Tuesday, November 13, 2007

Yasawa: Snorkel

Our last snorkel of the trip. We decided to sneak one more in before taking off! It was the calmest we had seen it, just glassy and smooth. The first picture is of a little picasso trigger fish. We always saw some of these on our way out, before we even got to the table coral, but they seem to know when a camera is around. This is the best shot we got.


Then we came across this angelfish, I think it's a semicircle angelfish but I'm not at all sure. It was very shy and I only got a few glimpses, and this was the best picture. It was beautiful! Then this coral had something going on with the tips. I guess the polyps were out? I don't know. You can see how nicely the chromis damselfish blend in, in this picture, most of the blue spots are tips, but some are fish! Then an anemone with its two orangefin anemone fish. The anemone is in the bottom left area of the picture. We saw tons of other stuff, it's really a beautiful place to do some snorkeling.

Monday, November 12, 2007

Yasawa: Snorkel

This afternoon was our longest snorkel. We stayed in the water almost 2 hours, we just kept on going! We swam right out to the drop-off and I saw the Friendly Guy. He's apparently some sort of cleaner wrasse, and I must have looked like I needed some attention. He came over and tried to clean my wetsuit, but gave up pretty quickly. Hilarious! Jack found this flounder, in this picture you can see it, in the others (before it moved) it was fairly invisible.






Two beautiful coral seascapes. The snorkeling here is really quite incredible! Then a striped surgeonfish, we saw lots of these. Another shot of the longnose filefish, and ending with our first sighting of a blue-spotted sting ray! It's good to snorkel with Jack!

Saturday, November 10, 2007

Yasawa: Private Picnic Snorkel

Our second private picnic snorkel. The first picture has a school of chromis, one of Jack's favorite sights underwater. Then the best picture we got of my favorite fish, Oriental Sweetlips. Before identifying it I called it Crazy Fish. It's so awesome!

Then a very pretty shot of a blue starfish by some nice coral. On this snorkel I also found a lobster hanging out under a rock, but I guess none of the pictures came out.

Thursday, November 8, 2007

Yasawa: Private Picnic Snorkel

Our first private picnic at Yasawa, and the snorkeling here is good too. The pictures did not come out very well. Anyway, in the first one is a clam, which I love.

Then something really intriguing. I first thought this was an old rope from a boat or buoy, but it turned out there were two sea cucmbers. They slowly inched their way towards each other while we watched, rapt. I thought they were going to "kiss" but they didn't, at the last second one turned a different way. Our first time seeing these!

Sunday, November 4, 2007

Royal Davui: Night Snorkel

One night we arranged to do a night snorkel. A guide got us lights and we all got into a boat and went out a ways, to snorkel our way back to the dock. The first picture is a lobster, then a sleeping parrotfish.




We found the reef squid, they are amazingly beautiful at night by flashlight! Then this moorish idol. We also came across a slow pufferfish, which the guide promptly grabbed and puffed up. Also on this snorkel I found the shark! Well, more accurate to say the shark found me. Meaning it swam right into the beam of my flashlight while I was looking at something else. But still, it swam into my beam, so I showed the others and got total shark finding credit! :-) I also saw several cute little shrimp that would hide in the coral if you kept the light on it too long. Jack didn't notice them at all until we were almost out, and the ones I found again to show him were too quick, so, no pictures. They were cute though!

Royal Davui: Snorkeling

Another beautiful snorkel at Royal Davui. The first picture is another redfin butterfly fish. Then the coral seascape. One of the most beautiful I've ever seen!



These fish I don't remember the name of. I feel silly, because I think I should know...... Then the blue starfish greeting us in a most friendly fashion. More coral with a moorish idol, among other fish.