6 Apr - Sandy Bay Snorkeling

6 Apr - Sandy Bay Snorkeling

i finally went to Sandy Bay to snorkel ...
last year, i snorkeled there a LOT with Kate .... but she is not here this year .... and i really miss her .... so i had to go by myself.   Kate told me to go to her friends, Tiffany and Brad's place where we went last year ... Tiffany was home and she said i could use their dock.

i like the reef there .... it doesn't get as much 'traffic', although there are a few 'tours' that go there ... but no cruise ships today, so i had the reef to myself  :)

and there are some really pretty areas of nice coral ...
this is Star Coral and a purple Sea Fan... i like the way the sunlight plays on the coral ...

i saw 3 large Rainbow ParrotFish swimming together ...

i've ever only seen one at a time before this ...

and this Scrawled FileFish was lazily eating and slowly swimming, i watched him change colors as he moved from dark areas ....

to light areas ...

until a tiny little DamselFish, about 1/5 it's size chased him away  :(    ...

i also saw 3 Spotted TrunkFish together ... only usually see one of them too .... but they were hiding under some coral, and this one quickly swam away and behind the coral ...

a few days ago at West Bay i saw 3 Scrawled FileFish ... i don't know what it is with the '3-somes' lately   :)


i was snorkeling in this crystal clear water, when i came across a huge cloud of almost zero visibility ...

it had to be a Southern StingRay feeding ... i looked and looked ... and finally a behemoth of an animal rose out of the clouds ...

he was big .... and he settled down again just around another group of coral ...   and i watched him while he continued to 'root around' in the sand; eating his lunch ....

watch that tail !

these huge Blade Corals reminded me so much of snorkeling with Kate...

... we loved to snorkel our way in, out, around, and through these narrow passages ...

in the Turtle Grass ... i scared up a Turtle ... he scared me as much as i scared him, and he quickly 'flew' away ...

and i saw another Southern StingRay ... a MUCH smaller one ... cruizing above the Turtle Grass... 

this is the prettiest Terminal HogFish i have ever seen ... his markings were so distinct and defined ... the purple color was amazing ... and i've never seen one with his mouth open !  ...

and i never noticed the red markings at the base of his yellow pectoral fins ...
beautiful !

i also saw this poor Porcupine Fish .... he had lost an eye, and had some scars on his back .... they usually have such cute almost-human-like eyes and a smiley face .... he was not smiling  :(     ....he had his 'bad' eye to the outside of the reef, when he turned a bit and finally saw me ... he disappeared in a flash ... poor baby  :(

it's always nice to end with a pretty purple Sea Anemone...