Still baby waiting

Tuesday 8th June 2021
Rafa seems to have done a good job on the fridge, it’s very cold and holding up to the seriously hot temperatures here. It’s now hitting 35c inside the cabin and only drops to around 32 at night. Outside it has been hotter. People in La Paz warned me that Mazatlan would be very hot, but funnily enough it’s been much hotter in La Paz, getting into the 40’s there I hear.
I have decided that if the worst case predictions come true, then the eggs may not hatch before my flight home. I would then either have to book new tickets at some cost, or not go home. There’s no way I’m going up the mast to kill two baby doves while there mother flys around me going crazy.
However I haven’t seen the mother today, and perhaps she has abandoned the egg(s). I decide to climb the mast, take some pictures with the GoPro as that’s easier to handle, and if she is not there, to take the nest with the egg away and try to set it up in a new home. If the new home doesn’t work, it should still be less stressful than the alternatives I hope.
If I am delayed here by the doves, then I may have to move the boat if a hurricane approaches, and that’s definitely a possibility, if I move the boat, I expect the nest and eggs or baby doves will come crashing down onto the hard deck as the boat rocks.
I’m very optimistic as I approach the nest, until I’m very close and the dove appears in front of me, sitting on the egg, and I think there may be a second in there. As I move around her with the camera, she flaps her wings at me in an offensive gesture, they make a very loud clap sound and it certainly makes me jump a little. I’m hoping she will fly away, but she’s resolute in protecting the eggs so I realise there and then, I’m here for a few more weeks at least.
You can see the video below.

My right hand is outstretched holding the GoPro camera, like a selfie stick, and my feet are in the mast steps, and I’m basically holding myself on with just my left hand. I feel confident because my safety harness is attached to the mast via a bit of rope, it’s only when I start to head down and I check the harness that I notice the knot is undone, the rope dangling down and I would have just had time to briefly think on that as I sped past at 9.8 meters per second per second.
Must try harder on the safety front.

Wednesday
I ask in the marina office if they have had any experience of this, while explaining my 7 day stay here may turn out to be 5-6 weeks. The lady in charge says she may be able to get someone in to relocate the nest, I ask her to investigate, but I’m worried if they will really relocate or just pop it all into a bin on there way out. It’s not an issue now as they never got back to me.

Above I have put a stock picture from National Geographic of a mourning dove, next to mine. It’s close enough for me, but others may point out that one is a dove and the other a rare orangutan, I’m not very good on animal or bird identification. I think it’s time she had a name.

Thursday
I’m being very lazy, if she’s sitting around all day and night on an egg, I feel like I can slow down a bit too. I do a little programming for a customer, that will cover the cost of the fridge repairs, and I start to read the “Handmaid’s tale”
Later I visit the Soriano supermarket in search of some veggie/vegan goods, but it seems like Sinaloa is not the place to be a veggie. I pop into Office World to get some printer cartridges for my little cannon. It’s a model 6100, I have ranted about this before, and in my mind this should be on the G7 agenda this weekend, as they don’t stock cartridges for that model anymore, I mean why would they, It’s 6 months old. There is a new model, the 6110, Cartridges that look identical, but apparently won’t work. I wonder if the EU can put an end to this madness, how about all ink cartridges must be easily refillable, or let’s go back to ink ribbons.
I eat out at one of the bars that line the edge of the marina. I sit down with my kindle, hoping the pounding house/banda rap music coming from the boats opposite will stop soon, once their passengers have disgorged but no, the music is coming from above my head, and as the sun sets I notice there’s also disco lights sweeping around and my table turns bright blue every 20 seconds. And it’s not several boats making the noise, it’s the restaurants either side of me playing similar music, but competing with each other for who can make the worst mix of drums and bass. At least Margaret Atwood’s writing is interesting enough for me to ignore this for the time it takes to eat a hamburguesa camarones, (Shrimp Burger). Very nice it is too.

Friday
On Friday I’m starting to suffer from the heat, or more specifically the humidity. I dig out the Plastic covers for the boat I had made in Miri, Borneo, some time back and after an hour of tugging heavy plastic around the boat is covered. The inside temperature drops from 35 to around 30 over the next 24 hours.

