Sun, 14 Feb

Sun, 14 Feb an island full of hang-overs .... that's what we were this morning ! what fun we had last night, but today we had to pay the price .... actually i got rid of my headache after the New York girls left, and a morning nap and then i felt pretty good ... but i couldn't find anyone else that wanted to 'play' .... so i went for a walk on the reef, the tide was out and i love looking in the shallows to see what i can find. i had a great time, and almost missed lunch. here are some photos of some of the things i saw .... a Bearded Fireworm ... i saw a few of these. they were feeding on the remains of a dead conch. i'm still investigating what happened to the conch .... i found these pretty yellow shells and this Giant Anemone, i love these, they are so pretty .... this is what a Conch looks like ... that brown thing on the left is the foot, .... and those black things on the right are his eyes ... i don't know what this pretty blue purple stuff is ... some kind of algae .... it was in shallow water when the tide was out, and only about 1/2 inch long ... i liked the color : a Rock-Boring Urchin .... these sharp spiny creatures will poke you with their 'needles' and sting like hell ... some species can do a lot of damage. lots of these around. glad i'm always wearing my neoprene boots when i walk in the water! after lunch i wanted to go snorkeling just inside the reef in the shallow water where there are a lot of patch reefs. no one wanted to go with me ... so i went by myself. i saw lots more cool stuff then too ! i saw this Nurse Shark right away. he was sleeping there on the bottom. i started taking a video of him, then he started moving away,, .... and then turned and swam right under me. i was only in about 3 feet of water, so i just floated really still and let him pass. it was pretty exciting! there is some video of the nurse shark and this snorkel on You Tube. www.youtube.com, search "Glovers - 14 Feb" ...by the way, you can always type 'donna27p' in the search box to see all my videos. the sun was getting low, the marine garden landscape was beautiful there are many types of Brain Coral ... this is one of them .... and of course, the required barracuda ... that showed me his teeth, just before i decided it was time to go !!!!!!!!!!! after i returned, Alex came by and said that he wanted to start tracking our little stingray, Quaja. so Brian and Marie were going to take the first shift from 5pm-9pm. Nick, Faygon, and i would be on 2nd shift from 9pm-1am. then Alex and Ray from 1am-5am. then Brian and Marie again from 5am-9am; then Nick, Faygon, and i from 9am-1pm; and finish up the 24 hour tracking with Alex and Ray from 1pm-5pm. so after dinner, i came back and took a quick nap. Nick woke me up at 8:30pm. i dressed in layers and wore shoes and socks. it wasn't that nice out and i really didn't want to be cold. we went out at 9pm. as i mentioned before, there isn't much to do if the stingray isn't moving much ... and she wasn't. there was no moon and sometimes it was completely cloudy and very very dark; a few times there were some stars; and i actually saw 1 brief shooting star. at 1am, we were relieved by Alex and Ray. i went to the library and worked on line until about 3:30 ... not sure why, other than i'm a devoted 'blogger', for my friends back home :) oh, did i mention that today was Valentine's Day .. now that i finally have some internet service, i've also published video on You Tube for 12 Feb with the Black Tipped Shark, more Spotted Eagle Ray, and other snorkel fun. www.youtube.com search "Glovers - 12 Feb" ... or "donna27p"