they put a crash zone in the front for that.  And they were right.

So I cleaned up the front, and got almost all the foam out of that area, and let it dry for two days.  I also used a grinder and got the fiberglass exposed all around.  You can see the lead in this picture up in the upper left.  That puzzled me a bit.  The lead is not in a perfect flat shape across the front!  So I guess that they made a mold for the whole keel, built the fiberglass in that mold, poured foam into that, (and I found some of the fiberglass that looked like it had fallen off the edges while the foam was being poured, so there was a "hanging" piece of fiberglass cloth surrounded by foam.  Then I think they poured the lead into that chamber.  That explains the hot cracks you can see in the upper photo.  

Anyways, the foam was removed and now I had to make a new crash zone.

I started with some cardboard and tape to make a mold

Here you can see into it a bit.  Its just curved triangles that are put together

I tested it on the front of the keel to see for shape

Then I poured foam into it and let it cure

Testing it again

Then I prepared to affix it to the keel.  I needed to glue it in place, but I also used two stainless pins that I drilled into the lead and the foam to give it strength.  

After sanding, I had a reasonable shape.  I used a grinder, so it was a bit too aggressive, but I didn't have the time, the protective clothes, or the bendyness to get in and make it perfect.

Another view

Then I set out to glue it on.  I used some fairing compound to make the resin move slower, and stuffed old fiberglass in the joint to try and fill it up.

Then I forgot to take pictures, because my hands were dirty and sticky, but I put a three thick layers of fiberglass on it and then wrapped it up in plastic to give it some pressure and keep it kind of the right shape

The next morning...

I did some sanding and tried to get most of the voids out.  I confess, the glass work was really not beautiful.  I should have used a vacuum pump to make it better, but I didn't have that stuff.  Its strong enough to hold on, and for me to stand on it, which is all that really matters.  The structure is all behind it and above it.  

Another view

So then I began fairing the shape out more.  I spent all day working on this.  I got it pretty good, but not perfect of course.  Here is the first coat before sanding...

And I was so involved I forgot to take pictures, so here it is after painting....

In addition, I also put on my Watt and Sea Hydrogenerator.  I made two little feet for each side, so I can just put a pin in to keep it hanging on the side.  I tested it out on my first sail after getting back in the water and it seems to work out just fine, but I wasn't going that fast.  I made about 6 amps in 6.3 knots of speed.  With the middle sized propeller.  I have a smaller propeller that can go faster, and I hope to test it out at higher speeds to see if I can get 15 amps.  

So then I painted the whole boat with a new color.  Bottom paint is very expensive, so when a friend told me about someone who had 3 gallons of bottom paint (in a 5 gallon bucket that was open) for sail for cheap, I jumped on it, even though its a different color.  I got the PPG ABC3 ablative bottom paint, and I hope it works out well.  I was able to put 3 coats on almost everywhere and 4 on the rudders and keel. 

Then they brought the travel lift over and lifted me up so I could get the bottom of the keel and the other places that were hard to work on or obscured.  So I had an afternoon to do that

And then it was back in the water for me!

 So after getting back in the water I dove and inspected, and discovered that the straps rubbed the bottom paint a bit, like they always do.  I don't know how to fix this, because I think it relates to the straps stretching, and thats not going to change.  Sometimes they put plastic down in front of the straps, but I think that can sometimes make it worse.  So I will just have to live with it.  My next projects are to make a better shade structure and to upgrade my batteries.  And possibly to get a new running downwind spinnaker.  

But I am excited to do a few bigger trips this winter.  Maybe Socorro again, and over to La Paz in January to work.