Christmas Day on the ocean

We didn't really have a big Chrissie planned since none of our family was with us - Dave opened some presents early, the Girls & I went to the beach for a big play and then we headed out to a couple of our secret spots in Exmouth Gulf for some diving, fishing & hard relaxing!

It's a hard way to spend the day - gorgeous blue skies & ocean, a deserted island, perfect temperatures, a bbq lunch on board...beats the heck out of what the Midwest had!

I did my first dive since way way back in August. It was a pretty short one since the secret site we were on was very tiny and the day was more about spending time together than spending time underwater. I only shot about 15 frames and most of those were just potshots for giggles so no fabulous stuff, just a few happy snappies to share - of course it wouldn't be a Christmas post without Christmas trees (worms)


Happy Holidays!!

Beach, boat, bubs

In addition to rummaging through the scary closet, I've been out on the boat a few times this past week.  I ended up having to stay on the boat most of the time since my ear infection was still causing me grief, but I finally managed to do the second dive of the day (after a 17 minute foray to 7.5m and back on dive one) Monday.  I had an Underwater Photography student and the conditions were pretty tough, so I didn't shoot many frames myself, but it was still nice to be underwater again for the first time in weeks.


There was a very large white tip reef shark having a snooze under a ledge on our dive. I've got lots of shots of these guys and was far more interested in the remora near its tail...unfortunately, the shark was having none of it and kept kicking up sand and swimming out in a circle before cruising back under the ledge. I did grab one as the shark swam through me :)

The humpback whales were everywhere while we were out. Mostly they were simply swimming along but a few of them were really showing off and playing with big fin and tail slaps. We had some breaching and spy-hopping, too. I was too lazy to grab my camera most of the time but did get some snappies

I hope to get out a lot more for the humpbacks this season as I don't think I got out at all last season! It's pathetic how much I don't take advantage of the amazing marine life here, something always seems to come up and then poof, the season is over.

Speaking of seasons, it's baby emu time! I saw the first dad with teensy bubs on our drive out to Tantabiddi on Monday. Unfortunately, we were towing a trailer and had a whole line of traffic behind us so I was only able to grab a couple of frames of their baby bootys as they spastically ran away. I am going to try to get out one day and get their little faces coz they are simply too adorable at this age. There are five of them with this one dad...so far.


Dave and I took Dora & MatildaLily down to the beach the other night to just chill for awhile. They had a great time running around like maniacs, sniffing every bit of flotsam on the beach, digging holes (ok, that's a bit grand as Tilly loses interest after about two inches, but still, it's kind of doggie-like behaviour) and trouncing through the water.










Dave found a shell in the car that he'd been meaning to show me

And Til had to jump in and out to see just how much sand and salt water she could dump into the back of the car

On the way back home there were tons of kangaroos and a few bustards - big birds, also called bush turkeys here - along the edge of the road. I hopped out and walked along, trying to get close enough but it was pretty dark already & none of them were hanging around. I do like this shot of a kanga in the bush, though

More diving...from last week

I did get out for a couple of dives yesterday, but I'm no where close to having those images dealt with yet and since I haven't even shared the ones from last weekend yet, I thought I'd better do that!

We dived at one of my favourite sites - Bundegi Bommies inside Exmouth Gulf. This site is always teeming with life and it's rare that we don't see something really outstanding. On this dive I got to see a dugong! Sadly, no photos as I was all set up for shooting tiny creatures - and this dugong was huge! - and he stayed just far enough away that taking a pot shot of him would have resulted in just a grey outline, so I settled for a mind's eye photograph. I saw lots of other very cool things that I was able to take pictures of...here are a few
Margined coralfish

Lionfish


Crocodilefish

Moridilla brockii nudibranch exploring a sea fan

Golden striped butterflyfish - juvenile hiding in the staghorn coral

Damselfish

Dottyback

Talked to Dave last night and he says they had a good first day of fishing. Didn't think they'd go out today because it looked like some weather was coming in, but it wasn't meant to be bad for long.

Conditions here are glorious and we've just started school holidays so the dive shop is pretty busy, which is a good thing! I'm having an office day today as there is a lot of stuff to deal with and taking a quiet day to let my back recover some more is probably a wise move. All I can say is, I love my heat packs!

Another Friday dive

Went out on Friday for a dive with Ross & Mary again. Gotta love when he has RDOs and the conditions are good!  We headed in to Exmouth Gulf to one of our favourite sites and the conditions were even better than we thought they would be.  We had 15m visibility at the beginning of the dive and no current at all until the end when the tide started to run again.  And the marine life, wowzas, just stuff everywhere and action galore!







The coolest action was the mating olive sea snakes. They were crazy - coiling around each other, chasing around bommies, tongues going in and out...The female, we assume it was the female anyway, didn't appear to be nearly as interested as the smaller male was. She took him on a merry chase and he did his best to keep up. Finally she ducked under a ledge, rummaged around and shot out the other side. Mr. Sea Snake was still looking for her under the ledge, then gave up, shot out at about 200mph - straight into the side of Ross's fin. It was so funny to watch! The snake shook it off then happily wandered off...in the wrong direction.


Sea snakes were by far the most entertaining of the dive. I watched another small one come back down after being on the surface for a breath. He came straight down on top me then started poking the enormous bull ray - easily 6 feet wingtip to wingtip - who was nosed up under a big bommie until the ray had enough and swam off, sea snake riding along with him.


The water in the Gulf is nice and chilly - only 22C! You wouldn't think that a couple of degrees would make that much difference but it sure does to me. I wasn't too cold for most of the dive but when I'd try to move around to get a better shot, water would trickle down my back and I'd give the shot a miss. I am a wuss really! As I was heading back to the boat - visions of nice warm towels and trackie pants dancing in my head - when I got buzzed by a very pretty batfish. He bobbled around me for a couple of minutes before heading a little deeper down the line. It was a really nice way to end the dive.

Friday divin'

After I had such a brilliant time with the whale sharks on Thursday last week, trying to resist heading out for some diving with my friends on Friday proved just too much so I hopped on their boat and headed to Lighthouse Bay.

It was really nice on the surface, but underwater was a challenge with a huge surge, lots of sand storms and tons of food in the water. Having all that food is a double edged sword, really. On the one side, the animals love it and are very active and abundant because of it. On the other side, it shines, sparkles, glows, glimmers and otherwise mucks up what could be perfectly good photographs!

I only did one of the two dives as my back was giving me trouble again and I didn't want to push it. Besides, it was nice just to laze on the boat for an hour in the sun and watch the birds, the water and a lone barracuda who hung out at the mooring to keep me company. Not too often I get totally quiet, peaceful alone time!

Juvenile humphead wrasse - these don't look anything like the adults!

Hawkfish poised on an outcrop of staghorn coral

Almost all of the anemonefish were hunkered in tight to their anemones

This beautiful nudibranch was happily feeding

This very fat white tip reef shark - she may be pregnant - was zooming around and around me as I was tucked back against a ledge.

My favourite turtle of the more than 15 I saw on this dive. He was hanging vertical on the reef, his flipper thrown over this sea fan holding him up. I'm surprised the fan didn't rip right off the wall!

And a couple more whale shark shots from Thursday