Saturday
It’s funny how one still thinks Saturday must be approached differently to the working days of the week, even though I’m in a country where most people seem to work a six or seven day week anyway, and I retired long ago from the normal routine. Still I feel shopping is in order, I hate consumerism but feel if I have to go, then a Saturday is the best day to join in the convention. In order to add some spice to my outing, I visit Sam’s club. I’m not really sure how this all works, I think it’s a cash and carry, like costco, and you pay about $20 / year to get their discounts. I presumed when we arrived in Mexico 19 months ago, that we wouldn’t be here long enough to get our $20 back in the discounts. I think I was wrong there. I like the spaciousness of the place, but mostly I like the supply of chocolate they had. Kathy will like the wine supply. Time to join the club.

After Sam’s club, into Walmart then home to the boat.

Like much of my childhood, Saturday started with promise but ended with little achieved. At least as a child I always had Doctor Who waiting for me at tea time. Here I have episode 9000 or so of Leo sanding his hull in Sequim, and RAN sanding his bottom.
On the cycle ride home I feel some rain, the first in a year I think. It’s quite exciting, and as I approach the marina it’s getting stronger. Once on the boat it starts chucking it down and the sky is dark lit up by great streaks of lightning. I feel a little concern for the dove now, being on the top of a mast on water in a lightning storm is not the smartest of places to hang out. These birds often only live for a year, but can live up to 5 or 6, I wonder if this is her first thunderstorm? I temper this by remembering that she is the intruder. When mice invaded my house in London and Liverpool, I was open to the idea that I was the invader, Mice will have been nesting in those spots for millenia, my West Kirby flat was built on what was beach just 150 years ago. But here, on water, and I suspect this has always been a waterway here, there would have been no trees or nesting spots, so she is well out of order to move onto my mast.

Sunday
I feel I should rest today, maybe go to the beach, goodness knows why, I’ve been resting most days now for the last ten years. I load up the bike with my towel and swimming trunks and head north. Theres a spot I saw on google earth, north of the development zone, where it looks like there may be a small beach away from the resort hotels and Condos. When I get there it’s full of extended Mexican families enjoyed the protected waters there. A row of rocks breaks the surf up. It’s lovely and there’s lots of food available, however the humidity has killed my appetite.

We have had a few tropical storms develop near the southern border of Mexico, mostly they have headed out to the west or northwest, found colder water and died. but the side effect is clouds being spun off and sent my way, which is fine with me. I’m bored with the constant sunshine every day.

Weekends are busy in the marina with day trip boats rushing in and out with their revellers. Below is a typical scene.

I am also amazed at how the brass band, I’m not sure if they are Banda or Mariachi, or a combination of both, join the trippers to provide music. As below you can see the band take up half the boat, and are very loud. I don’t quite see how this comes under enjoyable. I love it, but purely for the surrealistic site of a man playing a huge Tuba in a boat that’s not much bigger.

Monday 14th June 2021
The plan was to go up the mast and film an update, she has been out of site, or absent for 2 days now. But as I look up in the binoculars from a pontoon finger two slips away, I can see her sitting there brooding. I won’t go up, it won’t tell me anything new, and I don’t think she thinks much of me so far. Instead I shall give her and her fella a name, how about Mary (Shepherd) for the female. Named after another unexpected guest who stayed a little too long. Fitting for a mainly Catholic country.

I think it’s funny how having the hatching egg on the mast is a pain for me, but would be Sailing Vlog Gold for many of the channels I watch on YouTube. They could really milk this, I wonder if there is a way I can syndicate it 😉

So still no babies, I have no more than 4 weeks left if I want to get my boat to La Paz and fly home. If I keep the boat here I will have 5 weeks. It’s going to be tight.
The goal for the next few days is to get the Pactor Modem working with Airmail, so that I can send and receive small emails from anywhere in the world for free, using the modem and the SSB. This will be invaluable from the south pacific. I have most of it working except for the control of the radio from the computer. If I’m not completely mad, it seems you control the rig via it’s headphone output. That can’t be right.

Finally it looks like I do have a leak in the fridge coolant, as the temperature is dropping daily.

Paul Collister.